Terry's 180 Peninsula Reef build.

[terry4505]

Thanks guys.

Last of the major purchases (for now). I picked up my protein skimmer tonight, I also did some cord management and got things cleaned up a bit:

My only complaint is that the skimmer is far from silent. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't matter. But because the tank is in the living room and the stand is wide open (for now) everything is heard.

 

[Sabres429]

Can I just say something..?

This is an Awesome! build.

 

[terry4505]

Thank you.

I have been planning/thinking about this for months. I have never built a tank from scratch before. Everything I had previously was inherited, bought used, or pieced together.

So being able to plan this out has been awesome. Seeing my vision come together has been a lot of fun. I am getting close to the part where I have to just wait out getting fish and corals in here.

The noise from the skimmer has me thinking about skinning the stand sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, I haven't really though about what I want to do for the skin. I might just throw some temporary plywood sides with magnets up to quiet it down for now.

 

[Sabres429]

Have you looked at the Vertex skimmers at all? Their beats and I believe run extremely quiet. I have the Reef Octopus 110 and it's dead silent.

 

[terry4505]

I ran a Vertex Omega 150 on my last tank and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, it's not big enough for this tank. I thought about the 180i, but ultimately settled on this one. If I am being honest, it is louder than I had hoped...

 

[terry4505]

Couple of quick updates...

I am on Day 6 of the Red Sea Reef Mature program and it is going swimmingly (see what I did there...?) I am loving it. The tank glass is covered with pods and the tests are reading exactly as Red Sea says they should. Tomorrow is my first water change.

I picked up my Apex yesterday, got it updated and connected to Fusion and fired up the Neptune WAVs. I was worried about two pumps being enough to move water to the end of a 6-foot tank. I was wrong. These things move a TON of water and so far they are dead silent. I am going to have to mess with the programming to get them to do what I want, but I am picturing the two of the alternating back and forth.

The tank is coming along well:

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Beautiful!
Lots to love here.

 

[johno4]

Looks great man

 

[terry4505]

Thanks guys. Clean up crew gets added today.

Also set up the IP camera so I can watch it from wherever:

 

[terry4505]

I think I have made a decision.

I had Radions and T5s on my old and tank loved them. I wanted to try out Kessil A360Wes on this tank. I was going to try to blend Kessils and Radions over the same tank, and I just don't think it is going to work. I don't like having to navigate two systems with the lights, it's not like logging into ESL and just making changes and having them work.

I am going to go with 3 Kessil A360Wes, and sell the Gen 3 Pro Radion I picked up. I have an old MH/T5 fixture I picked up, I am going to mount the Kessils where the MHs were. There are 4 60" T5s in the fixture which should be more than enough. It even comes with fans and moonlight LEDs, which is pretty sweet. The Kessils will extend down a few inches below the fixture, as it is only about 2.5" thick, but I am totally fine with it. I might even try to bend the bolts I use to attach the Kessils, so I can angle the two on the ends towards the middle a bit. We'll see.

I also added two Blizzard clowns from my old system today and a frag of Green Slimer and a Duncan coral. Reef mature program is humming along, tests look good, 0-Nitrites, 0- Ammonia, 10- Nitrates.

I am mixing up a barrel of Red Sea Coral Pro salt (what I will be using). I used plain old IO for the cycle, just to save some $, but will be shifting over to the good stuff from here on out.

(I started typing this yesterday, I added some frags from the old system and a tiny Hippo Tang, which is my favorite fish since. No more additions for a while):

And the Apex stuff in its temporary spot:

The wires are a mess, but everything is running. The Apex is controlling the skimmer, return pump, auto top off, heater and webcam for now. I bought the leak detection monitor, but haven't programmed it yet. I am also going to get the Salinity probe/PM2 and AFS at some point.

And my view as I type this (can't see the two pugs pugging out on my lap):

 

[Henry Colf]

Terry, tank looks great!! I'm on day 2 of the mature reef program. Hoping I will have the same success.

 

[terry4505]

Thanks Henry.

I am a strong supporter of the Red Sea reef mature program after having gone through it. I didn't think in 21 days it would be possible to have a tank with so much life in it. The glass is absolutely covered with pods.

I am in the middle of a full-on diatom bloom. There are patches of brown on the rocks and the sand bed. I am slowly adding to the CUC. I also plumbed in a manifold off of my return pump with 3 1/2" outlets. Two are currently being used for a full sized and mini- BRS reactor. The full-sized is running carbon and the mini is running 4 TBS of GFO. I want to cut off any nutrient problems before they start.

I also modded my skimmer for a float switch in the cup, to shut it down via the Apex in the event of an overflow (I came home to one the other day, and want to avoid the issue in the future).

 

[jacksonpt]

I also modded my skimmer for a float switch in the cup, to shut it down via the Apex in the event of an overflow (I came home to one the other day, and want to avoid the issue in the future).

That's a good idea. Looks like you just drilled through the lid of the collection cup? Seems pretty straight forward...

 

[terry4505]

I just expanded one of the holes that already existed in the cap. I also had to trim off some of the inner rim of the cap to get the switch to fit without getting stuck

 

[jacksonpt]

I just expanded one of the holes that already existed in the cap. I also had to trim off some of the inner rim of the cap to get the switch to fit without getting stuck

 

[terry4505]

Here's a question for the Peninsula guys. I was going to start a new thread to ask, but it seems like a waste of internet space...

I am getting surface scum building up on the far end of the tank. The returns and powerheads are on the same end of the tank as the overflow, so all of the scum is being pushed to the far end.

Even with the powerheads on max, it doesn't push the junk down or around. I think I have a solution, but I wanted to throw it out before I did anything.

I think I will take the loc lines out, replace them with threaded male 90s pointing up, do another 90 pointing towards the end of the tank, plumb in 3/4" pipe all the way around from one return to the other and either drill the far end like a spray bar, or plumb in two Ts with threaded 3/4" and put the loc line returns on the far end, pushing back towards the overflow. I'll paint everything black, and secure it to the cross braces with zip ties, it should all be hidden behind the trim.

I'll probably program the Neptune WAVs to go off at night, so that stuff can get pushed down the drain.

Thoughts?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

You must have seen what I did.
No need to paint return lines black.

 

[terry4505]

By painting them black, I am hoping to make them simi-invisible behind the tank trim

 

[terry4505]

Yes Gary, I took inspiration from what you did. My returns will be 3/4". I don't know if I will incorporate penductors like you did, or use the flared end caps for the loc line.

If I have the flow pushing in a massive gyre from far end to drain end and around using the returns as you did, would you point the WAV pumps downward to help push the water near the bottom towards the far end from the drain end? Basically supporting the circular flow of water?

 

[terry4505]

Here's an exciting update. My Kessil/T5 hybrid is 2/3rds of the way complete.

I picked up an old MH/T5 fixture and gutted the MH components and wired in Kessils. My 3rd should be here next week, along with the Kessil-Apex cable so I can control everything through the Apex.

I am absolutely thrilled with how it looks. As happy as I was with my old Radion/T5 hybrid. I just love the look and function of LEDs with T5:

I am also getting crushed by this diatom bloom. I suppose this is just a part of a new tank..? I haven't started from scratch in 10 years, but everything I read says it will go away eventually. I have some conchs, snails and hermits all doing their thing.