Waterbox Peninsula Mini 25 Build

[Gary777]

A couple of better pics. One with a yellow filter and one with the light just on 'warm white' ...

An excuse for a visit to my LFS, I need to get a couple of snails to go to work on the diatoms.

 

[Gary777]

Things are still very positive. The brown diatoms have 90% gone already. That is without adding any snails.

I also bought a couple of easy to keep corals from Ebay. Some GSP and Rasta zoas. They are on a small island to see how they get on. I have slightly increased the flow from the Nero 3 and upped the lights a little too. The first 2 corals arrived with the heat pack not working so they were very cold. There is some life though so hopefully they will come good. The zoas are on a small piece of rock on the island so if they can be removed easily and glued to the main rock.

 

[Hamblin]

Looks great. I'm still waiting for mine. Been told further 6-8 weeks. Oh well, gives me more time to save for a few bits. Got rock and sand so far..

 

[Gary777]

Looks great. I'm still waiting for mine. Been told further 6-8 weeks. Oh well, gives me more time to save for a few bits. Got rock and sand so far..

It will be worth the wait. I have had a great time setting up mine.

I added 3 hermit crabs a few days ago. Otherwise just taking things slowly.

 

[jcolliii]

Love the rockscape - that should fill in very nicely!

 

[Hamblin]

It will be worth the wait. I have had a great time setting up mine.

I added 3 hermit crabs a few days ago. Otherwise just taking things slowly.

Ah nice one. Any photos? Hope you had a good Christmas, I ordered my Nero 3 the other day on a 10% sale as a treat for myself! I still haven't decided on the light yet. How you finding your return pump? Quiet?

 

[Gary777]

Ah nice one. Any photos? Hope you had a good Christmas, I ordered my Nero 3 the other day on a 10% sale as a treat for myself! I still haven't decided on the light yet. How you finding your return pump? Quiet?

Hi. Christmas was good, same for you I hope.

I have a few more zoas coming next week I will try and take some photos when they are in.

Otherwise everything is OK. Diatoms are back, which is a bit disappointing but no problem. Nitrates are 4 or 5 ppm, but phosphate dropped to 0.01. I have some Reef Roids on order to feed the zoas which I believe will also increase the phosphates. I am also feeding pellets as well as frozen food for the same reason.

The 3 hermit crabs, quickly became 2. 2 of them were of similar size and I think one killed the other. I don't really see them, they only come out when the lights are off.

The Nero 3 is great and I would recommend it. The Jecod DC pump also remains reliable and quiet so far. The Maxspect Jump LED is a great light, but I don't like the mount that comes with it. If they sold a better one I would buy it.

 

[Hamblin]

Yeh good Christmas thanks Gary. Quiet but nice and chilled. Look forward to seeing some more pics of your tank. Mine should be arriving next week

 

[gonz]

I love your scape and the caves underneath - wow

 

[Gary777]

Here is an update.

I did lose my black and white clown. He always ate like a horse but didn't grow and started to quickly get very thin and died before I had a chance to do anything. I got another clown to pair with my remaining one and they got on great from the start. That was a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I had to return one of my hermit crabs. He was an electric blue hermit which I now know is one of the most aggressive types. I am sure he killed the other hermit crab I bought at the same time that was similar in size, that was on day one. This week I picked up a few astrea snails and a conch. I caught the hermit crab wrestling an astrea snail on the first night so that was the final straw. He was returned to my LFS yesterday. I even got a tub of marine pellets in exchange which was good of him.

I have added another 2 zoa frags. Best are the radioactive dragon eyes which are a great colour. I also got a type of fire and ice zoa, but they have not been as colourful as I hoped. Early days maybe. Finally I got a small neon candy cane frag.

I am having a problem with diatoms which seem to be slowly improving. They are still forming on the sand everyday but not so much on the rock. The new snails and conch should help.

I also had phosphates drop to zero which has been fixed by feeding Reef Roids to the corals. Nitrates are present but also low. I think the diatoms feed on those making them lower. Also the bio load on the tank is pretty low with just 2 small clowns and a small royal gramma. The royal gramma is so territorial that I might not be able to add a fourth fish now though, but will see how it goes.

Here is, the now standard for me, poor quality photo. When the diatoms go I will attempt some better ones ...

 

[Hamblin]

Here is an update.

I did lose my black and white clown. He always ate like a horse but didn't grow and started to quickly get very thin and died before I had a chance to do anything. I got another clown to pair with my remaining one and they got on great from the start. That was a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I had to return one of my hermit crabs. He was an electric blue hermit which I now know is one of the most aggressive types. I am sure he killed the other hermit crab I bought at the same time that was similar in size, that was on day one. This week I picked up a few astrea snails and a conch. I caught the hermit crab wrestling an astrea snail on the first night so that was the final straw. He was returned to my LFS yesterday. I even got a tub of marine pellets in exchange which was good of him.

I have added another 2 zoa frags. Best are the radioactive dragon eyes which are a great colour. I also got a type of fire and ice zoa, but they have not been as colourful as I hoped. Early days maybe. Finally I got a small neon candy cane frag.

I am having a problem with diatoms which seem to be slowly improving. They are still forming on the sand everyday but not so much on the rock. The new snails and conch should help.

I also had phosphates drop to zero which has been fixed by feeding Reef Roids to the corals. Nitrates are present but also low. I think the diatoms feed on those making them lower. Also the bio load on the tank is pretty low with just 2 small clowns and a small royal gramma. The royal gramma is so territorial that I might not be able to add a fourth fish now though, but will see how it goes.

Here is, the now standard for me, poor quality photo. When the diatoms go I will attempt some better ones ...

Thanks for the update. Tank looks nice. Sorry about the clown. So my tank has arrived, looks awesome and its only in the box! I now have 90% of what I need to get started. Need to get an ATO.
However, I have decided to put the tank in the dining room and we are in the process of redecorating that room so waiting on plasterer so may be a couple of months before I have mine up and running. I'm going to have to be patient..

 

[Gary777]

Thanks for the update. Tank looks nice. Sorry about the clown. So my tank has arrived, looks awesome and its only in the box! I now have 90% of what I need to get started. Need to get an ATO.
However, I have decided to put the tank in the dining room and we are in the process of redecorating that room so waiting on plasterer so may be a couple of months before I have mine up and running. I'm going to have to be patient..

I am getting a Reefloat ATO hopefully delivered today or tomorrow. They are made by a guy in the UK and look like the best available. It uses a sensor that actually sits on the outside glass and detects the water level with a sensor. Lot's of redundancy features too. It is £113 delivered right now, but the guy has to become VAT registered in the next few days so I believe the price might be going up by £10 or so next week.

Might be worth a look if you are planning on buying one soon.

 

[Gary777]

A slightly better photo with all 3 fish in view.

 

[LgTas]

Coming along nicely. My local LFS has started stocking these and I'm considering getting one for my desk.

 

[Gary777]

I received and set up the Reefloat ATO. It's very impressive. It works using a sensor which is held on the outside of the glass by a plastic coated magnetic (which is the only thing in the water). The sensor is not optical so it doesn't need to be on clear glass. It works fine on the blacked out filter section of an AIO tank.

Not having an optical sensor or a float switch in the water is a big advantage. No moving parts or things to be blocked by snails or whatever.

The sensor has a blue light which is lit when it detects the water level is high enough. When it detects the level has dropped the light goes out and if the level has been low for 3 seconds the pump runs until the correct level is reached. The 3 second check is there so if you are working in the sump area and causing waves the ATO will not keep starting up. This is more a feature for people with large sumps rather than AIO tanks of course.

You can set a safety time for the pump to run which defaults to 10 seconds out of the box but can be adjusted. The pump will not run beyond this time and if it reaches it, an alarm sounds and the ATO is now shut off until you manually press the reset button on the controller.

I'm happy I can finally retire my plastic manual top off jug.

 

[bherbold8]

Hi reefers! I recently ordered my 25G mini peninsula In typical fashion I made the purchase before totally planning the build. I really want a 10 gallon sump to house equipment, chaeto, etc. Now i'm wondering if it didn't make sense to buy an AOI if i wanted a sump I haven't been able to find examples of this tank with a sump, is it possible/does it make sense? Thanks in advance, i'm beyond excited to get back into the hobby!

 

[Lerequin]

Hi reefers! I recently ordered my 25G mini peninsula In typical fashion I made the purchase before totally planning the build. I really want a 10 gallon sump to house equipment, chaeto, etc. Now i'm wondering if it didn't make sense to buy an AOI if i wanted a sump I haven't been able to find examples of this tank with a sump, is it possible/does it make sense? Thanks in advance, i'm beyond excited to get back into the hobby!

Oh congrats! Well, do you have a diamond drill bit? You could drill the tank and use the integrated filter zone as an ATO reservoir. Otherwise Water-box just announced smaller peninsulas with a sump.

 

[bherbold8]

Were you able to fix the issue with the light? Thinking about ordering one this week

 

[Gary777]

Were you able to fix the issue with the light? Thinking about ordering one this week

Yes the light is fine. I was being a bit OCD in wanting the light to sit perfectly straight. I have never been able to get it absolutely right, even padding it with a piece of acrylic to make the glass thicker. It's good enough though.

The light itself with the app to control it is very good. It's a great price compared to other similar lights.

 

[350DRVR]

More progress today with a pair of clowns added and the Jumpguard mesh lid built. My happiness with the stock pump was short lived as that is now also pretty loud after being fine for a day. I have ordered a Jecod DCS-1200 as a final throw of the dice. Not 100% sure it will fit the the return pump chamber which is too small for this size tank. It's the same as the Cube 10 and they should have taken some space from the middle chamber to give more options of return pumps to use.

2 decent photos of the tank follow, with a pretty terrible photo of the new fish.

I like your aquascape. Looks like a lot of places to swim and hide.

Which lid is that and how do you like it? I’ve modified my Sicce 1.5 for my 25 Peninsula build. Seems to work very well with a Random flow generator so far. I wish the pump chamber was just a little bigger to give us more options.

Will continue to follow and see your progress, nice work so far.