New RS Reefer 650 peninsula build.

[ylreefer]

I

Nice bro! You available Friday? I gotta work so I’ll be there at 4:45. My normal time. Need to pick up some fish.

Think I can make that mate yes. Definitely leaving my wallet at home though.

 

[ylreefer]

Hi all. Was just sitting at home bored and looked at the tank. Got thinking would be nice to have the outlet pipe split into two. A quick search on amazon for the twin outlet locline was a fail so decided to use up some of my old grey 1/2" PVC. Wast not want not and all that.

On this p650 the outlet pipes outside diamiter is 23mm. Slightly to big to slide into the 1/2" T fitting so dremmel sander to the rescue and 30 seconds later boom. For the 90 degree bends I flatterned them out with a heart gun and finger and thumb (wearing some workman's gloves I might add), and there you have it. Twin return pipes. None of these are glued so I can swivel the 90's up or down depending on sheer I want the flow. Not the prettiest thing in the tank but in a month or two I'm sure they will be covered in algae so I'm not bothered.

Well there you go, simple quick mod for anyone wondering what size the outlet pipe was.

Don't call me out for not bothering to remove the price on the 90

 

[Brom]

Looking great! Can I pester you for your ec30 opinions? LFS raves about his, about to spring for one. Thanks!

 

[ylreefer]

Looking great! Can I pester you for your ec30 opinions? LFS raves about his, about to spring for one. Thanks!

Hey apologies for the delay.

I'm more than happy with the new skimmer. I've used aqua excel for all my r tracks actually and each one has been better than the last, this model does have a WiFi function however to download the app and use that feature you do need to register, which usually means giving away some personal information or access to that, and for that reason I have ignored this feature.

I like the adjustability with the DC pump and am currently only running it at speed 5 so lots of room for expansion should my nutrient levels go up.

I used to have to run an air line outside to take in fresh air to maintain a PH or 8.2 but as this one has a much larger chamber I'm seeing a instant 8.3 workout the fresh air line to which is a massive bonus.

Nothing really bad to say about it and for the price I paid I would have been hard pushed to find anything better.

I would definitely recommend this skimmer.

 

[ylreefer]

Hi guys and girls, so thought I'd post this just incase anyone is having a similar issue or can help me improve my DIY solution.

So I have all of my electrics, and I mean all 14 plugs, power packs and controllers in the right end cupboard of the 650 along with the 1/4HP chiller. For those who are familiar with this cabinet you'll know the are 2 large cut outs in the end which being a peninsular faces the wall.

Now the issue I was seeing was the hot exhaust air from the chiller was getting sucked back in through the top cut out due to their not being but a few inches between the cabinet and wall. This was resulting in an air temperature inside the cabinet of about 60* centigrade. The chiller was only coming on in the evening thank god after the MH had gone out or it would have reached 70*+ due to the MH ballast.

Needless to say something had to be done. I purchased 2x 6" AC cooling fans which I intended to paralel wire into the chiller fan and attached to the cabinet. Before I did that however I though I'd give a cowboy job a try.

So what I've done is stuck 3/4" thick weather proofing foam around the opening of the lower cut out, pushed the chiller right upto it so as to force all the hot air out from the cabinet, and using foam board created a sort of shelf on the outside between the cabinet and wall in between the two cutouts. What this has done is allowed all the hot air to leave the cabinet but not get sucked back in and be diverted away from. The cabinet.

The result after running the chiller for 1 hour today was anair temp inside the cabinet of31* C.
Definitely not an issue.

I know there has been a few others with questions regarding chiller placement recently so hopefully this one help a few of you out.

The white strip of foamboard down the side is just to stop kitty from getting in the gap, nothing to do with the air flow so you can ignore that. But as you can sit hasn't hindered the overall look of the system.

 

[psumms]

Your question a few weeks back re. condensation on the end cabinet wall near skimmer - I have the exact same issue! In 14 months it has completely rusted the door hinges on that side.

 

[ylreefer]

Your question a few weeks back re. condensation on the end cabinet wall near skimmer - I have the exact same issue! In 14 months it has completely rusted the door hinges on that side.

Hi. I actually noticed that it has happened less frequently and the only thing that has changed in my location is the weather. When my apartment was quiet a bit warmer than the outdoors it seems to be much more obvious, it has been warmer outdoors these days an so we've not had any heating on, thus resulting in almost no condensation inside the cabinet.

I could be totally wrong of course but I have no other explanation. I do plan to put an acrylic lid at lid on the ATO, and if this problem comes back I'll likely add another cut to shape to sit in the ATO support rails. Holding I done have to do that of course though

 

[Walleye34]

Here we go again lol. OK it's more of an upgrade than a new start. So for those of you who already follow my 110g reef build you'll know that two weeks ago I tore down the tank to rescape it, which turned out as good as I could have hoped.

Unfortunately we now have to move to a new apartment . Not all bad though as the title says it all really, so here comes the upgrade to the new 650 shortly. Tank is ordered as well as my DIY lighting rack that I've almost figured out, will be using my current 2x maxspect razor units, 1 70w HID and possibly 2x Orphek 02 12 blue sky LEB light bars if needed.

Filtration will the standard set up for the start which may end up being modified if needed, if anyone is running the 650p and has made any improvements to the standard sump I'd love to see or hear what thoes are . This is the first time I've evert purchased a sump. It's always been DIY so far.

Right that's about it s there's nothing more to show at the mo. But here's the last look at the 110.

Will keep you posted once the tank arrives.
Keep it reef,

How did you get the rocks to stick to the back wall or are they magnets?

 

[ylreefer]

How did you get the rocks to stick to the back wall or are they magnets?

Hey buddy. Yes their actually magnet mounted. These are aquarium system solutions bio active rock. They did a number of different shapes but have since been discontinued. The are still some available online I imagine though.

Hrs a pic of them close up. You can just shout see the magnets on the back here.

 

[Walleye34]

Hey buddy. Yes their actually magnet mounted. These are aquarium system solutions bio active rock. They did a number of different shapes but have since been discontinued. The are still some available online I imagine though.

Hrs a pic of them close up. You can just shout see the magnets on the back here.

Thanks!

 

[ylreefer]

Thanks!

anytime brother.

 

[Devaji]

you have the Red sea pendent for holding the lights correct? I thought I say that on the peninsula resource thread?

if so can I get the inside dems to see if it will hold my lighting ?

 

[ylreefer]

Hey all. Just thought I'd post this up out of excitement even though I've not got them set up yet. I'm talking about lights of course. So I did mention I may be adding 2 orphek led bars if needed. Well as it turns out my hid and 2x MAXSPECT led units were putting out enough light.

As much as I liked the natural look of the 8k MH it was over powering the MAXSPECT and just wasn't giving me the pop I wanted from the corals.

I replaced the MH with my old zetlight ghost sun 5200 SPS LED to see how that would be with the MAXSPECTs. Better but still not 100% happy.

So, this leads up to why we're here. Today I received 2 new LED light units from amazon. I thought I'd give these a try as they were fairly cheap and had lots of good reviews as well as being able to cover the entire aquarium.

Got them installed temporarily but it's night time now and all fish sleeping so ill have to wait till tomorrow to get them set up. In the mean time here's a sneak peak and I'll be sure to leave an update tomorrow once I've got them running with some pics

 

[ylreefer]

Right got the lights on today.

So first impressions was they were packaged very well, solid box with lots of foam inside to keep them safe.

Unit is folded in half and extended is 22" long. Comes with standard hanging kit (which I won't use) and a US plug which I had to cutoff and replace with a 3pin. The units work from 110v to 240v which is nice.

Instructions that are supplied could be better. Just 1 page of basic set up without any real detail, but a video on the website saw me through.

Now the app, so programming the 6 time points is pretty easy once you understand that you need to toggle between the brightness and each time point in order for it to accept the current setting.

I've yet to see them run through this cycle as it's been on only from midday. So will update if they go according to plan,or if not.

So a few pictures then. First is from my couch, blues only, where I mostly enjoy the tank, and it's nice to be able to look at it without any blinding effect from the lights whatsoever.

The second is with just the blues on 100% and the third is with my yellow filter and whits/ blues

All in all I'm happy so far. As far as for coral benefits and longevity go I'll have to see how this goes. Definitely a nicer look than my previous set up. I do however have the sneaky suspension that I may still add a orphek 02 Led blue sky bar or two at some point as these when on more than 50% white do take away from the coral pop.

Apologies for the product photos. I actually forgot to take some so had to snap these from an unboxing vid I did for another club member.

 

[ylreefer]

OK so the day is over and the lights works exactly as programmed. Couldn't be happier with the result. I think it's fair to say value for money so far. And with a 2 year warranty I can't complain.

Since they worked out OK I've removed the zip ties and installed them permanently, should be able to hold the weight of the cat now .

OK well that's all for this update, here's a pic of the final job.

Hopefully this is of some use for anyone in the market for lights and if anyone els has this light I'd be interested to hear how it's performing long term.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07S37H3SF?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[ScottR]

Looks nice! I thought I was up late but you are too. Haha

 

[ylreefer]

H

Looks nice! I thought I was up late but you are too. Haha

Haha yea the cats on heat bro. Noone sleeping

 

[ScottR]

H

Haha yea the cats on heat bro. Noone sleeping

I thought she was just a baby still.

 

[ylreefer]

Hey everyone. Since it's work from home week I thought I'd take a moment to give a long offer due update on the 650. In fact it's been so long I came remember where we were. My bad .

So let's start with live stock. We'll, unfortunately not a great deal of change there I think. A couple of tube anemones, a few SPS frags and I do belive a gold plate coral. (might have already seen that). I'll add some pics at the end of this.

We currently have 2 new fishery friends in QT, miss purple tang and a sohal tang. But of which came from a velvet infested system but are now doing very well and eat like a Dyson on full charge.

I added an external ATO upgrade and got the second doser online which is now dosing redseas coral colours programme A/B/C/D. I've heard good and not so good things about this so it's a bit of an experiment, as you all probably know I like to experiment so you don't have to lol. I'll keep you all posted on this. I am keeping a monthly record for my local reef club. Although some other changes have been made to the system so to be fair it'll be difficult to prove their worth now.

Water quality has been testing good from day 1,with no3 only reaching high of 5ppm and p04 at 0.1. However, I have currently had a bit of a GHA bloom so am in the middle of that fight, I have increased my carbon dosing and cutback on coral feedings, tested with my new hanna yesterday and reading was 0.04. So hopefully I'll start to see the algea slowly vanish.

As for my last post regarding the LED panels I was very haply with, well, I finally got hold of a par meter and did some mapping. To my surprise having them on at 100% on both blue and white channels only gave amax Par reading at the water serface of 213, and 50 on the sand bed, now as much as some corals would be OK with that it was not aesthetically pleasing. So obviously they have to go.

The replacement for these is a giesemann stellar t5 hybrid with 2 Radion XR30 G4 units when they arrive in 2 weeks. I also have 1 Maxspect razor to plonk on the center if that's not enough light.

Now. Let me tell you, day 1 of the t5 unit hanging we had a disaster. Yes that's right. The entire unit decided to fall off its hangers and land in the tank.. Thankfully I was sitting right next to it at the time. Totally my fault. The cables I used to hang it had a plastic costing, over time the weight of the unit pulling stripped off the plastic and allowed the able (which was not gripped by the end cap) to slide right through. A little hard to explain without pics so I'll try to upload one FYI. Done make the sales mistakes . Strip the protective cover before clamping the cables . Because taking apart 2 led panels and drying them out is no fun trust me .

They only other addition is a check valve to the return line. Not for any other reason than to allow me not to have to remember to turn off the skimmer when the pumps are in feed mode. A bit of a cowboy job, but it's in the sump so I past caring now lol. If it works I'm all for it. And it certainly does that.

So I guess that's really all for this update then. Hope you're all keeping safe and reefing like crazy during this difficult time.

Catch ya'll on the next update.

Oooo. I almost forgot the biggest change of all. Lol. We're now bare bottom . We'll almost,one more water change away. I love the look of sand. But keeping it white was just to much. So I've done the unthinkable and gone back to glass. And I have to say, I'm actually liking it again. Never thought I'd say that. But I find I actually focus more on the corals now than I did when it looked "more natural" so yea. That's it for this time. .

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Hey everyone. Since it's work from home week I thought I'd take a moment to give a long offer due update on the 650. In fact it's been so long I came remember where we were. My bad .

So let's start with live stock. We'll, unfortunately not a great deal of change there I think. A couple of tube anemones, a few SPS frags and I do belive a gold plate coral. (might have already seen that). I'll add some pics at the end of this.

We currently have 2 new fishery friends in QT, miss purple tang and a sohal tang. But of which came from a velvet infested system but are now doing very well and eat like a Dyson on full charge.

I added an external ATO upgrade and got the second doser online which is now dosing redseas coral colours programme A/B/C/D. I've heard good and not so good things about this so it's a bit of an experiment, as you all probably know I like to experiment so you don't have to lol. I'll keep you all posted on this. I am keeping a monthly record for my local reef club. Although some other changes have been made to the system so to be fair it'll be difficult to prove their worth now.

Water quality has been testing good from day 1,with no3 only reaching high of 5ppm and p04 at 0.1. However, I have currently had a bit of a GHA bloom so am in the middle of that fight, I have increased my carbon dosing and cutback on coral feedings, tested with my new hanna yesterday and reading was 0.04. So hopefully I'll start to see the algea slowly vanish.

As for my last post regarding the LED panels I was very haply with, well, I finally got hold of a par meter and did some mapping. To my surprise having them on at 100% on both blue and white channels only gave amax Par reading at the water serface of 213, and 50 on the sand bed, now as much as some corals would be OK with that it was not aesthetically pleasing. So obviously they have to go.

The replacement for these is a giesemann stellar t5 hybrid with 2 Radion XR30 G4 units when they arrive in 2 weeks. I also have 1 Maxspect razor to plonk on the center if that's not enough light.

Now. Let me tell you, day 1 of the t5 unit hanging we had a disaster. Yes that's right. The entire unit decided to fall off its hangers and land in the tank.. Thankfully I was sitting right next to it at the time. Totally my fault. The cables I used to hang it had a plastic costing, over time the weight of the unit pulling stripped off the plastic and allowed the able (which was not gripped by the end cap) to slide right through. A little hard to explain without pics so I'll try to upload one FYI. Done make the sales mistakes . Strip the protective cover before clamping the cables . Because taking apart 2 led panels and drying them out is no fun trust me .

They only other addition is a check valve to the return line. Not for any other reason than to allow me not to have to remember to turn off the skimmer when the pumps are in feed mode. A bit of a cowboy job, but it's in the sump so I past caring now lol. If it works I'm all for it. And it certainly does that.

So I guess that's really all for this update then. Hope you're all keeping safe and reefing like crazy during this difficult time.

Catch ya'll on the next update.

Oooo. I almost forgot the biggest change of all. Lol. We're now bare bottom . We'll almost,one more water change away. I love the look of sand. But keeping it white was just to much. So I've done the unthinkable and gone back to glass. And I have to say, I'm actually liking it again. Never thought I'd say that. But I find I actually focus more on the corals now than I did when it looked "more natural" so yea. That's it for this time. .

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