EasyBay Newbie
Supporting Member
Hi all,
Happy to have found this forum. I keep freshwater fish and always had an itch for a marine aquarium. The PetCo $/gal sale was the catalyst for me and I bought a 40B display tank and a 29G sump. I'm in no hurry to get the tank started and I enjoy doing some DIY things. I've read a lot on the forums and watched the 52 weeks of reefing twice. The goal is to have a Soft + LPS tank with the option in the future to try some SPS.
Equipment List (Updated as I make progress)
Bold for things I've purchased, Italic for items I'm not sure. Most items are hyperlinked to the vendor. I'm located in Livermore.
Tank: 40G Breeder
Sump: 29G Sump kit from eBay The seller has agreed to give me a 2 hole plate instead of the standard 1 hole one since I'm doing a Bean Animal. Installed fine!
Stand: 40G Imagitarium - Thinking about adding a 3/4 plywood top and "skin" the front/sides without attaching it to the stand. Probably will screw some plywood on the back to support the PVC pipes
Stand paint: Behr Oil based primer and paint. It's very thick but dries very hard over a week.
Overflow: Eclipse L - I want to do a Bean Animal
Plumbing: Bean Animal, 3/4" loc-line return. Schedule 40 PVC, Silicone tubing from the return pump, 3 outlet manifold for future proofing.
Rocks: Reef Saver
Sand: CaribSea Special Grade
Light: Orphek Atlantik V4 (Gen 2)
Powerhead: 2x Ecotech MP10WQD
Skimmer: ESSENCE S-130 INTERNAL PROTEIN SKIMMER
Return Pump: Varios-4 DC Pump. Got a deal on an open box device on eBay
Refugium (In-sump): Marine Pure 8x8x4. Goal is to have chaeto in the future
ATO: Tunze OSMOLATOR UNIVERSAL - Universally acclaimed and seems reliable. Thinking about an Ottoman+Food container for the reservoir.
Controller: Apex
Leak Detection: 3x Apex Probes. Email/SMS very helpful
Heater: 150W EHEIM JAGER AQUARIUM HEATER Set 2 degree above the desired temp, let the Apex control it. Also have a spare
Socks: BRS mesh socks Not too keen on socks and don't have space for a rollermat so this seems like a good compromise. Also purchased the felt ones to compare.
RO/DI: BRS 6 STAGE DELUXE PLUS 100GPD Works really well with 0 TDS and good flow. Got a brute 32-gallon trash can for storing RODI and another one to mix salt
Additives: None? Did not plan to pre-purchase any additives yet.
Dosing: BRS 2 part kit
Salinity meter: Milwaukee Ma887 Lighted refractometer seem imprecise and prone to (my) user error.
Salt: HW Reefer for its purity.
Reactors: BRS GFO/Carbon mini reactor with ROX 0.8 carbon.
Test kits: Again going with the BRS recommendations. Some are cheaper as part of a kit like the Reef foundation and Marine Care:
Fish Food: Hikari Marine S Pellet + Hikari Seaweed Extreme and occasionally frozen cubes I can procure nearby (Mysis shrimps?)
Coral food: Reef Chili
Automatic Feeder: I have the EHEIM.
Coral Glue: Superglue gel + Tunze Epoxy
Quarantine: TBD. I have a 10-gallon tank with a HOB Fluval filter. Planning to quarantine and freshwater dip the new fish and corrals.
Other stuff:
- Flow detector for the Apex
- Mesh for the tank
- Prazipro + Copper and other quarantine gears
Happy to have found this forum. I keep freshwater fish and always had an itch for a marine aquarium. The PetCo $/gal sale was the catalyst for me and I bought a 40B display tank and a 29G sump. I'm in no hurry to get the tank started and I enjoy doing some DIY things. I've read a lot on the forums and watched the 52 weeks of reefing twice. The goal is to have a Soft + LPS tank with the option in the future to try some SPS.
Equipment List (Updated as I make progress)
Bold for things I've purchased, Italic for items I'm not sure. Most items are hyperlinked to the vendor. I'm located in Livermore.
Tank: 40G Breeder
Sump: 29G Sump kit from eBay The seller has agreed to give me a 2 hole plate instead of the standard 1 hole one since I'm doing a Bean Animal. Installed fine!
Stand: 40G Imagitarium - Thinking about adding a 3/4 plywood top and "skin" the front/sides without attaching it to the stand. Probably will screw some plywood on the back to support the PVC pipes
Stand paint: Behr Oil based primer and paint. It's very thick but dries very hard over a week.
Overflow: Eclipse L - I want to do a Bean Animal
Plumbing: Bean Animal, 3/4" loc-line return. Schedule 40 PVC, Silicone tubing from the return pump, 3 outlet manifold for future proofing.
Rocks: Reef Saver
Sand: CaribSea Special Grade
Light: Orphek Atlantik V4 (Gen 2)
Powerhead: 2x Ecotech MP10WQD
Skimmer: ESSENCE S-130 INTERNAL PROTEIN SKIMMER
Return Pump: Varios-4 DC Pump. Got a deal on an open box device on eBay
Refugium (In-sump): Marine Pure 8x8x4. Goal is to have chaeto in the future
ATO: Tunze OSMOLATOR UNIVERSAL - Universally acclaimed and seems reliable. Thinking about an Ottoman+Food container for the reservoir.
Controller: Apex
Leak Detection: 3x Apex Probes. Email/SMS very helpful
Heater: 150W EHEIM JAGER AQUARIUM HEATER Set 2 degree above the desired temp, let the Apex control it. Also have a spare
Socks: BRS mesh socks Not too keen on socks and don't have space for a rollermat so this seems like a good compromise. Also purchased the felt ones to compare.
RO/DI: BRS 6 STAGE DELUXE PLUS 100GPD Works really well with 0 TDS and good flow. Got a brute 32-gallon trash can for storing RODI and another one to mix salt
Additives: None? Did not plan to pre-purchase any additives yet.
Dosing: BRS 2 part kit
Salinity meter: Milwaukee Ma887 Lighted refractometer seem imprecise and prone to (my) user error.
Salt: HW Reefer for its purity.
Reactors: BRS GFO/Carbon mini reactor with ROX 0.8 carbon.
Test kits: Again going with the BRS recommendations. Some are cheaper as part of a kit like the Reef foundation and Marine Care:
- Alkalinity: Hanna Seems easy enough for daily checks
- Calcium: Red Sea
- PH: Res Sea
- Nitrate: Red Sea
- Phosphate: Hanna low-range It appears like traditional kits are hard to read in low phosphate.
- Magnesium: Red Sea
- Chloramine: Lamotte Insta-Test
- Ammonia: Res Sea
Fish Food: Hikari Marine S Pellet + Hikari Seaweed Extreme and occasionally frozen cubes I can procure nearby (Mysis shrimps?)
Coral food: Reef Chili
Automatic Feeder: I have the EHEIM.
Coral Glue: Superglue gel + Tunze Epoxy
Quarantine: TBD. I have a 10-gallon tank with a HOB Fluval filter. Planning to quarantine and freshwater dip the new fish and corrals.
Other stuff:
- Flow detector for the Apex
- Mesh for the tank
- Prazipro + Copper and other quarantine gears
Last edited:
Cabinet is built and the tank is on the cabinet in the middle of my office while I work on the plumbing. Got 50 pounds of dry rocks in RO/DI water to check for Phosphate leaching but Hanna low-range read it at 0.00. Planning to leave them in salt water + heat for a couple weeks until I'm ready to aquascape.
