IM peninsula 20 SPS dominant build

[Phamousreef]

Hello guys I'm trying to set up a nano SPS dominant tank, here is my build so far only been running for almost a month need it to be more mature before I can add corals , right now I need one last piece of equipment for the second chamber in my tank , should I go with a nano protein skimmer the IM new DC protein skimmer, or a mini max reactor for bio pellets with mame III protein skimmer, or a 1.2x drop from santa Monica or turn it into a refugium. Any advice and recommendation would be greatly appreciated!
Equipment:
Apex with 2 power bars
24" 4 bulbs Giesemann matrix ii with 2 blue plus 1 true actinic 1 coral plus
2 x 24" xho reefbrite strips
Apex afs
Apex ASM
Smart AWC( planning to either change half gallon a day or a gallon every other day)
Biotek 10g ATO reservoir ( for ATO water change)
Neo therm 75w heater
Mighty jet return pump
Spin nozzle
Media basket( hold marinepure gems up to 70 gallons and filter pad)
15 lbs of rocks
Icecap 1k
3 x eflux 600 gph wavepump( on the bottom to keep the bottom clean)
5.5 gallon tank for ATO
Nano flipper

Livestock's
Pair of onyx clownfish
1Tailspot blenny( for algae control since I can't have tangs. or dwarf Angelfish since they might nips on corals)
1Sixlines wrasse( for pest control since it's a barebottom tank I can't keep leopard wrasse)
1 three stripe damsel( Gf want it )

 

[Centerline]

Beautiful little setup. I have AIO as well and they are a bunch of fun. If it were me I would skip both of the skimmers (I have had both of them) as well as the bio pellets. My experience is that they (either of the skimmers) really don't do much of a job. I ended up cramming a Aquamax 1.5 in the right hand chamber - the return will encroach into the next chamber. Much better performance. I would also forget the bio pellets... Those little suckers can strip a tank that size very rapidly. Honestly the best thing I have done with my tank was small water changes weekly. You can see the Aquamax in my tank here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-hurricane-build-im-fusion-20.324888/page-6

 

[SPR1968]

The tank looks great so far Luke, very nice indeed and thanks for sharing the pictures with us!

 

[Phamousreef]

Nice set up wow! I see that you have a chiller , how is that working out for you would you recommend it? Right now I’m thinking about getting a fan for temperatures control! And the hob skimmer I’ve been looking at it. It my tank I put it against the wall so it wouldn’t fit!

Beautiful little setup. I have AIO as well and they are a bunch of fun. If it were me I would skip both of the skimmers (I have had both of them) as well as the bio pellets. My experience is that they (either of the skimmers) really don't do much of a job. I ended up cramming a Aquamax 1.5 in the right hand chamber - the return will encroach into the next chamber. Much better performance. I would also forget the bio pellets... Those little suckers can strip a tank that size very rapidly. Honestly the best thing I have done with my tank was small water changes weekly. You can see the Aquamax in my tank here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-hurricane-build-im-fusion-20.324888/page-6

 

[Centerline]

Nice set up wow! I see that you have a chiller , how is that working out for you would you recommend it? Right now I’m thinking about getting a fan for temperatures control! And the hob skimmer I’ve been looking at it. It my tank I put it against the wall so it wouldn’t fit!

Ya, it fits fine in one of the sections designed for those little filter socks that comes with it. The socks are really not that great as they get dirty pretty quick - I just shove some floss in the next chamber over for a day every week to avoid the detritus trap that the socks can create if, like me you forget to remove them. The chiller has a foam ring at the top of it that allows it to sit pretty snuggly in the compartment - doesn't get wet on my 20. It also actually works surprisingly well. The only thing that can fail is the fan and new ones are 10 bucks or do on amazon. The skimmer Im using sits just a few inches off the back of the tank so no problems there. It really is a little beast. I actually have the intake going into a CO2 scrubber and it doesn't slow the pump /air intake down at all.

 

[Phamousreef]

Tank updates, so before I added any coral to the peninsula I decided to upgrade IM lagoon 25, and after a few month of having success with sps. I recently just decided to upgrade my tank again to the IM mini 40 just for more water volume purposes, and more stable water parameters. Just finished setting up everything yesterday! Here are a few picture during the process!
Stock!
RR oblivion
JF beach bum
Asd rainbow
Red planet
Cb maleficent
OP
Hyper berry
Pearl berry
Frogskin
Graft bonsai
Grafted monti
Christmas Mirabilis
Tyree pink lemonade
Bubble gum digi
Purple planet
Toxic green
Green slimer
Season greeting monti
Sunset monti
Palmer blue
Oregon tort
Hawkins
2 onyx clownfish
1 yellow tang
1 sixline wrasse
1 blood shrimp

 

[Phamousreef]

 

[Phamousreef]

Just changed up the light on my tank to the giesemann vervve let see how thing thing will do, also added the santa monica drop 1.4x but I don't know what going on the drop haven't produce any algae

 

[ReeferB28]

Any updates on the algae scrubber

 

[ReeferB28]

Or tank updates

 

[ReeferB28]

Honestly, I'd move this over to NANO-REEF