Terry's 180 SPS Peninsula Upgrade

FireEMT · Jun 27, 2016

I love the tank, great job so far and I hope everything continues for you. I just ordered a PAR meter as well because I also have 3 kessils over my tank and I think I have them set a bit high. Just for reference I ordered the new Apogee SQ-520 which provides accurate readings for LEDs(full spectrum). Its a unit that hooks to a laptop but its cheaper and has a few more features than the MQ-520 which has its own head unit. If you go to apogee's site they have some really informational videos on LED PAR meters and the reasoning behind the inaccuracies of the units that aren't full spectrum. Only problem is they are backordered until mid July but will be shipping out all backorders then. Good luck with everything and have enjoyed following along.

Terry4505 · Jul 2, 2016

Some more updates!

I finished the integrated refugium in the basement. The drains now flow into the fuge, then into the old sump:

And two pics of the tank in the living room:

sawdonkey · Jul 2, 2016

Love the tank and the dog bed! I really like the look of tanks that you can see all the way through. My next build, which is way down the road, will be some type of peninsula.

Terry4505 · Jul 17, 2016

So... I couple of quick updates tonight.

When I first installed the refugium, I should have T'd off so that I could isolate the fuge, and do water changes without turning off the return pump. I rectified that mistake tonight.

I used flex hose, because the pipes didn't line up perfectly, and I didn't want to mess around with a ton of elbows and what not:

By opening the two valves running vertically, then closing the two valves running horizontally (it has to be in that order, or I run the risk of flooding the living room!) I can isolate the fuge and do a quick water change. I ran a test tonight and it worked perfectly.

And some update shots of the tank:

revhtree · Jul 18, 2016

I like it! Great job on the fuge!

dougdog · Jul 23, 2016

Terry I didn't notice when you got in my head while I was sleeping dreaming about how would be my perfect tank. This is exactly what I want to do for my tank upgrade. Unfortunately for my I don't have room for a fish tank

dougdog · Jul 23, 2016

You probably had shared it already but what are the tank dimensions? Could you share your lighting schedule?. I love your tank so much that I have it bookmarked it in my browser and I open it every day.

Terry4505 · Jul 27, 2016

Tank is a standard 180- 72"x 24"x 24"

Lighting is:

Moon lights on at 5 am, off at 8 am, back on at 8pm off at 12 am
Kessils on at 6 am off at 10 pm
T5s on at 10 am off at 6 pm

Terry4505 · Jul 29, 2016

Quick update:

The Fuge is humming along. The macro algae is growing like crazy. I added five mangroves, and a new UFO led grow light from EBay:

And a updated full-tank shot:

WDKegge · Jul 29, 2016

Just read through your whole thread, great build, tank looks amazing. I currently run gen 3 radions and I love the control but I really miss the insane shimmer of my kessils.

The living room must look insane at night with the vaulted ceiling, I know when I had kessils the shimmer would jump out of the tank and up the walls, loved that.

Terry4505 · Jul 30, 2016

That's exactly right. The tank at night gets all of the attention. The TV stays off. I just sit and watch the tank.

FireEMT · Jul 31, 2016

Just curious what your lighting schedule is. I have roughly the same size tank with three kessils but I don't have the T5s. I bought the new apogee PAR meter and the numbers were lower than I thought they would be. My tank is 60" long so I thought they would be more than enough light. All the SPS seem to be doing fine though. Its my first tank so I'm kind of questioning myself.

Clayton Jessup · Aug 8, 2016

Wow this tank has progressed so much from when I first saw it. I have to say Terry4505 it is a amazing build and DT, I absolutely love the light and Tank is breath taking ! You have given me so many ideas .. Round of applause amazing job...[emoji12][emoji106][emoji12][emoji106][emoji848][emoji848][emoji12][emoji12][emoji39]

Terry4505 · Aug 8, 2016

Lighting is:

Moon lights on at 5 am, off at 8 am, back on at 8pm off at 12 am
Kessils on at 6 am off at 10 pm
T5s on at 10 am off at 6 pm

Clayton Jessup said:
Wow this tank has progressed so much from when I first saw it. I have to say Terry4505 it is a amazing build and DT, I absolutely love the light and Tank is breath taking ! You have given me so many ideas .. Round of applause amazing job...[emoji12][emoji106][emoji12][emoji106][emoji848][emoji848][emoji12][emoji12][emoji39]

Thank you! I am incredibly proud of this tank. I snapped some update pics;

I also added a precautionary UV sterilizer to the system. I've read a ton about them, and I know people are split on their effectiveness. I went with the Coralife 36W 12X. I am running it off of my manifold. It was/is difficult to determine the flow through it, so for now I am just using a best guess:

Terry4505 · Aug 10, 2016

And... the tinkering continues.

You may have noticed in previous pictures, that we had yet to decide on a color for the island in the kitchen, hence the stripes of color.

Well, we finally decided on a color. After painting the island, I decided to paint the inside of the stand the same color:

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

FrankAbagnale · Aug 10, 2016

Looks great! Nicely done.

Ortho281 · Aug 28, 2016

Love this tank! Very clever what you did with the stand!

Clayton Jessup · Aug 29, 2016

What a amazing job , you have every right to be proud of this beautiful aquarium .. Amazing job, it's a very cleaver way to tie the stand and island together.. [emoji12][emoji12]

Terry4505 · Sep 25, 2016

Update time!

The tank is doing well. I had an AEFW issue I had to deal with, by pulling all of the SPS and QT-ing and dipping in Bayer every 5th day. It seems to have worked. All of the corals are back in the tank and things are recovering nicely. I lost a few pieces, but mostly things were fine. Color seemed to bounce back in things like the slimer pretty quickly.

Aside from that, I have just been keeping up maintenance, adding a few fish and corals, and really enjoying the tank;

dsa

I absolutely love having the sump in the basement. I've been running this tank on a Jebao DCS9000 for almost a year with no issues. I take the pump apart once every few months and clean it. We are in talks with a contractor about finishing the basement, which will make the fish area a separate room, which I think will be good. I added a vent fan over the sump that vents outside and put in on a timer so it runs every 4 hours, for 4 hours. The basement is noticeably less humid.

I completely stopped using GFO a few months ago and the Fuge has taken off. Phosphate sits around .02-.06 on a Hanna ULR checker

Leaves are budding!

Janci · Sep 25, 2016

Terry4505 said:
Update time!

The tank is doing well. I had an AEFW issue I had to deal with, by pulling all of the SPS and QT-ing and dipping in Bayer every 5th day. It seems to have worked. All of the corals are back in the tank and things are recovering nicely. I lost a few pieces, but mostly things were fine. Color seemed to bounce back in things like the slimer pretty quickly.

Great tank.
I see you are dosing some Red Sea products? Are those the coral colors?
May I know how you dose? Based on Ca consumption?