Ridgenesss: 40 breeder Reef

**ridgenesss** · 03-30-2012, 02:36 PM

Well, here it is! tank two in progress.

Went to my lfs picked up an identical tank and stand as my FW planted setup and now i'm about to start a reef tank!

It's gonna take a few paychecks to get everything i need but hopefully it'll all come together nicely

I picked up 40gallon breeder tank and sand
Fluval M 150watt heater
40lbs of caribsea aragalive
15lbs of instant ocean reef salt

Here are some pics!

Next check i should be getting my reef octopus hob protein skimmer, gfo reactor, carbon reactor, and hydor korlia pumps. The check after wil be the aquaticlife quad bulb t5ho!

I'll be off to pick up more and more as i can afford it!

**Cliff** · 03-30-2012, 03:42 PM

Looks like your off to a good start

Are you planning to get live or live & dry rock to cycle your tank ?

**ridgenesss** · 03-30-2012, 04:17 PM

im on a tight budget right now. I just purchased a small piece of live rock. Im gonna begin to cycle with this piece and then next paycheck im gonna add a few more pieces of live, and probably some dry too. I have plenty of time to cycle as its gonna take me a few paychecks to get all of the equipment i want.

**ScottishFish** · 03-30-2012, 04:29 PM

Woo new journal! Great with pics in first post! Think I was on my 3rd page before I got a pic in there

**ridgenesss** · 03-30-2012, 06:47 PM

did a few more things today. Stopped at the lfs to pic up some chemipure, purple up a hydrometer and a background!

stuff from lfs.

patience...lots of patience for this....

added the substrate!

After the substrate i filled it up, added salt a hob running chemipure for temp filtration, a small piece of live rock and a heater. Also a circulation pump.

I'll post pics when it clears up.

**ridgenesss** · 04-01-2012, 06:28 PM

here is a pic of the tank full and the one piece of live rock. In about two weeks i'm going to order some more equipment, fill it with dry rock and begin the curing/cycling process.

upon inspecting my live rock, i found this little guy which i thought was cool

alas i also found this guy, treated him right away with aiptasia x

**Cliff** · 04-01-2012, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by ridgenesss

here is a pic of the tank full and the one piece of live rock. In about two weeks i'm going to order some more equipment, fill it with dry rock and begin the curing/cycling process.

I would suggest adding more live rock then as well (when you add your dry rock) in order to actually cycle the dry rock. What kick starts the actual cycling process is the ammonia spike from the die off from your live rock that you get when you take it home fom the store. There is a lot of similarities between a FW and SW cycling process in that they both need a source of ammonia to start growing the denitrifying bacteria.

Your current pc pf live rock will likely be cured by the time you add your dry rock. It looks spretty clean right now so I do not think the ammoina spike will last very long at all.

**ridgenesss** · 04-02-2012, 12:22 AM

I was actually thinking about that today. I was to busy thinking about the expensive price of live rock that i didn't realize i would need another piece with my dry rock to start the cycle. That stuff is some pricey.