First tank - 150 peninsula from crystal dynamic

[Don Lidtke]

My Love was the one that suggested I go with CD for my tank after she saw their tanks at MACNA.

I have a 72x30x27 on order and now seeing your tank I am even more excited.

You have a sweet looking setup going there!

 

[mrcole76]

My Love was the one that suggested I go with CD for my tank after she saw their tanks at MACNA.

I have a 72x30x27 on order and now seeing your tank I am even more excited.

You have a sweet looking setup going there!

Sweet! Can’t wait to see yours come together. How long ago did you order it?

 

[Don Lidtke]

Sweet! Can’t wait to see yours come together. How long ago did you order it?

The first part of October. They said 10-12 weeks before delivery so I have time to spin up my quarantine systems and cure my rock scape.

 

[mrcole76]

The first part of October. They said 10-12 weeks before delivery so I have time to spin up my quarantine systems and cure my rock scape.

Mine was definitely closer to the 12 week mark. I pinged Zoya every now and then during the build and she would let me know where they were at with it. I bet they are crazy busy right now with all the press they got at MACNA.

 

[mattgsa]

Really great build. You have a lot of really great ideas. Thanks for sharing.

 

[lakai]

The first part of October. They said 10-12 weeks before delivery so I have time to spin up my quarantine systems and cure my rock scape.

Same. Got a 72x30x24 peninsula from CDA ordered 2 weeks ago. Setting up quarantine and rocks until then. Looking forward to seeing your build

 

[Don Lidtke]

Mine was definitely closer to the 12 week mark. I pinged Zoya every now and then during the build and she would let me know where they were at with it. I bet they are crazy busy right now with all the press they got at MACNA.

That's a good point about checking with them about the state of the build and that's something I will be doing.

 

[don_chuwish]

Love that use of LVL for the top frame of the stand. Crazy strong stuff.

 

[mrcole76]

Really great build. You have a lot of really great ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Love that use of LVL for the top frame of the stand. Crazy strong stuff.

Thanks guys, ‘preciate the kind words.

 

[mrcole76]

Got word that the cabinet doors shipped today. Way easier than trying to recreate the arched raised panel doors that are in the kitchen! I did not feel like tackling that project. Plus I would have had to invest a few hundred in router bits and jigs to do it right. No thanks. Hopefully no regrets once I actually see the doors. If you’re interested in this, there are several online vendors that sell doors and drawer fronts.

I thought I’d share a bit on how I finished off the top. I wanted things to stay crisp but I also wanted easy access to stuff. Cuz we know how that goes, right? “I’ll never have to access ‘X’ again”. Ya. The second you make that permanent I guarantee you’ll have some need to access it. And then the cursing begins. And the hours of rework. More cursing. You get the idea..

So I was poking around at the local Home Depot specifically looking for creative ways to solve my issues. Hidden among the fastener aisle were these long machine screws with wide, flat (almost flush) heads. Then in the drawers of hell where they keep all the wacky metric fittings, I found these screw-in nut inserts like what you might see on Ikea furniture. Perfect! I will be painting them white.

You’ll also see the canopy fan in these pictures. There are three fans in there blowing out. Once I get the cabinet doors, I’ll have another fan assembly below that will pull air in. The air should, in theory, circulate across the sump, up the peninsula chase, and then across the top of the aquarium to the exhaust. It also comes with its own controller. The fans can be fixed speed, controllable via thermostat, and can also do temp alarms. Pretty slick. Comes in white or black. There are all sorts of different fan sizes and configurations. You can find them on amazon, search for “ac infinity”.

By the way, if you guys want more detail on anything, close-up pics or anything else that might help on your journey in this hobby, just give me a shout.

 

[mrcole76]

Well, moment of truth.. got the scape put together and the cycle started. The tall tank plus my canopy setup definitely made things challenging. Lots of pushing rocks around with sticks. One nice thing about the canopy is it keeps me from accidentally putting pressure on the plumbing when I’m reaching deep into the tank. I made sure the base rock had at least three good points of contact and let those sit direct on the glass. Got some good caves and tunnels going on in there. I wanted a lot of open water and hopefully I don’t wish I had put more rock in. Time will tell I suppose.

 

[don_chuwish]

I like! Great scape and lots of open space. Beautiful tank.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Aquascape came out great! Love it!

 

[mrcole76]

My posts haven’t quite been real-time until now. So I figure I’ll get you guys all up to speed. I added my first fish on October 15th. Two mocha clowns - my daughter named them Hank and Murphy but when I explained how the whole sex thing works with clowns, she changed one of their names to Murphalina. Cute.
I had used microbacter 7 (mb7) as part of the cycle but to be honest, I’m not sure how helpful it was or if it really sped anything up. I also used a shrimp for the cycle. Ha! I just remembered I had to zip tie the dang shrimp to a rock cuz it kept getting pulled up into the gyre. I’ve been adding some clean up crew, too, as things take their course. 5 or so hermits, some trochus and astria snails, a sand-sifting star, and an emerald crab. Just this past weekend I added a diamond goby and the crab. The star and goby are doing an awesome job on the sand.

 

[Reefbuds]

Awsome man! I bet your sitting in front of that thing right now!

 

[Dramad1]

Awesome build, cool canopy idea, curious how well it works out when you need more room to get into tank, still cool idea. Very clean and awesome.for a first build. Nice job, following along

 

[raultsu]

Your tank looks awesome. Im considering a 120 from CDA. Hows the build quality? Did you get starfire glass?

 

[mrcole76]

Your tank looks awesome. Im considering a 120 from CDA. Hows the build quality? Did you get starfire glass?

Thanks! Quality is very good. I’m very happy with the tank and ya, I did starphire on all the viewable sides.

 

[mrcole76]

Been a while since I’ve posted an update. The two clowns and the goby are doing great. The goby is certainly doing goby things but not causing too much of a mess. I also introduced a foxface today. He’s cruising around and munching algae so hopefully he’ll be good.

So I have the doors on now and I also removed part of the wrought iron railing yesterday. It makes a HUGE difference and I’m really glad I did that. Last thing I need to do is fabricate a mini door for the canopy.

 

[raultsu]

I had a couple of friends come by to help me unload and they had no idea what they were in for. Lol. They did not appreciate how heavy these things were. We THOUGHT we had a good idea to run some 2x4s through the bottom of the crate and carry it that way. Had to pop a door off the hinges, too. We made it work but did not realize how top heavy it would be and the narrowness exacerbated it. We just about lost control of it. I can’t even imagine. So please, don’t run 2x4s through the bottom of your crate. ;Facepalm

How heavy was it? I ordered by 120 so i want to see how many guys i need to move this thing