Biggen's IM 10 Build - New corals added!

[Biggen]

Wanted to start a thread on an IM 10 tank I've been working on lately. I started reefkeeping in 2003 and this will be my third tank since then. Boy, how things have changed since I first got into the hobby. LED lights weren't even a "thing" back then!

 

A big shoutout to TeenyReef. I learned so much following your build(s) that I feel like I'm straight plagiarizing you at times equipment and setup wise! But why reinvent the wheel, right??

 

Anyway the build run down is as follows:

• IM Nuvo Fusion 10
• Finnex 50w Heater
• BRS Media Basket
• ReefKeeper Lite Basic
• Tunze 3155 AutoTop Off
• NanoBox Mini Tide M Plus
• Ecotech Vortech MP10
• Stock IM Return Pump Replaced with Sicce .5

Livestock

• Domino Clown (Amphiprion ocellaris)
• Ocellaris Clownfish
• Various snails from Reefcleaners.com

FTS 11/29/2016

 

 

 

Leak Testing/Pump Issues

Here is the 1st shot of the tank doing a leak test last week. Picked up the cabinet from a "shabby sheek" store here in the area. My wife cringed every time I took the drill or hammer out to put another hole on the inside of it, but hey, what can you do? I was under the assumption that this cabinet was for the fish tank...

 

 

Side shot showing the Vortech controller:

 

I had a couple issues right off the bat. First, the return pump is noisy. It's not terrible, but for a pump that pumps less than 100GPH, it is simply too loud. I can hear it from 20' away if the house is quiet. I purchased a Rio and a Sicce pump to replace it with. Not sure which one I'll keep (although the Sicce was half the cost of the aqauarium!). I spoke with IM about getting a new one and I'm kind of getting the run around from them. What they end up doing about this will be the determining factor if I ever purchase another IM tank in the future.

 

Secondly, the Vortech MP10 is VERY LOUD. Think RC airplane loud if I crank it up past 30%. Our 1 1/2 year old was sick the other night and my wife and I were up at 1am taking care of him. We had him out in the living room (where the tank is located) rocking him back to sleep and we both could easily hear the Vortech ramping up and down in Reef Crest Mode. I was getting lots of dirty looks from my wife from the noise! Here is a YouTube video (not mine) of what it sounds like:

 

 

I've already spoken with Ecotech and they determined it was the wetside and are going to send me another one. Hopefully that fixes the problem.

 

 

Live Rock/Aquascaping

So the tank has been sitting empty for the past week while I was trying to get all the parts and everything in order. I finally got around to e-mailing Richard over at TBS (Tampa Bay Saltwater). I e-mailed him yesterday at 11am asking him if I could get 8lbs of LR by tomorrow. Here is what showed up at my door at 12pm today:

 

 

 

 

Literally, 24 hours later I had LR delivered to my front door. I'm fortunate to live in Florida so he could ship it out FedEx ground but I still receive it next day because I'm so close. For those who have never purchased from TBS, the rock is taken out of the Gulf, kept in water, and then also shipped fully submerged to you. He e-mailed me and told my this rock was harvested Friday 11/4 from his lease in the Gulf of Mexico. The rock quality and the lifeforms on it are amazing. You get the good hitchhikers with the bad when getting rock straight out of the gulf but it's still a fun way to start a tank.

 

Now being silly, I totally forgot to take pictures of the rock out of the wrapping before I placed them in the tank. I was so worried about aquascaping that I didn't get any pictures until I was finally happy with how it looked placed in the tank. I had to break them apart out in the garage as he sent me two very large pieces that just didn't work in my small tank. Here is what I came up with in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

All of those barnacles and sponges are still alive. I can see them filter feeding from the water. They won't live as aquarium water is too clean but it is still pretty cool to see.

 

I'm still not terribly happy with the aquascaping. I feel like that front middle piece of rock looks out of place so it may not stay there. Here is what I wasn't able to use/fit in the tank

 

 

And this is where I'm at currently. I do have either a pistol or mantis shrimp in one of the rocks. I can hear several loud clicks occasionally. I also spotted a flatworm as well so I'll have some pest removal to due over the coming weeks. I plan to do mostly LPS in this tank. Maybe a SPS or two but I've done SPS before and I really don't want to get into dosing and all that stuff that is associated with them. We will see though. Mostly I set this up for myself and my 4 year old so I'm sure we will be getting a pair of "Nemo" at some point. I'll keep this thread updated as I add/subtract things from the tank in the upcoming weeks/months.

 

[Slowtwitch]

You might be surprised how well those hitchhikers adapt to aquarium life. I have sponges, cup corals and clams from my live rock that are still going strong after two years.

 

Don't be afraid to break up pieces even further and use putty or emarco mortar to make a scape that you are happy with. Better to do it now than after you have corals glued in place.

 

Also keep in mind that corals grow so leave plenty of room for vertical as well as horizontal growth.

[Biggen]

You might be surprised how well those hitchhikers adapt to aquarium life. I have sponges, cup corals and clams from my live rock that are still going strong after two years.

 

Don't be afraid to break up pieces even further and use putty or emarco mortar to make a scape that you are happy with. Better to do it now than after you have corals glued in place.

 

Also keep in mind that corals grow so leave plenty of room for vertical as well as horizontal growth.

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

I've always use superglu before but I think some type of mortar/epoxy would be better and give a stronger hold. I'll have to research and see what kind to use. The more I look at that middle piece the more I don't like it. Just not sure where to put it.

[Slowtwitch]

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

I've always use superglu before but I think some type of mortar/epoxy would be better and give a stronger hold. I'll have to research and see what kind to use. The more I look at that middle piece the more I don't like it. Just not sure where to put it.

Just take it out? Or maybe stack it on one side to make an asymmetrical U shape? The back left might be a good spot. It could use a bit more height so that anything placed forward wont block what's behind as it grows up.

[Biggen]

Just take it out? Or maybe stack it on one side to make an asymmetrical U shape? The back left might be a good spot. It could use a bit more height so that anything placed forward wont block what's behind as it grows up.

 

I think I will do that. The asymmetrical U look will make it look less "man made" which is what a row of three rocks in the front looks like now. I thought about taking it out totally, but I just can't bring myself to not use any more LR in the display!

[Slowtwitch]

 

I think I will do that. The asymmetrical U look will make it look less "man made" which is what a row of three rocks in the front looks like now. I thought about taking it out totally, but I just can't bring myself to not use any more LR in the display!

I had that same problem when I did my first tank. I thought I had to use every piece I bought in the tank.. I ended up with more rock than water.

[Biggen]

Got some JB Water Weld and moved that middle rock up and left. Creates a nice little circular sand bed now in the middle of the main rock formation.

 

 

I've got a pistol shrimp in one of the rocks. I can't ever get a glimpse of him but I can hear him all day long when I'm home. He is just clicking away. It's amazing how loud that little guy is.

 

The family and I are heading to Disney and won't be back till next week so no updates till then. I plan to order a CUC next week when we return as the tank should not really have much of a cycle (if any) since there was virtually zero dieoff with TBS rocks.

[Slowtwitch]

Hopefully it's a pistol and not a little mantis. I had what I thought was a pistol at first but it turned out to be a young mantis (smasher not spearer) making himself a new home in the center of one of the rocks. He never hurt anything but snails and eventually I was able to catch him and he now lives in my sump.

 

Have fun at Disney!

[Biggen]

I keep looking for him but I can't find the bugger. He is in the long back rock somewhere as that is where the sound comes from when I am looking at the tank closely with a flashlight. I hope the little guy can get out and I didn't put the rock face down into the sand where his door was!

 

I need to learn to take better pictures. They look pretty terrible on my phone. Guess I need to figure out my wife's DSLR.

[asting]

Even many types of pistol shrimp are dangerous and will kill inverts and fish.

[Biggen]

I wonder if he is trapped in the rock. Havent seen a bit of him yet.

[Slowtwitch]

Mantis or pistol will he'll burrow out when he's ready. Probably just redecorating his cave

[Biggen]

Well we are back from Disney and my fishless IM 10 did just fine. Filled up the 2.5 gallon top off reservoir before we left and it used .5 gallon over 5 days.

 

I do have diatoms now so that is good news. No detectable Ammonia nor Nitrite. Got a 10 gallon hermit crabless tank cleaner kit coming from reefcleaners.com by the end of the week. I'll probably be adding a black clown and orange clown soon (next weekish maybe) to the tank at the same time. Hope they become mated.

 

On the plus side, Ecotech sent me a new wetside MP10 no questions asked and it fixed the airplane noise the old one was emitting. The new one is dead silent. So that is one noise I got rid of. IM sent me a replacement pump as well for the noisy one I got with the tank but I also bought a Sicce .5 so I may just use that and keep the IM pump as a backup.

 

Still got that pistol/mantis in the tank somewhere as he is still clicking. Was hopeing he would bite the dust when we were on vacation but no dice. Ive still yet to see the damn thing.

[teenyreef]

I just found your thread - thanks for the shout out! Looks like you've made a great start and I'm glad you got the pump problems sorted out. I guess somehow you just got super unlucky with bad parts from both IM and Ecotech. But it's great that they both took care of it.

 

There's probably not much you can do about the shrimp unless you get really aggressive about catching him. Now that he's survived the first week in the tank he'll almost certainly survive. If all your new snails go missing in a hurry, you might know why . Hopefully he's just a harmless candy cane or something like that. It took two or three months after I got my candy cane pistol shrimp before he finally started coming out from his cave, so you may not see this guy for a while.

[Biggen]

I just found your thread - thanks for the shout out! Looks like you've made a great start and I'm glad you got the pump problems sorted out. I guess somehow you just got super unlucky with bad parts from both IM and Ecotech. But it's great that they both took care of it.

 

There's probably not much you can do about the shrimp unless you get really aggressive about catching him. Now that he's survived the first week in the tank he'll almost certainly survive. If all your new snails go missing in a hurry, you might know why . Hopefully he's just a harmless candy cane or something like that. It took two or three months after I got my candy cane pistol shrimp before he finally started coming out from his cave, so you may not see this guy for a while.

 

Yeah, I was pretty unlucky with those darn pumps. I switched out the stock pump for the Sicce .5 this morning. I had to close down the output about 75% on the Sicce in order to approximately match the output of the stock IM pump. It's so quiet now with the Sicce! I am a Sicce believer from here on out!

 

Did a 1.5G water change this morning and I ordered a 10g cleanup crew from John at Reefcleaners.com yesterday. He e-mailed and said they would be mailed out today. I'll update the tank shots tomorrow when I get the CUC in and working on the diatoms.

[Biggen]

So a bit of an update. CUC is in and working:

 

 

John at Reefcleaners does a great job giving you more than you pay for. Have a few lazy Nerites that have been sleeping on the glass for a few days so hopefully they will get off their shells and get to work!

 

In the meantime, I've been on operation "Crab Removal". I have 4 or so Gorilla crabs (or at least some type of Xanthid Species) I've been working on removing. I've tried the recommended method of glass in the water with bait:

 

 

But... That didn't work for squat with either pellets one night or with a top round roast beef slice the next. Damn picky crabs. I finally just removed the rocks I see them under and hit em with the skewer:

 

 

I still have a few to get rid of but it's pretty easy to do so with no corals or anything like that in the tank. Should have them all eradicated soon.

 

I did pick up two additions on Saturday for the tank:

 

Domino Clown and a regular clown (both Ocellaris). I'll try to get better shots of both of them. The Domino is beautiful.

 

I have been looking around for a black clown for a weeks (really before I even setup the tank) and the fish store I had been dealing with is just not very good. I got online over the weekend determined to find a better store in my area and, low and behold, there was one 15 minutes away that is worlds better than the one I have always been going to. I talked to the owner of the new store, told him I was looking for a black clown, and he told me to come on down.

 

We are really happy with these two. The Domino is larger so it should become the female of the pair. They are happily swimming together and showing no aggression as of yet.

 

As soon as I get the crab issue hammered down I hope to start adding some Zoas to the tank.

[Slowtwitch]

I like how things are progressing here. The clowns are a nice addition. Hopefully the crabs are eradicated soon. Don't be surprised if you find a stray hermit or two in the order from reefcleaners. I seem to get a couple every time though I don't mind the blue legs. I just keep a few extra shells around for them to grow into.

[Biggen]

I like how things are progressing here. The clowns are a nice addition. Hopefully the crabs are eradicated soon. Don't be surprised if you find a stray hermit or two in the order from reefcleaners. I seem to get a couple every time though I don't mind the blue legs. I just keep a few extra shells around for them to grow into.

 

Thanks for the comments, Slowtwitch! Yeah, I'm taking everything slow this time around. As I said in my first post, this is my 3rd reef tank in about 13 years or so and I'm trying to learn from my many past mistakes. Reading other people tank journals helps tremendously as well as you really learn from their triumphs and issues. I didn't see any hermits in this order. I had ordered the hermitless CUC but I have read plenty of posts about how John likes to throw in some goodies. He didn't throw in any hermits which is good in my book!

 

Really hard to get a good shot of the fish with a cell phone. Need to break out my wife's camera and see if I can do any better in the future.

 

[JR!]

tank looks great. love the rock

[Biggen]

Thanks JR! Hope to starting adding some Zoas in the next couple of week to get some splashes of color in there. I'll do an updated FTS as well and cleanup the first post too when all this happens.

[JayPagi]

That clown is beautiful.

[Biggen]

The two clowns are as happy as they can be and eating well. Just did a water this morning and got the tank glass scrubbed down after being out of town for the holidays.

 

I've still got couple gorilla craps roaming around in there. There are two that I know of that have eluded my steak knife skewing skills so far. Hope to have them out of there by this week as I'd like to begin adding some coral to this tank very soon.

 

Also thinking about purchasing a MAME skimmer but may wait to do that till closer to Christmas.

[teenyreef]

Looks great, and I love the domino clown!

 

If you want to try a powered skimmer I've found the Eshopps Nano skimmer fits in the second chamber and works well. I have an air powered skimmer in my 4g and cleaning / replacing the air stone every three weeks gets old after a while.

[Biggen]

Looks great, and I love the domino clown!

 

If you want to try a powered skimmer I've found the Eshopps Nano skimmer fits in the second chamber and works well. I have an air powered skimmer in my 4g and cleaning / replacing the air stone every three weeks gets old after a while.

Thanks for that Teeny! Yeah, I'm not set on what skimmer I want yet but I think it is probably between the Eshopps and MAME. I need it to be quiet first and foremost since this tank is in my living room.

 

My worry is I'll break the MAME eventually when cleaning it out since it's glass. I'll end up banging it against a granite countertop or dropping it in the sink while rinsing it out and that will be the end of that.

[drgibby]

I have a MAME i my IM 10 and breaking it is my biggest concern. I have banged it a couple times and dropped it in the sink but it seems to hold up pretty well.

 

The only thing about the MAME I dont like is the noise. It is silent as can be but The air pump you hook it up to is where all the noise is. If i can find a quieter one then what i have (Whisper 10) I would be thrilled.

Happy reefing