reefadam
Active Member
I have not had a personal tank set up at my house for the past couple years after a catastrophe claimed my 300 gallon (3 day power shutdown over high winds, while out of town and no cell service, luckily my brother was able to rescue a lot of the livestock). However, with the recent birth of my first child, I felt I had to set one up.
We had an unused space under the stairs I figured would be perfect. However, depending on the height of the system, I was limited to around 36-40” to not have it stick out past the edge of the stairs. Because this area is in the center of our home, I knew it had to be peninsula style.
Red Sea launched the new 350 peninsula shortly after I began looking, so after double checking measurements and using their online visualization tool, I ordered the tank immediately after it was released.
This location also meant that I would need power, so in the time it took for the tank to ship, I pulled power for four new plugs to the intended location.
I also used the time to build my aqua scape, for this I used dried shelf rock that I had acquired over the years and set aside as my favorite pieces, some of which had come from my previous tank. Knowing the tank was intended to be viewed from 3 sides, I wanted to still make sure I provided hiding spots and plenty of caves so that fish and inverts would feel comfortable. I worked on the scape for a few days to get something I was happy with, propping the rocks up on boxes and buckets for temporary support before using 2 part underwater epoxy to secure the final structure. I’ve always found the epoxy by itself to not be that “sticky” so I always use it in conjunction with cyanoacrylate gel / frag glue.
I did not have the final dimensions when I actually started building the structure, so when I actually got it in-tank I noticed it was a little too close to the front glass if I positioned it down the middle as originally intended. Rather than be too frustrated, I just angled the whole structure slightly, which I found to be much more aesthetically pleasing, giving me ample clearance all around and a large focal sand bed area.
I definitely should have soaked the dry rock in RO water before setting up, because after I built the structure I didn’t have a container large enough to do the whole thing, and brushed the task aside. I would later come to regret this decision. Haha
I added 4x 20lb bags live sand, classic Fiji pink. Later after some movement of the sand bed due to flow, I added another 10lbs and feel that gave me the appropriate depth I wanted.
I did briefly play around with a SCWD, (switching current water director), as with the Red Sea plumbing design, there are 2 return nozzles that can each be fed individually via two different pumps, or by a single using a Y or T, or. So with just some soft tubing, I was able to easily install it. I also felt with the peninsula design, the effects on flow would be more noticeable. While the tank was cycling, I put in a long fake freshwater plant decoration so I could observe and experiment with flow patterns throughout the tank.
Ultimately, I ended up removing it to run the one return constantly via the 2 stock returns. I felt this gave me a much higher overall flow rate without the restriction, which I feel outweighed the benefits of the switching current. I may revisit this with a stronger pump, or if I ever upgrade to a controllable DC pump which would allow for a lot of fine tuning. I’m on a mission for as few in-tank power heads as possible while still having a dynamic flow (tho I know that can be a bit oxymoronic in a reef tank).
I added the bacteria and starter ammonia and let things go, however I had an “ugly phase” / pea soup for over a month. After testing the water, I found the phosphate had spiked to a 0.93 via Hanna checker. All I could surmise was this it was leaching from the old, dry, live-rock I used, tho it was still a pretty shocking level. I used seachem phosgaurd to drop the Phosphate down to a manageable level, as well as running poly filter media to help absorb any other stray contaminates that may have leached in.
I added the first fish, 5 chromis and 2 clowns, a month in well after the ammonia and nitrite spikes had subsided. The tank still fluctuated with various stages of cloudy water for the next few weeks, which I suspect could’ve been remedied with a larger skimmer.
The first corals went in at around the 2 month mark and were a selection of zoanthid frags and mushrooms, which have done great from the start, since then have been gradually adding more pieces from my frag/ qt tank.
I’m currently only running one of the Reef LED 90s at around 65% while the corals acclimate; the other one for this tank is currently being used on the frag tank until I can buy an additional one. I’m pretty impressed with how well lit the tank is off of just 1 light though. I didn’t plan on keeping the frag tank going after the tank was established, however am quickly discovering…. That is not the way haha
Nothing else too fancy equipment wise:
- Sicce Syncra 5.0 return pump (1321gph, estimated 750-950gph after head loss),
- MP40 as the sole powerhead for now,
-Vertex Somatic skimmer,
- heater
- small media reactor.
I also have the new Red Sea ATO and JBJ maxum battery backup air pump I still need to install.
Media wise just running carbon and clear fx pro.
.
We had an unused space under the stairs I figured would be perfect. However, depending on the height of the system, I was limited to around 36-40” to not have it stick out past the edge of the stairs. Because this area is in the center of our home, I knew it had to be peninsula style.
Red Sea launched the new 350 peninsula shortly after I began looking, so after double checking measurements and using their online visualization tool, I ordered the tank immediately after it was released.
This location also meant that I would need power, so in the time it took for the tank to ship, I pulled power for four new plugs to the intended location.
I also used the time to build my aqua scape, for this I used dried shelf rock that I had acquired over the years and set aside as my favorite pieces, some of which had come from my previous tank. Knowing the tank was intended to be viewed from 3 sides, I wanted to still make sure I provided hiding spots and plenty of caves so that fish and inverts would feel comfortable. I worked on the scape for a few days to get something I was happy with, propping the rocks up on boxes and buckets for temporary support before using 2 part underwater epoxy to secure the final structure. I’ve always found the epoxy by itself to not be that “sticky” so I always use it in conjunction with cyanoacrylate gel / frag glue.
I did not have the final dimensions when I actually started building the structure, so when I actually got it in-tank I noticed it was a little too close to the front glass if I positioned it down the middle as originally intended. Rather than be too frustrated, I just angled the whole structure slightly, which I found to be much more aesthetically pleasing, giving me ample clearance all around and a large focal sand bed area.
I definitely should have soaked the dry rock in RO water before setting up, because after I built the structure I didn’t have a container large enough to do the whole thing, and brushed the task aside. I would later come to regret this decision. Haha
I added 4x 20lb bags live sand, classic Fiji pink. Later after some movement of the sand bed due to flow, I added another 10lbs and feel that gave me the appropriate depth I wanted.
I did briefly play around with a SCWD, (switching current water director), as with the Red Sea plumbing design, there are 2 return nozzles that can each be fed individually via two different pumps, or by a single using a Y or T, or. So with just some soft tubing, I was able to easily install it. I also felt with the peninsula design, the effects on flow would be more noticeable. While the tank was cycling, I put in a long fake freshwater plant decoration so I could observe and experiment with flow patterns throughout the tank.
Ultimately, I ended up removing it to run the one return constantly via the 2 stock returns. I felt this gave me a much higher overall flow rate without the restriction, which I feel outweighed the benefits of the switching current. I may revisit this with a stronger pump, or if I ever upgrade to a controllable DC pump which would allow for a lot of fine tuning. I’m on a mission for as few in-tank power heads as possible while still having a dynamic flow (tho I know that can be a bit oxymoronic in a reef tank).
I added the bacteria and starter ammonia and let things go, however I had an “ugly phase” / pea soup for over a month. After testing the water, I found the phosphate had spiked to a 0.93 via Hanna checker. All I could surmise was this it was leaching from the old, dry, live-rock I used, tho it was still a pretty shocking level. I used seachem phosgaurd to drop the Phosphate down to a manageable level, as well as running poly filter media to help absorb any other stray contaminates that may have leached in.
I added the first fish, 5 chromis and 2 clowns, a month in well after the ammonia and nitrite spikes had subsided. The tank still fluctuated with various stages of cloudy water for the next few weeks, which I suspect could’ve been remedied with a larger skimmer.
The first corals went in at around the 2 month mark and were a selection of zoanthid frags and mushrooms, which have done great from the start, since then have been gradually adding more pieces from my frag/ qt tank.
I’m currently only running one of the Reef LED 90s at around 65% while the corals acclimate; the other one for this tank is currently being used on the frag tank until I can buy an additional one. I’m pretty impressed with how well lit the tank is off of just 1 light though. I didn’t plan on keeping the frag tank going after the tank was established, however am quickly discovering…. That is not the way haha
Nothing else too fancy equipment wise:
- Sicce Syncra 5.0 return pump (1321gph, estimated 750-950gph after head loss),
- MP40 as the sole powerhead for now,
-Vertex Somatic skimmer,
- heater
- small media reactor.
I also have the new Red Sea ATO and JBJ maxum battery backup air pump I still need to install.
Media wise just running carbon and clear fx pro.
.
