Aere's 300g Dream Peninsula Build

[Aere]

Hello my fellow reefers!

I am not a novice, but have not had a tank in about 5 years due to a move back then where I had to sell off everything. We have rented since, but just closed on a house at the beginning of this month (May) and it is way past time for me to get back into the hobby that I love so much.

My wife and I have ordered a 300 gallon ( 96 x 30 x 25 ) peninsula from @Joe Glass Cages and team over at glasscages.com. As well as a 100 gallon ( 72 x 18 x 17 ) sump, and a new custom stand and canopy (soft close hinges and everything). And honestly Joe and the Glass Cages team has been amazing, and been there with me through the entire process. I can't say enough about this.

Here is the tank, sump and stand. The stand is going to be amazing, and has soft close hinges, and they are painting it black for me.

Pics of tank being built:

Pics of sump being built:

Equipment list so far to get me going:

Synergy Shadow v2 overflow setup
6 Kessil a360x
2 Geissman 48” T5/LED Fixtures (ATI Blue Bulbs)
3 Icecap Gyre 3000 Pumps (Not sure how I feel on this, or how they will do, or If I should add more, or switch them for something else)
Cor 20 return pump
Reef Octopus 6000sss Skimmer
Apex Controller
Neptune Trident
Typhoon III Extreme 150 RODI
6 40lb bags of aragonite
A boatload of Caribsea Liferock (Mix of regular, shapes, shelves, arches, mushrooms, caves, tree, everything)
Finnex 500 watt heater

Would love feedback or suggestions.

Here is where the tank is going:

The tank is going ON the carpet, I’ve thought this through and have read up all on this, I'll just re-floor around it if I ever change flooring. This is my basement living room/mancave. It gets no direct sunlight at all. I had an electrician install GFCI outlets there (Sideways, don’t ask).

The sump is going below the tank, however I am doing something possibly a little unorthodox. I am plumbing the tank up about 9 feet, straight through the ceiling about 20-30 feet, and down another 9ish feet to my utility room/fish room where I will eventually have a frag setup with a QT tank and water change system and whatever else I decide I need.

Here is my utility room:

This is the part that will come later, but getting the plumbing ran now and will worry about the frag tanks and the rest of that later.

I will be adding some water mixing stations, and storage containers in the short term though, and plumbing my RODI system for the tank in that room.

My goal is a mixed reef system, with lots of amazing corals and fish.

Will update as things come in, but I would love feedback on everything thus far, like equipment choices and possible substitutes or additions. And any advice on that long plumbing run.

Delivery is 3-5 weeks out on tank and stand (custom stand being the holdup)

Thanks! And look forward to getting back into this and the community!

Ben

 

[offtropic]

Looks good! I'll follow along as I'm in the planning stages for large peninsula style as well. Are you planning on just plumbing the utility room for auto water changes and top off? I currently do that on my 90 gallon and it works well but now I just wish I had put my sump in there haha (I hate working under the cabinet!).

 

[Aere]

Looks good! I'll follow along as I'm in the planning stages for large peninsula style as well. Are you planning on just plumbing the utility room for auto water changes and top off? I currently do that on my 90 gallon and it works well but now I just wish I had put my sump in there haha (I hate working under the cabinet!).

I honestly haven't thought that part fully through. Definitely for the water change system but was planning on having the sump, or at least the sump I'm currently buying, under the tank, but I plan on adding frag systems and other tanks in utility room. And plumbing them all together. Just taking it one step at a time, ways off from frags and other tanks. But I wanna get the framework in place.

 

[Dunki]

Looks great !

 

[offtropic]

I honestly haven't thought that part fully through. Definitely for the water change system but was planning on having the sump, or at least the sump I'm currently buying, under the tank, but I plan on adding frag systems and other tanks in utility room. And plumbing them all together. Just taking it one step at a time, ways off from frags and other tanks. But I wanna get the framework in place.

Yeah my issue is that I'm in a split-level (ugh) so the utility room space is extraordinarily limited. If I can figure a good way to expand on that I'll put my sump in there. From what I've been reading in these peninsula threads, give some consideration to the flow for sure. If you want your return pump to supply a chunk of that flow you might need to rethink the cor20 (which I love and use on my 90 gallon system but it is really only good for about 550gph if I close off all manifold valves...normally runs about about 370gph with feeding a carbon reactor and an algae reactor). I'm thinking on a tank your size it will need help or something else entirely.

 

[Devaji]

DUDE! 1st congrats on the new house 2nd congrats on getting "back in" heck of a tank too!
I also have been talking to joe at GC about a big tank too.

fallowing this one!

 

[ycnibrc]

Buy some live rock and seed the tank you will have a diversified biology which will help your tank to sustain coral later.

 

[Hydrored]

Congrats on the new house and build. I would recommend dual return pumps. I have a dedicated one for UV and one return, and the other for second return with a manifold plumbed. It’s always nice to have redundancy also.

will be an awesome build for sure!

 

[Aere]

Yeah my issue is that I'm in a split-level (ugh) so the utility room space is extraordinarily limited. If I can figure a good way to expand on that I'll put my sump in there. From what I've been reading in these peninsula threads, give some consideration to the flow for sure. If you want your return pump to supply a chunk of that flow you might need to rethink the cor20 (which I love and use on my 90 gallon system but it is really only good for about 550gph if I close off all manifold valves...normally runs about about 370gph with feeding a carbon reactor and an algae reactor). I'm thinking on a tank your size it will need help or something else entirely.

Fair points! Going to start with the cor 20, I'll add different pumps when I get the utility room/frag stuff started later on after main display is rocking and rolling and move the cor20 in there.

 

[Aere]

Buy some live rock and seed the tank you will have a diversified biology which will help your tank to sustain coral later.

I'm going to take the slower route this time. Went the live rock route last time. While you definitely get some awesome diversity in the tank, I'm going to try and avoid all the issues that come with it as well. And just slowly add everything I want/need. Going to try and avoid all the pests and nuisances as much as possible with this tank.

 

[Aere]

Congrats on the new house and build. I would recommend dual return pumps. I have a dedicated one for UV and one return, and the other for second return with a manifold plumbed. It’s always nice to have redundancy also.

will be an awesome build for sure!

For sure, I'm just going to start with the cor20, and once I get the fish room going it'll be a different setup. I've already sunk so much dough into this, it'll atleast get me cycling and can guage flow based on that and see. But two returns is a good idea for sure.

 

[Aere]

Some of my rock is in. Stuff is super cool. Lots of shapes and more is on the way.

 

[Devaji]

Some of my rock is in. Stuff is super cool. Lots of shapes and more is on the way.

looking good you will get the best of both worlds with that rock.
it will look pretty good from the start and not that blinding white stuff and looks like you will be able to create some nice scape too!

 

[Aere]

Well we are getting closer, have plumber here now installing the RODI system in the Utility/Fish Room.

Pics:

He is also ripping apart walls and cieling to install drain/return lines to go from tank area to the fish rooms:

Lots of fun going on today!!

Will update with pics as it moves along today. Have a specific setup in mind when all said in done, will be interesting for sure.

 

[Aere]

Tank going over by the sliding glass door, to the right of it a little, I am standing at the doorway to the fish room in the below picture.

Line being fished through the walls from tank area into fish room:

Fish Room:

Little more to go, have to get some more fittings and won’t finish till tomorrow. Drywall and ceiling repair next week.

 

[Devaji]

Tank going over by the sliding glass door, to the right of it a little, I am standing at the doorway to the fish room in the below picture.

Line being fished through the walls from tank area into fish room:

Fish Room:

Little more to go, have to get some more fittings and won’t finish till tomorrow. Drywall and ceiling repair next week.

looking great nothing like ripping apart your house for the reef tank Eh? but you are going to be a happy man once done!

 

[Devaji]

are you going to support the floors before the tank goes in or are you all good there?

 

[Aere]

looking great nothing like ripping apart your house for the reef tank Eh? but you are going to be a happy man once done!

Yeah for sure. My family thinks I'm nuts. And they're probably right. But I've dreamt of doing this for so long. It'll be amazing when all done.

 

[Aere]

are you going to support the floors before the tank goes in or are you all good there?

Its on concrete. Its all good there. Had inspection done a month ago and made sure to bring that up a lot heh.

 

[Devaji]

Its on concrete. Its all good there. Had inspection done a month ago and made sure to bring that up a lot heh.

nice!