six's 40 gallon breeder build

[sixspeed]

Hey BRS, over the past few months i have been acquiring the necessary pieces to put together a nice 40 gallon breeder system. I want to be able to house some of the easier SPS corals, but i will most likely have a lot of zoa's acan's and other LPS. I currently have a 29 gallon mixed reef up and running, this will be broken down and combined into the breeder. It is going to be a peninsula style tank, with an overflow at one end that will be covered by a foam rock wall. That is the basics of what i am going for.

I guess i will start off by listing the equipment i plan to use for this tank.

40 gallon breeder display
20 gallon long sump
PFO 250w MH pendant 12k reeflux bulb
Reef Octopus NW-110
Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor (probably going to run carbon)
Koralia 3 (thinking about adding a nano but not sure)
Rio 2500 for the return (I know the rio's arent the best, but its what i have and im a recent graduate with no job at the moment)

The other night i was able to put together my stand for this beast. Here it is, i just need to get a piece of plywood or something a bit nicer to go on the top and underneath. Then i will sand her down and start priming and painting.

Here is a picture of the sump and skimmer i am going to be using.

I need to redo the baffles in order to get the skimmer to fit correctly. I am planning on moving the bubble trap over to the right more and putting the skimmer in the far left section. The flow through the sump will be from right to left. Is that how i want to set this up? Or would the skimmer be better off in the return section?

Thanks for everyones help in advance, i am excited to get this thing going.

 

[Shenlung]

why not just leave the skimmer where it is?

 

[sixspeed]

That is going to be my fuge area, going to have some lr and grow a lot of chaeto. Sorry i didnt clarify that earlier.

 

[cleeduz]

Flow should be left to right, with the skimmer in the first chamber.

skimmer > fuge > return

skimmer goes first to take care of all the "big nasties" before they get to your fuge, in my opinion. HTH

 

[jbishop]

Looks like your going to have a pretty nice setup.

Cant wait to see the progress pictures.

 

[sixspeed]

Flow should be left to right, with the skimmer in the first chamber.

Yup that is what i meant, a little bit of a typo before. Meant to say from left to right, not the other way around. Sometimes my fingers type whatever they want.

Ok i will shift around my baffles so that i will have a chamber for the skimmer, then the bubble trap, then a second chamber for the fuge, then the return section. I will get a picture of it a little later.

Where do most people hook up the phosban reactor? Should that go in the return area?

 

[sixspeed]

Looks like your going to have a pretty nice setup.

Cant wait to see the progress pictures.

Thanks, i feel pretty good about the setup i am going to have. Progress might be a little slow but there should be some.

 

[jbishop]

Where do most people hook up the phosban reactor? Should that go in the return area?

I am getting super efficient with my tank so I tee off the return and have the outlet go back to the skimmer section but thats just me.

 

[sixspeed]

I am getting super efficient with my tank so I tee off the return and have the outlet go back to the skimmer section but thats just me.

Yeah i like the idea of not using an extra pump. Can you show me a picture of how you have it tee'd off? Thanks.

 

[JohnK]

"I need to redo the baffles in order to get the skimmer to fit correctly. I am planning on moving the bubble trap over to the right more and putting the skimmer in the far left section. The flow through the sump will be from right to left. Is that how i want to set this up? Or would the skimmer be better off in the return section?"


I might be misunderstanding what your saying, but I would put the skimmer in the section where the drain hits the sump, not in the same section as the return pump (or is that what you meant?). If the skimmer is next to the retrun pump, the retrun will be shooting all sorts of microbubbles into the display.

If I read your text backwards, nevermind..

 

[sixspeed]

Haha yeah, i was an idiot and flip flopped the direction of the flow. I meant to say flow from left to right.

But yeah i redid the baffles so that the drain will enter the skimmer section of the sump, then the bubble trap, then the fuge, then the return. I will have a pic up tonight.

 

[JohnK]

Hehe, I was thinking that

 

[sixspeed]

progress pictures

I promised some updated pictures so here they are.

First off the rebaffled sump.

The flow is going to be from the right to the left.

Here is an idea of how the tank will be situated, and also in this picture you can see that i have primed the stand with Killz primer. It has two coats of primer on it right now, and i plan on painting the outsides of the stand black. Might be able to get to that later this week, we will see.

This is some marco rock that i got a few weeks ago. I love this stuff more everytime i buy it. Thanks marc.

Beer can for a little size reference.

But most of this rock will be broken up and use to create a rock/foam wall to hide the overflow which will be on one end of the tank. There will also be a small island made using the dry rock and foam filler kinda like this.

 

[sciknen]

busch light..my kind of man


if you were for another sump redo. you coul dmake your return in the middle and your fuge on the right.. just tee the overflow off

 

[sixspeed]

Yeah that is something i might think about. Because i plan to have my return line be coming up the far side where the drain will be. Do you think if i used some flex tubing i could just which directions of my sump, and just have my drain line come across the sump all the way to the right in that picture? Then the return be directly under the end it will go up to the tank.

 

[bahhareef]

WOW!!!!!!!!!! this tank is gonna be awesome!!!!!!! Keep Me UpDaTeD SIXSPEED!!!!!!!!!!!!


Do you plan on having crabs in the tank?

Have you thought of having a GrEeN BacKgrOuNd?

 

[Shabutii]

hey six I'm just curious.. Where did you get the tank and what kind is it?

 

[jbishop]

Six I think you could def do that with flex.

Great progress.

 

[sixspeed]

hey six I'm just curious.. Where did you get the tank and what kind is it?

I actually got the tank from a member here on the boards. I got it from Spooky, and it is a 40 gallon breeder. I do not know the make of the tank however. I am hoping its aga because i believe perfecto has a tempered bottom.

Six I think you could def do that with flex.

Great progress.

Thanks Bishop, John is helping me drill the tank on saturday and he is making up an overflow as well. Hopefully i can get the plumbing done over the weekend and get started on the rock wall.

 

[jbishop]

Thanks Bishop, John is helping me drill the tank on saturday and he is making up an overflow as well. Hopefully i can get the plumbing done over the weekend and get started on the rock wall.

John is a good guy makes some awesome stuff.

I hope you get to make the meeting but I know how I get when I have a project going.