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IM 40 Fusion Tank Build


rebeltreble

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Hello All! I am new here and new into the hobby in general. My husband has about 14 years of experience in saltwater and currently runs two 125-gallon tanks with a 20-gallon quaratine. I've been listening to run and help run the tanks when he is out of town for about six years now so I'm not completely new, but usually I let him handle the maintenance. Not anymore!

 

At MACNA this weekend we got a great deal on a tank. It is an Innovative Marine 40 Fusion w/ stand. It also came with a Ghost Skimmer, the pump, the media basket w/ the removable shelves, and the IM Hydrofill controller (but not the pump part unfortunately). My husband is giving me an older ZetLight he no longer wants (he swtiched to all EcoTech Pros). He might let me use one of his MP10s if he doesn't need it for his new flow setup, but I'm okay buying something else. He is also giving me his ReefAngel controller since he got the ReefLink and only really used it for his lights on one tank. I went to school for a bit for computer sciences and have worked with the Arduino code so I think I can make it work.

 

My plans aren't too crazy I think. I'm going to use Marco Rock to create the aquascape. The fish plan right now is a helfrichi firefish, a pair of ruby red scooter dragonets, and my pair of clownfish I forced him to put in one of his tanks (one black ice and one misbar ocellaris that decided to pair up one day). As far as other stock all I have for sure in my plan is a sunburst anemone, rasta zoas, smurf blood zoas, electric candy apple red zoas (can you see a pattern), green bubble coral, some hermits, and a cleanup crew of various snails. I'd like to try a red planet acro from ORA, but we will see what kind of params I can get in the tank. I'm sure I'll expand on corals later once the tank is settled and I'll see what I can handle. My husband has all the zoas I listed (plus about thirty more), so I will already be off to a good start when everything is up and running.

 

I may get the media reactor for some EcoBak biopellets, but for now I might just throw them in nylon bag in the media basket to see what happens. We shall see.

 

For right now I need to get a new tank mat for it (the one that came with it got junked up driving it from MACNA) and I need to peel all the advertising off the stand. I'll probably also order in the marco rock this week. I'll get some pictures up when I have more to update! For now all I have is the tank as we were waiting for it to drain at MACNA and loaded up in a Prius. I'm glad to be here and hope you all can provide me with some of your wisdom!

 

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  • 1 month later...

The last I left this we had loaded up the 40 gallon in the Prius and drove from Denver to Montana with it. Well it made it and we got it inside the house where it sat like this for awhile.

 

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When we moved it the IM tank mat got torn up a bit, so I was determined to purchase a new one through IM. I also needed some clips for a screen since it didn't com with a screen. This turned out to be a HUGE nightmare! I sent three emails and finally one got answered with a phone number to call. I called the number and it was disconnected. My husband called IM support and got a live human! He said he would be sending us an email for their warehouse where we could order the mat. No email ever came. We tried calling back support and never got a hold of anyone again. So far I think IM has horrible customer service. It might keep me from buying anymore of their products in the future I am so disappointed. Too bad I already had a tank and a bunch of accessories, but oh well. Lesson learned for the future. I ended up cutting a yoga mat to use as a tank mat which worked well.

 

After rearranging the living room we found this home for the tank:

 

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Next it was time to play with rock! I ordered 50 lbs. of Marco Rocks with the E-Marco-400 compound. I set up a little paper on the floor with lines drawn out for the tank size so I could take my time. After a few free hours this is what I ended up with:

 

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This weekend though I had plenty of time. I broke apart some of the bigger rocks and set up a design I really liked. Here is how it turned out:

 

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I added some course sand (which I don't have a picture of) and gathered my equipment I have been purchasing over the month.

 

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I have an IM Aqua Gadget biopellet reactor, an IM Ghost skimmer, an IM CustomCaddy (not pictured), an Eheim TrueTemp heater 100w, an Ecotech MP10WES, an Ecotech XR15W Radion, and I got the XR15 mounting kit because I thought it would look really neat. Tonight I will be putting it all together and adding saltwater which I have mixed up. I've been soaking some filter media in one of my husband's established tanks so I'm hoping the cycle does not take too long. I'll post a picture of it wet here in the next few days.

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  • 1 month later...

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