My 40 gal breeder build thread

LatinoHeat

Active member
So I took a little break from the hobby & I started up with a little tank to wet my feet. I wanted to see if I still had it in me. I kept that tank for 2 years. Before that time was up I really wanted to upgrade. So here's my build. One thing I noticed is how technology passed me by 😂 I felt like back to the future. None of this would be possible without my good friend @Unico, he build the stand, helped with everything from plumbing to drilling. Little things I would've ignored he help keep on track to prevent a huge disaster later.
 

LatinoHeat

Active member
My budget was $1,000.
I bought a 40 gal tank from Petco $1/gal sale. The background was from Home Depot. Sticky role used for furniture & left some air bubbles. The liverock covers it up & I hope lots of coraline algae will do so as well. I bought 10 black pipes from Menards because it was cheaper than buying 2 🤷‍♂️ & we used a pipe bender so I can hang my lights. I still had to spray paint it black.
The grey PVC piping was pricey but I wanted it to look nice. I got that from BRS. I bought the sump ages ago before i took my hiatus from a member here. I bought a baffle kit on Ebay & glued everything on there to fit my oversized skimmer & return pump. Left myself a nice spot for refugium in there as well.
I went with 2 MP40's & a Reef Octopus 150 INT used to keep my costs down.
 

LatinoHeat

Active member
I bought a little Aqueon light for the sump & my clowns are from @Unico. Where I blew my budget & I believe went over $500 was my lighting. I went with the ecotech radion G5 pro. I bought netting from aquarium overload & cut some screen frame to size to stop jumpers & used it on my drain as well.
 

LatinoHeat

Active member
I'm thinking of adding an aquatic life hybrid T5/LED to upgrading my lights. Not 100% decided on doing that. I keep bouncing back & forth on it. 20210228_212035.jpg20210228_164940.jpg20210103_194921.jpg20201003_185159.jpg
 

Cubano32

Premium member
Looks good my man. Few things I would do differently is get another light. You don't have enough spread across that whole tank with what you have now..I see you have corals so I would deff invest in another light so you get better spread and that way your not limiting yourself to only keeping the corals right smack down in the middle of the tank where the light is.

Second which I have to say it and I'm sure you already know. That blue tang shouldn't be in that size tank way to small for it. I know your going to say but it's still small and ill rehome it. That's jusy added stress on thr fish down the road when you are trying to catch him when it's bigger it's swimming all over trying to get away from you catching it.



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11fishjones

Premium member
I noticed you drilled your overflow hole kind of low which has me wondering what kind of overflow set-up you're using! The tank looks great, healthy looking corals, nice colors!
 

LatinoHeat

Active member
I noticed you drilled your overflow hole kind of low which has me wondering what kind of overflow set-up you're using! The tank looks great, healthy looking corals, nice colors!
It's just plumbed straight down into my sump. If you see the pics & follow the plumbing on the right hand side of the tank. So, no overflow box or ghost box which I'm seeing more of now.
 
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