nkkm
Active Member
Hi All
Im currently in the process of preparing for the delivery of my Innovative Marine 200 EXT Peninsula. This will be my 3rd tank since starting back in 2010, going from a 50 cube to a 150 I have had setup for years. It's truly been a hobby of ups and downs. Every time I think I am going to give up it pulls you right back in.
I always had a plan to upgrade to a peninsula when we bought a place and we finally moved last year. Of course I didn't think through where a tank would go and ended up in the unfortunate situation that it would have to go on a second floor with a finished room underneath. The big problem was what to do about the weight. After giving up on the idea for a few months and running my old tank in the garage I started to look into options for supporting the tank without causing aesthetic issues in the downstairs room. The biggest issue is the joists run parallel with the only spot the tank could go and the span of the room is 18ft. Ultimately I decided to pull the drywall from the ceiling and with help from my good friend @Dipan Desai we began the task of enforcing and sistering the joists.
We ended up adding six more 12x2 joists and sister two to each of the existing three joists that will support the tank. So effectively having three 12x6.
Next on the list was to order the tank. When Innovative Marine finally dropped the price after the massive increase during covid, I jumped on it. Eventually went with the 200 EXT Peninsula with stand and their new sump. I was able to go to see it all at the offices before ordering. The only issue being the 12-16 week wait. I ordered on November 6th, 2022 so going on 14 weeks. So maybe only a couple of weeks left but the wait times on their website seems to be going up so hopefully it isn't delayed.
The tank will go in our living room but I will be plumbing through the wall and having the sump and frag tank in the garage. The goal for this build was to try to do everything to make maintenance easy and leave as little mess around the tank to keep the wife happy
The next project was to create an area for all that in the garage. I decided to basically build a large stand which would have an area for the sump, ATO and equipment underneath and space on top for a 48" lowboy frag tank as well as an area for all the testing equipment etc.
Whilst I was at it I built another stand for a water mixing station. Even though the last couple of years I have moved away from water changes, I still think its necessary to do them every now and then and the last thing I want to do is be carrying 5G buckets around. I also wanted to automate the ability to fill up my ATO reservoir.
Im currently in the process of preparing for the delivery of my Innovative Marine 200 EXT Peninsula. This will be my 3rd tank since starting back in 2010, going from a 50 cube to a 150 I have had setup for years. It's truly been a hobby of ups and downs. Every time I think I am going to give up it pulls you right back in.
I always had a plan to upgrade to a peninsula when we bought a place and we finally moved last year. Of course I didn't think through where a tank would go and ended up in the unfortunate situation that it would have to go on a second floor with a finished room underneath. The big problem was what to do about the weight. After giving up on the idea for a few months and running my old tank in the garage I started to look into options for supporting the tank without causing aesthetic issues in the downstairs room. The biggest issue is the joists run parallel with the only spot the tank could go and the span of the room is 18ft. Ultimately I decided to pull the drywall from the ceiling and with help from my good friend @Dipan Desai we began the task of enforcing and sistering the joists.
We ended up adding six more 12x2 joists and sister two to each of the existing three joists that will support the tank. So effectively having three 12x6.
Next on the list was to order the tank. When Innovative Marine finally dropped the price after the massive increase during covid, I jumped on it. Eventually went with the 200 EXT Peninsula with stand and their new sump. I was able to go to see it all at the offices before ordering. The only issue being the 12-16 week wait. I ordered on November 6th, 2022 so going on 14 weeks. So maybe only a couple of weeks left but the wait times on their website seems to be going up so hopefully it isn't delayed.
The tank will go in our living room but I will be plumbing through the wall and having the sump and frag tank in the garage. The goal for this build was to try to do everything to make maintenance easy and leave as little mess around the tank to keep the wife happy
The next project was to create an area for all that in the garage. I decided to basically build a large stand which would have an area for the sump, ATO and equipment underneath and space on top for a 48" lowboy frag tank as well as an area for all the testing equipment etc.
Whilst I was at it I built another stand for a water mixing station. Even though the last couple of years I have moved away from water changes, I still think its necessary to do them every now and then and the last thing I want to do is be carrying 5G buckets around. I also wanted to automate the ability to fill up my ATO reservoir.
