Denver 200 Gallon IM Peninsula LPS/SPS Dream Tank

[DenverSaltyFarm]

This build is looking great! I've had my eye on one of the IM peninsulas for some time now. Following along

Thank you! Very happy with the tank so far and the price is amazing for what you get

Those new lights look great!

Thank you! I feel like they were the missing link for the tank and the corals are responding very well

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

The TSA Fruity Splice has arrived!!!! pictures don't do this justice pretty amazing to see in person. Very excited to see this grow out. Also for some reason the thin algae on my rocks looks like cyano in the photos with high uv light but its just algae

I also started to dose aminos to the tank and will send off another ICP test in the next week to see where the tank is sitting. I also normally keep my salinity at 1.025 but have slowly bumped it up to 1.026

Nutrients are now sitting at Phosphate .08 and nitrate at 4.5. I like where those are at and will be dialing back my bio pellets to keep things steady.

 

[ChiefReefin]

Thanks for checking out the build, yes the mixing station is in a heated utility room In my basement and air temperature stays about 72 year around. I noticed the pump heats up the water as well keeping it about 74.

After all the work setting it up I ended up running the aquarium without water changes, but in an emergency I can make water fast

What pump are you using for your mixing station? Beautiful tank!!!!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The TSA Fruity Splice has arrived!!!! pictures don't do this justice pretty amazing to see in person. Very excited to see this grow out. Also for some reason the thin algae on my rocks looks like cyano in the photos with high uv light but its just algae

I also started to dose aminos to the tank and will send off another ICP test in the next week to see where the tank is sitting. I also normally keep my salinity at 1.025 but have slowly bumped it up to 1.026

Nutrients are now sitting at Phosphate .08 and nitrate at 4.5. I like where those are at and will be dialing back my bio pellets to keep things steady.

Nice looking frags!

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

What pump are you using for your mixing station? Beautiful tank!!!!

This is the pump. Its very strong for this setup maybe too strong but mixes salt fast

Pan World 100PX-X Magnetic Drive Pump​

 

[LiquidSpace]

Build looks great! I’m glad to see the roller works with this sump, I was worried it wouldn’t based upon some other builds.

 

[ChiefReefin]

This is the pump. Its very strong for this setup maybe too strong but mixes salt fast

Pan World 100PX-X Magnetic Drive Pump​

I was looking at the 100px. How long do you usually run the pump to mix for?

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

I was looking at the 100px. How long do you usually run the pump to mix for?

I ran it non-stop 24/7. Mixed salt water turns bad for me if its not constantly circulating almost like a swamp and it took about 6 weeks to get through all the water I mixed

Build looks great! I’m glad to see the roller works with this sump, I was worried it wouldn’t based upon some other builds.

Thank you!!! so far it has worked very well in that sump the hanging it on that chamber wall. Its amazing how easy keeping the tank has become not having to clean socks 3 times a week. well worth the $

 

[ChiefReefin]

I ran it non-stop 24/7. Mixed salt water turns bad for me if its not constantly circulating almost like a swamp and it took about 6 weeks to get through all the water I mixed



Thank you!!! so far it has worked very well in that sump the hanging it on that chamber wall. Its amazing how easy keeping the tank has become not having to clean socks 3 times a week. well worth the $

You ran the pump 24/7 ? I thought you only had to mix for 24 hours or so? What kind of salt were you using?

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

You ran the pump 24/7 ? I thought you only had to mix for 24 hours or so? What kind of salt were you using?

I am using reef crystals for salt. The mixing only takes 45min for a 100 gallon batch to fully mix up and turn clear. The problem is when you have water just sit for a long period of time it turns stale. You will get some funky bacteria that will feed on the nutrients in the salt water and PH also drops as oxygen is depleted from the water. All the stores I go to who have 1000+ gallon batches of salt water always have their pumps running to circulate the water. I just don't recommend having no flow in a mixing station

 

[Troylee]

Nice tank! Love the peninsulas they will always be my favorite! And welcome back to the halide club!

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Nice tank! Love the peninsulas they will always be my favorite! And welcome back to the halide club!

Cheers thank you! I'm excited to get this lighting up, I might just stay up all night to get it done ill post some pics when its done with par numbers.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

I was looking at the 100px. How long do you usually run the pump to mix for?

I just started doing water changes again just for piece of mind. I switched salts to the red sea blue bucket and it does say to only mix for 4 hrs max so that's what I did then turned off the pump. I turn on the pump about 15 min before a water change then turn it back off and to my surprise the water has stayed clean and clear and has not gone stale in the mixing station. So I was wrong in what I said before

 

[ChiefReefin]

I just started doing water changes again just for piece of mind. I switched salts to the red sea blue bucket and it does say to only mix for 4 hrs max so that's what I did then turned off the pump. I turn on the pump about 15 min before a water change then turn it back off and to my surprise the water has stayed clean and clear and has not gone stale in the mixing station. So I was wrong in what I said before

Well good to know and I appreciate the follow up. How long have you been storing this salt mix?

Hows the Fruity Splice lookin?

 

[Devaji]

I like the serviceability of the soft line used for the supply side. While piping in colored pvc looks nicer I had a hard time with my last tank to service my main pump even with the disconnect union also had a few main pumps fail and found out that not all pumps sit at the same height when replacing so changing to soft line was something I always wanted to do and happy I did on this tank. I also feel like there is less flow restriction with sweeping bends vs 90s on pvc. I should have done that to my drain side as well. Had to change a few things and once its glued is hard to do.

WOW . sorry I missed this replay.
I have been working on my other tank a RS 300XL that was going to be a seahorse tank, but decided the other day to do a LPS tank. I love LPS to much not to have them.

anyway I am pluming my IM 200 right now -after having in in the house for 8 months now maybe more.

I am really debating just going soft for the RT line. all that weight on the bilks heads kinda scare me.

any chance we could get a pic from the back side of the sump to see the soft return line?

 

[Peair]

Very nice tank setup you have there, and I like the x4 and wave engine that you have controlling somethings, all you need is bigger corals.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

WOW . sorry I missed this replay.
I have been working on my other tank a RS 300XL that was going to be a seahorse tank, but decided the other day to do a LPS tank. I love LPS to much not to have them.

anyway I am pluming my IM 200 right now -after having in in the house for 8 months now maybe more.

I am really debating just going soft for the RT line. all that weight on the bilks heads kinda scare me.

any chance we could get a pic from the back side of the sump to see the soft return line?

I ended up changing things around which in turn made life much easier for me but added clutter and took away the clean loon in the sump I have the drain line with the adjustable ball valve as the primary drain to my sump. The middle drain pipe just straight pipes into the sump as the emergency overflow ( there should never be water pouring out of that and its high enough that if water does start overflowing that middle pipe I hear the waterfall sound from the sump letting me know there is an issue). The far left drain (with 2 blue ball valves) is just the bulkhead inside my overflow and is plumed through the wall and directly into a floor house drain for fast water changes.

All I do is turn off all the pumps, then open that far left drain line to quickly empty my overflow chamber via gravity. then close the valve and open my fresh salt water valve above the aquarium from my mixing station filling up that overflow chamber and I just completed my weekly water change in about 3 minuets

*Side note one of those blue ball valves does not do anything but was already glued in on my previous design so I left it in there*

here is above the aquarium overflow you can see the fresh salt water line I popped through the wall

hopefully this makes sense if not pls ask away

Very nice tank setup you have there, and I like the x4 and wave engine that you have controlling somethings, all you need is bigger corals.

Cheers! Thank you! I have been loving my hydros controller and wave engine, way better than Apex IMO. haha I made some big changes below that will hopefully get those corals growing in overdrive

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Big Update major changes to the tank. I've been diving deep into lighting and looking at what the hobby used to be and what it has become. I always got the best growth and happiest corals with metal halide lighting as have the countless other reefers I have talked to so I pulled the trigger to take off my radions and add three 250w 20k metal halide lights to the tank and keep my uv bars for pop. surprisingly the Metal halide market is so weak that the entire set up brand new only costed $380 (the price of one high end frag). I'm seeing the market pick back up and even bulb manufactures started making bulbs again to meet demand.

I also stopped my 2 part dosing and started primarily dosing Kalkwasser through an avast marine kalk reactor to keep my calcium and alkalinity dosed and at the same time keeping my PH elevated

Instantly my sps has much better polyp extension and lps are puffing up more. I'm noticing the sps encrusting faster daily and one of the encrusted SPS frags is popping new stems from the base of the plug. The color of the tank with the lighting just looks better to me and I don't think I will ever go back to all LED

I did another ICP test as well and everything is in range the only elevation is TIN which I can deal with.

(going old school lighting )

 

[LiquidSpace]

I just started doing water changes again just for piece of mind. I switched salts to the red sea blue bucket and it does say to only mix for 4 hrs max so that's what I did then turned off the pump. I turn on the pump about 15 min before a water change then turn it back off and to my surprise the water has stayed clean and clear and has not gone stale in the mixing station. So I was wrong in what I said before

Ha! I was doing the same. Glad to see you made the same mistake. It felt wrong just leaving the salt sitting.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Well good to know and I appreciate the follow up. How long have you been storing this salt mix?

How's the Fruity Splice lookin?

So far I have about 4 weeks on this batch of salt with 3 weeks to go before its empty and its doing great. The fruity splice is doing great as well. It didn't grow much until about a week ago started spreading on the plug so should see some new stems hopefully soon. I also found a good price on a 50/50 Rainbow splice frag and its growing fast. Both of those corals are my favorite in the tank