Bally's 40B

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Ballyhoo

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Jun 27, 2010
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For the beginning of my salty career and my first tank click here

Well the breeder got off to a great start equipment wise, but not so well at all live stock wise...

I removed all the LR from my tank and put it in a large cooler with water to keep the most of my cycle. I put the nem in a bucket because I wasn't sure how to deal with that at the moment. I put the corals in a second bucket. Bagged the nem, then caught the fish. Here's where I messed up... By the time I had everyone out I had nearly run out of water so I bagged the fish with the water from the bucket where the nem was. I bagged the clowns together and the 6 line wrasse, mandarin dragonette and peppermint shrimp all in one bag. Take them to the Salty Critter and they began to acclimate them to their tanks (they're babysitting while I do my upgrade). Begin to float the bag and realize all the fish are stressed and the peppermint has the mandarin in his clutches and the manny isn't moving.... He instantly opens the bag and the mandarin is able to swim off. The clowns were looking gaspy so he let them out as well and they are swimming around hip to hip, they wont leave each other..... A near disaster avoided I hope. I will of course be going up there today to check on my babies.

And here is the good news.... I'll let pictures do most of the talking :)
This is the tanks permanant location. I hit one speed bump in the set up. The tank has 2 thin walls on the back, one on each side of a 2x4 that runs up the center, so there is about a 2.5 inch gap between them. On the outside there are 2 holes drilled in the upper corners so the cords can run into the back of the frame and then the inner wall has 2 holes drilled to bring the cords into the tank, so there is nothing hanging on the back. Well when making the holes I forgot that outlets are in the middle of the wall not low or high, so I had to drill a hole in the center to allow the cord in so the tank can be flush against the wall.


My LFS gave me some egg crate pieces that I was able to tetris into a full bottom to go under my LR.

Here's the LR formation I've come up with and seem to like so far. The large heater will be removed once the tank is up to temp.


I still need to move my sand from the 30 over I didn't want to move everything over while it was so cold, because of the crabs and feather dusters and such. Then grab a bag or two more and get another power head once some funds free up, or I can find one on craigslist or something. I'd like to have my fish back by monday (Salty Critter is closed tues and weds) but I want to monitor levels to watch for a mini cycle.
I'm having a difficult time with my eshopps skimmer, I can't seem to get it running correctly. It keeps over flowing every time I try to start it :(
 

Jerzboi

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Jan 13, 2009
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Lookin good so far, can't wait to see it after everything else has been moved in :)
 

RNeiswander

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Nov 27, 2010
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for the skimmer, you have the white dot on the adjusting tube aligned with the dot on the frame of the skimmer? is something plugging the foam on the output?
 

Ballyhoo

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Jun 27, 2010
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The white dot is lined up, I think something might be plugging it. When it was slightly working there was water coming out of where the wedge pipe inserts
 

RNeiswander

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yeah that sounds like what is happening, mine did the same thing. I pulled that pipe out and water was shooting out of there. The collection cup was filling very quickly. Do you have the foam piece on there?
 

Ballyhoo

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Yes I do, I rinsed it out before I put it on.
 

Slappy*McFish

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Feb 18, 2002
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Nice tank. My first saltwater tank was a 40 breeder and I absolutely loved that tank.
 

Ballyhoo

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Jun 27, 2010
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I'm such an idiot... I had a piece in upside down... skimmer works now lol

Thanks slappy! I'm really happy with this tank :) its all cloudy now as I added the sand, still need a bag or two more.
 

Arakkis

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Apr 7, 2008
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SJ Cali
it will go crazy at first because it's a 'new' tank. but glad you got it all worked out
 

greech

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Agreed, looks great. Like the 2 separate islands. A little concerned about putting animals back in by Monday if you are transferring your entire sandbed from the 29. If you were to do that, I would expect spikes. I think at least a week before stock goes back in. If you were to add some fresh , clean sand and a couple handfuls of your existing sand, you should be ok. Transferring sandbeds from one tank to another is typically not a good idea unless it is thoroughly washed and dried. Not being negative. Just don't want you to have losses. Is the sand being kept wet, warm and with some flow? If, not I would definitely expect spikes.
 
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