Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Tank Build: 40b reef tank

I've been wanting to start a saltwater reef tank for a while now, probably since I set up my first few freshwater tanks and had success keeping fish. However, the high cost of the equipment and a lack of confidence had always kept me from taking the plunge into saltwater. Now, after learning from coworkers and customers alike, as well as helpful forums like http://www.fishlore.com/ and http://www.3reef.com/, I have set up my first tank! Here's a look a my specs:

Tank:
40 gallon breeder 36"x18"x17"
50lbs of dry, base rock (mostly lace rock and texas holy rock)
~25lbs of play sand
Equipment:
2 Aqueon 500 gph pumps
150w Aqueon pro heater
Coralife Super Skimmer 65
ZooMed 36" Aquasun t5 lighting system
  - ZooMed 39w UltraSun t5
  - ZooMed 39w ReefSun actinic t5
Parameters:
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 2 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
Salinity 1.023
Temperature 80 degrees

Planning stages of the reef rockwork:
Up on the stand:
Added another 20lbs of rock and the sand. Rock worked changed a bit and everything got epoxied together for safety:
Side view of my eel cave:
Sabrina helping me put everything in place:
Tank filled with water and looking murky:

I will be updating this build as the week goes on so that hopefully everyone can watch as the tank goes over the weeks and months

1 comment:

  1. That holy rock stuff is pretty cool. I found a piece buried and broke it open; mine contained lots of old shells. I don't think I'd use that piece in a tank but if you have clean ones, they look perfect in a salt tank.

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