Innovative marine 40g build. (1 Viewer)

[guy9smiley2]

I’ve had a biocube running for many years after I took my 95g wave and 120 fatboy down 10+ years ago to remodel and finally was ready to set up a new tank and check out all the new technology but wanted something a little easier to manage than my 120.
I ended up picking up a 40g innovative marine from Marshall. Thanks again!

The tank is mainly going to be zoas, leathers, some lps, and I’ll try my hand ons. Few easy monti caps and 1-2 easy sps.

Fish will be a pair of clowns, corris wrasse, maybe a chalk bass, few chromis, and a royal grama.

Inverts will be trochus, conch, cleaner shrimp, an emerald crab or 2, few nassarius, and some ceriths.

I spent with 20 pounds of Fiji pink and 20 pounds of special grade mixed for sand.

Did 40 pounds of Marco rock. A few foundation, shelf, and tonga pieces.

Equipment list
-innovative marine 40g aio
-mightyjet dc return pump
-tunzee 9004 skimmer
-innovative marine Helio heater controller with dual 100w heaters.
-radion xr15 blue with diffuser
-filter sock in intake chamber
-2x4 stand. I didn’t like my stain job after it dried so I ended up using a counter top over it. Going to skin it and add doors in the near future.
-adj power strip I’m going to mount into the cabinet flush when I skin jt and put doors on.
Next on the list is to holesaw and add grommets to have all the wires go right into the cabinet and clean them all up and organize it.

- still need to find an auto top off tank and kit.

 

[guy9smiley2]

Did my first aquascape in probably 10 years. It’s not perfect but it will do. I should have ordered more rock so I had more selection. But I do love that there are a lot of caves and the flow seems to travel through all of them and circulate well with the dual return nozzles.
( light is just on for the picture )

 

[.Marshall]

Cleaned up well, and the stand looks great!

 

[guy9smiley2]

Cleaned up well, and the stand looks great!

it was a quick clean i could have gotten it a little better but im happy with it! Thanks again! Im excited to keep plugging away on the stand and get all the wires set and a ato system in place. This tank is SILENT other than the skimmer ( shut off for cycle but had to test out the new toys lol )

Would anyone be concerned on the sand depth about 2.6" or so. i wanted it a little deeper so i can have a conch and for the corris wrasse since they sleep in the sand.

 

[Varig]

So, I think that depends on your maintenance routine. I have both conches and a corris wrasse in ~1.5" of sand. And it's fine. The wrasse seems to have mounded up one area slightly, so maybe that is 2" thick. But I do NOT think 2.6" would be required. In my personal experience (which is limited, I will grant).

 

[guy9smiley2]

So, I think that depends on your maintenance routine. I have both conches and a corris wrasse in ~1.5" of sand. And it's fine. The wrasse seems to have mounded up one area slightly, so maybe that is 2" thick. But I do NOT think 2.6" would be required. In my personal experience (which is limited, I will grant).

Im thinking i might take a little out. I think i would like the look a little better. also its at 2.6" including bottom class so liekly closer to 2.4 i think 2" would be a good sweet spot.

 

[guy9smiley2]

Update! A lot has changed and things are rolling smoothly in the right direction! Cycle went well and the only thing im struggling with is a little low ph at 7.9. but im hoping as it matures it goes up a little as we go and mature. i also am only running my lights 5-6 hours a day at 40% so that also may help ph go up a hair when i turn them up more. My ugly stage i shere but its a good managable stage. just enough to notive but nothing has been too bad.ill likely turn lights on alittle longer once this phase goes away. I also hole sawed my top so i could run wires down it and i started to hald clean up the wiring under it.

Equipment upgadres -
Nero 3
15g marine land ato from pico bam and a tunzee nano ato setup ( my first ato setup and this is so slick! )
10g bashea ato tank im using to mix sw for water changes in and then transfer pump right into the tank to make things easier and have less mess.

Added live stock
2 - clownfish. labeled photons but im no expert ont he 1245532 different types of clowns.
1 - chalk bass
1 - royal grama
2 - blue hermits
2 - red hermits
2 - trochus
2 - nassarius

All of which are doing fantastic. all the fish are active and eat mysis and pellets like pigs. The clowns are definetly paired up which is super cool!

Added a few corals as well. Frogspawn, palys, toadstool, several different ricordias, duncan, trumpet, and some mushrooms. All open up great and have fed the duncan, frogspawn, and trumpet mysis and they seem to be doing well!

I may add a few cuc members here but otherwise on auto pilot for a little bit just to make sure everything stays stable. Future plans are a cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, aurua goby and pistol shrimp, and a fairy wrasse or lubbocks wrasse. coral plan is to do a green monti, a birdsnest, some more torch/hammer/frogspawn, and a lot of softies esp ricordeas. For what ever reason i have always had an obsession with different ricordeas.

Found an old picture of my 95g wave from about 14 years ago so i added that to the thread here forsome inspiration. Crazy how well that tank did on such a small budget with "cheap" equipment.

 

[guy9smiley2]

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