Lowco's 80 Peninsula

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So my fiance and I just got our own place. In the midst of planning a wedding and moving, I had the bright idea to upgrade my tank size from a 40 breeder to an 80 rimless. I found the perfect tank to make this the center piece of our apartment. Slapped some paint on the stand, cleaned up the glass, and started to fill with water. Add some salt, a heater, and some powerheads. Let it sit for a day.

Moving day of my 40 breeder comes. Getting ready while thinking of ways to transport all of my livestock 40 minutes away. Ended up winging it. Gave it my best aquascape. Two islands. Coral randomly placed. Using my old reefbreeders value light which only covers half the tank. One mp10 for flow.

A few days passed, UPS finally shows up. New reefbreeders photon v2 and RPM wavemaker in the mail. Re-organize corals. Finally ready to take a picture of my display.
display1.jpg

display2.jpg


Picture Updates 8/26/20
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Display: 80 Rimless
Sump: 20 long, 3 baffles
Skimmer: Bubble Magnus C6
A poor attempt at growing chaeto
Flow: 2 Reef Power RPM

Fish
2 boring Ocellaris Clownfish
Kole Eye Tang
Yellow Watchman Goby
Royal Gramma
Yellow Cori's Wrasse
Blue Chromis

Invertebrates
Alpheus bellulus (Tiger Pistol Shrimp)
Mithraculus sculptus (Emerald Crab)
Nassarius sp.
Clibanarius tricolor
(Dwarf Blue Legged Hermit Crab)
Cerithiidae sp. (Cerith Snails)
Polychaete (Bristle Worms, multiple different species)
Ophiocoma sp. (Mini Brittle Starfish)
Asterina starfish
Sabellastarte sp. (Mini Feather Dusters)
 
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LowCo Reefer

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And the newest addition that was added today. A Purple Firefish Goby. Purple and orange, perfect. Just need to fatten him up.

firefish.jpg


My goal of this tank is to have as much biodiversity as I can. Fish, invertebrates, and corals of all kinds. My tank has two zones. One strong current zone. Dominated by SPS corals. One slow flow zone. For thing's to slow down for the gentler LPS. And a food trap for their hungry stomachs.

Some things I need to figure out in the future. Finish my electrical work. Find a way to grow chaeto. All it does is wither away.

Something I want to build. A cryptic zone, full of life that will help feed the display. A Reef-Pi controller. Don't know anything about code or computers but it would be cool to learn.

I've been wanting to get this thread post started. That's done. Goodnight from the LowCo.

emerald.jpg
 

ZachR32

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Really cool setup! I love the peninsula style, who’s the tank made by?
 

Peace River

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It seems like your timing is perfectly logical to me!!! Congratulations on a successful tank move and a beautiful tank! It will be fun to watch this system continue to mature - thanks for sharing your adventure!
 
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Really cool setup! I love the peninsula style, who’s the tank made by?


It is a 80 Deep Blue Rimless. Found it on facebook for $200. Stand included. Had to jump on it.

It seems like your timing is perfectly logical to me!!! Congratulations on a successful tank move and a beautiful tank! It will be fun to watch this system continue to mature - thanks for sharing your adventure!

Thank you. I plan to update as much as I can.
 
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So lets talk about the guts of the system. 20 gallon long sump. Drain --> Chamber 1 --> Heaters --> Skimmer --> Chamber 2 --> Chaeto, and one leaf of caluerpa --> Bubble trap --> Sicce 3.0 Return Pump.

sump.jpg


The electric system is run on two outlets. One is a DJ power bar running my pumps in both the display and sump. The other is just a powerstrip connected to the heaters, grounding probe and refugium lights.

mandarin.jpg


This guy here is going to need a lot of copepods. And I am sick of buying them. I really like the idea of adding a cryptic zone to increase the diversity of the tank. Feather dusters, sponges, and micro-fauna would dominant this zone. My old 40 breeder was prolific in growing sponges and feather dusters in the low light regions.

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Holy montipora! I picked up a frag pack from Carolina Kids Coral. Got a great deal for it too! Added nine different types of montipora, on top of the six different kinds I already have in my tank. They will look nice when they are grown in. Ill have to post shots when I choose my favorites.

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Some updates for the past few months. Around November and December things started to pale out. I invested in a dosing setup in Janurary. Using a jabeo doser and bionic 2-part to dose the tank. Last week I started to dose nitrates as my levels are always undetectable. My sps and lps are happy as can be now.
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Rusticman

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Nice to see your corals doing well under the Reef Breeders Photon V2. Mine is on its way. What is your tank dimensions? It looks wide.
 

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Nice to see your corals doing well under the Reef Breeders Photon V2. Mine is on its way. What is your tank dimensions? It looks wide.
I love my photons. They are awesome lights. My tank runs 250-600 par. My tank is wide and shallow. It's a deep blue rimless. 48 x 24 x 16.
 

Rusticman

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I love my photons. They are awesome lights. My tank runs 250-600 par. My tank is wide and shallow. It's a deep blue rimless. 48 x 24 x 16.
Awesome! Thanks for the info. Wish I paid what you paid for your tank and stand, great find.
 

TheWB

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I love my photons. They are awesome lights. My tank runs 250-600 par. My tank is wide and shallow. It's a deep blue rimless. 48 x 24 x 16.
The tank looks great. How high do you have the light mounted? I have a tank with the same 16” height and I’m considering swapping out a Radion XR15 G4 for the Photon V2+ 24” model to get more even coverage. My footprint is 30x20 so a little smaller than what you have.
 
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The tank looks great. How high do you have the light mounted? I have a tank with the same 16” height and I’m considering swapping out a Radion XR15 G4 for the Photon V2+ 24” model to get more even coverage. My footprint is 30x20 so a little smaller than what you have.
My lights are 12 inches off the waters surface. At peak day lights run at:

Channel 1: 30 %
Channel 2: 40 %
Channel 3: 85 %
Channel 4: 50 %
Channel 5: 75 %
Channel 6: 75 %

So from 1200 to 1600 that's what my lights run. I taper up and down the lighting in the morning/evening.
 
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Overall I'm pretty happy with where my tank is at the moment. Having a true mixed reef has been something I have wanted to do for a while. My sps portion is starting to fill in nicely. The lps grow like crazy and need constant pruning. Coral warfare has been an issue I've learned to deal with. I do not have much more room to add corals, just letting things grow at for the next few months.

Since I never mentioned it in this thread, I did add an Apex controller back in December as well. That along with dosing has allowed my reef to thrive.

Still my largest obstacle is keeping nitrates up. At one point I was dosing up to 3.5 ppm nitrates made from spectracide stump remover. I now only run a skimmer a night And feed heavily with rods food, acropower amino acids, red sea reef nutrition A/B+, and ME polyp extender. I still dose 1 ppm of nitrates per day to keep my levels between 3-5 ppm.
 
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