Ahner's 40B reef build

[KAhner]

Yea the glass holes is probably a little cheaper but I don't really know how it would work out with the herbie overflow. You would either have to make another hole, which probably wouldn't work right because theirs is centered, or make some kinda box on the outside.

 

[KAhner]

Finally bought my ro di unit and refractometer last night. Pretty excited about that. Much easier water changes and top offs for me now. I'm selling a few things on eBay right now. So hopefully I will be ordering a few things in a couple days. Next things on the list are a skimmer and reefkeeper with ato. Hopefully I'll be getting my stand this week too, so I can set up my sump. I think I'm going to go ahead and move my dsb to my sump Sunday, cause that's going to cause another cycle. I should be fine with the display tank and live rock. I'm just not really too happy having a dsb in the display any more. I figure I can have it in sump for biodiversity and start running biopellets for denitrification. Plus it will make vacuuming the display much easier.

 

[KAhner]

Just bought my Reef Octopus!!! As you can see I'm pretty pumped about it. I got a used NWB-110 off eBay for $149.49 shipped. Not the best deal in the world but he said he only used it for six months, and it is the newer model with the red and water lines. So it can't be that old. I'll probably buy a bubble blaster for it in a few months. Now I'm just waiting to get paid for some things I sold on eBay. Then I'll be ordering my reefkeeper with ATO. Marine depot has the reefkeeper lite with the sl1 and ph probe for $190. Can't really beat that. I kinda wanted the apex jr so I can control it with my phone, but I can just get that later for the reefkeeper.

 

[coffeetwitch]

Ha I was watching that auction. Let me know when you get ready to sell. I may be interested.

 

[KAhner]

Oh no that won't be for a long time. I meant I'm going to get the bubble blaster pump for it. I just wanted something for now but didn't want to spend the $285 for the sro. I can get the bb for $145. So that only puts me at $295 for a Super Reef Octopus. So I'll have a spare pump for ten bucks, and spread my payment out. At least that's how I looked at it.

 

[KAhner]

Ok. What is up with this skimmer? If I run it normal, it like chugs. It's almost air locked. So I threw some cotton balls in the silencer, to restrict the air flow a little bit, and it skims like a champ. What could the problem be? There isn't anything restricting the water flow.

 

[coffeetwitch]

How's that slimmer treating you? Ever find the cause of the chugging?

 

[KAhner]

Its running great. I dont really know what was going on but i took the cotton balls out the next day and it was working fine. I got my reefkeeper the other day. But it freaking sux cause it didnt come with a bus cable for the module to run my ato. Pretty dissapointed about that. But ive got my heater and a fan on it. Im running the ato on a timer since i cant use my float switch till i get that cable. That thing is super nice though.

 

[coffeetwitch]

maybe it was just breaking into your tank? glad it worked out.

pardon the ignorant question, how far along is your tank now?

 

[KAhner]

Ive had it going since like the end of october.

 

[coffeetwitch]

hey, do you have any pictures of your tank that you can post? what did you end up doing about lighting? whats in it now?

 

[KAhner]

My first pics. Not much to show. Not having my stand yet is really holding me up. I got a 6 bulb t5 off ebay. Ive only been running 3 bulbs though. My camera on my phone sux so the pic looks kinda dark and its a lot more blue in person. Its two blue and one white light. I just set up this temporary sump with a quiet one 4000 return, so the 1000gph return has blown a crater in my sand. Right now ive just got the clown, a nassarius, and a hermit. I had three hermits and three nassarius. I think i lost the other ones because ive been gone for days at a time a few times and had a faulty heater. So with the temp and salinity swings i lost a few inverts. But i got my reefkeeper now so it should be a lot more smooth even if gone for a little bit.

 

[KAhner]

I think my clown is mated with his reflection. Lol. Ever since i put the new light on he never leaves that wall and just swims against the current right next to his reflection. He really needs some tankmates.

 

[KAhner]

Just found another crab. But one hermit and one snail definately died. I think two nassarius died though cause i sank some pellets last night and only one came out to eat em.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Following along to see how it comes together.

 

[coffeetwitch]

My first pics. Not much to show. Not having my stand yet is really holding me up. I got a 6 bulb t5 off ebay. Ive only been running 3 bulbs though. My camera on my phone sux so the pic looks kinda dark and its a lot more blue in person. Its two blue and one white light. I just set up this temporary sump with a quiet one 4000 return, so the 1000gph return has blown a crater in my sand. Right now ive just got the clown, a nassarius, and a hermit. I had three hermits and three nassarius. I think i lost the other ones because ive been gone for days at a time a few times and had a faulty heater. So with the temp and salinity swings i lost a few inverts. But i got my reefkeeper now so it should be a lot more smooth even if gone for a little bit.

how do you like the light? have a link to it? i found a couple cheap ones on ebay. less than 200 but i dont know if they are really worth it if they are too cheaply made.

 

[KAhner]

Those r probably the same one I got. I only paid $155 shipped. I really like it especially for the price. I'm sure the bulbs r really low quality, but the higher priced fixtures r twice the price with no bulbs. The only obvious things to me r there's not individual reflectors, no built in fans, only one power cord. It's got a built in timer and you can run three of the bulbs on separate timers. The only problem with that is it's the three back bulbs on one timer and the three front ones on the other timer. So you can't run all blues on one and all white on the other and have them evenly distributed throughout the fixture. For the reflector like I said their not individual but it is bent kinda like they are and pretty dang reflective. I was actually pretty impressed with it. It is a lot more reflective than the over $200 4 bulb marineland I bought a few years ago. And as far as the built in fans go I actually kind like not having them, cause this thing is virtually silent. Oh yea I'm pretty sure their actual website is sunslighting.com, but for some reason they don't have the 36" listed. Oh and the moonlights r really bright. I like them a lot.

 

[coffeetwitch]

thanks. ive been apprehensive about them. how about the quality of the rest of it?

 

[KAhner]

I would say it's pretty decent. I only plan on using mine for about two years or so. Then I'm going led. I'm pretty confident it will hold up that amount of time at least.

 

[KAhner]

Well I went to my lfs today hoping to buy an lps but they didn't have any frags I liked. So I ended up with two sps. Kinda sux. Hopefully it works out for me. I guess it's not that big a deal though cause if it does I'm pretty much going all sps. I'll post pics in a few.