Peninsula Reef Tanks: What needs to be considered and do you, did you or would you?

[FishTruck]

I use one as a room divider from three rooms.
One room is a dark and brooding library which basically can’t be seen from the room across. I even have a secret door. I also put the tank lower so it’s harder to look through it.
Hydrowizard 63s can push flow 12 feet from the plumbing side to the far side, but four MP60s couldn’t. I’m still tinkering with flow issues after 2 years - but nearly there.
Overall, I love it but basically built three rooms around it

 

[Reef Jockey]

I use one as a room divider from three rooms.
One room is a dark and brooding library which basically can’t be seen from the room across. I even have a secret door. I also put the tank lower so it’s harder to look through it.
Hydrowizard 63s can push flow 12 feet from the plumbing side to the far side, but four MP60s couldn’t. I’m still tinkering with flow issues after 2 years - but nearly there.
Overall, I love it but basically built three rooms around it

Wow, i'd love to see your build thread

 

[Lukielight]

Make it wide, you now need space on both sides of the aquascape to give it the horizontal depth that looks good. I wish my 72 25 was more like 72 36. Taking pictures is hard because you're now getting pictures of the room as your background and It has to be spotless or you're looking at a dirty background all the time. Flow obviously, I now have a gyre on the end of the peninsula much to my chagrin, but it makes the sps happy.


But when it's all said and done the ability to scape and have coral on multiple sides is awesome. Plus looking through perfectly clear water making the fish look like they're floating in mid air is awesome.

 

[reef80]

Make it wide, you now need space on both sides of the aquascape to give it the horizontal depth that looks good. I wish my 72 25 was more like 72 36. Taking pictures is hard because you're now getting pictures of the room as your background and It has to be spotless or you're looking at a dirty background all the time. Flow obviously, I now have a gyre on the end of the peninsula much to my chagrin, but it makes the sps happy.


But when it's all said and done the ability to scape and have coral on multiple sides is awesome. Plus looking through perfectly clear water making the fish look like they're floating in mid air is awesome.

This right here is what I strive everyday to look at! The frontal view of a wide tank with all sorts of fishes and corals to look at is just awesome…bonus when I can cal almost view it 360degree!

 

[T_BONE]

Wow, i'd love to see your build thread

If you click on his “Build thread contributor” badge it will take you to his build. Pretty sweet I must say @FishTruck

 

[guily yalai]

Peninsula reef tank is a big project in design, does the blue light mode is better than the full spectrum mode for it?

 

[Corals48]

I have a new build in development and will let you know in a year. However, I wanted to be able to walk around the tank and see through it. I wanted an aqua scape that didn’t get stacked against the back wall. My new build is a 77x36x26 tank.

 

[OldRed1]

I'll see your peninsula and raise you a peninsula drop off.. my dream, but intimidated.

Very late to the party, but what is a peninsula drop off?

 

[ReefEco]

Check out Mark Callahan's (Mr. Saltwater Tank) system - pretty sure it is a peninsula drop off. Amazing tank.

 

[Huynhter_Soldier]

To counter this, I'll say there are lots of ways to achieve flow in a peninsula that maintains the astetics.
On my 6 foot peninsula I went with a greatly oversized return pump and added CPR educters to my return bulkheads. That alone is almost too much flow. To keep things random I also have a single Tunze stream3. Nothing on the other (non return) end of the tank.

Do you have pictures I can see? Sounds interesting since I am setting up a Reefer 650 right now. My last peninsula I had a lot of problems trying to get the flow right without killing the esthetic on the peninsula side as well. I like to keep all 3 view clear of anything for nice viewing.

 

[bigbugoutfitters]

The largest complication i faced so far was figuring out how I wanted to hang my lighting. I am also a little nervous about how much ill be spending to fill it with coral though…

 

[Sean Clark]

Do you have pictures I can see? Sounds interesting since I am setting up a Reefer 650 right now. My last peninsula I had a lot of problems trying to get the flow right without killing the esthetic on the peninsula side as well. I like to keep all 3 view clear of anything for nice viewing.

I have lots on my build thread. There is a video without the Tunze running too. The hard spot for me was at the bottom of the tank just below the returns. Once I found the correct angel to point the educters that spot was resolved.

 

[Huynhter_Soldier]

As has already been said, getting good flow at the other end of the tank is key. You can see what I did on my 400g peninsula below. Routed returns to other side of the tank, plus added a closed loop as well.

That's a ridiculous setup! One day I'll get there

 

[Huynhter_Soldier]

The largest complication i faced so far was figuring out how I wanted to hang my lighting. I am also a little nervous about how much ill be spending to fill it with coral though…

Hey, what type of brackets are those you're using to hang the light? That looks very clean and interesting. I might want to do the same to hang a T5 lighting with.

 

[Nachopapa]

I have a 1 year old RS Peninsula and really love it. Echoing what others have said and adding a few new ones

1. most important is you need to be aware of what is on the OTHER SIDE of how you normally sit and look at the tank. In my case it was a pass through “window” from my kitchen and the bright hanging light was screwing up my tank view. Had to install a small pull down shade.

2. glass, glass and more glass with smudges and streaks. Dry clean paper towels are best after doing maintenance

3. how will it divide the room? In my case I have a very long family room and used it to divide the space from the siting area to the kitchen (see #1 point)

4. Mounted the rs lights to the ceiling instead of the ugly arm attachments. That is one big thing to think about in your space.

5. power cords. Mine is 4 ft from the wall so the power cords running from the cabinet to the wall need to be hidden.

6. people walk all around the tank looking in so there’s extra tidying up maintenance as there are no hidden blind spots!

 

[Huynhter_Soldier]

I have lots on my build thread. There is a video without the Tunze running too. The hard spot for me was at the bottom of the tank just below the returns. Once I found the correct angel to point the educters that spot was resolved.

Thanks

 

[bigbugoutfitters]

Hey, what type of brackets are those you're using to hang the light? That looks very clean and interesting. I might want to do the same to hang a T5 lighting with.

Just 2 shelving brackets attached to some 90 degree angled channel and hung from the ceiling with 50 pound flourocarbon fishing line. Super clean, super easy, and at 30 dollars, suuuper cheap.

 

[Huynhter_Soldier]

Just 2 shelving brackets attached to some 90 degree angled channel and hung from the ceiling with 50 pound flourocarbon fishing line. Super clean, super easy, and at 30 dollars, suuuper cheap.

Interesting! I might have to check that out. I'm assuming you found a stud to mount them to correct? Hopefully I have a stud right where I am planning on putting the tank but either way I don't mind pushing it over 6" or so. Thanks bro!

 

[bigbugoutfitters]

Just 2 shelving brackets attached to some 90 degree angled channel and hung from the ceiling with 50 pound flourocarbon fishing line. Super clean, super easy, and at 30 dollars, suuuper cheap.

Biggest reason i decoded to do it like this was so that there was nothing really attached to the rim of the tank. Also, i plan on adding 2 more primes so it will be really easy to reposition them.

 

[bigbugoutfitters]

Interesting! I might have to check that out. I'm assuming you found a stud to mount them to correct? Hopefully I have a stud right where I am planning on putting the tank but either way I don't mind pushing it over 6" or so. Thanks bro!

Thankfully i did have a stud, but also, there is VERY little weight to this setup. If you are having trouble finding a stud add another set of wires in the middle and use some heavy duty command strips.