Sean Clark

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I will be posting photos, updates, perhaps video updates on my most recent reef build. This is an Innovative Marine 200 EXT Peninsula set up as against a wall on one of the long sides. This puts the tank right up next to the wall while still allowing free access to all of the plumbing on the end of the tank. More to come daily. Enjoy.
 
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So this was my dream tank and for good reason. This tank is perfect in so many ways, the dimensions are amazing, the glass is amazing, the stand is amazing, my expectations are amazing... Here is the original tank image from Inovative Marine that inspired my latest build based on this tank. These images have been sourced from InnovativeMarine.com
 

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Sean Clark

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Days after ordering I had a semi-truck in front of my house, not weeks, or months. I could not praise Inovative Marine any higher in this respect. My delivery driver was fantastic (your driver may very). We set the pallet in the garage and inspected the cargo. The most stress in this event was the plastic wrap delay... Lots and lots and lots of protection; then loaded into a giant crate of don't think about touching me, sealed with a cloud and some marshmallows. This was well packed.

20210428_100959-1.jpg 20210428_101006-2.jpg
 
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Now after all of the long planning, the real planning actually begins. The errors of your previous thoughts shine through. All of your previously purchased plumbing fittings are null. Remove and replace all of that with new because... well you did not think this through enough, I guess... Am I the only one that has failed this hard?
 
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My vision for the tank was to be look like a built in style book case in a craftsman style house. I wanted it to be part of the room. I did a hood-less, rimless tank years ago and originally loved the look. That is the trend now as everyone knows. I wanted to do something different.

This was my original concept. Add an additional cabinet to cover the plumbing on the left side and conceal it; also dampen any noise. Add a hood to conceal the lighting and ensure zero light spill into the room.

The upper hood area was to be constructed out of PVC board material with an 80/20 aluminum frame. I also planed on wrapping the long side that would go up against the wall with a black vinyl material.

This image is an augment of the image taken from the 200 EXT Peninsula tank page on the Inovative Marine website. I soon realized that this additional cabinetry was not possible without going custom (and expensive).

Something was off. The dimensions just did not work. Also the materials just did not look "right" when put next to each other. Time for more research and development which usually consists of sitting and staring at the wall with a notepad and a beer.
 

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Stand assembled and set in place and looking good. The Innovative Marine stand is very nice, light, and easy to assemble. There are seven doors on the peninsula stand; three smaller doors on each of the long sides and one large door for one of the short sides. The plumbing end does not come with any covering. I assume they intend that end to be against a wall and so it wouldn't be exposed. I cut 4x8 sheets of PVC boards to act as a base and top to the stand. This was going to tie the left side of the stand, that I still needed to make, into the rest of the stand and make one solid fixture. I realized this would not work as I had originally thought, back to the R&D.
 

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I could not find a good, clean looking way to enclose the plumbing side of the tank. I thought that once the tank was in place, that inspiration would strike me. So I sat and stared at the wall some more.

Several beers later a friend said something like "Why dont you just buy another cabinet and put it on the side?". Initially, I dismissed this and told them that it wasn't that easy. Well, as it turns out, it was that easy. Innovative Marine makes a 20 gallon peninsula tank that has the same 30 inch deep stand. I purchased two of these stands and stacked them on top of each other.

The 20 gallon stand is normally 12x30 inches. I took the panels apart and flipped the vertical aluminum profiles around so they would match the 200ext stand. This resulted in a 12.75 inch wide cabinet for the plumbing to route inside

In these photos I still have the white PVC board on top of the stand with the black PVC board that comes with the tank sitting on top of that. The second 20 gallon stand is stacked on top of the PVC board. I thought that this would tie it all together once the tank was on the stand. Later I wound up cutting the PVC board down to only sit under the tank.
 

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chaostactics

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That is exactly what I was getting ready to suggest with the cabinet. It looks seamless and great!

I really really want to be able to do a true peninsula tank with 3 sides viewable but one of the things I love is that you can do a two sides viewable like you've done or a 1 long side viewable with the tank being able to go long side flush against the wall in all cases.

One thing to note. Since you're going with a canopy a thought on the overflow since it's a 3 hole you could simply go with a regular Herbie setup (2 drains) and use the 3rd hole to run an additional return concealed in your canopy all the way to the end of the tank furtherest from your regular returns to help with flow at that end of the tank. I see so many people mount flow pumps on what should be viewable pane and it looks truely awful.

If you want to keep the IM warranty I would be very cautious of making any structural changes to the stand, especially stuff that the tank will sit directly on.

Im really excited to see one of these tanks with a detailed build threads
 
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That is exactly what I was getting ready to suggest with the cabinet. It looks seamless and great!

I really really want to be able to do a true peninsula tank with 3 sides viewable but one of the things I love is that you can do a two sides viewable like you've done or a 1 long side viewable with the tank being able to go long side flush against the wall in all cases.

One thing to note. Since you're going with a canopy a thought on the overflow since it's a 3 hole you could simply go with a regular Herbie setup (2 drains) and use the 3rd hole to run an additional return concealed in your canopy all the way to the end of the tank furtherest from your regular returns to help with flow at that end of the tank. I see so many people mount flow pumps on what should be viewable pane and it looks truely awful.

If you want to keep the IM warranty I would be very cautious of making any structural changes to the stand, especially stuff that the tank will sit directly on.

Im really excited to see one of these tanks with a detailed build threads
I tried to do the three sides viewable at one point, but the room just wouldn't support it.

I did not make any changes to the stand that supports the tank. So there shouldn't be any warranty problems there. Besides, lets say the stand should fail... I would assume that I would have larger problems then worrying about whether or not it was under warranty. ;) Only the stands on the left side were modified and they do not support any real weight. They are more like a facia or facade. I only did that to match the profile of the tank stand. The smaller stands have the profiles oriented opposite of the larger tank stand. It looked goofy so I decided to change it around to match.

Here are some pics of me trying to make it a true peninsula... with some spoilers for my next post that I am sure that you will pick up on.
 

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So guess what... Once I had the small 20 gallon APS stands I realized that they just happened to be the perfect size to make my hood.

I promise that this was a happy accidental discovery. I had intended to build my hood out of 80/20 aluminum and cover it with PVC board. I even purchased the materials to build it.

Once I saw how the stands looked on the side of the tank, I couldn't let the hood look different or of lesser quality. So... I acquired two more APS 20 Peninsula tank stands. I laid them on their sides and removed one of the braces on each. Put them end to end and boom. Instant hood.

So once again it was as simple as buying more cabinets. Ready made, off of the shelf, and nothing is custom.

I had to cut down the PVC board to allow the two side cabinets to sit directly on top of each other. This lowered the total height by 1/2 of an inch and once the tank was added, aligned perfectly.

All together there is a really nice ratio between the stand tank and hood of 3 to 2 to 1. I think that it has nice balance.

I used acetone to remove the APSnuvo branding tags. Sorry IM... Not sorry.

20210516_234339.jpg 20210529_145314.jpg 20210515_173029.jpg
 
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I misunderstood I thought you had doubled up on the top of your stand and had two PVC boards overlaying each other vs just the one from IM.

Those APS stands for plumbing camouflage and canopy look really really good!

You'd definitely have bigger problems on your hands if you have a catastrophic failure but occasionally someone will have eurobracing start to separate or will develop a small seam leak that can be caught and tank can be emergency drained (after taking pictures of the issue)*


*I mean tanks in general not specifically IM tanks.
 
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I used Marco shelf rock for the scape. I used all new rock that I had soaking in a brute trash can for over a year.

I knew that I didn't want a wall of rock and also did not want to have arches that everyone does. I also wanted to keep the rock low in the tank to allow lots of room for vertical growth and swimming space.

I am sure that this will change and evolve as the corals start to grow in. I wound up just making a bunch of pillars and called it good for now.

I also wanted to plan ahead with the scape and coral growth in the sense that everything would be lower in the front right and build up towards the the back left.

I wanted to make sure that you could see all of the fish and corals regardless of where they were in the tank. I gave them lots of places to hide in plain sight. Lots of overhangs and some caves and all of the rocks are about 6 inches away from all of the glass. The 30 inch width of this tank really pays off here.

There are 13 separate rock structures that can all be moved around or rotated as the corals grow. If corals start to touch, fight, or grow in a way that I do not anticipate, I can jut move the entire rock instead of having to cut it off of the rock to move the coral.

I'll get some more pictures of the rock later. Maybe a top down shot that will show the scale better.
 

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That is exactly what I was getting ready to suggest with the cabinet. It looks seamless and great!

I really really want to be able to do a true peninsula tank with 3 sides viewable but one of the things I love is that you can do a two sides viewable like you've done or a 1 long side viewable with the tank being able to go long side flush against the wall in all cases.

One thing to note. Since you're going with a canopy a thought on the overflow since it's a 3 hole you could simply go with a regular Herbie setup (2 drains) and use the 3rd hole to run an additional return concealed in your canopy all the way to the end of the tank furtherest from your regular returns to help with flow at that end of the tank. I see so many people mount flow pumps on what should be viewable pane and it looks truely awful.

If you want to keep the IM warranty I would be very cautious of making any structural changes to the stand, especially stuff that the tank will sit directly on.

Im really excited to see one of these tanks with a detailed build threads
This is a fantastic idea. I may do this to add more flow. I had not even considered this. Thanks.

"One thing to note. Since you're going with a canopy a thought on the overflow since it's a 3 hole you could simply go with a regular Herbie setup (2 drains) and use the 3rd hole to run an additional return concealed in your canopy all the way to the end of the tank furtherest from your regular returns to help with flow at that end of the tank. I see so many people mount flow pumps on what should be viewable pane and it looks truely awful."
 
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Plumbing, sump, gear, and what-not...

Plumbing:
For the plumbing I used schedule 80 hard piping with Spears valves and fittings. No fancy colors. I like my coffee black.

Sump:
For the sump I used a Trigger systems Triton 44 sump which I modified slightly to accept the Spears schedule 80 bulkhead fittings instead of the cheap threaded adapters that come with it. This sump comes with two drain fitting adapter "plates" that are held in place with eight thumb screws. This is a nice feature that allows you to make it your own and customize the spacing. One comes pre-drilled with three drains and the second is just an uncut piece of acrylic for you to customize. This sump has a large refugium section which I only have a few pieces of extra rock and a MarinePure ceramic block in for now. I seeded the MarinePure block in my other tank's sump for about three months to accelerate the cycle. This worked out so well that this was almost an insta-tank. In hindsight, I could have gone faster adding fish and corals if I wanted to. There basically was no cycle.

Return lines:
I wanted to have lots of capacity through the returns to maximize the turnover with minimal pumps (or none) in the display. I know this is old school thinking, but I really hate having any equipment in the display. To accomplish this I ran two separate 1-1/4 inch return lines, one to each return. I kept the 1-1/4 size as long as I could, then reduced to one inch and finally reduced down to 3/4 inch right at the tank bulkhead. The tank comes pre drilled with three one inch drains and two 3/4 inch returns. So yes, my returns are larger than my drains.
I also replaced the return nozzles with 3/4 inch CPR eductors.

Return pump:
For the return pump I used an AC pump; sacrilege I know. I purchased two Skimz brand Leapord L160 (4200GPH) pumps from BRS when they were liquidating the Skimz line of products. I did not need them at the time but the price was right (75% off MSRP) so I bought them. The plan for this tank was that I would use two return pumps like I have done in the past, dedicating one pump to each return, but I decided to only use one to keep the entire system simpler. Now I have the other pump in "stock" to be a drop in replacement should (when) the one pump fails. Unplug the pump, loosen one union, tighten one union, plug in the new pump, done. The sump also has a pretty small return pump section. I could fit two pumps in there, but it would be very tight. I like having room to work.

Skimmer:
For the skimmer I used a Nyos Quantum 160 with a Vertex Vectra automatic neck cleaner. Automatic neck cleaners are fantastic. I do not understand why they are not more prevalent in the hobby.

UV:
I have a Pentair UV sterilizer that pulls from the skimmer chamber and returns through the secondary drain line into the refugium section.

Carbon:
I have a BRS mini five inch reactor for occasional carbon use that tees off of the UV line. Using a separate plumbing circuit for accessories it way easier then using return line manifold in my opinion. You can adjust the flow, turn things on on off; without effecting your return line flow and water levels. Once you dial in your return line and make the system ultra silent, you can keep it that way.

Other stuff:
I use an Ecotech Versa pump to feed a Korallin sulfur denitrator that then feeds into a Pacific Sun DC-2 degassing chamber that I have filled with Seachem Reactor media. Because the effluent if the Sulfur reactor has a low pH adding the second vessel full of Calcium basically makes a Calcium reactor without needing CO2 to reduce the pH within the reactor. This both controls Nitrates and maintains Calcium to a degree. This is not as efficient as a CO2 system and will only supply a fraction of the Calcium when compared to a traditional Calcium reactor. I control the flow rate or the Versa based on the ORP level within the Sulfur reactor. Too low speed up the flow, too high reduce the flow.

Controller:
I use a Neptune Apex with a Trident to monitor water parameters. Lots to be desired here...

Alkalinity:
I use a KH Guardian to monitor and supplement Alkalinity.

Ozone:
I use Ozone to keep the water crystal clear. This is time and ORP controlled and feed into the skimmer.

I am sure that I am forgetting a few things but this post is already pretty long. Photos soon.
 

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