Hi Everyone,
First time doing a build thread, thought its about time to go all out and share my journey to the end goal. I've been in this hobby for some time now and have gone through the evolution of, trial and error, ups and downs, getting bigger tanks. I normally buy them second hand and reseal them myself to save thousands. But this time I really wanted to go all out and do a fresh new build that looks sleek and high end. I feel I have the confidence now to grow it out and hopefully cherish this one for some years to come. Every time I walk into my local fish store, they have this spectacular cade peninsula. My jew hits the ground, Its extremely hard to not stand and admire it's beauty. I love peninsula tanks personally. After slapping myself in the face, its time to get supplies! This carried on for months. Every time I go in to get supplies. I cant take it anymore, I reach out to the aquarium building gods themselves... Cade! How could I pass up on a Cade? not only a cade peninsula, but more of it! So enough about myself and lets talk about the build.
Aquarium:
Keeping with the theme of sleek, high end, luxury look of peninsula tanks. I decided to purchase a Cade Peninsula 2100. I'm currently building a new home, the plan is to get this setup and filled with water before the end of the year.
I will share some limited sketches to give everyone a chance to see what this tank is going to look like.
Lights:
I have also purchased the lights that will be lighting this tank. I decided to go for the Orphek natura icon. I must say Orphek customer support is amazing to deal with. I am really digging these lights!
Orphek Natura Icon
Currently have 2 of these over my temp garage housing tank. Mind the mess, living conditions whilst building. The other 2 are in a box
I will either hang the lights from the ceiling or build a cantilever light mount style with some aluminium t-slot bars.
Wavemakers:
For the wavemakers I am going to go a combo of Sicce voyager 10s and Jebao mcp-180s. I am a big fan of the Jebaos they push water well over rated and I've had my current ones for about 4 years now maybe more. Sicce are great because they push a narrow beam of water and this will help me reach the end of the tank, since its 7ft long. The plan is to not have wavemakers on the 3rd long viewing panel. Although all the peninsula I have seen mostly end up with wavemakers on the 3rd viewing panel LOL. Lets see how we go! challenge accepted!
Skimmer:
I have decided to go with the dalua great white DC GW-17 maybe the GW-22, but the 22 might be overkill. I've heard nothing but good things about this skimmer!
Method:
I currently dose kalk and I love it. I built my own kalkwasser reactor actually. But because I want this tank to be simple and not so time intensive. I am leaning towards the balling method with a fuge. I will see how PH goes if I want to get complex with kalk, 2 part, then dose traces on a doser separate. I have seen so many amazing looking tanks using the balling method if I'm being honest. Its also easier to fine tune your dosage. Where as I find Kalk can be challenging as my tank consumes more alk then calcium. So I also find myself needing to dose a alk sup on top of kalk to keep up with demand.
I hope everyone enjoys this journey with me as much as I am excited for this build and to share with everyone on reef2reef. I plan to add updates and give more details as well progress, with of course lots of photos!
As always happy reefing!
First time doing a build thread, thought its about time to go all out and share my journey to the end goal. I've been in this hobby for some time now and have gone through the evolution of, trial and error, ups and downs, getting bigger tanks. I normally buy them second hand and reseal them myself to save thousands. But this time I really wanted to go all out and do a fresh new build that looks sleek and high end. I feel I have the confidence now to grow it out and hopefully cherish this one for some years to come. Every time I walk into my local fish store, they have this spectacular cade peninsula. My jew hits the ground, Its extremely hard to not stand and admire it's beauty. I love peninsula tanks personally. After slapping myself in the face, its time to get supplies! This carried on for months. Every time I go in to get supplies. I cant take it anymore, I reach out to the aquarium building gods themselves... Cade! How could I pass up on a Cade? not only a cade peninsula, but more of it! So enough about myself and lets talk about the build.
Aquarium:
Keeping with the theme of sleek, high end, luxury look of peninsula tanks. I decided to purchase a Cade Peninsula 2100. I'm currently building a new home, the plan is to get this setup and filled with water before the end of the year.
I will share some limited sketches to give everyone a chance to see what this tank is going to look like.
Lights:
I have also purchased the lights that will be lighting this tank. I decided to go for the Orphek natura icon. I must say Orphek customer support is amazing to deal with. I am really digging these lights!
Orphek Natura Icon
Currently have 2 of these over my temp garage housing tank. Mind the mess, living conditions whilst building. The other 2 are in a box
I will either hang the lights from the ceiling or build a cantilever light mount style with some aluminium t-slot bars.
Wavemakers:
For the wavemakers I am going to go a combo of Sicce voyager 10s and Jebao mcp-180s. I am a big fan of the Jebaos they push water well over rated and I've had my current ones for about 4 years now maybe more. Sicce are great because they push a narrow beam of water and this will help me reach the end of the tank, since its 7ft long. The plan is to not have wavemakers on the 3rd long viewing panel. Although all the peninsula I have seen mostly end up with wavemakers on the 3rd viewing panel LOL. Lets see how we go! challenge accepted!
Skimmer:
I have decided to go with the dalua great white DC GW-17 maybe the GW-22, but the 22 might be overkill. I've heard nothing but good things about this skimmer!
Method:
I currently dose kalk and I love it. I built my own kalkwasser reactor actually. But because I want this tank to be simple and not so time intensive. I am leaning towards the balling method with a fuge. I will see how PH goes if I want to get complex with kalk, 2 part, then dose traces on a doser separate. I have seen so many amazing looking tanks using the balling method if I'm being honest. Its also easier to fine tune your dosage. Where as I find Kalk can be challenging as my tank consumes more alk then calcium. So I also find myself needing to dose a alk sup on top of kalk to keep up with demand.
I hope everyone enjoys this journey with me as much as I am excited for this build and to share with everyone on reef2reef. I plan to add updates and give more details as well progress, with of course lots of photos!
As always happy reefing!
