As a preface I would like to say that In hindsight I would never again buy a 40T for the purpose of building a reef tank, but 4 years ago the combo for 99$ seemed like a good deal and I was just getting over the loss of my 75 mixed reef and most importantly, dirt poor at the time. Its basically a 55g with a foot cut off, and anyone who has tried to scape a 55 knows that about everything you try looks like a cliff. With that said, On to the build! :mrgreen:
The 40g sat in my condo for a bit over 4 years before I decided the time was right to finally start the build, the tank needed aging like a fine wine I guess. I pulled out all of the components I had moved with me from the North many years ago, 150W MH Pendant, Red Sea Skimmer, a few Rio's and enough PVC to open an ace hardware store. I quickly ditched the MH, and put a 6 bulb T5 on the credit card. After a bit of work I had this to show for it:
Way to tall for the stand
These blue hoses seemed like a good idea at the time, to bad they leaked like the titanic
So the plumbing leaked and the Skimmer sat on my carpet and refused to stand straight (severe OCD kicks in about here). I started doing research on a compact skimmer that would allow me to place it in the sump and would allow me to expand past the confines of a 40g in the future without having to upgrade. I settled in on the Aqua C EV120, it seemed to fit the bill and was well reviewed. Next came a rework of the plumbing, my crappy overflow could not keep up with the rio 2100 return pump so I had to build a simple pressure relief valve. The pump output was 3/4" dia, my "T" return lines were 1/2" so I created frankenPVC to reduce down and couple the new fitting to the old returns.
New Sump progression:
My new toy:
FTS:
The hack plumbing was really bugging me but I soldiered on, 40 pounds of sand added and 35 pounds of Haitian and Fiji mix live rock went in. I really like the look of the Haitian rock, it gives you so many options for coral placement, but I have seen very few tanks scaped with it yet.
The plumbing finally go the best of me. Since I am only running a 10g sump without baffles (yeah this will get replaced next) with the EV120 crammed in it along with 2 rio 2100's, I needed to place the reactors outside of the sump and feed them with water off the main line. Out come the PVC cutters. I constructed a small manifold with 2 ball valves which will eventually feed a phosban reactor and an aux. filled with carbon, I am just waiting on the shipment. While I was hacking out PVC, I went ahead and brought everything up to 3/4" and installed a union for easy tear down.
A quick run to the LFS to pick up a bit more Haitian rock to help fill out the tank bringing me up to only 45 pounds of LR, but I think that is about all I will add for now, any more and I start to build the dreaded cliff. By the way I am in that lovely brown algae phase of the cycle, i am just letting it do its thing.
Next Addition, the cleanup crew :mrgreen:
The 40g sat in my condo for a bit over 4 years before I decided the time was right to finally start the build, the tank needed aging like a fine wine I guess. I pulled out all of the components I had moved with me from the North many years ago, 150W MH Pendant, Red Sea Skimmer, a few Rio's and enough PVC to open an ace hardware store. I quickly ditched the MH, and put a 6 bulb T5 on the credit card. After a bit of work I had this to show for it:
Way to tall for the stand
These blue hoses seemed like a good idea at the time, to bad they leaked like the titanic
So the plumbing leaked and the Skimmer sat on my carpet and refused to stand straight (severe OCD kicks in about here). I started doing research on a compact skimmer that would allow me to place it in the sump and would allow me to expand past the confines of a 40g in the future without having to upgrade. I settled in on the Aqua C EV120, it seemed to fit the bill and was well reviewed. Next came a rework of the plumbing, my crappy overflow could not keep up with the rio 2100 return pump so I had to build a simple pressure relief valve. The pump output was 3/4" dia, my "T" return lines were 1/2" so I created frankenPVC to reduce down and couple the new fitting to the old returns.
New Sump progression:
My new toy:
FTS:
The hack plumbing was really bugging me but I soldiered on, 40 pounds of sand added and 35 pounds of Haitian and Fiji mix live rock went in. I really like the look of the Haitian rock, it gives you so many options for coral placement, but I have seen very few tanks scaped with it yet.
The plumbing finally go the best of me. Since I am only running a 10g sump without baffles (yeah this will get replaced next) with the EV120 crammed in it along with 2 rio 2100's, I needed to place the reactors outside of the sump and feed them with water off the main line. Out come the PVC cutters. I constructed a small manifold with 2 ball valves which will eventually feed a phosban reactor and an aux. filled with carbon, I am just waiting on the shipment. While I was hacking out PVC, I went ahead and brought everything up to 3/4" and installed a union for easy tear down.
A quick run to the LFS to pick up a bit more Haitian rock to help fill out the tank bringing me up to only 45 pounds of LR, but I think that is about all I will add for now, any more and I start to build the dreaded cliff. By the way I am in that lovely brown algae phase of the cycle, i am just letting it do its thing.
Next Addition, the cleanup crew :mrgreen:
