John's SPS Shallow 90g Peninsula-Lagoon build

[minus9]

Love it John, that's my dream tank size, so jealous! Best wishes getting it fired up

Thanks! Wide and shallow is the only way to reef.

 

[Smite]

I can't wait to see this thing come back together. Looking great man!

 

[minus9]

I can't wait to see this thing come back together. Looking great man!

Thanks! Yeah, when I was at Unique picking up my abalones, I was checking out the Australian rock, but didn’t have water with me to pick some up. It was really nice looking rock, but I’m not sure how heavy it was? The great thing about the Solomon island rock was how light it is, but I’ll take ocean rock over dry every day of the week, regardless of price. With a remote DSB, I’m not going to need much, just enough to glue frags to. How’s your tank coming along?

 

[Smite]

Thanks! Yeah, when I was at Unique picking up my abalones, I was checking out the Australian rock, but didn’t have water with me to pick some up. It was really nice looking rock, but I’m not sure how heavy it was? The great thing about the Solomon island rock was how light it is, but I’ll take ocean rock over dry every day of the week, regardless of price. With a remote DSB, I’m not going to need much, just enough to glue frags to. How’s your tank coming along?

Nice! Yeah ocean rock for the win any day in my book as well. Hopefully with the minimal rockscape it wont ding ya too bad

I feel like I've been seeing some improvements. I actually corrected my traces (what I had left on hand) and feel like I saw improvement from that. Hopefully the metals are out of the way by now and it's a matter of replenishing depleted trace elements? My bromine, flouride was the lowest I've ever seen. Those came in yesterday and I've started my corrections so fingers crossed!

 

[minus9]

Nice! Yeah ocean rock for the win any day in my book as well. Hopefully with the minimal rockscape it wont ding ya too bad

I feel like I've been seeing some improvements. I actually corrected my traces (what I had left on hand) and feel like I saw improvement from that. Hopefully the metals are out of the way by now and it's a matter of replenishing depleted trace elements? My bromine, flouride was the lowest I've ever seen. Those came in yesterday and I've started my corrections so fingers crossed!

Good to hear. If you can get your N & P up, then try to grow some chaeto, it does wonders with pulling metals out of the water. One of its many useful traits. Hopefully you’re on an upswing. Fingers crossed!

 

[minus9]

Well, I took down the Kessil’s over the temp tank and put up @Smite old RB halide that I bought from him today. I put two Kessil’s over the nano build and will need to pick up the 35 degree lens soon. I’ll have to say, that my T. noae looked awesome under the halides. There were certain colors that popped and others that I haven’t seen before. I can’t wait until the 90 gets wet again.

 

[Smite]

Awesome use of loc-line on those Kessils. That looks very clean.

What do you think wins for all blue pop: Orphek, Reefbrite XHO or Kessils blue? I'm starting to think of going full Frankenstein and adding either RB XHO or Orpheks to the kessils. Might need the RB just for the spread aspect.

 

[minus9]

Awesome use of loc-line on those Kessils. That looks very clean.

What do you think wins for all blue pop: Orphek, Reefbrite XHO or Kessils blue? I'm starting to think of going full Frankenstein and adding either RB XHO or Orpheks to the kessils. Might need the RB just for the spread aspect.

I’ll have to throw the xho’s over the tank and compare them to the Orpheks. Kessil’s have great pop, but when I turn on the Orpheks things just light up more. It’s probably due to the fact that there are 6 or 7 different spectrum diodes in one bar. The newer Gen bars have less diodes, which probably blends better. I’ll see if I can rig up the xho’s tomorrow Ana compare them.
If you mount the Orphek bars higher then you’ll get better spread, but if your lights are mounted under 10”, then xho’s would probably fit better. Also, you should check out the AliE bars, you can custom order a good diode mix of two spectrums, maybe 3 for half of the cost of the Orpheks. Or check out this thread that talks about a new bar on the scene. Reef LED Bar

 

[minus9]

I managed to finish a few panels today. Final cuts on the 90g panels are done and 3 panels on the nano are done. I need to cut out one panel for the Xaqua overflow, then I can cut the two panels for the 10g stand. I bought plenty of edging for all panels, so that will be the next step. Then I really have to figure out what finish I’m going to use? I really like the look of Danish oil, but I need to protect the wood from moisture, so I need something to seal it/protect it.
Meanwhile, in the temp tank, I spotted a baby berghia last night, plus a few big ones, so that’s a big relief. The abalone are keeping themselves busy grazing, like other snails, they’re busy at night and chill most of the day. I have the halides kicking for 6hrs a day and that’s probably where I’ll keep it for now. Latest ICP came back, pretty good overall, but my calcium seems to trend down always and this round molybdenum shot up, 38+. I made the switch from dosing soda ash at night to kalkwasser, so I was hoping that would help keep alk and ca steady, but I’m not dosing too much at the moment, so I might give that a bump? Time to have a couple cold IPA’s.
Btw, the panels are just sitting there, still need to countersink a few holes for the magnets and get them set soon.
Okay, now it’s time to relax. Cheers!

 

[Smite]

Love the grain on those panels! Enjoy a cold one, great work man.

I've stared more intently at empty soon to be reefs than the real deal Trying to imagine how the rocks will actually look and how it will hopefully fill in, ect. I really like the black gloss powder coat with wood grain. It's really gonna make the wood work pop.

 

[minus9]

Love the grain on those panels! Enjoy a cold one, great work man.

I've stared more intently at empty soon to be reefs than the real deal Trying to imagine how the rocks will actually look and how it will hopefully fill in, ect. I really like the black gloss powder coat with wood grain. It's really gonna make the wood work pop.

Thanks man! This is what I originally planned, but got sidetracked along the way. I’m really gonna try to stick with minimal frags and focus on the long term goal of nice big colonies. Yeah, I love walnut, it’s such a great wood with great contrast.
The beer was tasty, too tasty.

 

[minus9]

This is awesome! Grow your own PNS

 

[minus9]

So, not too much to update, but I'll give it a go. The panels for the 90g are cut, just waiting on more N52 magnets to come and I'll countersink some holes to mount them, courtesy of @neon_reefer CNC machine and his excellent 3D printing, things will be shaping up soon enough. I plan on milling some holes for each panel to act as pulls/handles in order to remove them from the stand. Tony will design a printed blind to mount behind each hole to block the light from the fuge from escaping. Also, I ordered three 3' Quanta Meso Blue led bars to compliment the halides. In my ongoing effort to support my LFS, I try and order equipment and other supplies through them @GoldenStateCorals I want to thank Elliot at @GoldenStateCorals and Luca @Lousybreed for putting all of this together. Can't wait to see these lights in action.
Also, Tony @neon_reefer has been creating some super cool light mounts for virtually every name brand light out there and he's designed some very cool mounts for led bars too. These things are a combo of carbon fiber and PETG, and they look super awesome! I'll definitely share some cool pics of his work soon. If you haven't checked out some of his handy work yet, look him up here on R2R.
More to come......

 

[Lousybreed]

thank you!!!!!!!!

 

[Smite]

So, not too much to update, but I'll give it a go. The panels for the 90g are cut, just waiting on more N52 magnets to come and I'll countersink some holes to mount them, courtesy of @neon_reefer CNC machine and his excellent 3D printing, things will be shaping up soon enough. I plan on milling some holes for each panel to act as pulls/handles in order to remove them from the stand. Tony will design a printed blind to mount behind each hole to block the light from the fuge from escaping. Also, I ordered three 3' Quanta Meso Blue led bars to compliment the halides. In my ongoing effort to support my LFS, I try and order equipment and other supplies through them @GoldenStateCorals I want to thank Elliot at @GoldenStateCorals and Luca @Lousybreed for putting all of this together. Can't wait to see these lights in action.
Also, Tony @neon_reefer has been creating some super cool light mounts for virtually every name brand light out there and he's designed some very cool mounts for led bars too. These things are a combo of carbon fiber and PETG, and they look super awesome! I'll definitely share some cool pics of his work soon. If you haven't checked out some of his handy work yet, look him up here on R2R.
More to come......

Sounds like it's all coming together nicely. Looking forward to seeing it all it up!

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the Quanta bars too. I've been toying around with the idea of 6-8 bars in combo with kessils next year instead of re-lamping the 10x54w. Basically mimic a large panel of of the t5 with LEDs.

 

[minus9]

Sounds like it's all coming together nicely. Looking forward to seeing it all it up!

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the Quanta bars too. I've been toying around with the idea of 6-8 bars in combo with kessils next year instead of re-lamping the 10x54w. Basically mimic a large panel of of the t5 with LEDs.

I should have them this week, I’ll let you know what I think. I think Luca has improved the design drastically and works be a great alternative to T5’s. He’s created some great spectrums that should allow you to achieve the same results. Mixed in with Kessil’s would give you a pretty nice looking tank.

 

[minus9]

The good, the bad and the ugly. In no particular order, here we go. I just picked up my Quanta Pro Meso blue bars from @GoldenStateCorals thanks Elliot! These things are super nice! Here’s my simple take on these bars. They’re a combo of ATI blue+, Orphek blue plus and xho. The amount of violet and blue is awesome. They have punch, spectrum and spread, which were the issues with the other bars. @Lousybreed you knocked this out of the park. Honestly, you could use your bars and a Kessil or two for shimmer and you could grow anything. On other good news, the berghia are slowly taking out aiptasia, it’s a slow ride, but I’ll take what I can. My latest ICP was pretty good, but a few things popped up and molybdenum is still rising. I’m not sure if it’s all for reef that's off or it’s coming from the kalkwasser? As I just made the switch from soda ash at night to ESV kalk. And for the really crappy news, my blue maxima is on its way out. I’ve been fearing this for a long time. Ever since my yellow tang took a huge bite from the mantle, it’s never been the same. Okay, the pics.

It’s just the T. noae on its own now. Gonna have to change that with the reboot.

 

[Lousybreed]

The good, the bad and the ugly. In no particular order, here we go. I just picked up my Quanta Pro Meso blue bars from @GoldenStateCorals thanks Elliot! These things are super nice! Here’s my simple take on these bars. They’re a combo of ATI blue+, Orphek blue plus and xho. The amount of violet and blue is awesome. They have punch, spectrum and spread, which were the issues with the other bars. @Lousybreed you knocked this out of the park. Honestly, you could use your bars and a Kessil or two for shimmer and you could grow anything. On other good news, the berghia are slowly taking out aiptasia, it’s a slow ride, but I’ll take what I can. My latest ICP was pretty good, but a few things popped up and molybdenum is still rising. I’m not sure if it’s all for reef that's off or it’s coming from the kalkwasser? As I just made the switch from soda ash at night to ESV kalk. And for the really crappy news, my blue maxima is on its way out. I’ve been fearing this for a long time. Ever since my yellow tang took a huge bite from the mantle, it’s never been the same. Okay, the pics.

It’s just the T. noae on its own now. Gonna have to change that with the reboot.

This is a beautiful application of my lights. The three light combo is amazing for spread, par, and spectrum!!! Thank you for the kind words!!

 

[Smite]

Nice! That looks like some great coverage. I can't wait to see some coral under them

I've been considering dosing kalk lately. Are you using a stirrer, dosing pump or what?

 

[minus9]

Nice! That looks like some great coverage. I can't wait to see some coral under them

I've been considering dosing kalk lately. Are you using a stirrer, dosing pump or what?

Thanks! I can't wait to get some water in there. Nope, just old school mix kalk in a bucket, dose the clear liquid. I'm only dosing it at night to help the ph swing. It's funny, in the 90's I would mix up some kalk, put it in an IV bag and drip it over the course of a day in my nano tanks, worked like a charm. I'm actually thinking about all the things I used to do back then that I'm not doing now and applying those methods (which I've done for the most part). I've been reading a lot of my old books, which I think new reefers really need to do, because there's so much good info that hasn't changed at all, mainly biology, but also simple methodology.
It looks like your tank is turning around, hopefully we'll be exchanging pieces again soon.