Cook's 40 Gallon Breeder Frag Tank

[Cook]

I drove down to Leesburg last month and bought Martin's 40 gallon breeder setup. I've been debating about what to do ever since as my original idea was to keep the Reef Angel gear and part the rest of the system out. It's never as simple as it sounds though. This tank's format size is better for me than the Red Sea 170 I was attempting to use for frags. The 20 long is also a better sump arrangement and Martin did a nice job installing the Fijicube kit. Before this purchase, I was going to buy another T5 hybrid setup for the RS170 which was 24". For just a little more money, I can move to a 36" fixture and still use my Mitras with it similar to how my display tank is setup. So, I've decided to replace the RS170 with this one.

Martin's original thread:

My 40 Breeder build

Hello everyone, I'm Martin. Currently live in Leesburg with my wife Mary and 3 hellions. I'm 41 currently and have been an avid reefer since I can remember. Before I moved here I lived in Colorado Springs,CO. While there I was a supporting member and vendor for SCMAS. My handle there is...

atlantareefclub.org

 

[Cook]

I am going to detail everything that has occurred so far. My first problem was dealing with all the livestock and corals. I used my 40 gallon QT for the fish, inverts, and corals with mostly new water that I drip acclimated them all to. I grabbed a 30 gallon Rubbermaid container from @lmm1967 for everything else and set it up in my garage with tank water I brought back with me. My intention was to start selling stuff off, so the first to go needed to be the tangs that I didn't have a long term plan for. I tentatively had these sold when the buyer backed out. This was at about the 10 day point for the livestock in my QT with no issues. At about day 14, my son noticed what we determined to be ich on the yellow tang. It was hard to see and was really only noticeable in the blue light transition just before the lights shut off. This could happen to anyone and it's a reminder for me that no matter where stuff comes from, quarantine everything. No big deal for me to treat these all in the QT tank except that I had inverts, corals, and fish in there.

 

[Cook]

A trip to the attic to grab an old 5 gallon acrylic tank and then the quick purchase on an extra air pump, spare heater, foam filter, temp probe etc.; I had the fish and inverts/ corals separated. My now very observant son pointed out to me that the black clowns in my frag tank had ich as well. I contaminated my frag tank with my water change equipment from the best I can tell. Fortunately, I had been lazy and not done a water change in my display tank during this time or I would probably be dealing with that also. So add a 10 gallon and all the equipment necessary to QT the clowns to the tally. I am treating the 40QT and 10QT tanks with Chloroquine Phosphate at 60mg/gallon and everyone is looking good including the Hippo. At the 14-day mark, or sooner if conditions change, all will be tank transferred into new sterilized tanks for another 2-4 week observation period.

 

[Cook]

So, I now have the 30 gallon Rubbermaid with live rock and inverts in the garage that needs to go 76 days fallow (longest that ich is known to survive plus some safety factor from the R2R quarantine thread) as well as my frag tank. That means the breeder needs to stand in for my observation tank in the short term and transition to my frag tank once I hit 76 days on the RS170. By the way, something in the 30 gallon is eating snails like nobody's business so I need to see what that is all about as well. The live rock is also absolutely covered in vermetid snails.

 

[Cook]

These breeder stands have a tendency to rust. This one had some surface rust in a few places. I removed the rust and repainted the frame. I also added a plywood top and bottom that I polyurethaned last weekend to make things look a little nicer, still had leftover material from my equipment stand. I am repurposing the plumbing next. I need to be ready to switch the 40 gallon QT tank out on Saturday.

 

[hiimsean]

Is that just the petsmart metal stand? I like the wood, I might have to do something like that for mine. Did you use 3/4” or 1/2”?

 

[Cook]

Yes. I used 3/4" because I had it already.

 

[kullas]

The stand looks good with the polyurethane wood

 

[hiimsean]

Did you secure the wood to the stand or is it just sitting on top?

 

[Cook]

I used liquid nails to attach the wood to the top frame. I considered bolting the top to the stand, but I didn't have the right bolts to countersink them below the surface.

 

[jbdreefs]

Do you have a link to the QT R2R thread that you mentioned above?

 

[Cook]

Do you have a link to the QT R2R thread that you mentioned above?

Fallow period thread:

Fallow periods: Going Fishless

Please see this updated information on fallow periods: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/45-day-fallow-periods.805213/ Jay Hemdal 7/13/2023 The reason to go fallow (fishless) is to eliminate a fish disease from your DT (display tank). Going fallow works because you are denying the disease a...

www.reef2reef.com

Treatments:

Treatment Options Index

This thread contains links to useful treatment options. Please click on the blue links below for more info. :) Treatment Options 102 provides a brief rundown of most medications & treatments. Acriflavine is a first aid antiseptic. Antibiotics treats bacterial infections. Chloroquine...

www.reef2reef.com

QT:

How to Quarantine

How to Setup a Quarantine Tank The following are the bare essentials: Aquarium (10-30 gallons seems to work for most people. Bigger QT lets you house more fish and gives you more wiggle room when it comes to ammonia. Smaller QT is cheaper, easier to maintain and can be setup/broke down...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Cook]

I repurposed the original drain plumbing and added a gate valve for fine tuning. I tend to prefer 45 degree elbows to avoid worrying about air in the pipes after loss of power or a restart. The emergency drain dumps straight into the return section of the sump. I also found a muddy boot tray on amazon that I am using as a drip pan. Eventually, I will have leak detection with my GHL.

 

[Cook]

I didn't capture the step by step images, but here are some lessons learned if you want to make your own light supports from galvanized conduit. I need to support approximately 20 pounds, so I went with Rigid 3/4" conduit, not the EMT stuff. $20 for a 10' pipe at Lowe's. The youtube video made it look easy, but it is a pain to bend. The good news is that these will have no problem supporting the weight I need and more if I go bigger later, but required two of us to bend this stuff with the Rigid 3/4" pipe bender I borrowed from work. Also, conduit is galvanized, which means you need to etch the coating to prime and paint it and not have it flake off later. Unfortunately, I googled that after the first coat of primer, but I got it cleaned up to do it the right way. I used phosphoric acid to etch the conduit and I am priming now. I did also get work to thread the one support I cut too short so i could fix it, oops. I'll post some pics of the finished product when I'm done.

 

[Cook]

This stuff always takes much longer than I anticipate. My the paint on my light supports has been slow to dry due to the humidity. I think they came out nice nice though. At some point I will need to lightly sand and touch up, but not anytime soon from looking at the weather. Here are some images of everything installed for test fitting. Time to move everything for filling after a leak test and I need to find a heater that will fit longways in the sump.

 

[ZapataInc]

Nice. Very clean looking.

 

[kullas]

Nice and neat

 

[Cook]

I had some bulkhead challenges that took an extra day to resolve and then a day to confirm with another leak test. Here is the tank lit for photo purposes, filled, and ready for my QT friends to move into for 2-4 weeks of observation. I will be acclimating a black molly for early warning in a day or two. I'm using Aquavitro Seed for bacteria which worked well for the 40 gallon QT previously. I have had the black clowns separate from the others in a 10 gallon QT, I'm probably going to move everyone together and keep the clowns separate with a breeder enclosure to ensure they don't get picked on.

I had to order a Hygger 200W heater that will fit in the 20L sideways. The Eheim 100W won't go and is too small for maintaining temperature with 50 gallons of water volume.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HGXHX5Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s02?ie=UTF8&th=1

BRS is out of stock or I would have tried their new ones though I have to say they seem similar to the Hygger as far as the heater element. Also, I'm used to different levels of water in the sump chambers in my display, this one is all one level among the three. I will free up my ATO from the Red Sea 170 and reinstall the built in ATO for that tank in the meantime. Hopefully this behavior won't cause me skimmer issues down the road.

For lighting, I found a used Aquatic Life Hybrid 36" fixture on Reef 2 Reef that saved me some bucks and came with good bulbs. Petco had Coralife 36" bulbs on clearance for $1 each so I have a supply of those also for the future. I will move the Mitras over later after my fallow period for that tank completes.

 

[Cook]

10 days into observation, I woke up to this. I believe it to still be ich, so I did not knock it out the first time. I sanitized this tank using 10% bleach and it was completely disassembled and dried out for 2 weeks during the build, so that can't be part of the problem. I used Chloroquine phosphate at 60mg/gallon for 21 days in my QT before I transferred just the fish. I added 10mg/ per gallon along the way to try to account for degradation and 40-80 mg/gallon is considered therapeutic. This is the Mr. Frags Ebay stuff, not prescription, so the purity is in question and I doubt I would find a vet right now that would prescribe Chloroquine for fish. I'm going to 80mg/gallon for two weeks and then I'll move them back into this tank for observation again. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a supply of regular bleach before then, because I intend to run a 10% solution of bleach for a few days with RODI water in this tank to clear it before I let the 40 gallon dry out again. The tang is not supposed to be able to handle the Chloroquine, but he was fine last time. I will move to TTM for him if he reacts poorly to the higher dosage.

 

[LTran]

very nice