New RS Reefer 650 peninsula build.

[ylreefer]

Thanks for sharing this fantastic reef! How are you liking the bare bottom?

Im actually quiet liking the no sand look actually. I did go bare bottom in my previous tank but swore I'd go woth sane when doing this upgrade. So I never thought I'd go back to BB as I really do like the clean sand look. I problem is when the sand isn't looking so clean . But no I'm pretty happy with it and I've got used to it already. Definitely worth doing if you have a hard time keeping your nutrients low.

 

[ylreefer]

So it's been a couple of weeks without sand and I think time for a little update.

This is more of a bit of advice than an update really I suppose. For anyone who's considering going from sand to bare bottom, dont try to remove every last grain of sand in 1 go, you'll drive yourself nuts . I took out what felt like all of my sand but bits appeared here and there over the last 2 weeks, as expected, I just didn't expect it to look as messy as it did .


So today I got around to syphoning it all into my filter sock (thank god for hoseclips) and scraped the bottom glass with a razor. Omg was it covered is crap. Which brings me to my most important point.

If you plan to go bb you might want to plan on filling the base with as many lowlight corals as you can buy. This will leave no room for the base to get overgrown with algae and save you a tonn of work.

Before scrapping the base, if you do. It's worth changing out your pre filter before and after your done. I went through 4 cups of wool and the tank is only 6monyhs old. Mind you I do feed 7 or 8 cubs of food each day.

I haven't quiet got around to that yet as the coral imports have taken a massive hit due to covid so very little available here for now.

But that's the plan .

As for nutrient control. I now having a hard time keeping po4 above zero ever with all the feedings, and no3 is 0.2ppm. So will have to look into dosing these in the near future.

Anyways, I'm happy iwent BB and long forward to alot less maintenance. Fingers crossed.

Apologies for the lack of a photo, I'll add one when I get home tonight along with my new free frag that I aquired for helping install a frag system

 

[ylreefer]

Hi guys and girls. Just thought I'd post something as I've added a few new tank mates to the mix in the middle of setting up the nano and thought is share them woth you now they have all settled in nicely. . Enjoy.

 

[ylreefer]

Well good day to you all. It's been a while since I posted any updates as work has been super busy,which is a good thing right now. . So many frineds are out of work at the moment and I hope they get back into it soon .

Right well this is a post I never thought I'd make but change is good, and the peninsula is no longer going to be a peninsular. Long story short we have 2 cats who just need more play space so the tank is now going to be up against the wall.

Yep I know, it's no small feat to move a tank 3feet lol. But should be worth it in the end. There willbe a fewmodsmade in the way of pumps being replaced with a more reliable vectra as well as another Gyre added in so a little electrical as well as hard plumbing for the chiller which sits 10feet away. I wasn't sure if I was making a huge mistake but I got to Vynal wrapping what will be the back and took a few shots to share here, it's actually looking alright so I'm abut more confident now in the overall end result. One thing I'm not so confident in yet is the new scape work . But hey its gotta be done so let the work begin. Tomorrow is the move day but I wanted a head start lol.

So here she is in her current restin gplaceand this will be the last you see here like this.
I'll post some updates after the moving is done.

 

[Devaji]

Well good day to you all. It's been a while since I posted any updates as work has been super busy,which is a good thing right now. . So many frineds are out of work at the moment and I hope they get back into it soon .

Right well this is a post I never thought I'd make but change is good, and the peninsula is no longer going to be a peninsular. Long story short we have 2 cats who just need more play space so the tank is now going to be up against the wall.

Yep I know, it's no small feat to move a tank 3feet lol. But should be worth it in the end. There willbe a fewmodsmade in the way of pumps being replaced with a more reliable vectra as well as another Gyre added in so a little electrical as well as hard plumbing for the chiller which sits 10feet away. I wasn't sure if I was making a huge mistake but I got to Vynal wrapping what will be the back and took a few shots to share here, it's actually looking alright so I'm abut more confident now in the overall end result. One thing I'm not so confident in yet is the new scape work . But hey its gotta be done so let the work begin. Tomorrow is the move day but I wanted a head start lol.

So here she is in her current restin gplaceand this will be the last you see here like this.
I'll post some updates after the moving is done.

haha I replayed as sad cuz I just love peninsulas but you gotta do what you gotta do.
love the dang cats are happy but knowing kitties they prob. don't even care...lol
beautiful tank hope my 650P will look that good.

 

[ylreefer]

Wassup all. So yea. After 15 hours of planning moving and pain lol. It's finally all done. I swear I'll never do that again . Even if you paid me lol.

Started at 11am Sunday and finish cleaning the flat at 2am Monday. And it still smells like a fish shop .

One thing I would do differently is wear a dang good pair of gloves. . The billion tube worms and what not on the rocks that had grown were super sharp.

Corals are yet to be placed in their final homes bud here a shot of what's happened. I pretty pleased all in all as are the ats. They haven't stopped zooming up and down the length of the room since .

My concerns of the peninsula not looking good with the open cabinet at the end turned out not to be a issue at all.

 

[Bleigh]

Just got the same tank. Looking through for some pointers! Looks amazing.

 

[ylreefer]

Just got the same tank. Looking through for some pointers! Looks amazing.

That is very cool. If I was local I'd come help set it up lol. Sofar ihave no complaints about the tank. The only issue I did have was the cabinet which is designed to house the chiller doesn't really work well if your user this as a peninsular.

The reason for that is the heat that gets pushed from the exhaust hole (lower cut out) bounces off the wall and gets sucked back in through the top cut out therfore recucking hot air. This made the chiller come on lots more than it should have. So all in all not a very good place to house the chiller. Unless of course the tank was not up against a wall, then yours only have the problem of heating up the room. Lol which in Hong Kong is not cool. Especially in summer. Top sold this I went extreme and moved the chiller to the window (29th floor). Plumbed it by pvc all around the walls and now the heat just gets pumped directly outside. Works like a charm

I used that cabinet to house a, larger auto top off system and removed the red sea one. (makes cleaning filter socks /cups 10 x easier.

Other than that. Very happy with it all. Been just over 1 year now. Maybe a few pics can give you some ideas.

Have fun with seeing it all up. It's super easy.

 

[ScottR]

Nice stuff Ed. Update your thread more!

 

[ylreefer]

Nice stuff Ed. Update your thread more!

Yea I really should.

Will get on this over the weekend

 

[Bleigh]

Nice stuff Ed. Update your thread more!

That helps a ton. I don’t think I’ll need a chiller. So that’s a bonus. We keep the house so cool that I need multiple heaters.

I see you added a check valve. That’s one of the big things that I noticed was missing as I was setting it all up yesterday. Do you like the valve it comes with? I have a spears valve on my current tank and was wondering if I should make that upgrade right away or hold off and see if I like what came with it.

 

[ylreefer]

That helps a ton. I don’t think I’ll need a chiller. So that’s a bonus. We keep the house so cool that I need multiple heaters.

I see you added a check valve. That’s one of the big things that I noticed was missing as I was setting it all up yesterday. Do you like the valve it comes with? I have a spears valve on my current tank and was wondering if I should make that upgrade right away or hold off and see if I like what came with it.

If you mean the redsea valve that controls the water level in the tank I quiet like it. I've heard lots of people complain about not being able to tune it correctly and that it causes fluctuating water levels. But so far I've not had and issues like that. I've not even taken it apart and cleaned it yet, but will do very soon.

As for the check valve, the reason for adding this was mainly for when I fed the fish and stop the return pump, I always forgot to turn off the skimmer and it over flowed. To be honest with you the skimmer level still raises up to high. So I've given up turning off the return pump now aka just fed with it on. Food is usually consumed worrying 60 second anyhow so no biggie.

 

[Bleigh]

If you mean the redsea valve that controls the water level in the tank I quiet like it. I've heard lots of people complain about not being able to tune it correctly and that it causes fluctuating water levels. But so far I've not had and issues like that. I've not even taken it apart and cleaned it yet, but will do very soon.

As for the check valve, the reason for adding this was mainly for when I fed the fish and stop the return pump, I always forgot to turn off the skimmer and it over flowed. To be honest with you the skimmer level still raises up to high. So I've given up turning off the return pump now aka just fed with it on. Food is usually consumed worrying 60 second anyhow so no biggie.

I have a check valve on my current tank and love not having to worry about the crazy fluctuations. I do have an apex, so I set my skimmer to turn off with feed mode too. Ill probably end up adding on eventually for the same reason you did.

 

[ylreefer]

OK time for that update I've been meaning to post: well actually a few updates by now but hey. You all know how it gets. .

So yeah, where to start. Things were going great I guess your could say for the longest time, even during the indo ban and now the other current bans we have here, plus C19, i couldn't complain about the little amount of coral on offer. So all in all managed to keep buying a few colonies of mainly SPS. An Acro here, a millie there.

I generally test my parameters once a week. Things were all as expected. No major changes to the system, feeding as usual. Admittidly l got a bit lazy on water changes. Went from one a month to one in 3 months on one round, and 2 months on another round.

Started seeing some red converging a few sps tips. Didnt take drastic action as I thought id see if whatever it was (Cyano/Dino) clear up on its own,

That never happend. On closer inspection the entire back glass was covered in the stuff. Almost a red fluffy thin layer. Was difficult to see on the black backing and I only noticed it when I looked through the end on a very slight angle. .

This was the beginning of the end for all my SPS .

I manage a reef club here in HK with a buddy of mine SCOTT.R (also on R2R) and we have a fair sized network of knowlage to help us all out. Unfortunately it was to late for this tank.

All testing showed a slight elevation in po4 up from 0.06 to 0.15. Which went down with some TMC elimi-phos back to 0.10. Which is acceptable. N03 is always at about 2.5 which is like to raise slightly. But apart from that no real issues on the surface.

Looks like I'll be sending in an ICP test in few days so hopefully that will clear things up.

in total I lost all 8 SPS colonies (ill push a few pics here at the end) however all the monit's have continued to grow as well as challace and an anacropora. Admittidly I an a it baffled but none the less, the tank is still looking great woth all the LPS growing. . My gold hammer grew 2 new heads in the past 8 months soi not complaining.

Once I've got the ICP in and managed to figure out this issue I'll be back on the SPS train.

OK guys and girls that is really it for now. I'll keep you updated with my findings (if any) and leave you woth some RIP pics and a FTS of how it looks now.

 

[ylreefer]

Another little update if you will. Was a little bit tired of looking around side panels whenever I needed to reach a controllerto turn anything off. So I finally got around to building a control board. Or installing I should say. Not much of a build as it's a little simple, therfore no build thread for this one.

Just simply a sheet of acrylic cut to size. All I did was measure out the controller locations which I did by mocking them up with bits of paper to the exact size, drill some holes and install the rings which I sprayed blue. Couldn't think of a colour so asked the wife to pick one lol. Hot glued the rings in, stuck 4 magnets to the rear of the board and 4x L shape metal brackets in the cabinet to hold it in.

Behind this is the ATO which is plumbed into an RODI so I won't need to get to this very often. And as its a peninsular I have access to the dosing pump from the open end, as well as the plugs, which worked out really well in fact so bonus there .

Well I leave you with a pic as always. Sorry there's not much but this little project really wasn't much.

OK cool that's all then. Happy reefing.