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Nightster's mixed 40b to 125g upgrade (1 Viewer)

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Well I guess it's time, long winded post so bare with me! I have been in the hobby for a few years, took a break, then got back in. My 40b has been on idle for 6 years, I was basically doing the bare minimum to keep my clownfish alive. Using tap water for top offs with out dechlorinating. Not doing any water changes, all in all doing a very poor job of keeping the tank going. For some reason around the beginning of August, probably out of boredom bc of the way this year has progressed, I got the bug again. I bought some AI Hydra 32s, a few other essentials, cleaned up the ridiculous amounts of algae, and got it back to somewhat presentable shape. I had a 125g running fw also on idle and decided to break it down. Was gonna sell it and buy a nice rimless set up then decided to rearrange the living room (my wife's idea!) and set the 125 up as a mixed reef and break down the 40b. While breaking down the 125g to repaint the stand I noticed some stress cracks in the supports. I could have repaired that stand and used it but this was going to be in my living room and I wanted something a little nicer. Enter my beginner carpenter skills and ocd. It took me a little while to build the stand, worked on it slowly over a few weeks. Finally got the stand and canopy finished and moved inside. There are a few other things I need to do to the stand to complete it but they can be added later once I figure out what equipment I'll be using. I plan on building a sliding vertical shelf to mount my controllers in. For lighting on the 125 I was going to use 3 AI Hydra 32s, haven't decided if I want to supplement with t5s or not. I know, why not 4 lights right? Well there are 2 glass braces splitting the top of the aquarium into 3 parts, due to the center overflow. I want to keep SPS and LPS. The SPS will be strategically placed bc of the lighting situation. Flow will be provided by 2 mp40s and 2 mp10s along with a Sicce Syncra 7 return pump. I found a killer deal on a Trigger Emerald 39, it's a little big for my stand but go big or go home right? I really couldn't pass up the deal I got. I haven't figured out what protein skimmer I'll be using, I have some time before I decide. Really thinking about going reef moonshiners and a calcium reactor. I know nothing about calcium reactors so I'll have some learning to do before that happens. I'll move my current livestock over from my 40b to the 125g. As of now it's only 2 clowns, a pistol shrimp, and a small tomini tang. I eventually want a sand sifter, a couple anthias, and maybe a wrasse. My unicorn fish is an Achilles tang but I don't think my 125g is big enough. Included are a couple pictures of my stand during the build process, my old stand (photo taken with literal potato), and my 40b as it sits now. 40b still fighting some algae issues no doubt stemming from my years of neglect. Plus a picture of my wc station that I may not end up needing but it's the first one I've had and am really enjoying it while I get to use it!
 

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Got a few things done today. Installed lights in the stand. Also got my switch panels installed and control board mounted. Control board is mounted on a hinge. I wanted something that could be moved to access the area behind it. Hopefully I'll eventually have a calcium reactor back there.

Only one controller right now, return pump, but it will eventually fill up once I add more equipment. I had to trim the bottom brace so my sump would fit, that's why there is black paint on it. Maybe one day I'll paint it white.

First picture is before, second with controller board in place, and third is with the board in the open position.

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Just a little update. I decided to use Turbostart 900 along with Algaebarn's nitrocycle for the cycle, should be here Thursday. Also arriving Thursday are 180g of MarinePure ceramic gems and a Growstar 150w UFO LED grow light for the refugium. After reading some of the reviews for the light, I figured I'd give a little cheaper light a shot before buying an expensive one. I plan on letting the cycle run it's course then adding pods and letting them go for a while before adding livestock. Not sure when to add the clean up crew.
 
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Nitrocycle and Turbostart 900 came in a day early yesterday! Added 120-130ml of nitrocycle then added 2 4oz bottles of Turbostart. I figured more is better than less with the Turbostart. Will test tonight when I get home to see what's really going on.
 
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Got my refugium light mounted last night and tested my water to see where it's at with the cycle. Also a couple of bad cell phone pictures from my 40b. I've been battling algae in the 40b for a bit, no doubt due to over feeding.

PH- 8
Ammonia- .5
Nitrite-2.0
Nitrate- 20
 

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Decided to order a cabinet to house all my random aquarium gear. Wanted to find something close to my stand in terms of color and also needed it to be a certain footprint. Target came through! It's not an exact match as far the the stain goes but it's close enough. Also thinking about putting my ATO container in it due to lack of room in my stand. Going to be running a gravity fed ATO, so putting the container in the stand makes sense since it will be above the float valve. Having the cabinet has been a lot nicer than I thought it would've been, super convenient. Also make the wife happy bc the dinning room table no longer has a bunch of aquarium stuff on it!

Tested again last night and I feel like I'm nearing the end of the cycle.
pH-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-.5
Nitrate-10
 

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Quick update, moved the 40 over to the 125 last weekend. Diatom bloom in full effect. I need more flow for sure. 2x mp10s arent cutting it, eventually gonna get 2 maxspect 350s. Got a piece of aluminum from Lowes and made a rail to mount my hydras to. Need one more to light the middle of the tank more.
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Update time, got one mp40 and have it mounted on the right side of the tank and more than doubled the overall flow. Everything seems to enjoy the change. I'll look to replace the mp10s on the left side with one more mp40 eventually.

Also got my 3rd hydra and mounted it in the middle. I purchased a 60" aquatic life t5 hybrid that I haven't mounted yet. I may have to add some more fans to my canopy to run that set up though. With just my 3 hydras my temps get up to 81ish degrees during the day. I know the t5s would add a tremendous amount of heat.

I was testing my water with an api kit and was getting some results that I didn't care for. So I took some of my water up to OLA to double check and turns out I'm running 0 no3 and po4. I decided to try and dose NeoNitro and NeoPhos. Dosed a small amount of both the first day and retested 24hrs later and they both came up 0 again so I upped the dose a little more and pulled half my cheato out. I didn't realize my cheato had doubled in such a short time. I will say that my sps hadn't had any polyp extension since moving over to the 125, but since I started dosing NN and NP I've noticed more polyp extension.

I got my results back from ATI and I have extremely high silicates. Will be monitoring that with my next test I send off and if they don't drop I'll start trying to figure that problem out. My rodi has slightly elevated silicates but nothing out of the ordinary. May look into changing my di resin to the silicate buster or even adding another stage to my rodi unit. Other than that my first round of moonshiners went relatively smooth. Added my corrections and started dosing my dailies. I plan on adding a carbon reactor as soon as my carbon comes in. I have a reactor that is much too large but it should work just fine.

I purchased a midas blenny from OLA so I'll be picking it up in just shy of two weeks. Taking advantage of their quarantine process. I've been eyeing purple tangs everywhere I go and I think that will be my next fish, that or a diamond goby to keep my pistol shrimp company. I would really like to find a baby purple tang in hopes to have less aggression toward my tomini. Eventually I'd like to have 3 tangs but not sure which on would be the 3rd. Hoping that with 3 tangs the aggression would be spread a tad.

Sorry for such a long winded post!
 
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