200 Gallon Nuvo EXT Peninsula Build (mixed reef)

[Reef Altitude]

Hello!

We recently ordered an IM EXT 200 Peninsula and got it up and running.
The tank arrived in late august so we have had it running for a few weeks but i thought i would post some of the projects that went into getting this far.

It comes with the tank, overflow box and stand. We had to build everything else.
The tank is 70x30x22.


We bought a 60 breeder to use as the sump along with a baffle kit.
20 gallon high to use as a gravity fed ATO
18 ft ceilings so the lighting is hanging off an 8020 beam from the wall.

It is...big... in real life!

 

[Reef Altitude]

The first thing we did after ordering the tank was get a 60 breeder to be the sump. Fortunately there was a half off sale going on and we got it for around 80 dollars. We also got a baffle kit and some black silicone.

The frame through the middle of the tank caused some concern for fitting in a Reefmat 1200 and a large skimmer.

There is a fairly evenly spaced filter, skimmer, and refugium section. The first piece got siliconed in very nicely. Patience and working under the brace did cause some slightly less neat looking silicone joints.

Overall it took a couple of hours to plan out and install the baffles.
Finished product:

 

[xiaoxiy]

Nice job with that sump! I'm excited to see what you guys do with the tank.

 

[Kodski]

Wow that sump turned out very nice! Curious how you got the 60 breeder half off though. They exclude that tank from their 50% off sales since it’s new.

 

[Reef Altitude]

Wow that sump turned out very nice! Curious how you got the 60 breeder half off though. They exclude that tank from their 50% off sales since it’s new.

They had it listed 50% online but not in the cart so I messaged and asked. They said they would do it but are fixing the website. Just got lucky!

 

[Sean Clark]

Following along and excited!

 

[Devaji]

heck yeah! that sump does look amazing!

 

[dstockwell]

Looking good

 

[Devaji]

Hey quick question can you show us the pluming end of this tank. I am not sure how the stand allows for the plumbing? in all the pics on IM website looks like there is no space for the overflow drains to come in to the sump. that cant be right...

 

[Reef Altitude]

Hey quick question can you show us the pluming end of this tank. I am not sure how the stand allows for the plumbing? in all the pics on IM website looks like there is no space for the overflow drains to come in to the sump. that cant be right...

It is all hiding against a wall so thats the best angle I have. Basically the back side of the stand is totally open and you just run the plumbing in that way. Hope that helps.

For what its worth, if you are neat with the plumbing and dont mind seeing it a little bit from the side, the super clean back wall inside the tank looks amazing.
The INT version is probably much easier to plumb though and has less restrictive piping because your returns can shoot straight up from your sump and your drains do not have to travel as far.

 

[Reef Altitude]

So the next big project we had was to build the stand and get this thing in the house. The shipping weight was around 800 lbs including the packaging (crating, stand, tank). The tank was around 500 lbs of it and the heaviest part. I did not take to many great pictures of this because I was part of the labor pool.

The stand was easy to build and the instructions were good. I am happy with the aluminum because it is very light, very rigid, and very strong. This whole set up weighs around 2500 lbs full so that gave me some confidence. The whole family got in on the build tightening fasteners (wife and 3 year old).

The LFS here did have suction handles which were critical.

Three buddies came over to help out, and we used furniture dollies and only lifted to get it on the stand. We then measured and checked a few times because this seemed somewhat permanent!! Lunch and MANY thank you's were provided to the crew who helped.

 

[Reef Altitude]

I did forget to post this earlier but i had around 150 lbs of real ocean sourced live rock from a torn down system from the early 2000's. This stuff is amazing with hundreds of holes and branches.

We got a 30 something gallon HDX tote and filled it with salt water about 4 weeks before the tank came.

We used some microbacter7 and tossed everything in with a powerhead and heater. The tank had to come before we had any guests so we could get this out of their bathroom.

These rocks plus the rocks in the 38 gallon tank would provide all we needed for the 200 gallon set up.

 

[Devaji]

It is all hiding against a wall so thats the best angle I have. Basically the back side of the stand is totally open and you just run the plumbing in that way. Hope that helps.

For what its worth, if you are neat with the plumbing and dont mind seeing it a little bit from the side, the super clean back wall inside the tank looks amazing.
The INT version is probably much easier to plumb though and has less restrictive piping because your returns can shoot straight up from your sump and your drains do not have to travel as far.

thank you I was not sure on the plumping came inside the stand on the back end. not a ton of info on that part. but I see the back end of the stand has space for the pups to come in.

 

[Reef Altitude]

After plumbing up the returns and overflow, it was time to get water in the tank. The 150 gpd RODI we have should have taken around 35 hours to fill the whole system. It seemed to only take 30 though.

Added salt and a powerhead to mix while the sump filled up...

And got those rocks out of the bathtub just in time for visitors.

Next steps are to figure out the lighting, get the skimmer, filter, and sand set up.

 

[Devaji]

After plumbing up the returns and overflow, it was time to get water in the tank. The 150 gpd RODI we have should have taken around 35 hours to fill the whole system. It seemed to only take 30 thou

Next steps are to figure out the lighting, get the skimmer, filter, and sand set up.

for my RS 650P I liked 2X r 24" reef breeders photon v2+ they worked very well and dont break the bank.

 

[Reef Altitude]

For the next project we got to work on how to deal with lights for a 18ft ceiling and a hood-less tank. The trick is that the whole thing is sleek, clean and neat so there is nowhere to hide lights or cords. There is also no great way to hang the lights because the ceiling is way up there. Additionally part of the look is that the tank does not divide the rooms too much because its clear with no obstructions.

We settled on 3 A500X lights because they are powerful, compact, and resemble something you might have over a bar or island in your house anyways. Also, the light can be hung high off the water with the 55 degree lens so its not in your line of sight. I also have a spectral x controller anyways so that is nice.

Drawing some sketches we settled on doing a cantilevered beam off the wall and one cable stay. We ordered a piece of 8020 that is 4.5 inches wide to hide all the power bricks on top of. This thing is pretty rigid but also kind of heavy. We used L brackets and very long screws into studs to feel good about holding it up.

Here we got the brackets bolted to the wall:

And finally got the beam and cable stay installed:

The first A500 showed up and we had to see how it all looked:

While we wait for the last 2 A500x's we are using the light from our old tank.

And we have to clean up all the wires, but not really a point until the permanent lights are here.

 

[thelonereefer1]

awesome build so far, look forward to following along

 

[Reef Altitude]

We got water flowing in the tank and put our cooked live rock in and let it sit for a week. Conveniently we were out of town so that made it much easier to not rush things.

We have 500 watts of heating on two elements. We also have two Sicce syncra silent 4.0 returns that are right at 700 gph each. They do make a slight amount of vibration but with all of the doors closed its so much quieter than the HOB stuff we had on the small tank.

We got an Aquamaxx ConeS DCQ-3 skimmer when BRS had a pretty good discount on and we also got a Reefmat 1200.

Our 3 year old helped build the reefmat and do some of the plumbing. He was pretty excited to put all of the giant red gears together and make it all turn. All pretty straight forward. We added in the skimmer when we transferred everything from the 38 gallon into this tank. Got it all tuned and running well.

its been around 30 days now and we have about 15 days left on the filter so we are getting pretty good run time out of it.

If I could do it again, and maybe if I was not spending so much money all at once, I would get DC pumps. If/when the syncras die that is what they will be replaced with.

The final building thing we have to do is get the auto top off set up and running. The sump already has a float valve so its just getting a container to fit in the stand and be higher than the pump chamber.

I also need to post some of the in tank progress but by this point we had added sand, let it sit for a while, added copepods, turned the lights on, and finally transferred everything over and completed the final aquascape.

 

[BlingityBling]

Very nice build… I have something similar in the works and was thinking of almost an exact copy of how you hung the lights. The only difference I was considering is using a hinge to mount the bar to the wall so pulling the cable up would “fold” the whole thing up for maintenance. Nice to see that a concept I was thinking of looks great on your tank.

 

[Reef Altitude]

Edit to reply