LowCo's 200 NUVO Peninsula EXT

[LowCo Reefer]

Starting my dream build! I have ordered a 200 gallon innovative marine EXT peninsula, will arrive in the next 4-6 months. I currently own a red sea 135, but the seals are starting to get bubbles in them! It's only a matter of time before my red sea springs a leak! Time to start planning.


This is a perfect size tank to divide my living room and dining room. We are going to place the tank peninsula style. A couch will but up agaisnt one end so when you are lying down you get the perfect view. On the other end of the tank will be our dining room. Views of the ocean all around.

You can see the marks of where the tank will sit in the photo above. This tank will be an SPS dominant system. I already have a 48 inch reef breeders with the aquatic life 48 inch t5ho hybrid fixture. I plan to purchase a 24 inch reef breeders and the aquatic life 24 inch t5ho fixture to light the whole tank. I am going to try to find a way to build a canopy out of aluminum. It would be cool if I could get the canopy to raise up and down using a linear actuator but I do not know if this will work as the tank is 6 foot across penisula style. The linear actuator would have a lot of weight from aluminum framing and lighting system to raise up and down. Let me know if anyone has attempted this!

I am adding two beams into my crawl space to help support the tank as the tank runs parallel with the joists. Two beams and support jacks should be plenty.

I also plan on building a fish/filtration room addition onto the side of my house. This is where all the filtration will happen. I do not want to keep a sump in the stand. I may just until the fish room is complete. Its going to be a long process.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[LowCo Reefer]

***Follow more closely on my My Instagram ***
So surprise surprise. I thought it was going to be a 4-6 month wait for my tank to ship. Innovative marine sent me an email and then I received a phone call. Tank is being shipped tomorrow! Should arrive within the next 4-10 days.

This is the tank I am transferring over.

It's a Red Sea, forming bubbles in the cracks. 10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND.

Here's a pic of my crawl space. The tank will run parallel with the joists. They definitely need support. My red sea over in the corner get visible vibrations when walking around.

Starting digging footing holes today for my crawl space support beams. Probably overkill what I am going to do but better over engineered than under. Gravel and concrete hopefully added tomorrow.

 

[LowCo Reefer]

So I think i have a plan together for the extra framing. Im going to use t slot aluminum. A few days ago I didnt know what 80/20 was or anything of the sorts. Spent the day drawing in sketchup. Think its a solid plan. Im going to use linear bearings to attempt to raise and lower the hood when I need to get into the tank. It is a lot of horizontal weight on the bearings. Once the hood is raised up I will probably have something to prop it open like a car hood.

Still have not decided what I am going to "wrap" the frame with. I want it to look slick and white. Probably going to wrap the aluminum posts in white car vinyl and use white acrylic panels.

Any thoughts/ideas are welcome!

 

[LowCo Reefer]

Mannnnn what a day. I'm at work and get an email saying the tank is out for delivery. I'm like hold up, you where supposed to call me to make an appointment to deliver it, trucking company says that wasn't a requirement and if I'm not home they will just leave it outfront.

Luckily the boss let me leave early.

Tank arrived in great condition.

Spent an hour building out the stand and moved it into place.

Crew across the street was out working on a new construction, made a barter with them. A case of vodka for some Manuel labor. Took a total of 6 of us to get it into place.

It's going to look great! The last week we sold/purchased a new couch. Still going to be a minute before it gets wet.

 

[LowCo Reefer]

Picked up a 75 gallon at Petco for 50% off. I miss the days of the dollar per gallon sale. 50% will do though.

The 75 gallon is going to become my sump. Going with a basic sump design. Skimmer section, large refugium, bubble trap and return.

I was debating a 75 gallon vs a 60 breeder. I was concerned about how much water would backflow into the sump when the returns are cut off. I went with the larger and taller tank to accommodate more water from backflow when the returns are off.

Probably going to plumb my two displays into one sump to quicken the cycle of the new tank.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck building the sump!

 

[GGuy]

Picked up a 75 gallon at Petco for 50% off. I miss the days of the dollar per gallon sale. 50% will do though.

The 75 gallon is going to become my sump. Going with a basic sump design. Skimmer section, large refugium, bubble trap and return.

I was debating a 75 gallon vs a 60 breeder. I was concerned about how much water would backflow into the sump when the returns are cut off. I went with the larger and taller tank to accommodate more water from backflow when the returns are off.

Probably going to plumb my two displays into one sump to quicken the cycle of the new tank.

I went with a 60b on my EXT200P and it has worked out great. I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. The 60 gives just the right amount of height for me to work comfortably under the tank.

Good luck with the build!

 

[LowCo Reefer]

I went with a 60b on my EXT200P and it has worked out great. I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. The 60 gives just the right amount of height for me to work comfortably under the tank.

Good luck with the build!

Thank you!

I definitely weighed the options. I want to pack as much live rock from my current display into the sump of my new system.

I do not want to use live rock from my current system in my new display. A couple of years ago I went to war with blue and red mushrooms. Lead to me almost breaking down the whole system and killing everything on the live rock. A few spots of mushrooms have popped up again in place that are currently hard to kill.

I like my chances of the mushrooms dying off in a dark cryptic sump. And I still get to maintain biodiversity of old live rock in a cryptic refugium.

The 60 is great though for working space. I have about 13 inch of working space.

 

[LowCo Reefer]

Welp! My red sea has started to leak, the bottom right hand corner of the tank has a small drip every few minutes... The bubbles in the seam have grown quite a lot. It's going to be a while before I am ready to fill the Nuvo 200. Probably a month or two. In the mean time I am transferring everything to a 75 gallon a buddy of mine has.

 

[Devaji]

Mannnnn what a day. I'm at work and get an email saying the tank is out for delivery. I'm like hold up, you where supposed to call me to make an appointment to deliver it, trucking company says that wasn't a requirement and if I'm not home they will just leave it outfront.

Luckily the boss let me leave early.

Tank arrived in great condition.

Spent an hour building out the stand and moved it into place.

Crew across the street was out working on a new construction, made a barter with them. A case of vodka for some Manuel labor. Took a total of 6 of us to get it into place.

It's going to look great! The last week we sold/purchased a new couch. Still going to be a minute before it gets wet.

yup same thing happened to me. tank just showed up in the middle of winter. no call from shipping company...good think I just happen to be home.

man you are moving fast my tank sat in the garage for 3 months before i got it in. still empty in the house.

 

[LowCo Reefer]

yup same thing happened to me. tank just showed up in the middle of winter. no call from shipping company...good think I just happen to be home.

man you are moving fast my tank sat in the garage for 3 months before i got it in. still empty in the house.

Trying to get a little bit done every day. I am ready to get this thing filled and cycling!

Sunday I spent the day switching my red sea out for the 75 gallon. Took ALL day. Lost my fox face in the process. I am not quite sure what happened.

Gave away my red sea for free on Facebook marketplace. I wanted that thing gone and out of my life.

Here's some pictures of the breakdown.

Today (2/1/24), I poured 5 footings in my crawl space. Going to let them cure for a couple weeks before I add the beams and crawl space jacks.

 

[Devaji]

good on you for giving away the RS tank. wouldd make a great reptile cage or palladium .
totally know the feeling.

crazy to can dig in your soil out here its more rocks than dirt. plus look at the green plants have seen one of those in a while...haha

you're motivating me to get my act together a get my 200P up and running!

 

[LowCo Reefer]

Waiting a good week or longer to get the beam going under the house.

In the meantime,I received my aluminum from tnutz.

I've been working on putting it together. This was my first time working with aluminum like this. I made some errors, like not putting taps in or putting the counter sinks in wrong locations. I tapped 22 ends with a 1/4" tap. My wrists are sore lol

Ended up breaking 2 taps in this process, waiting on some alum powder to be delivered to see if I can dissolve them out.

So this is what it looks like currently.

Still not sure what I'm going to do with the rising/lowering mechanism I was trying to plan. That can come later on. I have been thinking about using button fixes to add removable panels to the canopy. Another to be determined item.

Got my sump put together, just a basic sump. Skimmer section is 14x18x12
Refugium is 22x18x12
Bubble trap
Return Section is 8x18x12

 

[Devaji]

nice man! I have been looking a Tnuts and T slto alum. for years, still have not done anything with them tho. but I hear great things about it.

 

[LowCo Reefer]

Wrapping the frame in a glossy car vinyl is going to look slick! Did a couple test pieces. Still working on dissolving the taps out of the two pieces I need for the frame.

Going to put the beam up under the house this weekend.

Starting to plan for the plumbing as well. I ordered gate valve online, going to use schedule 40 PVC as that's what available at Lowe's/cheaper than schedule 80.

For return pump I'm thinking about going with the jebao mdp 20000. For $220 I can get a dc return pump with >5000 gph, sign me up.

 

[Rewd]

I'm doing the same tank! Mine just arrived a few days ago, sitting in the garage while I break down a 90 gallon. I came here to see what you decided on for a return pump. Love the DIY 60B! I decided to DIY a 40B for mine as the 60B was just a bit too long and I want to try to fit everything in to my cabinet lol.

 

[LowCo Reefer]

I'm doing the same tank! Mine just arrived a few days ago, sitting in the garage while I break down a 90 gallon. I came here to see what you decided on for a return pump. Love the DIY 60B! I decided to DIY a 40B for mine as the 60B was just a bit too long and I want to try to fit everything in to my cabinet lol.

I ordered and received the jebeo mdp-20000. I was excited to test out the pump, threw it in a 30 gallon brute and plugged it in, water came shooting out the top. Impressed with the flow. Hoping to plumb the system this weekend and start filling the tank.

I actually used a 75 gallon for the sump, same size as the 60 breeder just taller. Eventually I want to have a fish filtration room and will plumb in a second "display"/frag tank, so having extra room for water volume was needed.

 

[LowCo Reefer]

Aquascape

Photo dump commencing...

All of my current live rock will go in the sump of the new system after a few months of cycling. I don't want any blue mushrooms in this display, I have a few rocks that have some stragglers on them.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Aquascape looks great!