120G Rimless shallow peninsula tank

prsnlty · May 10, 2017

Janci said:
Was checking facebook this morning and found this on R2R page...
@prsnlty well done Jackie, the picture of your built has 103 likes so far...

Oh wow, I think having my picture there was a mistake on their part . it should have been something of your build. It's possible that whatever program here using to link reef2reef Pages within Facebook might have picked it up off your thread.

Thank you for letting me know I haven't been on Facebook for several days. I probably would have never known otherwise . but expect to get a lot of traffic on your thread LOL

najer · May 10, 2017

Looking very nice.

wowkingjames · May 10, 2017

Love this thread!

Janci · May 10, 2017

najer said:
Looking very nice.

Thanks and welcome to follow.

wowkingjames said:
Love this thread!

Thank you for the kind words.
Please feel free to comment any time.

Janci · May 11, 2017

The aquarium is slowly running and doing his thing. For the moment I am setting up the ATO and preparing the bio pellet reactor which will be in operation this weekend.
One addition so far... black sailfin blenny.

Beautiful fish. A little bit shy the first day but now grazing and looking for micro algae where possible.
Since several weeks there is a tomini tang in the lfs which is very well quarantined. It is not the smallest and I am afraid to take it as it can be dominant as almost first fish.
At the fish list I will add 2 skunk clown fish. Looking out for that... as I want to add them to the RBTA which is waiting to also go in the tank.

Greybeard · May 11, 2017

I _love_ blennies. I have a Smith's blenny now, that is eventually going in my new tank. I'll likely get at one more.

Careful adding tangs... I guess you know that already. I want two, probably a scopas and a kole... plan to get 'em small, and drop 'em both in at once, _after_ most of the other fish are settled.

Janci · May 11, 2017

Greybeard said:
I _love_ blennies. I have a Smith's blenny now, that is eventually going in my new tank. I'll likely get at one more.

Careful adding tangs... I guess you know that already. I want two, probably a scopas and a kole... plan to get 'em small, and drop 'em both in at once, _after_ most of the other fish are settled.

Yes, I will wait with the tang. The plan was to get 3 and than still they need to be around the same size.
Will be hard to find here.
Thanks for the warning.

I saw a golden mimic blenny the other day. Very cool fish but I read that they are evil and bite, even when you put in your hand in the tank.
So passing on that one also.

Greybeard · May 11, 2017

Janci said:
I saw a golden mimic blenny the other day. Very cool fish but I read that they are evil and bite, even when you put in your hand in the tank.

Hm. Fang toothed blennies, like my Smith's blenny, have some fairly serious dentition, and venom to go with it. Evil? Hardly. Mine eats from my fingers, though I'm a bit cautious about that. I've seen Red Sea Mimic blennies, ORA is breeding them, but they're not from the fang toothed family. I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with a golden mimic blenny. If they're not from the Meiacanthus genus, they're not going to be able to actually hurt you... and the ones that I've seen that are, they're just not that aggressive.

Janci · May 12, 2017

Today's water sample test results.
Wish nitrates are higher as I want the bio pellet reactor to kick in. I guess more fish or feeding is needed.
I will be installing the reactor anyway to slowly build up the bacterial colony.

Janci · May 12, 2017

The skimmer and filter socks are running and remove most of the waste.
I am very happy with the Nyos Quantum 160. Most silent and effective skimmer I ever had.

I like to get my hands on a PAR meter.
My LFS has been using the same Pacific Sun bulbs and it would be interesting to compare.

It also will help to determine the placement of the corals.
Last check for a Apogee MQ-200 quantum meter would result in a 325 + 66 usd (purchase + shipping) loss in corals...

Janci · May 14, 2017

This weekend I set up the bio pellet reactor so it can slowly build up and get hold of the nitrates in the future.
First corals went in and were showing nice PE soon after.

Janci · May 14, 2017

And the latest tank shot

prsnlty · May 14, 2017

They all look great! It's going to look fantastic when it grows in and fills up that tank

Daniel@R2R · May 15, 2017

I really like the scape! Very cool!

Janci · May 18, 2017

In the past few days I have been making little progress.
The tank has been running and I have been checking the parameters to see any immediate change in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate.
I only measure some small nitrate so a couple of fish were added.
As my fish list contained a couple of fish that will not be easy to find here, I found some other nice ones.
Fish inside the aquarium now are:
- 2 picasso clown fish
- 1 tomini tang
- 1 black sailfin blenny
- 1 sailfin fairy wrasse
- 2 baby blue hippo tang
- 1 orange skunk clown fish

I also added the golden mimic blenny which I mentioned earlier but that resulted in chaos.
He was, and still is, very agressive. He did not like the skunk clown and was constantly picking, following, biting, attacking both of them. So much that 1 skunk clown fish jumped out of the tank from the small corner where they kept hiding. It must have been 1 hour before I found him on the floor.
He was barely alive and did not make it.
The blenny is now in the sump till I find another home for him.

On the other hand I have been monitoring the ALK levels and it dropped the last days from 6.7 till 5.2 dkh.
As the calcium reactor is not operational yet, I started manual dosing to slowly bring the level back to around 7 dkh.
It was advised that the Dastaco reactor can be set up from a daily consumption of 1 dkh. So after getting ALK back on track, i hope to have also higher consumption to be able to start the calcium reactor.

The biopellet reactor was also started with a minimum of pellets.
Calcium reactor was prepared.
Some pictures:

Carlos Danger · May 18, 2017

Very nice. I admire the organization coupled with nice equipment. Good recipe for success. Keep up the good work.

Janci · May 22, 2017

Carlos Danger said:
Very nice. I admire the organization coupled with nice equipment. Good recipe for success. Keep up the good work.

Thank you Carlos.
Equipment is not a guarantee for success, but it sure helps.

reefguy565 · May 22, 2017

Janci said:
Here is a short video of the leak test and overflow noise.
I did not expect the overflow to be that loud and might do some changes:

- adjust the height of the bean animal bends in the external overflow box to raise the water level in the overflow and reduce the "waterfall" noise.
- install some filterpads in the internal overflow box, but I am afraid the flow to the external overflow box could be restricted and clog
- lower the return pump flow.
I had the return pump on 50W (80W max) and this created a nice water surface movement in the display tank. The flow in the sump was quiet high (too high).
As soon as the tank is filled with salt water, I will be doing some more test with lower pump rate.

is it me or is that a bit loud? what is causing that water fall sound? only asking cause I want to get the synergy reef ghost also but want it to be as quiet as possible.