375 Gallon Mixed Reef Peninsula

blfuller123 · Nov 3, 2020

Little progress made, the tank is now on the stand.

The bulkheads are installed, the sand is in and the rock is in. Im not sure I like the rock but as soon as I settle on that, the canopy will go on. The new skimmer should be here this weekend.

blfuller123 · Nov 3, 2020

Rock are all cemented and the canopy is on and the lights are working as they should.

Reefanatik · Nov 6, 2020

blfuller123 said:
Rock are all cemented and the canopy is on and the lights are working as they should.

Looking good Brett. Can't wait to see it all full and running.

Bfragale · Nov 6, 2020

Very nice build. Can’t wait to see more!

blfuller123 · Nov 7, 2020

The external skimmer got here, here it is confirming it fit in its place as I hoped. I have a little more plumbing left to finish up and it will be ready to go. Still need to get the wiring cleaned up.

Started making water. I should have enough water to get it filled completely today. My goal is to have it running by the end of the weekend.

Reefanatik · Nov 7, 2020

blfuller123 said:
The external skimmer got here, here it is confirming it fit in its place as I hoped. I have a little more plumbing left to finish up and it will be ready to go. Still need to get the wiring cleaned up.

Started making water. I should have enough water to get it filled completely today. My goal is to have it running by the end of the weekend.

Brett, this is Nelson. You going to put the trim around the bottom of the tank? I think it will look good and will help hide that seam.

blfuller123 · Nov 7, 2020

Reefanatik said:
Brett, this is Nelson. You going to put the trim around the bottom of the tank? I think it will look good and will help hide that seam.

I will, just trying to get to get it up and running first.

blfuller123 · Nov 8, 2020

The tank is officially running. Got all the basics going. When the time comes I will get the dosing pumps set up and the calcium reactor going.

FlexingFishSticks · Nov 9, 2020

blfuller123 · Nov 9, 2020

Got up and the water has completely cleared. Its cool to be able to see 8 feet down the long sides.

I dosed ammonia last night and took my first water samples this morning. I got the trim added to the bottom of the tank and think it looks better.

I got a Ring indoor camera mounted across from the tank to keep an eye on it while I am away.

The picture looks better on my phone than this screen shot.

blfuller123 · Nov 11, 2020

Got the KH Director up and running today and got the calcium reactor all set up. It worked out well, still enough room in the stand for the 20lb co2 tank.

Reefanatik · Nov 13, 2020

blfuller123 said:
Got the KH Director up and running today and got the calcium reactor all set up. It worked out well, still enough room in the stand for the 20lb co2 tank.

This is an amazing build, I've seen this tank in person and you can see the love for the hobby in the minor details. blfuller123 has given me allot of ideas for my upcoming upgrade. Great DIY skills and attention to detail bud.

blfuller123 · Nov 21, 2020

Tank has been going for two weeks tomorrow and I have not had any significant issues. I was having a problem with the calcium reactor, it turned out the co2 check valve was not letting gas pass through it, got that swapped out and alk is on cruise control now at 8.2dkh. I am changing 2.5 gallons every night which equates to about 20% per month.

My buddy had bought a complete used Apex for the EB82s, he didnt need the base unit so I have now. I have ordered a Trident to monitor everything with since there is no telling when the GHL Ion Director will actually be released. I set up the Apex and forgot how user friendly it is compared to the GHL. I am really considering getting some EB8s/EB82s to start replacing some of the GHL stuff. If I go that route, I will hang on the the GHL dosing components and probably the probes so I have some redundancy in monitoring.

My plan is for the tank to run another week and I will do an initial ICP test to get my Moonshiner dosing going. I still have a lot of the elements on hand, but with this tank total volume almost 3.5 times my last tank, I am sure I will need to order a lot more.

rigo07 · Nov 21, 2020

Looking good man

JayPnoy12 · Dec 3, 2020

blfuller123 said:
Got up and the water has completely cleared. Its cool to be able to see 8 feet down the long sides.

I dosed ammonia last night and took my first water samples this morning. I got the trim added to the bottom of the tank and think it looks better.

I got a Ring indoor camera mounted across from the tank to keep an eye on it while I am away.

The picture looks better on my phone than this screen shot.

Looking good especially that cabinet stand with matching canopy. I love how that while color stand out with the tank. I'm also in planning to get Peninsula tank once we buy new house. I like the idea of having that Ring across the room where you can see the whole tank. I might have to copy your idea lol......... Well done on the built. One thing I would advice is when you have fish on your other tank is to add them slowly with this to prevent from ich and marine velvet outbreak cause I seen a brand new tank crash with those parasite and they rush everything to put into the new tank. I don't know if you know this already or have been doing it. When you get new fish if you have time and space to QT them using two 20g long tank one for medication and the other is to sterile and observer (2nd tank is use after you have your fish in Copper treatment and other medication). The reason why I said it because I had experience the outbreak and is not fun to go FALLOW for 72 days (which equal to about 6 weeks I think). In fact to be on safe side I would wait 2 to 3 weeks in between when you want to transfer livestock into your new tank. Good Luck and can't to see the future progress...

Always,

Jay

blfuller123 · Dec 3, 2020

Thanks Jay. The fish have been in the tank for a couple of weeks and doing well and I have a little easy SPS and a couple pieces of LPS in there as well. I have been dosing BioDigest pretty heavily since water has been in the tank. I dosed ammonia two different times initially and currently it is running at zero with nitrate staying around 4. I automatically change 2.5 gallons of water every night over an 8 hour period with the Stenner pump.

I did decide to order an Apex EB83 to get the Trident up and running. When I did that, I ordered 2 additional EB8s and a breakout box. I found someone locally selling a WXM module and a FMM module with optical switches so I grabbed those too. I have the MP40s being controlled by the Apex now. I got 3 of GHL power bars that were in the stand and laundry room swapped out for these EB8s. I have to say it was so much easier getting them configured vs the GHL ones. I will probably get one more EB8 for the T5 lights. I still have the GHL P4 with the probes just for redundancy and I will keep all of the GHL dosing pumps for when I start dosing the Reef Moonshine again, something I do really like with the GHL. I need to gather up the remainder of all my equipment and get it sold or traded off.

When I first got the calcium reactor up and running, I was having a problem with it raising the alkalinity. Took a couple of days to figure out why but it ended up being a check valve preventing c02 from entering the chamber. Swapped that out and its going. Been dialing it back daily as I dont really have a high alkalinity/calcium demand at this point. Once I get it stable I will probably do the first ICP test.

I got the FMM module and switches moved to the laundry room. I have one switch that will let me know when my new salt water barrel level is low, and I have two more on my fresh water barrel to tell me when its low and full. I have the apex configured so it will turn on my RODI 3 times a week for an hour at a time as long as the switches are open. If only I could automate dumping salt in the salt barrel

I have ordered new T5 bulbs, half of them that were in the fixtures were white, a little too white for my taste even with the Kessil lights set to Blue.

JayPnoy12 · Dec 3, 2020

blfuller123 said:
Thanks Jay. The fish have been in the tank for a couple of weeks and doing well and I have a little easy SPS and a couple pieces of LPS in there as well. I have been dosing BioDigest pretty heavily since water has been in the tank. I dosed ammonia two different times initially and currently it is running at zero with nitrate staying around 4. I automatically change 2.5 gallons of water every night over an 8 hour period with the Stenner pump.

I did decide to order an Apex EB83 to get the Trident up and running. When I did that, I ordered 2 additional EB8s and a breakout box. I found someone locally selling a WXM module and a FMM module with optical switches so I grabbed those too. I have the MP40s being controlled by the Apex now. I got 3 of GHL power bars that were in the stand and laundry room swapped out for these EB8s. I have to say it was so much easier getting them configured vs the GHL ones. I will probably get one more EB8 for the T5 lights. I still have the GHL P4 with the probes just for redundancy and I will keep all of the GHL dosing pumps for when I start dosing the Reef Moonshine again, something I do really like with the GHL. I need to gather up the remainder of all my equipment and get it sold or traded off.

When I first got the calcium reactor up and running, I was having a problem with it raising the alkalinity. Took a couple of days to figure out why but it ended up being a check valve preventing c02 from entering the chamber. Swapped that out and its going. Been dialing it back daily as I dont really have a high alkalinity/calcium demand at this point. Once I get it stable I will probably do the first ICP test.

I got the FMM module and switches moved to the laundry room. I have one switch that will let me know when my new salt water barrel level is low, and I have two more on my fresh water barrel to tell me when its low and full. I have the apex configured so it will turn on my RODI 3 times a week for an hour at a time as long as the switches are open. If only I could automate dumping salt in the salt barrel

I have ordered new T5 bulbs, half of them that were in the fixtures were white, a little too white for my taste even with the Kessil lights set to Blue.

@blfuller123 that good that your able to dial in the CA Reactor. Tag along the progress.....

Always,

Jay

Arthur_Dent · Jan 2, 2021

Awesome build so far! Tagging along for the ride here.

blfuller123 · Mar 9, 2021

Been a while since I have updated this. Initially I thought the calcium reactor was dialed in, but it wasnt and I got some pretty good ALK swings because of it, and did loose some corals because of that. The reactor has been running the tank pretty constant for the last month or so. Luckily I have a couple of good reefing buddies that have hooked me up with some more frags.

I started back on the moonshine again. The first ICP went out about a month ago and made my initial corrections. I got the second ICP back this past Friday and did not need much for corrections. I will be sending the next probably at the end of this week to make sure nothing has changed.

I am still running a combination of GHL and Apex equipment. Basically the GHL runs the KH Director and all of the dosing pumps (I do use dosing pumps for the moonshine dallies). Apex runs everything else. I am able to compare measurements between the two systems. I have been recording alkalinity measurements between GHL, APEX, the Hanna Checker against the ICP and the Hanna is by far the closest. I am able to adjust the GHL measurement to match but recalibrating the trident doesnt bring it closer to the ICP results. Neither system controls the calcium reactor, I just use them as a reference.

During the big freeze we had here in Texas, the tank did fine. I did have a portable stand-by generator when the power was off. The bad thing was I ordered a 24K whole house generator back in September of last year with an estimated install date of December or January and it was installed the week after the freeze. I am very happy with it, takes about 10 seconds from the time the power kicks off until it is restored. Once the grid power is restored, it transfers power and barley gets a flicker.

Ill get some updated photos of the tank in the next day or so.

kenchilada · Mar 9, 2021

blfuller123 said:
Been a while since I have updated this. Initially I thought the calcium reactor was dialed in, but it wasnt and I got some pretty good ALK swings because of it, and did loose some corals because of that. The reactor has been running the tank pretty constant for the last month or so. Luckily I have a couple of good reefing buddies that have hooked me up with some more frags.

I started back on the moonshine again. The first ICP went out about a month ago and made my initial corrections. I got the second ICP back this past Friday and did not need much for corrections. I will be sending the next probably at the end of this week to make sure nothing has changed.

I am still running a combination of GHL and Apex equipment. Basically the GHL runs the KH Director and all of the dosing pumps (I do use dosing pumps for the moonshine dallies). Apex runs everything else. I am able to compare measurements between the two systems. I have been recording alkalinity measurements between GHL, APEX, the Hanna Checker against the ICP and the Hanna is by far the closest. I am able to adjust the GHL measurement to match but recalibrating the trident doesnt bring it closer to the ICP results. Neither system controls the calcium reactor, I just use them as a reference.

During the big freeze we had here in Texas, the tank did fine. I did have a portable stand-by generator when the power was off. The bad thing was I ordered a 24K whole house generator back in September of last year with an estimated install date of December or January and it was installed the week after the freeze. I am very happy with it, takes about 10 seconds from the time the power kicks off until it is restored. Once the grid power is restored, it transfers power and barley gets a flicker.

Ill get some updated photos of the tank in the next day or so.

How did you go about choosing a place to buy/install your generator? Going through this myself right now.