Rwynn's 40g Reef Tank

R

rwynn

Big Daddy
Ok, I have been wanting to get into saltwater and reef tanks for quite some time, but convincing my wife to let me spend the dough hasn't been easy.

Recently my brother gave me his 40 gallon tank he no longer had time for.

I decided to go with saltwater reef over his freshwater setup since I have always loved the complexity and variety of a reef tank.

I got it moved into the living room and cleaned out last night. It was still full of 4'' freshwater plant substrate and about 100lbs of river stones so it took a few hours to clean out and get filled with saltwater. I added about 3.5lbs of rock from the local Petco to get things started, and added another 3lbs from my LFS(dead rock).

I plan on going from this 1 live rock to 50lbs or so a little at a time(seeding new dead rock with the live).

I added a domino Damsel today as well since I heard they are fairly hardy little guys during the initial cycling stages.

He seems to be doing great and is eating like a shark.

Pictures to come once I get home from work.
 
Sounds good.
But some friendly advice.Return the damsel if you plan on have anything else in the tank.If it survives the cycle,it'll end up killing anything else you try to add later on.Plus all you need to get the cycle started,is a little bit of fish food or even a raw table shrimp.
 
Newb question to what I have so far.....about how long does it take for the cloudyness to go away? Sand and such is lingering about(you will see it in the pictures later).
 
Yeah the LFS accepts the damsels back after the cycle is finished for store credit they sell them with that understanding. I mainly wanted something moving for my wife and little girl to see....helps reduce the shock when I ask for the lighting system I'll be ordering mid january. Since of course this won't be a reef without the corals and the light that came with it is a single 20watt 10k.
 
The cloudiness should clear up in a couple of days.Might even clear up over night :dunno:
Trust me,NOTHING is going to reduce the shock when you tell her your buying new lights:mrgreen: But its all worth it when everything starts coming together:D
 
Included in the stuff my brother sent with the tank was a visi-jet 70g skimmer, it is very large and even on the lowest setting sprays a massive quantity of microbubbles into the tank, would the cloudy water be a reason for that(I'm thinking the particles in the water making more bubbles than normal or something), or is it expected until I get a sump?
 
Do yourself a favor and go ahead and chunk that visi-jet.All their good for is producing micro-bubbles.I tryed to run for a while,but eventually gave up on it and invested in a better skimmer.
 
yote said:
Do yourself a favor and go ahead and chunk that visi-jet.All their good for is producing micro-bubbles.I tryed to run for a while,but eventually gave up on it and invested in a better skimmer.
Click to expand...

Yote, what skimmer are you using on your tank now? My bak-pak seems to work well but I have heard a couple people mention "mods" for it. It really only bubbles too much right after feeding cyclopeeze but only for about a half hour.
 
I see a ton of variants out there about light wattage and such, so I am not sure what I need. The tank is the tall variety(23inch) and 3ft wide 1ft deep. I plan on building a canopy and installing the lights there.
 

Similar threads

F
New to marine.
Replies
2
Views
1K
kbuser92
kbuser92
Mike
We're Back!
Replies
0
Views
733
Mike
Mike
M
Novice needing advice!!
Replies
0
Views
1K
montgrl99
M
B
New reef tank project
Replies
0
Views
2K
boricuamed
B
Sashimi
75 gallon LPS 2.0 suggestions
Replies
0
Views
2K
Sashimi
Sashimi
Back
Top