New office custom peninsula 185 gallon build thread

Ortho281 · Aug 28, 2016

najer said:
That sump pic gave me odd man tingles, I probably need to get out more!

LOL! That's why I had to have it! Gives me the tingles too!

Ortho281 · Aug 28, 2016

Added the Calcium reactor, CO2 tank and Biopellet reactors to see if everything fits. It barely does! The Chiller will be located on a stand in the tiny little closet I call a fish room! Still wondering how I'm going to fit everything in there as well?

Ortho281 · Aug 28, 2016

I started on the plumbing but had to call it quits because I was short about 12 ft of schedule 80 pipe, 1 gate valve, 1 union and a few slip/threaded elbows. I had ordered everything months in advanced so only ordered what I thought I might need. Once I receive the additional parts I will glue all the fittings and test for leaks. I also did a Bean style overflow inside the Synergy Reef overflow box but forgot to take pics. Hope I did not disappoint anyone with the progress so far? Stay tuned for more! Next week I will tackle the huge job of finding room for all the electronic gadgets while trying to make it look neat!

revhtree · Aug 29, 2016

Nice!

Ortho281 · Aug 29, 2016

revhtree said:
Nice!

Thanks! How is your new tank build coming along? I like what you have planned so far! Looks pretty epic!

Ortho281 · Aug 30, 2016

QT update! Added a six line wrasse, long nose hawk and yellow watchman golby. I'm not sure about the order I will introduce the new and existing fish to the new tank? Most likely, I will introduce all the tangs at the same time but not sure if I should introduce them first or last? Dry Marco rock are still in my garage curing. Also not sure how to do rock scape without killing off beneficial bacteria? In the past I had much more time, so would do another tank cycle with rocks only before introducing fish. This time around I don't have that luxury as I'm shutting down the tank at the old office immediately after moving. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Fish room is finally getting flooring tomorrow. Hopefully I can get in there soon to start setting up water tanks, RODI and electronics?
Finally go around to opening my ATI light fixture box. This thing is huge!!! Looks well built also. Any ideas on how high to hang these LED/T5 fixtures? I don't want to hang it too close for fear of LED not having sufficient spread, but T5 are usually mounted close to increase intensity. The Radions on my home tank are hung 10" over the water surface and the T5's on my old office setup was only 5" over the water mounted inside the canopy. I was thinking of mounting them around 8 or 9" which would also give me sufficient room to work in the tank without having to raise the fixture.

Lowell Lemon · Aug 30, 2016

Doctor, In most cases the live rock will not have any noticable die off in a transfer from one tank to the next. In fact I have seen tanks withstand 96 hour power outs without a loss of life in the system as long as temperture remains stable.

I once built two 16' long tanks and delivered them 300 miles away and delivered 4000lbs of live seeded rock to the site. It took over 24 hours to build the reef structure while the rock was just kept damp. So all told the rock was damp for about 48 hours by the time we started adding water. All the levels remained stable over night and we had to add fish in a couple of days for an open house. There was no problem with the rock and fish due to transfer to the new system. There were other problems but that is another discussion altogether.

If you have doubts just add a live culture of bacteria and test your levels before adding inverts and fish. I personally would add all the inverts first and wait about 3 months before adding fish...but that is just how I roll to avoid fish health problems in a reef tank.

Amazing build and you are doing a great job!

revhtree · Aug 30, 2016

Awesome!

Ortho281 · Aug 30, 2016

Lowell Lemon said:
Doctor, In most cases the live rock will not have any noticable die off in a transfer from one tank to the next. In fact I have seen tanks withstand 96 hour power outs without a loss of life in the system as long as temperture remains stable.

I once built two 16' long tanks and delivered them 300 miles away and delivered 4000lbs of live seeded rock to the site. It took over 24 hours to build the reef structure while the rock was just kept damp. So all told the rock was damp for about 48 hours by the time we started adding water. All the levels remained stable over night and we had to add fish in a couple of days for an open house. There was no problem with the rock and fish due to transfer to the new system. There were other problems but that is another discussion altogether.

If you have doubts just add a live culture of bacteria and test your levels before adding inverts and fish. I personally would add all the inverts first and wait about 3 months before adding fish...but that is just how I roll to avoid fish health problems in a reef tank.

Amazing build and you are doing a great job!

Thanks for the advise! I will try to keep the rocks wet while doing the aquascaping to minimize any issues and do water testing before adding fish. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of waiting to add fish this time. Two 16' tanks and 4000lbs of live rock? I can only imagine what that must have been like!

Ortho281 · Sep 1, 2016

Water tank stands are in place. I'm hoping to complete plumbing and do rock-scaping and have water in the aquarium this weekend. Things are getting very tight on time and space!

tj w · Sep 2, 2016

Very nice work doc. I've enjoyed following this build. It's going to give a lot of patients something great to look at while at your office.

revhtree · Sep 2, 2016

Looking good!

jsker · Sep 2, 2016

Wow, a lot progress.

Fudsey · Sep 2, 2016

Looking good ! !

Ortho281 · Sep 2, 2016

tj w said:
Very nice work doc. I've enjoyed following this build. It's going to give a lot of patients something great to look at while at your office.

Thanks! Hopefully I will be able to get work done instead of staring at my tank and constantly messing with it. Haha!

Ortho281 · Sep 2, 2016

revhtree said:
Looking good!

jsker said:
Wow, a lot progress.

Fudsey said:
Looking good ! !

Thanks! Still lots of work left. I will be working on it all 3 days this weekend. Hoping to have plumbing, electrical and aquascaping done. And have water in the tank by Monday.

jsker · Sep 3, 2016

That is a lot of work to do, last weekend I re-plumbed, and cleaned up the wiring and still need more time

Fudsey · Sep 3, 2016

Is that going to be enough support for the top water tank? It looks like the 2x3? was only surface nailed into the wall, supported behind I would assume but still only nailed? How many gallons are those tanks?

Ortho281 · Sep 3, 2016

Fudsey said:
Is that going to be enough support for the top water tank? It looks like the 2x3? was only surface nailed into the wall, supported behind I would assume but still only nailed? How many gallons are those tanks?

More blocking will be place in front part of the shelve and vertically along the sides all the way to the floor. Waiting on the tile floor to be installed before finishing up the blocking. They promised to have it done today but it did not happen. :mad: