Denver 200 Gallon IM Peninsula LPS/SPS Dream Tank

[DenverSaltyFarm]

After 4 months wait my dream 200 gallon Innovative Marine INT Peninsula tank as arrived! Over the 4 month wait I was able to purchase most of my equipment and build the rockscape I will be using for the tank. I currently have a 120 gallon that has morphed from a mixed reef, to a SPS tank then a LPS tank then more of a frag tank over the course of 7 years . I have learned so much and so many things I wish I would have done differently this is my time to make a reef tank everything I have wanted.

Equipment will be:
-3 Radion G6 blue lights (I have 2 more g4 pros just in case I want more light)
-Controller will be Hydros and a Hydros wave engine for flow
-Red Sea 1200 Roller Filter
-Red Sea 600 self adjusting DC Skimmer with controller
-Red Sea Auto Top Off
-2 600 watt heaters
-Red Sea 4 head doser
-100 gallon mixing station
-Radion 72" Light bar to mount the lights
-2 Octo Pulse 4 wave makers controlled my the wave engine
-1 MP40 wave maker
-I will be adding a 40 watt uv to the tank as well

My Vision is to fill up the tank with torches, hammers, and goniopora coral. I will be starting with dry sand and dry rock. Hopefully you all enjoy the build

The crate arrived a little dicey but everything inside survived great.

I purchased the tank and sump before knowing I was going with a roller filter and unfortunately when the order is placed there is no going back to make changes. I am very happy that the roller attaches to the inside of the sump nicely and I only loss 5" of the sump where the filter socks would have gone. the next chamber over I will use as my skimmer chamber. very happy with the sump overall

This Is how the rockwork will sit in the tank.

This upcoming Saturday I will have the help needed to get the tank on the stand very excited

 

[19Mateo83]

This is going to be a sweeet build!

 

[Juanzingo]

nice build, aquascape looking good!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

This is going to be a fun one to follow!

 

[fodsod]

In to see the progress!

 

[Devaji]

Nice man! I have my IM 200 pen. In the garage for 8 weeks now.. need to get moving.
Like your rock work great job!

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Just got the tank sitting on the stand in the basement and took 4 of us to barely get it down there. Crazy how heavy it is and very glad its done. I'm also very happy that no rocks broke apart lifting them into the tank. I kept thinking worse case scenario of a rock breaking the glass. I'm still amazed at the price point of these tanks for how nice they are. I understand why so many people get them.
I ended up purchasing a reef controller mounting board that will mount on the wall for easy access at eye level and will make a nice display as well. For the next couple of weeks im going to be installing 1 item at a time taking great care to hide all the wires for a clean look (something I regretted with my 120g setup)

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

I have been working hard to get everything running. Finally into my cycle. I found out the hard way that the magnets for my wave makers do not fit inside the edge of the overflow like I would have wanted so I ended up putting the wavemakers on the far end.
I have been very happy with the Hydros controller so far. Set up took some time to get used to, but once its done it rocks. A much better build quality than Apex. The red sea roller filter is also pretty amazing. I cant believe I didnt get one sooner always washing filter socks. I have my auto top off container in my utility room behind the display. I have it set up to auto fill up when it gets low so I never have to worry about that again. There are leak sensors in the utility room and display, 2 electric sensors to tell the system when to fill up the ATO container and when to Stop with a float valve above that in case the sensors fail. My auto top off to the tank is ran with a red sea auto top off kit (very happy with that as well). Waiting for some algae to show up so I can add a clean up crew with pods and keep them fed.

Next will be setting up a small quarantine tank for fish will be following the BRS videos for fish quarantine. Before coral touches the tank I will use a series of dips, cut frags off plugs, then place in an observation tank for a few hours to check that no Aiptasia is missed . Im going to make every effort possible to prevent aiptasia in this display.

Unfortunately the photos come out more blue than I see in person. Ill have to get some better photo filters. stay tuned for more

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

We got coral! The aquarium is cycled and parameters holding steady so 5 days ago I added a few tester frags from my other aquarium and they have been doing great so today I started making the big transfer to the peninsula. 19 corals later I still have a bunch more to do within the upcoming week.
My long process is Hydrogen peroxide dip, then Bayer dip, cut the coral off frag plugs and clue on new plugs then place in aquarium.

I have 3 different tangs in quarantine with 10 days left until they are living good.

I have a 55watt UV on order and should be in next week to help keep water quality great for the long run. More updates to follow

 

[Devaji]

nice man! well after 3 months my IM 200 pen. in finally in the house.

keep the post coming man love seeing this come together.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

nice man! well after 3 months my IM 200 pen. in finally in the house.

keep the post coming man love seeing this come together.

Thank you, Awesome!!! Crazy how heavy these tanks are. I bet you are happy the move is over with.

I ended up twisting out the 2 nozzles that the tank comes with and getting one of the

CPR Aquatic Threaded Eductor nozzles 3/4"​

Bulk reef supply model number 207946

I highly recommend this nozzle. amazing flow the entire length of the tank I have this pointed down the middle then on the opposite end is the 2 wave makers on the sides sending water back with great results

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Been hard at work taking down my other display and getting more frags in the peninsula. I was able to get my 100 gallon mixing station ready to make water. I started getting a little bacteria bloom in the peninsuls and Im sure its all the coral I added to the aquarium so tomorrow im going to get my UV up and running as well. more to come.

I dropped the inside pipe about 2/3rds down the container and added a Venturi flow nozzle to hopefully get a nice amount of water movement in the container.

 

[DarfrogDojo]

Nice man! I have my IM 200 pen. In the garage for 8 weeks now.. need to get moving.
Like your rock work great job!

Mine came this past Tuesday. I can see it sitting for while too.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

After adding fish from quarantine and all my frags I started getting a bad bacteria bloom with a big shock of bio-load. A few days later my 57 watt Aqua ultraviolet UV came in and I hooked that up to a dedicated DC feed pump that I can control feed rate very easy. In just about 24hrs with UV the water is crystal clear and back to normal. Ill always run uv from here on out pretty amazing. I also put light diffusers on the Radion lights to get rid of the disco effect. The blending of light is perfect and I am showing a constant par of 220-240 on top of rock work and about 100 par on the sand floor if set to 100%. perfect for LPS IMO.

Out of 16 goniopora frags that I had in my other tank I ended up loosing 3 of them which I have been expecting being a new tank and lower nutrient lvls and I unfortunately expect to lose more gonis due to them being picky to new tanks.. My torches have been doing great and just received 3 more torches today from a vender here on R2R
Current Torch list is:
Holly grail Blue Tip
Holly grail White Tip
Cotton Candy
Orange Peel
Hellfire
Dragon Soul
And more to come........Heavy Torch Tank is my goal

Current Levels are
calcium 421
Mag 1495
Alk 7.8 and slowly climbing to about 8.3 is where I want

no water change yet just want everything to hold steady and constant. I have also been dosing AB+ to the tank daily to help feed the corals

My goals of keeping everything neat under the tank is already slipping there is just so much equipment to add to a tank

water feeds from the bottom of the UV and exits the top to prevent air from getting trapped.
more to come

 

[Ottoson]

amazing build, well done!

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

amazing build, well done!

Cheers thank you!!!

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

One quick photo dump on the livestock. A lot of the corals on the sand bed are not at their final resting place just slowly working up to higher light. Finally getting a bit of the ugly stage growing on the rocks and will be adding a clean up crew soon along with pods when I know they have enough to feed on in the tank.

 

[takoarm8]

I couldn’t get my MP40’s to grab on

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

I couldn’t get my MP40’s to grab on

hmmm I just pulled my mp40 out of the box and hung it on the glass to see if it would hold and it does. Its not the strongest grab but just turned it on and everything and it did good.

are you finding the outside unit falling or the wet side head?

 

[takoarm8]

Falls on the outside glass