My new 200g peninsula build!

hawkeyejp82

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Good morning reefers. I am starting a tank build thread for my NUVO EXT 200 Gallon Peninsula tanks which arrives next weekend. I ordered this tank in early December and it wasn't supposed to show up until the end of February so I haven't had alot of time to prepare the things I am going to need to gear it up. If you know my background this is my first attempt at a saltwater reef tank as I have done freshwater for 10 years with success in planted tanks breeding fish etc. That said I will welcome any tips along the way for this build. I will break this first post up into things I have already accomplished for my build versus the many things I still need to get done.

Things I have already accomplished:

I just completed the plumbing on my DIY saltwater mixing station (photographs attached). The mixing station is 4x 44 gallon Brute trash cans 1 to hold the waste water which I will use for my fresh water fish water changes, 1 for RODI and 2 for Salt mixing. The waste bin is independent from the other 3 and just collects waste from the RODI unit with an emergency overflow hard plumbed into my waste water. The RODI bin has a float valve to stop production once its full and is hard plumbed into the 2 saltwater bins via an external pump which can be used to bring RODI to either of the two bins or to a garden hose attachment. I can also utilize the ball valves to bring just salt water to the garden hose attachment. I have wave makers and heaters in the bottom of both salt bins.

I have setup a quarantine tank which will also double as a hospital tank for fish and coral. The tank I choose was a cheap 40 gallon breeder with a simple hang on back filter a small wave pump and a 100W heater. I will start cycling this quarantine tank this weekend where I will use carbon/biological filtration in the hang on back during the cycle but once I start medication and quarantine treatments I will remove the carbon. I have a very nice clipped on radion XR15 for lighting the quarantine tank which cost more than any of the rest of the quarantine tank setup.

Things I need to accomplish:

So as I mentioned before my 200g NUVO arrives this weekend. I am in no shape prepared financially to get this tank up and running anytime soon. I literally have nothing for this tank yet so when it arrives I will fight the battle to get it into my fishroom basement with the help of friends. My greetings post from last month has a nice pic of my fishroom https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/greetings-from-virginia.879645/

I will build the tank stand and get it placed but leave the plumbing until I decide on what sump I want to get etc. My thought on this tank is a want some bigger fish like a Tang or two and perhaps an angelfish. I also mostly want to have clowns that are hosting an anemone. I want corals but am interested in having only a few that are allowed to grow out quite large vice the majority of tanks I see pictures of where corals are crammed up against each other.

Here is my thoughts on the gear that I think will work to get me where I need to be (this stuff is so expensive it will certainly be an all of 2022 project). 40 watt UV sterilizer plumbed into the return flow from the sump. ICE Cap 36XL pre built sump with baffles etc. I doubt the tank comes with a sump and after building my saltwater station I done with DIY for now. RSK 900 reefer internal protein skimmer. 24" XL arch life rock, shapes life rock times 2, liferock tree aquakit, shelf life rock. 60 lbs of either live sand or crushed coral (I originally thought sand but am now leaning crushed coral because I do want so corals that require higher flow like acro). 3 Radion XR 30's. Apex controller and dosing system. Ecochic refugium light by tunze with a medium chaeto starter kit. 1200 watt titanium heater. 4 MP 40 wave pumps. 2 mighty jet return pumps and a battery backup.

That's probably forgetting some other things I will need but I've priced my total build cost out to near 15k which is a huge chunk of change granted one large expense the tank itself has already been purchased and the ancillary requirements like quarantine tank and salt water mixing station have also been taken care of. It will be 30 days until my quarantine tank is cycled and my hope is to begin executing on some of these other expensive item requirements for my display tank with my tax refund.

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hawkeyejp82

hawkeyejp82

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I just got this thing up and running literally today and haven't tested the water but I will report back after it sits for a day. My cans also have lids on but I cut hinged openings into them on the lid so I can test water. Also not sure if it will matter but my cans are in a dark place in my basement nowhere near any windows.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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Mine are in a dark storage area also. Interested to see what your numbers are.
So after having water sit in the 44 gallon Brute bin overnight I tested my phosphate in the RODI water with a Hannah low range instrument and the result was 0.00 ppm. I'm not sure why your system is getting phosphate into it I will test it again in a week once I have had RODI sitting in the Bin for several days and see if that changes anything but for right now I'm not going to keep wasting test samples on RODI bin that isn't even my tank.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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Have you noticed phosphate numbers increase with water that sits in your brute cans? I had water that was zero tds when I ran it recently go up to 8 by just sitting overnight. I had lid on the can.
So my TDS meter was reading 1-3 on the input for the RODI and 0 on the output as I said earlier I tested with a Hannah on the RODI Brute can this morning and the reading was 0.00ppm. Only other thing I can think of is since my setup is brand new maybe it takes time for phosphate to build up in the Brute cans and also I have yet to pump saltwater out to my garden hose attachment which perhaps could lead to slight amount of it building against the ball valve blocking the RODI bin water.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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nice! I love peninsula tanks!

I am on the process of doing g my 1st FW aquascaped tank. It was a very hard choice to make a FW tank and not another SW...haha

i think you are going to enjoy the salty side of life!
keep us posted!
The beautiful thing about a well aquascaped tank with plants on the FW side is that you can create an entirely closed loop system with enough plants to fish where you require 0 filtration and 0 maintenance the ecosystem just takes care of itself. It takes a lot of time and experience to get there though. I can't tell you how many plants just straight up died on me because of the Fish destroying them eating them or just digging them out.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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Ok I have my quarantine tank up and running and it has started to cycle. That is my latest update.

While at the fish store the other day buying some tester equipment I spoke with the owner and he said that I should QT coral for 76 days and fish should QT separately with treatment etc for at least 30 days. Naturally this means I need another tank.

I've attached the updated look to the fishroom with my QT tank. I am going to use this tank for coral QT and place another 29 gallon tank underneath it for fish QT. The coral QT you see in the photograph is fairly straight forward I put 2 medium sized pieces of live rock 20lbs of live sand an IM expandable frag holder one of my old aqua clear 70 filters and an XR15 light with mount. There is 1 small oceanic biocube wave pump and a 100W heater inside the 40g breeder for this QT tank. Inside the filter I am running carbon and biological along with filtering material. I will probably ditch the carbon once this tank is cycled to be able to treat/medicate corals. The salinity in the tank is 1.023 S.G. and the temperature is 76.8F will see if the temperature goes up via the light now that it is on but I don't think my little heater is going to get it any higher. I used reef crystals salt from instant ocean.
 

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hawkeyejp82

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OK so I added a 2nd QT tank underneath my 40g breeder which I have attached a photograph of along with some other photographs from the fish room showing some other perspectives nearer to my FW tanks.

My 2 QT tanks are stacked one next to the other to conserve space as I see lots of growth in my fish rooms future. The top is the 40g breeder with the specs I already spoke of the bottom is a 29g tall with a aquaclear 50 hang on back I switched the 100W heater from the top to below and put a 200W heater on the top tank. Both tanks have salinity at 1.023 S.G.

Once my 200g IM Ext peninsula tank arrives later this week I will have 12 total tanks in my fish room 3 SW and 9 FW. A couple of my 75g FW are viewable from one of these photographs with my Geophagus Bosemanis Severum Tiger Barbs Cory Cats and a few plants like annubias and java ferns.

The 2 salt tanks are at the very start of there cycle process gotta get some Nitrification going on. Now I have a QT for both coral and fish and can perform hospitalizations if necessary from my display so I feel better about that.
 

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hawkeyejp82

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Looking forward to your build. I have been eyeing the same tank ! It looks really nice online. Interested in hearing what you think about the build quality! Post pics please
Yeah Im glad I purchased it back in December when it was on sale because IM added $500 to the asking price now.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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Update from FEDEX my NUVO EXT 200g peninsula arrives Monday at 5pm EDT. I have also ordered my UV sterilizer sump and DC return pump along with the titanium heaters so I can plumb the thing and get it up and running. I will be making a trip to Richmond this weekend to see if I can procure good live sand and rock.
 

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Update from FEDEX my NUVO EXT 200g peninsula arrives Monday at 5pm EDT. I have also ordered my UV sterilizer sump and DC return pump along with the titanium heaters so I can plumb the thing and get it up and running. I will be making a trip to Richmond this weekend to see if I can procure good live sand and rock.
FEDEX? Interesting. Would anyone else chime in and share if they received their IM 200 via FEDEX? I guess they run freight trucks too.

I am excited for you and to see the invite for pizza and beer to help move it.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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FEDEX? Interesting. Would anyone else chime in and share if they received their IM 200 via FEDEX? I guess they run freight trucks too.

I am excited for you and to see the invite for pizza and beer to help move it.
Yeah they called me today and asked if it was ok to send an 18 wheeler to my house I said no way its gotta be a box truck in my neighborhood or it will get stuck. I'm hoping I can spot the driver $20-$60 and get him to back the box truck down my driveway so we can put it in the garage until I get the help to move it to my basement fishroom.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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Ill be heading to Richmond to scope out a protein skimmer, live sand, and some live rock today. Last night I bit the bullet and purchased on BRS a controller board to manage the electronics inside my stand and also the 61" 4x80W T5 fixture.

The idea with the controller board will be to get 4MP40 wave pumps my backup battery pack for the M2 return pump all organized on it and possibly future dosing pump equipment as well. The idea with the 61" fixture was to get flood light on with future fill lights of the XR15 or 30 variety on it. I should have enough to at least get this thing up and cycling pretty quickly but will need the wave pumps and fill lights soon after. I would've preferred to get the new 60" LED hybrid fixture for flood lights but I have to cut some up front costs at the expense of higher future costs for now because this thing is certainly a money pit.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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Honestly just going to see what they have at multiple stores down in Richmond. Not sure if I will find what I want other than I know Tiki Corals had the RSK900 skimmer I wanted which is not available from Red Sea or BRS right now. I'm going to try Fish World, Tiki Corals, and Azalea Aquariums see what I find for live rock/live sand.
 
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hawkeyejp82

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Ok so I scoped out the LFS in Richmond went to Azalea, Reefology, Tiki Corals, and Fishworld. Azalea had no live rock just dry rock but an amazing selection of fresh water fish with some salt water selection as well. Reefology looks like a go to spot for those exotic fish/pets you can't usually find anywhere else. Fishworld live rock was like $15 a lb give me a break. Tiki Corals once again does the solid in RIchmond VA they had live rock for $7.50/lb and not only that the guy sold me his skimmer he was going to use on his own aquarium. The RSK 900 isn't even available online he said its no problem for him because as a dealer he can get another easier than us plebes ordering online. I can't say enough good things about Tiki Corals support that store guys.
 
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