375g Peninsula Tank Build

SnoQ · Dec 19, 2018

I’ve been without tanks for almost a year now while my house was being remodeled. I went through withdrawal at first, then got used to it. Now I have my new tank cycling and I’m excited about getting going again.

The tank was purchased through my LFS, Barrier Reef Aquariums in Renton Washington, and was built by Planet Aquariums. It’s an 8’ x 30” x 30” (375ish gallons) peninsula tank with low iron glass on a steel stand. The sump was built by a friend of mine who does amazing acrylic work. A couple of other friends will be building a canopy and magnetic panels to cover the steel frame.

Equipment
- Apex
- Reef Octopus Varios return pump
- Reef Octopus Diablo 300EXT skimmer with Varios pump and a Varios feed pump
- Reef Octopus ozone reactor with Sicce feed pump
- Poseidon 200 ozone generator and BRS jumbo air dryer
- 2 x 500 watt Finnex heaters
- Avast Marine Spyglass reactor
- 3 x Kessil AP700 LED light fixtures

It’ll be a mixed reef tank with lot of fish, heavy on wrasses.

SPR1968 · Dec 19, 2018

The tank looks great so far and I really like the aquascape, very nice indeed!

Devaji · Dec 19, 2018

looking good! keep up posts coming.

Memoreefs · Dec 19, 2018

does your overflow box only have teeth on one side?

Devaji · Dec 19, 2018

jasonmemo said:
does your overflow box only have teeth on one side?

looks like its only on one side? curious what @SnoQ says about it, you could be right.

Fishf00d · Dec 20, 2018

I need to follow along with this. I'm planning on selling my house in march and want to find something that a 300 galonish peninsula will fit. I may have a lot of questions down the road. I too want lots if wrasses with a mixed reef. I'm over going full sps.

SnoQ · Dec 21, 2018

Fishf00d said:
I need to follow along with this. I'm planning on selling my house in march and want to find something that a 300 galonish peninsula will fit. I may have a lot of questions down the road. I too want lots if wrasses with a mixed reef. I'm over going full sps.

I like the variety of mixing up the corals. I had a 180 that was loaded with LPS, SPS and softies. I had a good balance and everything was healthy. I tend to go with SPS that’s been around a while and is pretty hardy. I only run LEDs so may not have gotten the very best of the colors out of the SPS, but they looked great.

Unless you buy a house on a concrete pad, include having a support beam installed in the floor in your budget.

SnoQ · Dec 21, 2018

Devaji said:
looks like its only on one side? curious what @SnoQ says about it, you could be right.

Yes it does. There’s a dry chamber because I was planning on running an MP60 and needed a place for the dry side. It’s now set up as an emergency overflow.

SnoQ · Dec 21, 2018

SPR1968 said:
The tank looks great so far and I really like the aquascape, very nice indeed!

Thanks. I will be adding some more rock as time goes on, but I wanted to start minimalistic and build from there. I do want to keep a lot of open swimming area for the fish.

Fishf00d · Dec 22, 2018

SnoQ said:
I like the variety of mixing up the corals. I had a 180 that was loaded with LPS, SPS and softies. I had a good balance and everything was healthy. I tend to go with SPS that’s been around a while and is pretty hardy. I only run LEDs so may not have gotten the very best of the colors out of the SPS, but they looked great.

Unless you buy a house on a concrete pad, include having a support beam installed in the floor in your budget.

Everything in South Alabama is built on a slab. The center piece of the tank no matter what size it is will be my elegance coral. Picked it up from a lady who said it was only 6 inches when open. Within a week in my tank it was 10 inches at its widest and I had to move all my sps from that end of the tank. Its current taking up half of a 25 lagoon I downgraded to for the planned move. If this elegance had the space I'm betting it would be about 15 inches or more fully open at this point. I was checking out those water box peninsulas but I really like the 8 ft length and bigger than 230. Again that all depends on the house but a tank this size will be in the back of my mind while looking.

SnoQ · Dec 30, 2018

Nice! I love elegance coral. I had a huge one in a tank that crashed due to a manfunctioning heater. That’s why I have an Apex now.

emvanburen · Dec 31, 2018

Good call on the spyglass reactor. I am running two - one off a pump and the other off a manifold. They are super easy to maintain. I’ve been really happy with them. Hope you enjoy.

SnoQ · Dec 31, 2018

I ran them on previous tanks and have always been really happy with them. Easy and excellent quality.

SnoQ · Feb 14, 2019

Quick update. The tank has been up a couple of months now. So far I have just fish in the tank and since I haven’t added inverts or coral yet, I’m doing a QT cycle in the display. I’ve had the fish in the tank, salinity at 1.010, for about 3 weeks. I lost a few but the rest are doing good and eating well. I’ll be doing a monthlong Paraguard treatment after a treatment with Prazipro. I haven’t used Paraguard before, but I’ve had issues losing fish with copper in the past, so I’m going to give it a try.

A buddy of mine has built magnetic panels that attach to the steel frame and a matching canopy is almost done. He has a 3D printer and has been having a lot of fun making custom brackets and parts. At one end of the tank is a panel for the electronics at that end. I have one EB 8 plus the Varios controllers for the skimmer pump and skimmer feed pump. There will be a small cabinet at the other end of the tank for the other components. The canopy has doors that lift up instead of out, and there are rails for the lights so I can slide them out of the way when needed. I recently had my kitchen remodeled, including new cabinets, and everything matches.

Magnetic Panels

End component panel (not yet complete). The Apex brain will eventually be in the cabinet that will be on the other end of the tank.

akaimal · Feb 21, 2019

The tank looks beautiful! What size sump are you using and what brand? What about flow inside the tank?

SnoQ · Feb 22, 2019

akaimal said:
The tank looks beautiful! What size sump are you using and what brand? What about flow inside the tank?

Thanks. I'm really happy with how it's coming together.

The sump is 48" x 24" x 18" and was built by a local guy. He also made a 25g ATO container for me. Since I have an external skimmer, the sump has a large refugium section, which I really wanted. I like having a lot of wrasses, so the more habitat in the sump for pods the better. I have a couple of large marine pure blocks in the return section as well.

Since I don't have any coral in the tank yet, I just have a single Gyre running. I have a second one that I'll be adding once the equipment cabinet is done. If the 2 Gyres don't end up offering enough flow as I add coral to the tank, I'll add another one.

SnoQ · Feb 22, 2019

This is my current fish list.

Crosshatch Trigger - Male
Harlequin Tusk
Quoyi Parrotfish
Coral Beauty Angel
Eibli Angel
Lyretail Anthias (I started with 5 but lost 2)
Midas Blenny
Yellow Watchman Goby
Longnose Hawfish
Flame Hawfish
Blonde Naso Tang
Kole Tang
6 Yellow Tangs
Black Leopard Wrasse (I started with 3 but lost 2)
Christmas Wrasse
Crescent Tail Wrasse
Lineatus Wrasse
Melanurus Wrasse
Orange Back Wrasse

I have a frag tank coming tomorrow that will be my coral/invert QT. I plan to keep all coral and inverts in a fishless tank for 10 weeks before they get to go into DT. The first round is going to be simple corals and then I plan to do a some bubbletips. I want to add more than a pair of clownfish so I need plenty of bubbletips to keep them happy and hopefully not fighting.

SnoQ · Mar 8, 2019

My custom canopy is coming along. The biggest challenge having a canopy is getting into the tank. This canopy is extra tall and has minimal bracing that will get in the way.

My lights are Kessil AP700s and custom brackets were made that attach to a rail that will allow me to slide the lights out if the way, and a small motor will allow me to raise or lower the entire track.

There will be a small cabinet at the end of the tank where I left a 12” gap between the tank and the wall. My Apex, other controllers and Ozone will go there along with a few supplies.

SnoQ · Jul 24, 2019

I haven’t posted an update in a while. I had some home projects that needed attention, but the tank has had some upgrades in the meantime as well.

My cabinetry is done other than adding a couple of small doors where I have equipment boxes and attaching a few controllers to the mounting boards I have in the boxes. I have a Trident and 2 DOS pumps. I now have 3 Gyre pumps up and running, 2 - 230s and an FX350, and I may eventually add a second FX350. The flow is good right now, but if coral filling in affects the flow I might need that 4th pump.

I have LPS and softies in the tank that are doing fantastic. A friend broke down a tank and gave me a bunch of SPS, but it had been under T5s and a lot was lost moving it to my tank under LEDs. I didn’t think it would probably go well but they needed to go somewhere ASAP so we gave it a shot. It did make me realize that if I want SPS, I really need to add T5 lighting and that’s in the works now. I bought 2 - 2 bulb LET retrofit kits and my 3D printing buddy is making custom brackets to mount them. I think the mix of T5 and LED lighting along with the consistent parameters offered using the Trident should make the tank able to sustain all coral types pretty well. That’s my hope anyway.

I lost a number of fish and have no clue why. They had all been QTd and there were no signs illness. The only thing I found was a temporary heater I was using that shocked the crap out of me when I was doing some work on the tank. I wouldn’t think that would kill a fish every day or two over a period of time, but maybe? I had no nitrate, nitrite or ammonia spikes during that time. I haven’t had any losses for about 3 months now and I just added a Sailfin Blenny, Midas Blenny and Radiant wrasse after going through QT. I’ll be ordering some more fish for QT soon.

I set up a phyto culture and pod culture in my garage. I’m hoping to be able to start stocking my refugium soon. That reminds me that I need to get the grow light mounted above the refugium for the macro algae I’ll be adding.

FTS with full cabinetry