Big surprise for christmas! now for the options...

C

Cheech

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Jan 13, 2000
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Montreal, Canada
About 2 months ago I joined a local forum, looking to purchase frags locally. I saw that one of their sponcors started a raffle. The store doing the raffle is in Ottawa, which is a 90 min drive from mtl. I decided to buy 10 tickets, for the heck of it. I hadn't thought of it since.

Well wouldn't you know it, on Christmas Eve, while shopping, I got a call from aquavalley saying I won the raffle. I couldn't freaken believe it!

This is what I won:

Tank; 40gal square acrylic with stand
Lighting; 2' 4bulb Teklight with Giesemann bulbs
Skimmer; Octopus HOB with surface skimmer
Poweheads; Koralia 2 and Koralia 3
Liverock; Fiji Totoka
Sand; Seachem Meridien Aragonite
Fish; Ocellaris clown(pair), b/w yellowhead shrimp goby, Azzure Damsel
Corals; Open Brain red, Open Brain green, hammer, zoo, yumas x2, Rhodactis mushroom rock x2, gsp, echimopora, rhizotrochus, fungia, yellow candycane, favites, suncoral, scroll coral, gsp etc
Invertebrates: hermits, snails, sand star, squamosa clam, cleaner shrimp, featherdusterx3, anemone crab etc

EVERYTHING IS BRAND NEW, BOX INCLUDED, ALL CORALS AND FRAGS ARE MOUNTED ON MAGNETS, ROCKS ARE GLUED, moving it should be easy.
we are going to add more stuffs too, so far the basic stuffs, next in line > acan, duncan, tailspot blenny, flame angel etc.
Click to expand...
Picture008-4.jpg

stand included
Picture010-1.jpg



Great looking tank, nice size, and I love the cabinet as well.

I'm pretty sure I'll be building a sump for the tank...


now the only question I have is whether I should setup this tank as a reef. One possibility is to add the corals that come with this tank to my existing reef, and setting this one up as something different... Maybe a predatory tank, (is that even possible with a 40 gallon cube?) then I was thinking of possibly trying out seahorses and other pipefish, maybe an octopus tank....

Any suggestions?
 
Holy COW!!! Congrats!! Awesome setup you won! :bday:

My opinion, keep it a reef tank. Can be as simple as 1 anemone and 2 clowns.. but that setup is made for a reef tank to me. Not the right setup for seahorses (needs to be tall) and not for octopus', wide open top that would be fun securing closed, and predator tank, too small unless you just put in a FuManChu Lionfish or something small like that.
 
thanks Ace, that's what I'll probably do.


one question though, I've read very good things about that lighting, but just to be sure, is it adequate for keeping the clam in there? and, if I decide to add some SPS, with the lighting be adequate?

(I don't know much about T5 lighting... I know that the old watts per gallon rule doesn't really apply.... Just want to be sure)
 
Yup, Tek lights are GREAT and yes, that light is more than adequate to support clams and probably all SPS corals except some Acropora (may work, may not, right at the line for those corals IMO). Montiporas, birdsnest, etc.. pretty much any corals other than an Acropora should do great under that light and some acropora may work as well (I know a Red Planet would do fine under that light, it is a lower light Acro).

Since it is Acrylic it should be easy to drill holes in the back and put in an overflow outside of the tank with returns like my tank is.
 
Ace, do you have a link to your tank setup? I'd love to see how you setup your overflow...

I was hoping not to drill, but external overflows are pricey, and I was hoping to keep this tank budget to a minimum..

Thanks...
 
Here is the back of my tank.. doesn't really look like this anymore, but gives you an idea on the overflow.

2562476149_3a3dc8322d.jpg


Inside the tank, but you could just put a PVC 90 elbo and a strainer on top to make it cheap and simple.
2514949999_d601988dbe.jpg
 
There is a closed loop setup on there, one intake in the center/below the overflow for the closed loop pump, and 2 holes on the bottom for the closed loop returns (which come out my floating reef). 2 top holes and left/right are the returns from the sump.
 
very nice and clean work... Thanks for the pics..

I don't think I'll go as elaborate as you did, but I'll probably setup the tank with an internal overflow (as you did) and 2 returns.

Or I'll look into the possibility of a hangon back refugium.

I would like to hide a heater though . . . We'll see tomorrow when I get to the store.
 
good god your a lucky SOB! congrats ;D!
 
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