Teton mountain reef~ IM 200 Peninsula!

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Keep it up! Sweet project!

 

[Devaji]

Was the mural wallpaper?

forgot to answer your question, but yeah that was a wall paper mural...was almost cool and we thought about keeping it but it smelled like old grouse house.
we may put another large one up but for now I think we are gonna do a painted accent wall. IDK the GF has an idea for it.

I wanted to do a large 300+ FOWLR there but that got quickly shut down. if I had my way the media room would have around 4 aquariums...but we all know us guys get little to no say in decorating the house.

 

[Devaji]

Some progress... this feels like the slowest build thread ever.

Working on getting the basement fish room a little more together.
Primed and painted the foundation.

Next up is power washing the floors and radon seal it then epoxy paint
Also gonna do an epoxy counter top around the slop sink.

 

[Devaji]

Oh and I am feeling spoiled. look at all these gits form my Secret Santa

 

[mikealicious2k5]

As someone that has put a bunch of sweat equity into their home with reno's, I can appreciate the amount of work you've done.

I may have missed it posted somewhere, but have you decided on which fish you'll be stocking your tank with?

 

[Devaji]

As someone that has put a bunch of sweat equity into their home with reno's, I can appreciate the amount of work you've done.

I may have missed it posted somewhere, but have you decided on which fish you'll be stocking your tank with?

Thanks for the kind words yeah we have a ton of "sweet equity" in the place that is for sure. was amazing how much we still did for how much we spent on the contractor and reno. but it was a learning process for sure.

I have thought many time about a butterfly FOWLR and make the little peninsula RFA nano that in the same room the reef...but like us all I love corals. and as big as the 650P is just not quite big enough for a fish only IMHO I would want some large angels and a pocupine puffer if I twas a fish only system.

SOOOOO unless I get crazy last min. it will be a wrasse dominate reef with a few tangs and others on the mix.

full stocking list coming soon!

 

[Devaji]

Even though I spent the last 4 weeks debating about the plumbing and thought I had a plan turns out I didn't or at least not a good one. I was going to run the manifold off the main return pump but the way the Red Sea version 3 sump is it makes it very difficult at least in my mind.

With the return right next to the overflow chamber there was no good way to do a combined manifold. The new plan is to have the manifold with its own pump and get a smaller pump as a dedicated return for the display tank.

That solves two tissues one being things that are ran off the manifold will not affect the flow into this display tank and two makes it a lot easier to okumb the manifold and make it clean looking ...I hope anyway.

 

[Devaji]

Here is another way to plumb the red sea reefer from metric to standard.
Here what you will need - at the time of this post I have yet to water test it.

This is for the RS 650p replacing the gate valve. The normal way ppl do it would not work on the peninsula's more about that later

1x 32mm coupling
1x 32mm to 1" metric to standard adapter
1x quality gate valve I used spears
1x 90º elbow
1" pvc pipe - i mocked it up with white but will used black

FYI The 32mm to 1" adapter gets bad reviews at BRS
Because you need THE 32mm coupling to make it work.

 

[Devaji]

I planed two options to convert from metric to standard and glad I did...
the 1st options was the way most do it. the RS union part and a 3/4" to 1" adapter& thread tape . but that was to low to get it through the center cut out

so had to go with plan B...

 

[Devaji]

As you can see the doingg it the 1st way I would have to have more 90sto get to over the cut out for chop up my stand.
+it took more space in the electric cabbie.

 

[Devaji]

Here is another shoot to show the deference in height of the 2 methoids

 

[nmaragh18]

Pics if the lid. Because this threads needs more photos...
1st couple are of the in boxing. The others are of it in the tank from the 3 sides.

Hi is that a clearview Lid? What is your opinion on them? I foolishly purchased the Red Sea Kit but its not very sturdy, so now i'm looking at other options.

 

[Devaji]

Hi is that a clearview Lid? What is your opinion on them? I foolishly purchased the Red Sea Kit but its not very sturdy, so now i'm looking at other options.

yup sure is. its the 2nd lid I bought from them. the 1st was for the RS 750 that never happened. supper nice lids for sure.

if I was to do it again tho. I would have for 2 lids so I could take one off while doing maintenance and the other half would still have a cover. just a thought.

it took a cpl months to get it so order early.

 

[nmaragh18]

yup sure is. its the 2nd lid I bought from them. the 1st was for the RS 750 that never happened. supper nice lids for sure.

if I was to do it again tho. I would have for 2 lids so I could take one off while doing maintenance and the other half would still have a cover. just a thought.

it took a cpl months to get it so order early.

Good suggestion. Thank you. I'll be placing my order now...

 

[Devaji]

Some things are starting to come in from the BF/CM BRS sale.



I got:
Neptune DOS for AWC
Hanna ALK tester - was on the fence about this one but people seem to love it.
10oz of BRS supper glue think for use with the aqua scaping
red sea filter cup I think I have 2 already
brightwell microBactor start XLM for cycling the tank
brightwell coral ammions
BRS float valve
BRS RO shut off valve

still coming is the avast ATO.

oh and lets not forget the MR. chilli pint glass. waited until some swag I wanted came up

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Wow. Awesome, thanks for sharing

 

[Devaji]

Some movent on the build.
Got the overflow plumbed and glue in.
Going with the RS. E drain.

For the return I decided to go stand alone pump and a decated pump for the manifold. After to much back and forth on the dang plumbing finally getting some where.
Pump should be here any day.



I am liking the black and white them of the plumbing.

 

[Devaji]

In other reefing news I made a DIY goo be gone to get all the stickiness off the plumbing parts. Worked really great.



simple and does the job work grat on the spears valve, elbows and union. now to get after those RS stickers.

 

[Devaji]

So busted up 3/4 my real reef rock yeaterday. Left a few bigger pieces as I am not 100% sure what direction I'm going with this scape.



I found that a regular hammer and chisel worked great for this stuff no need for a 4# hammer and safety chisel like Ryan-BRS used. glad i waited to see, saved some $$ there.

 

[Devaji]

yesterday was a productive reefing build day, not only did I finally have the courage to take hammer and chisel to my rock but also make a DIY CA ( supper glue) accelerator.
I"ll test it today and report back if it's working. however quick test yesterday is looking good but I may need to tweak the formula to work better with the BRS think gel...we shall see.

while enjoy my breakfast of OJ and toasted banana PB&J sandwich I tok pen to paper to sketch some aquascaping ideas.
I have to main ideas.

the 1st i call flow:

its a DIY branch rock "flowing" to the end of the aquarium.

the 2nd is more of a classic 3 rock scape.