First reef - 40 gallon breeder mostly DIY

[sassmastawillis]

Finally starting to put together my first reef tank after months of gathering equipment and planning. Almost done with building the stand, but wanted to start a build thread now if anyone had any input along the way.

The stand is made from 3/4" plywood following the design and steps from this video:

I built my terrarium stand out of 2x4s and its such overkill, and I wanted as much open space inside the stand to hide all my equipment. People have confidence in plywood stands, but if there's any skepticism on the structural integrity, I might add some more braces.

Display tank is a 40 gallon breeder and sump 20 gallon long aquarium.
Here is a list of the rest of the equipment I have so far:
2 NooPsyche K7 PRO III lights
Sicce Syncra silent 2.0 return pump
Jebao SLW-20
Aquamaxx FC-80 protein skimmer
Eshopps Eclipse s overflow box
Robo-tank aquarium controller
And Im going to use a 10 gallon dog food container for my ATO reservoir. I already have a cheap pump and some float sensors I've tested with reef-pi for the ATO system.

Still need to order a new more pieces of equipment, like heater, another powerhead and fuge light.
I've been playing around with a few design to 3D print my own filter roller. We'll see if that work. If not, I see if I can get one on sale.

Next step after I finish with the stand is to build the sump. Planning on cutting glass for the baffles, and setting up 4 chambers; filter, skimmer, refugium, then return. Then Ill drill the tank and stand for plumbing.

Is there any benefit to having the overflow in the middle of the tank or in the corner? What do people like to use for return nozzles too?

 

[SaltySqueeble]

Looks great so far

 

[AnomMatty]

Looking good!

For overflow/return I think corner to corner helps create more water movement naturally, but it may be moot. Personally fan of the loc-line for returns, as you can adjust/change it should you want down the line.

 

[Devaji]

heck yeah. love a good 40br build. one of my fav. tank sizes, a true classic.

one suggestion i would have is remove the rug/carpet under the tank. 100% chance water drops and spills will be there. so much easier to clean up off the hard floor vs the carpet.

plywood is fine for the stand. if build correct you should have Zero issues with it. nice job BTW.

 

[sassmastawillis]

heck yeah. love a good 40br build. one of my fav. tank sizes, a true classic.

one suggestion i would have is remove the rug/carpet under the tank. 100% chance water drops and spills will be there. so much easier to clean up off the hard floor vs the carpet.

plywood is fine for the stand. if build correct you should have Zero issues with it. nice job BTW.

Appreciate it, spent almost a whole week so far on just the tank construction and I'm still need to add the doors.
And I don't plan on putting it on a carpet. Just set it down on that one for the time being. Once I'm actually finished with the stand, I'm going to put some felt pads underneath it so it doesn't damage the flooring.

 

[morkin]

I will follow your build closely. Stand looks great.
I have a spare 40 breeder I would like to turn into a maroon clown and BTA tank. I was considering a drop-in AIO, but your 20L sump may have changed my mind.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Txoutlaw]

We sorta have the same setup but I built a CTC overflow and use a 20H for my sump.also a 10g brute for my ATO.

Going to be following along.

 

[sassmastawillis]

Posting a small update, been busy the last few weeks.

Finished printing out my first full design for an automatic roller mat. I'm still missing a few other parts to design and print, but the main components are done. Plugs into my robo-tank dc-module and I'm able to manually test it out. It works pretty simply, horizontal float switch triggers a small DC motor that rolls up the filter roll. Took much of the design from how the bubble magus rollers work, and I think I'm happy with this design, but any input people have would be great.

 

[sassmastawillis]

Ive also drilled my tank and stand for plumbing. I have my PVC cut and put together some for dry fitting, but haven't started cementing it together. Should be a pretty standard PVC plumbing, but posting here to see if there's also any other input.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Gonna follow. Literally been planning my own 40 breeder build and I love this stand idea. Will be my first sump too, so watching you and what your doing will be big help for me.

 

[Txoutlaw]

Looking good.i have pretty much a standard PVC job on my 40B too.like I said I just did the coast to coast over flow cus at the time I drilled this tank,I don't think anybody was offering overflow box's like they do know.i started this tank back in late 15 and it sat over my buddies house since 16 after I got a divorce.its been up and running for a year and a half now and it's full of corals. Anyways here's some pics. On the overflow it's 1in PVC that I cut slits into it with a grinder and a cutting disk.also too,I wanted to to be as close to the back glass as possible so I cut down the 90's as much as I could.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Looks awesome

 

[sassmastawillis]

Looking good.i have pretty much a standard PVC job on my 40B too.like I said I just did the coast to coast over flow cus at the time I drilled this tank,I don't think anybody was offering overflow box's like they do know.i started this tank back in late 15 and it sat over my buddies house since 16 after I got a divorce.its been up and running for a year and a half now and it's full of corals. Anyways here's some pics. On the overflow it's 1in PVC that I cut slits into it with a grinder and a cutting disk.also too,I wanted to to be as close to the back glass as possible so I cut down the 90's as much as I could.

Did you paint that PVC, and if so what kind of paint?

 

[Peair]

Finally starting to put together my first reef tank after months of gathering equipment and planning. Almost done with building the stand, but wanted to start a build thread now if anyone had any input along the way.

The stand is made from 3/4" plywood following the design and steps from this video:

I built my terrarium stand out of 2x4s and its such overkill, and I wanted as much open space inside the stand to hide all my equipment. People have confidence in plywood stands, but if there's any skepticism on the structural integrity, I might add some more braces.

Display tank is a 40 gallon breeder and sump 20 gallon long aquarium.
Here is a list of the rest of the equipment I have so far:
2 NooPsyche K7 PRO III lights
Sicce Syncra silent 2.0 return pump
Jebao SLW-20
Aquamaxx FC-80 protein skimmer
Eshopps Eclipse s overflow box
Robo-tank aquarium controller
And Im going to use a 10 gallon dog food container for my ATO reservoir. I already have a cheap pump and some float sensors I've tested with reef-pi for the ATO system.

Still need to order a new more pieces of equipment, like heater, another powerhead and fuge light.
I've been playing around with a few design to 3D print my own filter roller. We'll see if that work. If not, I see if I can get one on sale.

Next step after I finish with the stand is to build the sump. Planning on cutting glass for the baffles, and setting up 4 chambers; filter, skimmer, refugium, then return. Then Ill drill the tank and stand for plumbing.

Is there any benefit to having the overflow in the middle of the tank or in the corner? What do people like to use for return nozzles too?

It looks like you are starting to have a nice clean setup yourself, way to go.

 

[Txoutlaw]

I used krylon fusion.that coast to coast over flow is painted too but I'm about to pull it out and replace it with black PVC and 90's.my light is degrading the paint a little and you can see the white PVC.so i already bought the pipe from BRS just waiting on my black 90's to get here and switch it out.all the painted PVC on the outside is going great.

 

[sassmastawillis]

Back from vacations, and was able to make some more progress this weekend on the tank.

Finished gluing and painting the pvc plumbing, as well as painted the back glass of the aquarium.
I used rust-oleum 2x for the pipes, and a black latex paint on the back. We'll see how well the paint stays on the pvc, but I've already chipped a few pieces off the back latex paint when I was reattaching the plumbing and overflow box.

Filled her up with some hose water to test out the plumbing and see if I had any leaks before moving everything into its final spot and noticed there was a leak coming from the overflow box bulkhead. I have the small eshoppes eclipse, and saw some other people had the same issues. Turn out your not supposed to follow the instructions on installing the gaskets and its supposed to go: weir -> gasket -> glass -gasket -> outer box -> nut. Reinstalled it that way and no more leaks.

Now I am working on the aquascape. Ordered and have:
60 lbs of CaribSea Special Grade Arag-Alive Reef Sand
40 lbs of MarcoRocks Coralline reef rocks
E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar kit

I put all 60lbs of the sand in and about 30 lbs of the rock. Its about 2" deep of sand around the tank. Is that deep enough if I want a pistolshrimp/watchman goby? Also stacked the rock in what I think to be a pleasing way, but is there any issue with how its set up? Not sure on what kind of corals I want, but I tried not to stack them up too high (theres about 6-9" from the top of the rock to where the water level will be). The rock is pretty sturdy where it is, but I think I'll use the mortar in a few spots to keep some of the top ones from wobbling.

As always, please provide any feedback! Thanks!

 

[Celo1017]

Beautiful hears mine 40gal breeder

 

[Txoutlaw]

Looks good

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Nice looking aquascape!