Matty’s Peninsula

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, changing out hobbies again and it’s the slow season for lawn service right now so decided to jump back into reefing. I Found a killer deal in FB marketplace I couldn’t refuse. 

Got all the equipment plus brand new 660 wave maker and extra caddy basket and additives I’m not going to list for $450 over about 45mins away. It came with a 3-4” red carpet, fire and cleaner shrimp, few rock flowers, and green hairy shroom. 

My first problem was the tank had some algae on the rocks so decided to sell the livestock to a buddy for $175 and acid wash all the rock to start over. Buddy had a 40lbs bag of ocean direct Caribbean live sand I traded a refractormeter for so I didn’t have to clean the sand I could just toss it. 

Tank location was already set on looking up or finding a few amazing peninsula tanks on NR I wanted to copy. Ever since we bought the house I wanted a peninsula right inside the front door on the right side and next to the dining room table and living room. With that being said I needed to get a flat area the was level so off to Home Depot for a sheet of pine wood. Got that stain and needing to put a polyurethane on it today. Hopefully that’s be ready for tomorrow where I can level it out and screw it down so I can get the cycle going. I’m sure I’m forgetting something I’ll add later on. 

 

Equipment:

Tank: Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 20 Peninsula

Lighting: AI Hydra 26HD

Heater: Cobalt Neo-therm 75w 

Media: Not quite sure which yet. 

Return: Mighty jet 326gph

Wave Pumps: Current USA eFlux wave kit 

ATO: hydrofill with 5g hydrofill container 

Skimmer: don’t plan on running one. 

Doser: manually for now. 
 

Few pics of the set up when I bought it. 

 

[lilmatty5dimes]

Start cycle 1-18-2021

[debbeach13]

I am going to say welcome back to reefing. But I am not sure if you still have your previous tank.  Looks like you got a good deal on that set up. Looking forward to seeing how it goes. I like where you are going to put it. You will actually be able to enjoy the peninsula style.  

[lilmatty5dimes]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

I am going to say welcome back to reefing. But I am not sure if you still have your previous tank.  Looks like you got a good deal on that set up. Looking forward to seeing how it goes. I like where you are going to put it. You will actually be able to enjoy the peninsula style.  

Thank you. It’s coming back into the hobby. I sold everything around June last year cause I was neglecting the tank working 2 basically full time jobs. Should be a fun build. Lots of zoas some higher end shrooms chalice acans and of course sps. Lol so a little bit of everything. 
I wish I could make that wall a full peninsula. Get a custom tank and make the stand go right there. Maybe one day. Lol

[lilmatty5dimes]

First coat of polyurethane for the board will do another in a few hours and hopefully I’ll be able to put the board where I want it and level it and screw it in place so I can add my sand and rock and some water. Think I’m going to be doing this aquascape might be hard to see. But I think the fish will have plenty of room to swim caves to hide and more importantly real estate for coral. Lol

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, got the base board all coated with 3 thick coats of polyurethane but when I brought it in to level the board the wife pointed out a white hazy on the board. I tried to put some wood polisher on the board and it wasn’t coming out so back outside to try and put another coat on and start over. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Hopefully today I’ll get it corrected and I’ll be able to throw the sand and rock inside. Got the call my salt cane in yesterday so I’ll grab it from the LFS. Should be able to clean the equipment and figure out where to put everything. 

[lilmatty5dimes]

Forgot to add these to the last post. Lol 

[lilmatty5dimes]

Finally got sand in the tank yesterday. Hooked up the hydra led to my WiFi. Don’t think they really could have made that any easier. Basically join hydra WiFi and then go on the myAI app and click the hydra and boom you’re done. 
started mixing up my fritz pro salt and After mixing up about 20g I was loving the salt. Only took about 20-30mins to become clear and was quite easy measuring as well. Just over 2 cups for a 5g bucket. That’s going to make water changes so easy.
water level none 5g, 10g, and 15g. Probably only took about 17g to fill the tank up.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Probably the easiest way of cycling a tank and takes about 2 weeks. I’ve been doing this for quite some time and I’ve never had a problem doing it. Cap full of Janitorial strength ammonia and then I drop 2 drops of AF bio s for the first 4-5 days then 1 drop after that.