Dustin's 180 gallon peninsula aquarium (input wanted)
 

Well we finally got a saltwater store in red deer so I am getting back into the hobby after being away for over three years...

Equipment list
Euro-braced 3 sided star fire tank (currently being built)
DIY metal stand
Bubble Magus Curve A9 (new dc model)
2 X Jebao RW-20
Jebao DCS 9000 return pump
South Seas Base Rock by CaribSea
Jebao 4 channel doser
and 3 Full spectrum 120watt Chinese led lights

Anyways on to the stand...

Stand underway
 

Had a bunch of old metal laying around the farm so I decided to put some to use... Not sure if this stand is built well enough but I basically copied what the store had...


First Cutting all the Angle Iron to be used for the top and bottom


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qp...U=w800-h600-no

As you can see I had to cut notches out for it to fit together

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Gx...s=w800-h600-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zl...w=w450-h600-no

Getting everything squared and welding it... as you can see I'm not a professional by any means...


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8t...A=w800-h600-no


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/t8...s=w450-h600-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/T-...o=w450-h600-no

Top and bottom done, I made the bottom 5 inches longer to accommodate my sump to stick directly under the external overflow

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oI...U=w450-h600-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/H7...w=w800-h600-no

And Now its ready for Sandblasting and Paint

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/js...s=w450-h600-no

I am going to paint it later on today so let me know if you have any suggestions so I can change it now rather than after its pretty...

Looks awesome! Maybe add some angled support for sway?

I've been on the fence with that... I think I might want a little bit of flex in the stand as so it sits level

I would add some angle supports and shim it as needed las opposed to accounting for flex in the frame

I checked out a couple professionally build stands that the company that is building my tank built... and they used much weaker angle iron and square tubing with no shear bracing ether, I used 2" angle iron and 3/16" thick 1 1/2" square tubing, the lower angle iron also works as a mini shear bracing... once I get the weight of the tank on I'll double check everything... But I got it painted today..

First a couple coats of primer

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bl...k=w859-h644-no

Then some HOK base coat ( had some left over )

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9B...4=w859-h644-no

And lastly clear

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2c...8=w859-h644-no

Hopefully it will hold up to saltwater :biggrin:

Tank Arrived
 

well it was a much longer wait than anticipated but the tank finally arrived
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fR...Q=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nX...1=w852-h639-no

Filled it up and added some FIJI Pink sand (much too fine for my liking, will mix some Seaflor into it later) here is a video of two RW20's in wave 1 mode
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...JHU193bGZSczh3

And finished my AquaScape as well as adding two fish Coral beauty (quarantined with CP for two weeks) and a Sixline (used the tank transfer method for him as I've read wrasses do not like CP)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3J...J=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IA...m=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-...d=w852-h639-no

Ill be using Coralife salt for now here is what I got for readings

Coralife Marine Salt
Temp 77F
Salinity 1.022 Calibrated vertex refractometer
Cal 450 Red Sea Pro
Alk 8.1 Dkh Red Sea Pro
Mag 1220 Red Sea Pro

This should translate to
1.026
Cal 526
Alk 9.5 dKH
Mag 1427

Hey Dustin welcome back ! Me and my girlfriend bought some fish and clams off of you when you shut down before , having a saltwater store in Red deer is hard on the pocket book but I'm glad there is a good one here finally!

That's awesome! How are they all doing? Which fish did you get from me?

Looking good so far. That's great that you're using quarantine and prophylactic treatment protocols. Where did you get the CP from (if you can say, pm me if you want, I'm looking for a source)? I love peninsula tanks, other than you can never get a clean looking photo because the room behind is always visible through the tank. I've cheated before and pinned up a black or blue blanket before taking photos. :lol:

Since you're looking for input - I'd suggest you break up your rock scape to be 3 piles, and they should all be different sizes than each other. You will get a more pleasing look this way. Either that or make one much bigger pile, and one much smaller.

What do you mean by this part?

The cp is from Amazon it's new life spectrum ick powder, cured what ever my clownfish had ( ether brook or ick)


The rocks are cemented together so I'll just add some to the one pile

And I haven't tested the water at 1.026 but that's a rough estimate using 4% increase per .001

We got the butterfly ,mandarin , goby , and tang and clams , we just lost a clam I think he must have gotten stung by the anemone ? Because he went fast and the other clam is still looking great and has a little glass shrimp living in it ,the mimic tang is doing super and the others not so well one got his head stuck in a rock , the goby went carpet surfing and one met a power head , so not a great track record there lol but the mimic is fat and happy :)
Love your tank it looks great I have a 180 peninsula being made also I'm definitely going to be following along ! What's your plans to cover in your stand ? Also do you have all the equipment you need ? I have a ton of extra stuff mp40s skimmers and two large sumps also

I believe I have all the equipment I need, I'm very impressed with the rw-20s I received, they flow like a mp60 so I'm good in that department, I made my own sump out of a 55g and made a ATO out of a 90 cent float switch. And my curve a9 should be here Tuesday

Well I''m nearly done! just a bit of electrical to clean up and then to start finding frags!

I went with barn board paneling on the stand but I think I might end up re-doing it and painting dark brown it to match my wall
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2P..._=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oS...x=w852-h639-no

So far I'm happy with the sump, the socks are easy to change, although the Curve skimmer is louder than I expected
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kF...6=w852-h639-no


So far I'm just dosing Vinegar and Alk, calcium is still higher than I'd like thanks to my salt having 520ppm
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/CZ...B=w852-h639-no

A bit of sway may not be that bad when the "big one" hits BC.

I messed up posting pictures and didn't set them to shared... I'll try this agian

Well I'm nearly done! just a bit of electrical to clean up and then to start finding frags!

I went with barn board paneling on the stand but I think I might end up re-doing it and painting dark brown it to match my wall
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OG...O=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iJ...L=w852-h639-no

So far I'm happy with the sump, the socks are easy to change, although the Curve skimmer is louder than I expected

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QX...R=w852-h639-no

So far I'm just dosing Vinegar and Alk, calcium is still higher than I'd like thanks to my salt having 520ppm

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/PX...w=w852-h639-no

Looking good! The barn board looks pretty cool to me.