180 g reef ready converted to peninsula build

[Kactai]

Hi All,

This build thread has been a long time coming. I purchased the 180g reef ready tank and stand about a year ago. We finally bought our house and completed all of the renos we needed so we got started on the tank back in November.

Over the year that the tank was in heated storage we planned and started to purchase our gear. Here is my equipment list.

Vectra M1 return Pump
AI Hydra 52 X2
AI hydra 26
Reef Octopus Classic 200 int
75 g glass sump
BRS dual media reactor & MJ1200 pump
Eflux 2100 gph wave pumps x3
Ink bird temperature controller
300W LED refugium grow light (amazon - unknown brand)
Jeager true temp 300W heater

Now to the super cool part. My wife and I decided to convert the reef ready tank to a peninsula tank. I could not find much info on anyone who had successfully converted one so I got as much info as I could and decided to go for it.



The plan was to cover the reef ready holes and drill the side of the tank that would be up against the wall. After placing the tank with a 4'' gap at the back it just didn't look right. The solution: Drill the bottom of the tank and build a custom internal overflow box. Luckily the marineland tank did not have a tempered bottom, so I did a lot of research regarding glass strength and drilling holes. I used the two holes already drilled and added two more, very well spaced apart in order to install a bean animal drain (which works silently like a charm I might add) 3 drains (full syphon, excess drain line and emergency) and 1 return line.


I got a few small chips while drilling and I wanted to make sure my bulkheads would seal so I added a few predriller 1/4” glass over the holes.



I had to buy a full 4x8 sheet of 1/4'' black acrylic to build the custom overflow. That was a bit pricey but I cut it to size and used a heat gun to bend the corners. Installed it with the ugliest silicone job known to man, installed my plumbing and the sump (oh yeah I cut and installed the sump baffles myself too) and it was ready for a water test that I had to risk in my basement (Canadian Weather). After three days full it was ready to be drained cleaned and filled with dry rock. Once the rock were in, I rinsed my sand and put that in. Then we filled it with saltwater. And now it's in cycle.










Things left to do are:

Build a hanging canopy and install lights
Install doors and trim on the back side of the stand and rim cover
build a controller and power bar panel for better chord management
Wait for the cycle and some then stock very very slowly.

If anyone has any questions I'd love to hear from you. I've made some mistakes along the way and I'm willing to share to save others the aggravation.

 

[KJ]

Nice job following

 

[1WildBill]

Looks great. Nice job drilling the holes.

 

[Kactai]

Looks great. Nice job drilling the holes.

Thanks! It was my first time drilling glass.

 

[Kactai]

I’m going to post a few updates here as it has been a while since my last post.

I built the hanging canopy last month right after my last post! I used some pine from the hardware store. I’m just using zip ties and little bracket to hold up my AI hydra HDs... zip ties are my best friend.

Take a look.



This is why the set up looks like now with rock and water!



Thank cycled fishless for 30 days with seachem prime and stability. Even though they say you can add fish right away I took my time with the cycle anyways.

In early April we added a pair of Midnight black clowns and a Swiss guard basslet.

A few weeks later we got a Moyeri wrasse and a tail spot blenny. About 5 days after that a beautiful powder blue tang came in to the LFS and I couldn’t resist.

 

[Kactai]

Oh we did add a yellow flanked fairy wrasse and a few really choice coral frags from Candy corals in toronto.

Did you notice I didn’t mention QT.... first mistake right there. Second mistake was the Moyeri wrasse. Third mistake was adding a powder blue at the start of my stocking list.

Got IcH and the Moyeri wrasse died, I suspect of starvation as he would never be consistently out of the sand bed at feeding times.

I’ve since set up a QT. When I get back from work this Wednesday I have to catch the 6 remaining residents and start the copper treatments and the fallow period in the display. Huge bummer but I’ve learnt my lesson and will go the Ich eradication route as opposed to management. I can’t afford to restock a crashed display.

 

[Kactai]

Here are a few pics.

 

[Kactai]

As of today, the corals are all growing well and encrusting over the rest of their frag plugs.

I will do an update on my sump and under tank area shortly. Like I said my QT and fish treatments are my priority over the next little while.

Thanks for checking this out. I appreciate any comments or feed back! Happy reefing

 

[Kactai]

Check out this contest!!!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-synergy-reef-summer-giveaway-3-winners.411912/

 

[Kactai]

I have not updated this thread in a while so here goes!

My choice to not quarantine has come back to bite me in the butt.

I’ve lost all of my fish, except 1, to a combination of ich and several qt and treatment mistakes over the past two months. My casualties include my prized moyeri wrasse, my powder blue tang, a Swiss guard basslet, a yellow flanked fairy wrasse, a tail spot blenny and one of my midnight black clown fish.

Here is a picture of my qt set up


Two 20 g tanks - one 20g long with a penguin bio-wheel filter and one standard 20g with a aqua clear HOB filter. Both have a heater, air stone, some plastic plants and pvc elbows. I was originally treating with a privately made chelated copper product and was having a multitude of issues. I’m still working on my qt process and learning a lot. One of my issues was ammonia build up and not having a proper bio-filter established in the tanks. Another issue was with raising my copper concentration to quickly at the beginning of treatment. I was also having difficulty keeping my copper levels in the therapeutic range.

I’ve corrected the problems mentioned above by ordering some Seachem ammonia badges and a Hanna high range copper checker. I will be starting my second attempt at QT shortly.

The top tank will be converted to the coral and invert qt, while the bottom tank will remain as the main qt tank.

The display tank remains fallow and corals are growing and encrusting well.

Wish me luck. I’ll update again soon

 

[Kactai]

Well for those of you following along it’s more problems and heartache on this build.

My midnight clownfish, the sole survivor of my battle with Ich and QT problems, has died from saltwater whirling disease or Ichthyophonus disease while in QT following a successful copper treatment to eliminate Ich.

It’s a total wipe out.

On the bright side, I’ve successfully put two wrasses through 30 days of hypo and 10 days of medicated food (metroplex and focus). Since the wrasses are not the ideal choices as first fish (melanarus and yellow coris), I will be transferring them both to my coral qt along with a saltwater mollie until it is their turn on the stocking list.

Next fish will probably be an algae eating blenny and a Swiss guard basslet that I will qt together. I believe I have my qt process ironed out.

I will be keeping all fish for 8-10 days in qt with no meds, feeding heavily and observing for signs of disease. I will then run 30 days of hyposalinity with the last 10 days in hypo while feeding medicated food. This will be followed by 10 days of observation prior to introduction to the display. I will use fresh water dips, prazipro and copper as necessary. I think that based on my work schedule and time available this is the method that affords me the flexibility and risk tolérances that I’m looking for. I know about hypo resistant Ich, brook, marine velvet and a host of other issues not addressed by hypo salinity but it’s the easiest of the qt methods for me to complete due to my work schedule and inability to test and adjust copper levels daily. Hypo can easily be accomplished with the use of a nano auto top off device, ammonia badges, prime and bacteria in a bottle.

Hopefully things start to turn for the better very soon on this build. I’m slowly loosing enthusiasm and the will to sink more time and money into this thing.

 

[Kactai]

Separated - sold my house and had to put this tank in storage. All of my live stock is now housed in a 48’’ by 32’’ by 12’’ lagoon/frag tank.

That is the end of this build thread... I’m still sad about it but the 180 g reef will be back one day.