Scott's 40B build

Hello 3reefers! I'm going to starting my first SW tank next month after I settle into my new apartment where I will have more room for more tanks. I was hoping that you guys could look over my list of equipment and materials and tell me if you see any problems with the items I have picked out or if I am missing any essential pieces of equipment.

Like the title says, the tank is going to be a 40 breeder and I want to utilize live rock as my main form of filtration in the tank. So here is what I have in mind so far:

60lbs Nature's Ocean white sand (online calculator said this amount would yeild a 3" sandbed in a 40B)
50lbs live rock
Seaclone protein skimmer
4 Hydor Koralia Nano 240's
150w Eheim-Jager heater
2 ZooMed Aquasun 36" dual t5 light fixtures
2 ZooMed Coral Sun t5 (altinic)
2 ZooMed Ultra Sun t5 (full spectrum)

Okay so tell me what you think guys! Any feedback at all would really help as I venture from FW to SW.

~Scott

 

I should have mentioned that I would like to keep 2 false-percula clownfish and maybe a fire goby in the tank along with anenomes and LPS corals

 

skip the seaclone skimmer, they suck (based on past use and reviews). any reason for going 4 nano koralia vs 2 bigger koralia evo? research and buy right the first time (even if it's more expensive on the initial buy), i've had to learn this lesson the hard way too many times. i'm sure others will chime in as well, good luck, post progress pics, and happy reefing.

 

The reason for choosing the 4 Koralias instead of the bigger evos was becasue of a suggestion from 2in10. Originally I was going to get 2 marineland maxi-jets but it was suggested that 4 pumps would be a lot more benefitial than 2 larger ones

 

Are you doing a sump with it?

 

No I am not. The filtration is going to come from the live rock and the protein skimmer. I might upgrade to a sump in the future but I just don't have the means to purchase one, nor the skill to build a DIY one at this point. I plan to keep my bioload very low though and take the project slowly.

 

If you want to DIY something, sumps are very inexpensive to build. It's just a tank (used from craigs list) with a few glass panels siliconed in. The only other cost would be the overflow kit and the return pump.

As far as powerheads, I would suggest 3 or 4 of the Koralia 425s and not the 240s. With such low water movement, you would only be at about 16x turnover in the display tank. The 425s would put you at 42 - 56x turnover. You could even do 2 of each kind.

 

4 nano 240s would actually yeild 960 gph which is a turnover of 24x if I'm not mistaken. I thought that 20 to 30x turnover was optimal for reef tanks, I could be wrong. My worry with so many 425s in such a shallow tank is that I will 60lbs of sands constantly blowing around inside my tank.

 

Oops, you had that right - 960gph total. For soft corals that's a decent turnover rate. For some LPS and SPS you will want more.

 

Okay cool. I'm not really a huge fan of most SPS. Right now I would like a Tubastraea faulkneri and a green carpet anenome. Besides that I'm not sure what other corals I would like to add. Would 960gph be adequete for these two species? If you don't know specifics thats cool also.