My 180g peninsula build

[Terry4505]

Tank is cycling!!

Got the water cleared up some to.

A couple small leaks developed AFTER the tank had been running for over 16 hours. Got to get those fixed but we are out of town for the weekend. Tank sitter found them after we left town. No problem tho will get them when I get home.

Have to get a drain pipe on the ATS. its loud and splatters all over the place..

Still super unhappy with how my manifold turned out. But it is all hard plumbed so that is gonna get rebuilt to.

Finally I'm pretty sure I don't have enough flow on the far end of the tank. Gonna put my powerheads down there first. Then maybe move my return outlets if I'm not happy with that.

But overall for my first setup I'm pretty satisfied.

I had to do the same thing with my returns and a Gyre. I was getting a build of of surface scum on the far end of my peninsula tank. I plumbed 3/4" PVC around the top of the tank with penductors:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/terrys-180-sps-peninsula-upgrade.218181/

 

[Daniel Strickland]

I had to do the same thing with my returns and a Gyre. I was getting a build of of surface scum on the far end of my peninsula tank. I plumbed 3/4" PVC around the top of the tank with penductors:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/terrys-180-sps-peninsula-upgrade.218181/

How did you attach the pipe?? If I remember right from your build thread you have a Planet Aquarium ranks as well is that right?? I thought about drilling small holes in the inner lip of the rim and using zip ties but the silicon goes all the way out to the edge of the inner lip, and I don't want to compromise the seal by drilling through the silicon....

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Well was out of town for a couple days, luckily my brother was coming to check the tank for me and adding bacteria.. We got home last night with a small CUC.. (and other stuff). I checked parameters my ammonia was at 0.4 nitrates were at 0.2.... So my cycle has started.. not much change this morning so I added more bacteria..

Put the the CUC in. Everyone seems happy.. gonna add my clowns..

Got a couple more power heads on a good deal from a lfs in okc and a lot of good advise.. Also picked up a eb4 on close out, a probe holder, and another bulkhead for my Rain 2 ATS, for the the drain to quiet it down and stop the splashing. Made a heck of a mess that I had to clean up...

Got some frozen food that my clowns went NUTS for..

Temp is 78
PH is 8.14
Calcium is 300 (picked up a calcium checker)

So far so good. I am thinking. Would like to see the ammonia drop on down and the nitrates come up a little more but all in due time I'm sure. Pretty sure I need more flow in the DT, but I think my turnover is ok. No algae in the ATS yet buts it's to soon I'm thinking.

Fixing to check ammonia and nitrates again so we will see if there has been any change..

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

How was the trip to okc? Tank cycling is always the hardest to wait for lol

 

[Daniel Strickland]

How was the trip to okc? Tank cycling is always the hardest to wait for lol

Trip was way to long.. LOL all I wanted to do was come home and hover over my tank...

Did have a nice visit with some really great friends and get to see our godchildren... plus I got to visit several a couple great lfs.. if you ever get to OKC go down to Norman and visit Wet PETS By Steve.. by far the nicest store I have been into to date.. Paula (Steves wife) and Darrell (store manager) are both great and spent tons of time giving me advise and answering questions.. NOT trying to sell me crap I didn't need.. even helped me with a stocking plan even though I was upfront with them and told them I probably wouldn't be buying a lot from them due to distance..

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Trip was way to long.. LOL all I wanted to do was come home and hover over my tank...

Did have a nice visit with some really great friends and get to see our godchildren... plus I got to visit several a couple great lfs.. if you ever get to OKC go down to Norman and visit Wet PETS By Steve.. by far the nicest store I have been into to date.. Paula (Steves wife) and Darrell (store manager) are both great and spent tons of time giving me advise and answering questions.. NOT trying to sell me crap I didn't need.. even helped me with a stocking plan even though I was upfront with them and told them I probably wouldn't be buying a lot from them due to distance..

I will keep that in mind, it's glad to see people who share the passion. Iv been in a lot of stores that it's like you don't exist and all they care about is selling you something. How many stores did you visit? In phx we had 12 lol def had places to choose from and now there is a wholesaler in Phoenix

 

[Daniel Strickland]

I will keep that in mind, it's glad to see people who share the passion. Iv been in a lot of stores that it's like you don't exist and all they care about is selling you something. How many stores did you visit? In phx we had 12 lol def had places to choose from and now there is a wholesaler in Phoenix

4 stores I found

Wet Pets by Steve in Norman
Reef Creations in Moore. Nice stuff. Mostly corals small store and they were super busy
Reef warehouse in OKC. kinda dirty but the lady was nice
Aquarium Fish and Supply. Another great store that was clean and well stocked.. once again the lady that runs it spent a lot of time giving me advise and explained a bunch on how to get the flow I need.. also gave me a great deal on a set of tunze 6055 power heads..

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

4 stores I found

Wet Pets by Steve in Norman
Reef Creations in Moore. Nice stuff. Mostly corals small store and they were super busy
Reef warehouse in OKC. kinda dirty but the lady was nice
Aquarium Fish and Supply. Another great store that was clean and well stocked.. once again the lady that runs it spent a lot of time giving me advise and explained a bunch on how to get the flow I need.. also gave me a great deal on a set of tunze 6055 power heads..

Nice, look at salt and more in lubbock.Jason who owns it is awesome

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

What kind of corals do you plan on keeping? I had all my power heads set up on the overflow end of my Peninsula. I ran jebao wp-40 2 and had good flow across my 150 when set up that way

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Plan for right now is just LPS zoas, chalices, and such. Not a fan of "sticks" and have heard to many bad things about softies.

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Right on, I have some hammers I can frag when your ready

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Dude that would be awesome!! Thanks

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

No problem, trading always makes reefing fun and helping others fill an empty tank

 

[Ortho281]

Update..

Lights are up. As always there is some tuning in to do but I am pretty happy with how they turned out.

About 5 more hours of water making and the tank will be full.

Drain system has been leak checked. NO LEAKS!!

Still have to check the return side so keep your fingers crossed for me...

Powerheads are in..

Have the tangle of wires I have to fix yet but that will be a future project.

My LFS was supposed to get me the black hydras but got the white ones instead. He was nice enough to let me take these to have something to run while he gets the black ones in..

Nice aquascaping! Congrats on getting your tank wet! Have you thought about placing the taller rock structure closest to the return so that it does not block your view of the smaller structures when viewed from the side of the tank? Something to think about so you can view most of your coral from different angles.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Well cycle is going great. Ammonia spiked out at about 1.2 but had been dropping for a couple days now.. Nitrates are climbing, so I did a 15% WC this weekend..

Been playing with the flow a lot and messing with different pump settings.. something I hadn't really considered was how hard it would be to get everything "just right".. The manifold makes a huge difference depending on what I have running and what is shut out.. Evap is kicking my butt a little to. (Ordered a tunze ATO today). But when I get it right this tank runs awesome and silent.. converting to Herbie was a great idea..

Thinking on what to get in the QT tank next.. here are my options on what we want

Flame Angel x2 or a Flame Angel and a Coral Beauty..added at the same time
One Spot Foxface
Or 6 Blue Reef Chromis..

What do you guys think would be best for the next addition.

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Flame angle and coral beauty can become coral nippers so keep that in mind. I never had luck keeping an angel. I would try either a tang. Or wrasse. Yellow coris, melunarus, flasher? I'm trying to find a vlmianigi tang right now that's not 100.00 lol

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Flame angle and coral beauty can become coral nippers so keep that in mind. I never had luck keeping an angel. I would try either a tang. Or wrasse. Yellow coris, melunarus, flasher? I'm trying to find a vlmianigi tang right now that's not 100.00 lol

I want a pair of tangs but I've read that they should be the last fish added to a system.. is this not correct??
I like the wrasses but was waiting till after I added corals.. (pretty sure I've read that somewhere to).. but I'm open to ideas.. what about the chromis or foxface??

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

I want a pair of tangs but I've read that they should be the last fish added to a system.. is this not correct??
I like the wrasses but was waiting till after I added corals.. (pretty sure I've read that somewhere to).. but I'm open to ideas.. what about the chromis or foxface??

Chromis are good starters. Iv never been by the book, tangs always went first for me lol foxface can be a good start also they will eat some algea... wrasses are fine anytime imo and experiance

 

[justingraham]

Depends on the tangs

 

[Daniel Strickland]

A couple blue tangs would be awesome and have always been part of my stocking plan so maybe that is the way I will go... probably give it another week or so before I order them then 4 weeks in QT... tank should be more than ready by then.