120 peninsula build

fragit

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After some deliberation and tossing ideas around I've finally convinced my wife to allow me to build my dream tank. It's been a number of years since I had a reef tank. My last set up needed to be torn down, when I moved into her very small condo. Fast forward to present day.

We purchased our home 1 year ago, in Freeport Maine. We recently learned that we will need to replace our oil furnace so that is obstacle number one. And last summer we put in a new back yard, and built a pad for a shed. The Mrs. really wants this shed built next spring, this is obstacle number two. You know what they say happy wife etc. also she's letting me do this so I better make her happy any way I can. In the mean time I will be and have been doing lots of planning and saving money. My birthday is Feb. 14, so hopefully I will get some decent cash, as well as tax return money to help fund this project. I will be needing to purchase a lot of new equipment, as my last set up was only a 40breeder. I will be slowly purchasing parts as well as the tank in the coming months.

The plan so far is to use a pantry that divides our dinning and kitchen to house the tank. The tank will be 48x20x24. I'm going to go with Miracles or Coast to Coast for the tank. I thought about going with SCA but the glass they use is substantially thinner and this tank is going to be here for the long haul so quality is a must! There will be two viewing panels one of which will be a side.
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This will be a mixed reef heavy on SPS. The sump and refugium will be in the basement. I'm going to use my old 40breeder with coast to coast overflow as the fuge, and my 29 as the sump. I may get another 40breeder to use as the sump once I make my final equipment decisions.

I've been trying to decide if I want to plumb the DT overflow directly to the fuge and then the fuge to the sump or just use a separate return pump to feed the fuge from the sump. I like the idea of using less pumps , but I also want the skimmer to be cleaning the DT water so I have to think about that more. The return from the sump to DT will be an Ecotech Vectra L1. There is about 13 feet from the sump to the top of the DT, so I need something with good head pressure. Skimmer will be a reef octopus 202 8" internal. Flow in the display will be a gyre 150 and miscellaneous hydors and a sicce eventually switched out to mp10s and mp40s. I am also thinking of going zeovit or at least partial zeovit so I need to leave room in the sump for a reactor. Lighting will be all LED. I have a diy rapid led array that I made for my 40 breeder that will ultimately light the fuge, once I have enough cash for some kessils. I have really been liking the A360w-e tuna blues. I think three would give me the coverage and par I will require. But I'm still on the hunt. $1200 for lights is a lot of cash, especially when I can spend 1/2 that and still light the tank well.

I recently started working on the fish area of the basement. I built a new stand for the sump, and started cleaning up the fuge and sump tank. I've cut out most of the panels from my old sump and am starting to layout the new baffles.

Anyway that's kind of where things stand now. As I said this is going to be a slow build. But that way I will be able to thoroughly think things through. After all you don't plan to fail, you fail to plan. Stay tuned for updates.

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rayn

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Sounds like a cool build! On the light issue, maybe look into the AI 26hd. They would light as much as the Kessil, cost roughly the same, are controllable right out the box, and have more color in them then just blue.

My last setup had a separate fuge and sump area as well. I ran a panworld pump and just T'd off for the fuge area. It was set higher then the sump area and had two bulkheads that gravity fed to the sump. Low flow, DSB, macro, seemed to work well. Just a thought.
 
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Sounds like a cool build! On the light issue, maybe look into the AI 26hd. They would light as much as the Kessil, cost roughly the same, are controllable right out the box, and have more color in them then just blue.

My last setup had a separate fuge and sump area as well. I ran a panworld pump and just T'd off for the fuge area. It was set higher then the sump area and had two bulkheads that gravity fed to the sump. Low flow, DSB, macro, seemed to work well. Just a thought.
Thanks @rayn I am considering all options theirs a guy on her names castaway who's got an awesome tank and runs the hydras, looks like they work well for him. I will pick his brain on that. As far as plumbing the fuge goes, I may try T'ing it off the main return. But I have to move a lot of water up, and don't want to compromise head pressure. That is something I'm also considering though. All ideas and comments are welcome!
 
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Yesterday I made pieces of cardboard the sizes of the planned sump equipment. I'm gonna need a bigger sump. If I go with the 29 pictured the return chamber is going to be basically the size of the pump and make evaporate an issue. Plus anything else I may want to add would have to be external. So I did some calculations and sketching and I need another 40 breeder. So after work I'm off to Petco to see if I can snag one at the $1/gal sale.
 

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I didn't have the head pressure requirements, so it worked great for me. I understand trying to keep heat down, but also coming from the basement a smaller internal pump just to power a small amount of flow to the fuge wouldn't add much.
 
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I didn't have the head pressure requirements, so it worked great for me. I understand trying to keep heat down, but also coming from the basement a smaller internal pump just to power a small amount of flow to the fuge wouldn't add much.
Yeah I have a sicce 4.0 that I will use for the fuge if I have to. Max head on that is 13' I think. Not enough for the 15' that I will need for the return to the DT.
 

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Will you access the tank from behind?
 
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Will you access the tank from behind?
Yes behind the tank are pantry doors so plenty of access. I'm also going to build an access panel in front above the tank to make cleaning and placing a little easier. I'm going to try to make it as hidden as possible. Or as we used to say in furniture making, celebrate the joint and really make it apparent that there is a door/panel there. Which ever I do it needs approval from the interior designer otherwise known as my wife.
 

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Yes behind the tank are pantry doors so plenty of access. I'm also going to build an access panel in front above the tank to make cleaning and placing a little easier. I'm going to try to make it as hidden as possible. Or as we used to say in furniture making, celebrate the joint and really make it apparent that there is a door/panel there. Which ever I do it needs approval from the interior designer otherwise known as my wife.

I was going to ask the same thing about access from the front. I have my tank in the wall and I didn't make access and it's a real pain in the butt to move and place stuff. You move something then walk back inside to see of you like it.... nope try again lol corals moving or falling, snails that need flipping ect... You definitely want access from the front imo!
 
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Yes been following well just discovered Trido's 210 In-wall this is a great thread. Any way it occurred to me that yes DUH, you want access from the front. Also the DT is going to be in a pantry so I'm going to need to put a vent in the kitchen side and a fan inside the pantry to cut down on the humidity inside the space.
 
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Just picked up another 40 breeder for the sump from Petco. Dollar a gallon can't beat that! Now I will use the old 29 for a QT. need to dismantle a broken 15 I have and cut some glass for baffles this weekend! Love the diy stuff in the hobby!
 
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Here's the layout for my sump. The squares with Xs are where the filter sox will go. There is a glass baffle that will channel water from the overflow right at the skimmer and the return for the fuge will direct "dirty" water the skimmer misses to the refugium. Directly to the right of the filter sock rack is a small chamber for the refugium overflow plumbing to go in. This will bypass the skimmer chamber and push any pods etc directly to the return section. The baffles are set at 2" apart I may go a little wider so my fat hands can fit in between for cleaning or getting anything out of there. I will also be able to put a descent bag of carbon in there. The middle baffle (bubble trap) is 1 1-2" off the bottom to allow plenty of slow flow for bubble to escape before entering the return/reactor chamber. I hope I have enough glass to do this without having to buy any. I should be able to get all the big baffles out of the 15gal I have. All the other parts I think I can get out of the old baffles from my old 29 sump that is being converted into my Quarantine Tank. What do you all think of my design so far? Should be close to 18 1/2 gallons of extra room for drainage when the pumps get shut down.
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So today I tried to take apart an old 15 gallon tank I had to use for baffles for my 40 gal sump. It is not going that well. Got the trim off no problem but getting the glass apart is turning into a whole different issue.
 
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Update! This will be one of many as thing evolve. Had a friend over today who is a builder and architect. He convinced my wife and I to do our tank as a peninsula. That means the tank width can grow by 4 inches. So this thread title will change eventually into 120 Miracles Peninsula.
 

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The peninsula idea is much better than the two sided view! You said you were planning on putting in a fan to the kitchen, I would suggest that you vent through the attic and tie into another vent, say from the stove or a bath room, or exhaust to an attic vent. With this size tank it helps a lot with humidity inside. For lighting, it depends on what your looking for. I have experience using many LEDs out there, all the high end ones and some cheaper ones. Yes they work, they are fully adjustable and they are cool. But I look at LEDs like cell phones, really cool when you buy them but in two years its kind of beat up any you want a new one. They are electronics floating maybe a foot above a highly corrosive mixture of salt and water and are only somewhat built to survive it. The newer ones are better than the old ones but still for coloration its hard to beat MH and/or T5. Also most LED systems don't make up for the extra cost with electricity savings until 3-4 years, past the point you would want to replace them anyway... So pick your lighting carefully.
 
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The peninsula idea is much better than the two sided view! You said you were planning on putting in a fan to the kitchen, I would suggest that you vent through the attic and tie into another vent, say from the stove or a bath room, or exhaust to an attic vent. With this size tank it helps a lot with humidity inside. For lighting, it depends on what your looking for. I have experience using many LEDs out there, all the high end ones and some cheaper ones. Yes they work, they are fully adjustable and they are cool. But I look at LEDs like cell phones, really cool when you buy them but in two years its kind of beat up any you want a new one. They are electronics floating maybe a foot above a highly corrosive mixture of salt and water and are only somewhat built to survive it. The newer ones are better than the old ones but still for coloration its hard to beat MH and/or T5. Also most LED systems don't make up for the extra cost with electricity savings until 3-4 years, past the point you would want to replace them anyway... So pick your lighting carefully.
Thanks for your input, there is no attic above where the tank will go. The only other option would be to vent into the garage which may be an option. Other than that there is not another option except a major renovation to the kitchen which is not happening. As for the lights, I'm not on the halide train , but thanks for your thoughts I will take that into consideration as I continue to plan.
 
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This past week I tried to cut the glass I had salvaged. I managed to only get two baffles cut. Not bad I guess for my first try cutting glass. I only broke 2 pieces from the salvaged tank. 50% success rate, so I ordered the rest and picked it up yesterday. Also ordered the silicone from Amazon, that should be here this week. We've decided to go with an open top on the peninsula. This decision came about from remodeling ideas for the kitchen way off in the future. Taking the wall down and having an open top peninsula will give the feeling of more space to our kitchen and create a little more of an open concept feel. Also trying to decide on my return pump, Vectra L1, or external Waveline, Iwaki or similar.
 
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Sump is all done! Took 2+ weeks to glue in 6 baffles due to bathroom fixing up(wife's project) and one week in sunny Mexico! Boy I needed that it's been cold up here in Maine. Anyway here it is, I still need to get a bit and and bulk head for the external pump. I'm ready to start buying some equipment trying to decide between an Iwaki,or Reeflo. Any opinions out there? Anyway here's a pic of the sump, and one of Mexico.
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