This video tours George's meticulously designed 1000-gallon mixed reef tank, a project 15+ years in the making. The tank features a stunning peninsula design with intricate rock work, a diverse collection of SPS corals, and a legendary 10-year-old clam. All the tank's equipment and filtration are housed in a dedicated, remote sump room, ensuring a quiet, clean, and aesthetically pleasing display in his living space.
George's 1000-gallon peninsula reef (9ft x 4ft x 30", ~15 years in the hobby, wet since 2019) is a SPS-dominant mixed reef with island-style rockwork, ~75 fish, carpet anemones and a decade-old 18-inch clam. It's driven by a dual-chamber calcium reactor, twin Hydro Wizards, Orphek lighting, and a heavy-live-rock refugium in a remote 250-gallon sump room engineered for easy maintenance.
Saw-cut the floor and ran all plumbing to a dedicated insulated, AC'd sump room with FRP walls, floor drains and a mop sink — keeping noise, smell and mess out of the living space entirely.
Avoided drilling any holes in the tank bottom to eliminate future leak risk; uses under-sand returns inside the rockwork and Panta Rhei-style flow instead.
Aims powerheads to drive surface water toward the drain end, using pump direction rather than overflow placement to solve the peninsula's poor drainage and boost export.
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Filtration
Reef Octopus
XP8000
Protein skimmer
🏋️ 14-year workhorse
Nearly four feet tall and plumbed to outside air for pH — running since ~2012 on one motor change, with a second Reef Octopus backing it up in the sump.
Lighting
Orphek
Nura Icon
Display lights ×12
Twelve of Orphek's new Icon fixtures light the 9-foot peninsula from a walk-around canopy that opens for full top access.
Orphek
4ft Light Bars
Supplemental light bars ×8
Four sky-blue and four UV bars layered alongside the Icons — extra actinic punch and UV fluorescence across the full peninsula.
Flow & Circulation
Panta Rhei
Hydro Wizard ECM63
Wavemakers ×2
⭐ Premium pick
Just two of these industrial pumps move all 1,000 gallons — pulsed at 25–65% and never run full power, to keep flow from tearing coral flesh.
Dosing
Reef Octopus
Dual-Chamber Calcium Reactor
Ca/Alk supplementation
The largest calcium reactor Reef Octopus sells short of commercial — dual chambers meet the SPS demand, with kalkwasser dosed through the ATO on top.
Husbandry & Notes
Peninsula tank with ~5 rock islands per side creating tunnels and raceways for flow
Uses only two Hydro Wizard powerheads pulsing 25-65%, never 100% to avoid tearing flesh
Directs pump flow to push return water back toward drain for better export
Returns plumbed under sandbed inside rockwork; one line runs through a chiller
Kalkwasser via ATO top-off, watching pH and alkalinity closely
Heavy live rock and biodiversity instead of chemical filtration; minimal carbon/GFO
Frequently rearranges corals by hand for artistic balance of color and texture
Remote sump room with AC, FRP walls, floor drains, mop sink for messes
I love SPS coral. The thing that has my heart are the SPS and the carpet anemones.
This tank has had water in it since 2019.
That clam is 10 years old.
We have about 75 fish in here, but it's 1,000 gallons total volume.
I've got the meth lab here in this room instead of in the house.
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