Midwest 200 Gallon Peninsula

IPHY · Jun 30, 2019

Totally following. I’m so jealous! I used to have a peninsula and I loved that so much. But, had to move and new house layout meant my tank’s again wall now.

Enjoying watching this build out!

special-ops-s2k · Jun 30, 2019

IPHY said:
Totally following. I’m so jealous! I used to have a peninsula and I loved that so much. But, had to move and new house layout meant my tank’s again wall now.

Enjoying watching this build out!

Thank you! Peninsula has always been my favorite style of tank and I knew once I committed to doing this that was the only style tank I wanted to build up in my basement, fortunately I had a near ideal setup with a utility room behind. (Could have more room for a proper fish room but it works)

special-ops-s2k · Jul 1, 2019

After much deliberation I finally decided to go with dry rock instead of my original plan of TBS rock... I much looked forward to the diversity of the aquacultured rock but in the end the paranoia of getting some more difficult pests in the process and not having complete control on each and every thing introduced to my system has caused me to change my mind. So with that said I purchased some BRS Marco Reef Saver, shelf and foundation pieces. I like the BRS XXL 750 style of aquascape and hope to emulate it in a peninsula fashion that looks good from both sides... I’m imagining an s-curving series of shelf islands that have lots of space for upwards growth, no higher that 1/2 or 2/3 of the height of the tank. I’m a total novice at this so I expect it to not look anything like what I’m imagining but I’ll try to get as close as I can. Any tips are hugely appreciated!

Mix tanks arrive tomorrow...

Rock arrives next week and will immediately begin a 8 week cure/cycle process...

Sump should be completed in 3 weeks and ready for me to plumb in under the tank...

My goal is to have water in the tank by then end of the month and have the cycled rocks aquascaped and in the tank cycling by the 3rd week of August!

Stay Tuned!

RJ Murphy · Jul 2, 2019

special-ops-s2k said:
After much deliberation I finally decided to go with dry rock instead of my original plan of TBS rock... I much looked forward to the diversity of the aquacultured rock but in the end the paranoia of getting some more difficult pests in the process and not having complete control on each and every thing introduced to my system has caused me to change my mind. So with that said I purchased some BRS Marco Reef Saver, shelf and foundation pieces. I like the BRS XXL 750 style of aquascape and hope to emulate it in a peninsula fashion that looks good from both sides... I’m imagining an s-curving series of shelf islands that have lots of space for upwards growth, no higher that 1/2 or 2/3 of the height of the tank. I’m a total novice at this so I expect it to not look anything like what I’m imagining but I’ll try to get as close as I can. Any tips are hugely appreciated!

Mix tanks arrive tomorrow...

Rock arrives next week and will immediately begin a 8 week cure/cycle process...

Sump should be completed in 3 weeks and ready for me to plumb in under the tank...

My goal is to have water in the tank by then end of the month and have the cycled rocks aquascaped and in the tank cycling by the 3rd week of August!

Stay Tuned!

Sorry to hear you decided to not go with the TBS rock, but understandable with the pest issue. I have a 90 that is all TBS rock. I had to deal with 2 mantis shrimp, 1 lives in the sump now, and a bunch of gorilla crabs. Still have 2 in the tank, that I'm aware of. They will be taken care of when I can finally finish my upgrade. the diversity of life on the rock was worth it for me, also the 1 week cycle time.
I'm starting a 150 peninsula build, working on the stand now, so I'll definitely will be following along.

special-ops-s2k · Jul 2, 2019

RJ Murphy said:
Sorry to hear you decided to not go with the TBS rock, but understandable with the pest issue. I have a 90 that is all TBS rock. I had to deal with 2 mantis shrimp, 1 lives in the sump now, and a bunch of gorilla crabs. Still have 2 in the tank, that I'm aware of. They will be taken care of when I can finally finish my upgrade. the diversity of life on the rock was worth it for me, also the 1 week cycle time.
I'm starting a 150 peninsula build, working on the stand now, so I'll definitely will be following along.

Yeah... I’m actually really disappointed as well. I was sure of the rock choice even before I bought the tank. But some recent issues with some friends tanks and dealing with pests got me nervous. I wouldn’t care one bit if the only pest I got was gorilla crabs or mantis shrimp. I was more afraid of introducing something else, maybe unwarranted but once fully running I plan to have quite a bit of higher end corals in here and can’t accept the additional risk.

special-ops-s2k · Jul 4, 2019

Mix tanks arrived yesterday and I’m getting ready to mock up and then plumb my mix station along with the AWC and ATO systems...

Also picked up 1/4” thick 4x8’ sheet of black ABS to cut in the shape of my tank bottom, this will be my bare bottom surface

Enjoy your Fourth!

special-ops-s2k · Jul 10, 2019

150g stock tank to start cycling my rock... and Petco $1 per gallon sale so got my 6 20g tanks for my quarantine rack!

Keep moving forward!

Devaji · Jul 12, 2019

special-ops-s2k said:
Mix tanks arrived yesterday and I’m getting ready to mock up and then plumb my mix station along with the AWC and ATO systems...

Also picked up 1/4” thick 4x8’ sheet of black ABS to cut in the shape of my tank bottom, this will be my bare bottom surface

Enjoy your Fourth!

dude this is epic. love those water mixing stations I have been looking all over for some good ones, but the shipping is more than the containers. I think I found some 65 gallons but still $200 each think i might just cheap out and go with 55 gal water barrles for 25 each.

Devaji · Jul 12, 2019

special-ops-s2k said:
Full disclosure I purchased the tank and stand first but then decided to go a different route. I contacted WB to see if purchasing the tanks separately was possible but they at this time will not sell them outside the kit. So I have plans to use the stand and other items in a future project or sell them if someone needed them. For now they are in the original boxes on the pallet! I just HAD to switch stuff up...

I like how you think. I have another stand might as well have another tank...lol I do like the WB stands wished they sell em separate. it not easy finding a good stand.

special-ops-s2k · Jul 13, 2019

Devaji said:
dude this is epic. love those water mixing stations I have been looking all over for some good ones, but the shipping is more than the containers. I think I found some 65 gallons but still $200 each think i might just cheap out and go with 55 gal water barrles for 25 each.

Yeah these were close to that same price and I was fortunate that the manufacturer was only a few hours away so shipping cost from there to me was not too terrible. They are nice being they have cone bottoms and so drain into the line feeding the pump, also the lids are large and adding salt will be easy.

Rock was thoroughly rinsed with RO/DI water and is now cycling in the 150g Rubbermaid stock tank with some Fritz Turbo Start 900 and a shrimp for food source. In about a week I’ll add some Prodibio StartUp vials for diversity and then run it blacked out for the next month.

I also have some Brightwell Xport bricks and MarinePure cubes I’m soaking in a concentrated solution of salt water and the bottle bacteria (turbo start/prodibio) for 24hrs, those will then go into the stock tank as well after being properly seeded and cycle with the rest of the rock!

Flippers4pups · Jul 13, 2019

Following along, nice build! What part of the Midwest are you in?

special-ops-s2k · Jul 13, 2019

Flippers4pups said:
Following along, nice build! What part of the Midwest are you in?

Awesome and thank you!

Lincoln, NE

road_runner · Jul 13, 2019

Following. Awesome build thread.

special-ops-s2k · Jul 18, 2019

Brightwell bricks and MarinePure cubes seeded with Prodibio StartUp and Fritz Turbo Start 900 then added to the cycle tank. I'll probably wait another week then test the levels of everything in the water.

Also picked up some stainless steel hardware for the removable stand covers. Drilled and mounted them today as well...

Sump arrives next week I’m told, so then I’ll have the tank on the stand and can start the final plumbing before test filling everything!

special-ops-s2k · Jul 30, 2019

Tracking update on my sump shows it should be delivered in the next 2 days!

Finally got some of the plumbing fittings I ordered in for the mixing station and have been keeping myself occupied plumbing that.

Hope to get the sump under the stand as soon as it arrives and the tank on top by the weekend!

Deep dive coral · Jul 30, 2019

Awesome update. Cant wait to see how you plumb the AWC. Will this be a constant ina and out through a dosing pump?

special-ops-s2k · Jul 30, 2019

captrichc said:
Awesome update. Cant wait to see how you plumb the AWC. Will this be a constant ina and out through a dosing pump?

Thanks! Not constant... but it will be performed by a Stenner pump... it has 2 heads and will pull water out and push new water in at the same rate. I’ll have it perform this between 2-6am while everyone is asleep so the noise (if any) is less noticeable. During that period it will change between 2-4gal per day depending on what I set it at.

Deep dive coral · Jul 30, 2019

special-ops-s2k said:
Thanks! Not constant... but it will be performed by a Stenner pump... it has 2 heads and will pull water out and push new water in at the same rate. I’ll have it perform this between 2-6am while everyone is asleep so the noise (if any) is less noticeable. During that period it will change between 2-4gal per day depending on what I set it at.

That's pretty much what I meant. You just said it cleaner lol