Emily's IM 10 Experiment in a Box

[utopiatalks]

Hi Nano Reef World!

 

 

Most recent FTS: 10.20.18

 

Intro

 

I have been reading and researching for over two years and am finally committing and taking the plunge! After multiple years of high tech planted tanks and I eventually found myself here looking at everyone's awesome nano reefs. The technical aspects and complexity of reefing hooked the nerdy scientist in me. I can't wait to see where this adventure takes me.

 

After purchasing a IM Fusion tank and equipment almost two years ago I sat on it knowing that life wasn't quite stable enough to set up my little tank. After breaking down my old 46 gallon planted tank and moving to PNW I am finally ready to put all the stuff that has been gathering dust to work. Plus not having a tank is starting to bum me out.

 

 

Equipment

 

Tank:

-IM Nuvo Fusion 10

 

Stand:

-Ikea metal cabinet

 

Light:

-Nanobox Tide w/ Bluefish

 

Filtration:

-8 lbs uncured rock from KP Aquatics (after much back and forth in my head)

-6-8lbs of BRS's reef saver rock

-inTank Media Basket

-Filter floss

-Carbon

-Once weekly 10-20% water change

 

Flow:

-Stock return pump Syncra Silent 0.5 pump

-MP10

-Cobalt Aquatics MJ400 Multi purpose pump for salt mixing

 

Salt:

-Red Sea Coral Pro

 

Sand:

-10lbs Arag-Alive Special Grade Sand

 

Heater:

-Colbalt Aquatics Neo Therm 75w Heater

-Extra 75 watt heater for water changes

 

ATO:

-Tunze Osmolator nano

 

Controller:

-Apex Neptune Jr

 

RODI system:

-BRS Universal

 

Current livestock (8/27/17)

-Tailspot Blenny

-Green Banded Gobies x 2

-Sexy Shrimp x 2

 

Have some more goodies from BRS and Amazon coming in the next week. Hoping to get the all the tanks cables managed over the coming weekend and put rock in it the following week. I am planning on doing a soft cycle with the live rock. I plan on being super patient with the whole tank and probably won't be adding much till after the new year and only if tests and conditions allow.

 

I would love to hear suggestions on the setup and live stock goals. I am pretty set on my live rock choice but I do have 10 pounds of dry rock in my possession. I would love to hear peoples experience's and opinions on dry vs live, especially for a first time reefer. I went back and forth on the topic for months. I had a hard time with the potential risk of introducing a potentially harmful or destructive pest species into the set up. The benefits of the introducing a complex mix of bacteria, invertebrates, and algae has pretty much convinced me to go with live rock.

 

I feel super fortunate to have found Nano Reef as a resource. I have been immensely impressed by the discourse here and everyone's love of the hobby (and of course everyone's tanks). I look forward to sharing my experience and connecting with fellow reefers here!

 

Cheers!

[Cencalfishguy56]

Hi Nano Reef World!

I have been reading and researching for over two years and am finally committing and taking the plunge! After multiple years of high tech planted tanks and I eventually found myself here looking at everyone's awesome nano reefs. The technical aspects and complexity of reefing hooked the nerdy scientist in me. I can't wait to see where this adventure takes me.

After purchasing a IM Fusion tank and equipment almost two years ago I sat on it knowing that life wasn't quite stable enough to set up my little tank. After breaking down my old 46 gallon planted tank and moving to PNW I am finally ready to put all the stuff that has been gathering dust to work. Plus not having a tank is starting to bum me out.

Equipment

Tank:

-IM Nuvo Fusion 10

Stand:

-Ikea metal cabinet

Light:

-Nanobox Tide w/ Bluefish

Filtration:

-8 lbs uncured rock from KP Aquatics (after much back and forth in my head)

-Filter floss

-Carbon

-Once weekly 10-20% water change

Flow:

-Stock return pump

-MP10

-Cobalt Aquatics MJ400 Multi purpose pump for salt mixing

Salt:

-Red Sea Coral Pro

Heater:

-Colbalt Aquatics Neo Therm 75w Heater

-Extra 75 watt heater for water changes

ATO:

-Tunze Osmolator nano

Controller:

-Apex Neptune Jr

RODI system:

-BRS Universal

Future livestock (very open to suggestions and changes):

-Tailspot Blenny

-Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse

-Sexy Shrimp

Have some more goodies from BRS and Amazon coming in the next week. Hoping to get the all the tanks cables managed over the coming weekend and put rock in it the following week. I am planning on doing a soft cycle with the live rock. I plan on being super patient with the whole tank and probably won't be adding much till after the new year and only if tests and conditions allow.

 

I would love to hear suggestions on the setup and live stock goals. I am pretty set on my live rock choice but I do have 10 pounds of dry rock in my possession. I would love to hear peoples experience's and opinions on dry vs live, especially for a first time reefer. I went back and forth on the topic for months. I had a hard time with the potential risk of introducing a potentially harmful or destructive pest species into the set up. The benefits of the introducing a complex mix of bacteria, invertebrates, and algae has pretty much convinced me to go with live rock.

 

I feel super fortunate to have found Nano Reef as a resource. I have been immensely impressed by the discourse here and everyone's love of the hobby (and of course everyone's tanks). I look forward to sharing my experience and connecting with fellow reefers here!

 

Cheers!

wow you have surely done your research and welcome to NR! Here you will find some of the most badass tanks in such a small space lol anyways, your plan seems solid the only thing I'd advise you to really think about is the rock, as a new reefer I went uncured live rock route and battled algae for months to no avail, of course I did things that fueled it as well but as a new reefer I don't want you to get discouraged and give up, although you may have a better experience than me so I don't want you to change your mind just a thought, I went with dry rock from Reef cleaners.org might wanna check them out, I honestly love KPA rock but I tried to avoid as many pests as I could in my current tank, hope my input helps and never hesitate to ask any of NR for help!

[Obsessed Reefer]

I'd say welcome, but you seem to have been here for sometime, so I'll say hello to another IM tank! Your equipment list looks top notch. I'd suggest two things, upgrading the media basket to either the IM one, or to an inTank basket, and look at upgrading the return pump.

 

In terms of your question about rock, I've always used either cured rock or dry, man made rock, like CaribSea Reef Rock, or Walt Smith. I'll also use a bottled bacteria to start the cycle for my tank. In my IM 10G which I just set up, I'm using Aqua Vitro Seed. I've also used Instant Ocean Bio-Spira in the past. I've always felt it's easier in a smaller tank to go dry rock, vs. introducing something unwanted from the uncured live rock.

 

Are you going to be keeping a sand bed?

 

​Definitely check out the AIO forum, there's a ton of 10G build threads, but you definitely seem to be off to the right start.

[utopiatalks]

wow you have surely done your research and welcome to NR! Here you will find some of the most badass tanks in such a small space lol anyways, your plan seems solid the only thing I'd advise you to really think about is the rock, as a new reefer I went uncured live rock route and battled algae for months to no avail, of course I did things that fueled it as well but as a new reefer I don't want you to get discouraged and give up, although you may have a better experience than me so I don't want you to change your mind just a thought, I went with dry rock from Reef cleaners.org might wanna check them out, I honestly love KPA rock but I tried to avoid as many pests as I could in my current tank, hope my input helps and never hesitate to ask any of NR for help!

 

Thank you for the welcome! I do fear having an nuisance algae with live rock. I am trying to weigh having all the biodiversity and coverage vs the cost ease of setup with the dry rock. I have ten pounds of reef saver rock from BRS I may play around with it some more...

 

Thanks for sharing that experience I am going to have to think a bit more.

[utopiatalks]

I'd say welcome, but you seem to have been here for sometime, so I'll say hello to another IM tank! Your equipment list looks top notch. I'd suggest two things, upgrading the media basket to either the IM one, or to an inTank basket, and look at upgrading the return pump.

 

In terms of your question about rock, I've always used either cured rock or dry, man made rock, like CaribSea Reef Rock, or Walt Smith. I'll also use a bottled bacteria to start the cycle for my tank. In my IM 10G which I just set up, I'm using Aqua Vitro Seed. I've also used Instant Ocean Bio-Spira in the past. I've always felt it's easier in a smaller tank to go dry rock, vs. introducing something unwanted from the uncured live rock.

 

Are you going to be keeping a sand bed?

 

​Definitely check out the AIO forum, there's a ton of 10G build threads, but you definitely seem to be off to the right start.

 

Hi!

 

Thank you for the suggestions! I actually have the inTank media basket but totally forgot to post it (that and the sand). I'll edit that in. The inTank basket is so much better than the one that comes with the tank.

 

For the return pump do you have any suggestions in brand and size? Is upgrading the return pump just for increasing turnover through the filtration chamber or for increased flow too?

 

I am certainly re-thinking rock now, just when I thought I was decided ha!

 

Yes I will be keeping a sand bed, I love the look of a tank with sand. I will be using Arag-Alive Special Grade Sand from CaribSea.

 

Guess I will be reading a few more things. Never stop learning Thanks again!

[Obsessed Reefer]

For the return pump do you have any suggestions in brand and size? Is upgrading the return pump just for increasing turnover through the filtration chamber or for increased flow too?

 

 

This is what I'm trying to figure out as well. There was mention that Cobalt Aquatics will be bringing back the MiniJet 606, which would be ideal for this tank. I'm also looking at maybe a Sicce 0.5.

[utopiatalks]

Hi all!

 

Sorry about the lack of updating, work is keeping me mighty busy this holiday season. I went back and forth about live rock versus dry rock again and started playing with the rocks I had on hand. After many, many scapes I finally landed on something that I liked and decided to just go with it to save a little bit of money.

 

 

 

Got all the cords and the ATO set up and a lot of trial and error. And after many frustrating hours got the Apex system setup and linked to fusion. It has been pretty fun learning about all the features the Apex offers. I am sure I have so much more to learn there. The Bulk Reef Supply videos have been helping a lot with the setup. Here is what the cabinet looks like. I could still clean it up a bit there is always room for improvement. The MP10 control is mounted on the outside of the cabinet for easy access. I have also learned that the ATO is amazing and so convenient.

 

 

I wet the tank on Thanksgiving day and have been cycling it since with added ammonia. I decided to add some of Bio Spira to help add some additional nitrifying. Now I am just testing and waiting it out. Cannot wait till I can get some life in here! Pretty excited!

 

(not running the cycle with the light on, just for the photo)

 

And it snowed today in Portland which is always exciting! Here is my dog Nisha showing her displeasure in the cold (she in reality loves the snow).

 

 

Cheers!

[Bowen1022]

Looks good! In case you didnt know there is a good club/forum for those in the pacific northwest called Pacific North West Marine Aquarium Society. A lot of folks in Portland/Salem areas

[utopiatalks]

Looks good! In case you didnt know there is a good club/forum for those in the pacific northwest called Pacific North West Marine Aquarium Society. A lot of folks in Portland/Salem areas

 

Thanks! I didn't know, that is great I will have to check that out!

[utopiatalks]

Hi all,

 

Update for mid December:

 

The tank has gone through a nitrate spike and showing nitrates. I dosed 3 ppm ammonia a couple of times and it was not traceable after 24 hours. I did about a 50-75% water change. After some thought I decided it to be best to seed the tank with a little life from an inexpensive zoa on a small piece of live rock.

 

After a dip in Coral RX, rinse and a day after living in the tank, here is the coral

 

 

Its a pretty zoa with pale pink and purple colors. It also seems to have ricordea hitch-hiker (another reason I snagged it). Excited to see how it does!

 

Cheers!

[utopiatalks]

Hi all!

 

So after several days of everything staying consistent I decided to go get my first fish! I went to the local store and got a lively, healthy looking tailspot blenny! He was pretty shy the first two days but seems to be coming out of his shell pretty quickly. He has a den at the base of one of my rock and is perching in several other spots. I have also seen him scraping the rocks and is taking to the frozen algae blend that I picked up. I am loving this adorable fish!

 

 

 

I also picked up this small orange ricordea while at the shop. It is really hard to take it slow! But that it is for new additions for at least a couple weeks.

 

 

I am dealing with some white stringy bits on the rocks. I am assuming this a kind of bacterial bloom. I am not too concerned about them (should I be?) but it is a bit ugly. Every water changed I lightly scrub the rock with a toothbrush in the areas with the most stringy bits and then suck them out. I am continuing to change my filter floss twice a week and am changing out the carbon once a week. I did notice a tiny spot of brown and am thinking it is diatoms which I'm excited about. Soon maybe their will be enough food for a snail!

 

Any thoughts and opinion on white stringy bits, diatoms and when to add some snails would be appreciated. That is it for now, will check in about a week.

 

Cheers!

[utopiatalks]

Hi everyone! 

 

Long time no post.  The tank is still going strong.  Taking it super slow but a lot has changed.  After an incident with the roommate's cat, the tank, and the main electrical outlet I almost gave up.  I have had aquariums (and cats around aquariums) for along time and have certainly had worse water incidents but this time was like a perfect storm.   I lost a small hammer during a survival move of the tank to the kitchen.  I moved my cabinet around and made things a bit more cat proof. I also changed up the scape slightly after some rocks were shifted in all the moving.

 

Anywho I have since added a couple of green banded gobies, two sexy shrimp and several more small zoas.  Everything seems to be going pretty well  I am battling a bit of algae and think its because I have been a little too generous with the food lately. I also noticed over the past few days my Ca being slightly low.  Trying to figure that out.  I do weekly water changes and with not much in the tank in terms of coral I was surprised how low it was when i tested it today (just under 200 Salifert test).  I took some pretty bad cell phone photos below. 

 

 

 

 

 

I will post more photos below. I can't seem to get my photobucket upload to work so I will only add a couple.  

 

Cheers!

[utopiatalks]

[Weetabix7]

Green banded Gobies are the best, really looking forward to pics of those guys!!!

(wait, I think I just saw one in the top down pic!)

Sexy Shrimp are a ton of fun to watch, but keep an eye on them with the Zoas. 

Every once in a while they decide that Zoa skirts are tasty.

Glad you're hanging in there!!!

Now that you've weathered your first tank disaster, you're an OFFICIAL Reefer! 

[utopiatalks]

On 3/17/2017 at 4:08 AM, Weetabix7 said:

Now that you've weathered your first tank disaster, you're an OFFICIAL Reefer! 

Thank you for that! Crossing fingers for no more major problems... 

[Weetabix7]

21 minutes ago, utopiatalks said:

Thank you for that! Crossing fingers for no more major problems... 

 

Hang in there, you can do it, and we'll be here to help you along the way!!

[utopiatalks]

Speaking of issues I am in the middle of a water change and I accidentally hit my main power supply and turned everything off.  Usually no big deal but for some reason my apex display is not coming back on and my fusion link is now not working.  I think I have had the hardest time dealing with technical issues between me and my Apex Jr. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them. I have become pretty reliant on my Apex running the show.  Hoping I can get it back online quickly. 

 

Also wanted some opinions on using GFO.  I have just started testing my phosphate levels with a Hanna Checker and they are consistently around 0.05 PPM. The only thing that currently use for chemical filtration is carbon.  I use tiny little organza bags with just over a tablespoon of carbon in each.  I swap these out once a week during my water changes.  

 

If I was to start using GFO how much would you recommend, or maybe a better question do you think I should use GFO at all? 

 

For other parameters:

 

Nirtrate (Nyos test kit):  .03 PPM

Alkalinity (Salifert): 10 dkh

Calcium: 410 PPM

 

These numbers have been fairly consistent over the past three weeks with a 25% water change weekly.  I think the alkalinity is high due to my salt (Red Sea Coral Pro).  

 

Any thoughts appreciated!  

 

[utopiatalks]

Hi everyone,

 

Tank is still going strong!

 

Kind of worked out my Apex issue meaning I didn't quite work it out... I have a 20 foot ethernet cable attached to it for the moment from my router (living room to bedroom).  Hopefully I'll figure out how to get it connected back into my wifi extender.

 

I am still trying to figure out how to limit the brown algae that coats the sand. I just did a very through water change yesterday and you can see it already coating the sand today. So I got a hanna checker and now am measuring my phosphates as well. Phosphates are testing a bit high.  I have added a pretty tiny amount of GFO to my carbon.  I am taking it super slow and watching the Alkalinity. I am also thinking about maybe picking up a bottle of bio-mate. Any advice here is appreciated! 

 

Parameters:

 

Alkalinity (Salifert): 9.6 dkh

Calcium: 415 PPM

Nirtrate (Nyos test kit):  .03 PPM

Phospahtes (Hanna Checker): .33 

 

 

Took some updated photos of the tank.  A couple new things in the tank like the stylo up top.  I love it! I also have a couple new zoas/palys.  More new things later this week (late birthday gift to myself).  

 

I had picked up an ORA purple gorgonian frag as well and overnight it was destroyed.  I found my sexy shrimp on it in the morning. I don't know if they were the sole culprits but I am sure they had something to do with it.  It whither and fell apart over the days after. I would love to try another but maybe when there's a bit more in the tank to distract the shrimp. 

 

On more positive note there is the tiniest feather duster in between a couple of my pink zoas.  Its so fun finding little hidden animals in my mini reef. 

 

Anyways hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

Zoa garden coming along.

 

Fat and happy  

 

 

Cheers! 

[teenyreef]

Wow, your zoas look like they're doing great! I like the scape and your fish choices are excellent 

 

I think you're taking the right approach to gfo by being very conservative. But you really want to figure out what's changed since it sounds like you haven't had high phosphates until recently, is that correct? 

 

Do you stir or vacuum the sand bed? 

[utopiatalks]

On 4/10/2017 at 10:46 PM, teenyreef said:

Wow, your zoas look like they're doing great! I like the scape and your fish choices are excellent 

 

I think you're taking the right approach to gfo by being very conservative. But you really want to figure out what's changed since it sounds like you haven't had high phosphates until recently, is that correct? 

 

Do you stir or vacuum the sand bed? 

 

Thank you so much! I have been following all your tanks and those journals have been very helpful for me figuring things out for this tank.  The fish were also inspired by your tanks so thank you for that as well!

 

I haven't been testing phosphates until about two weeks ago.  I probably should have been monitoring it earlier.  I do vacuum and stir the sand.  I love getting all that junk out of there.  I usually blast the rocks a bit with a turkey baster as well.  That helped significantly with this red slime (cyanobacteria?). 

 

I'm wondering if its how much I am feeding.  I usually feed once a day at least with either target feedings of LRS reef frenzy, either mixed with frozen seaweed pieces and a tiny bit of reef roids.  Or a few Hikari pellets fed directly to the fish or shrimp. I want my fish to be healthy but I also don't want to over do it in such a tiny tank. I go back and forth about adding a skimmer to this tank.  I currently have a few pieces of marine pure in the back chamber for extra biological filtration.  

 

Any thoughts are appreciated  

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

I really love the Zoas and the Gobies, just beautiful. 

[utopiatalks]

On 4/13/2017 at 5:26 AM, Weetabix7 said:

I really love the Zoas and the Gobies, just beautiful. 

Thank you! I'm really loving the zoas lately. 

[utopiatalks]

Hi all! 

 

Quick update, added a few pieces to the tank and took a few photos ?

 

 

 

 

 

More detailed post soon. Hope everyone has a great week! 

 

Cheers!

[utopiatalks]

Hi everyone! 

 

Super long time since I've updated, sorry about that. Life has gotten crazy as it sometimes does. Lost my job, started a business, suffered another loss, and went traveling. All the while the tank continues! It was super helpful to have this little aquarium around to distract me on bad days. 

 

The tank is about 6 months old now and I am still tweaking things and learning. I have began to dose with a 2 part system since I noticed the alkalinity dropping consistently everyday by about 1 dKH. I dose the alkalinity once per day. I dose calcium about twice a week to keep levels consistent.

 

Things were going pretty well but I have a few issues. I have had several small outbreaks of red cyano bacteria.  I can't quite figure it out. I do weekly water changes where I usually change out about 3 gallons of water.  I siphon the sand and I know the rocky off with a turkey baster fairly frequently maybe three times a month.  If I'm noticing an outbreak I go a little heavier with toothbrushes and the baster.

 

I don't think it's a flow issue but I have experimented with slightly more flow but the corals were definitely not as happy as my previous settings on my MP10. I have also started swapping filter floss out every other day. And am trying to go super light on feedings.

 

The problem was worse when I came back from my vacation. There were diatoms everywhere too. I think the pet/tank sitter was probably overfeeding.

 

I've done two water changes in the last week. But was still seeing a lot of cyano popping up so I have decided to try chemiclean. I have also shifted my lighting to slightly more blue after reading that may help. Still going to keep up on the maintenance and cross my fingers.  Any suggestions apprciated.

 

Other weird thing I've noticed is virtually no coralline growth. I can see it on frag plugs and bits of rock but no growth. It hasn't died off but just doesn't seem to want to grow.

 

Good news no coral or fish deaths. Same two gobies, tailspot and the two sexy shrimp. Corals are growing but slowly. 

 

Some new additions:

-Forest fire montipora digita

-Green pocillopora

-Blue-ish Micromussa lordhowensis

-Several more zoa varieties

-Green birdnest (which looks extra bad since the shrimp decided to maske it their perch)

-Purple Lava Lamp mushroom

-Blue long tentacle goniopora

-Rainbow-ish short tentacle goniopora (My new favorite ?)

 

Latest tests results were:

Alkalinity (Salifert): 8.2 dkh (been holding steady with dosing)

Calcium: 425 PPM

Magnesium: 1305 PPM

Nirtrate (Nyos test kit):  .05 PPM

Phospahtes (Hanna Checker): .07 ppm

 

Most current FTS. You can see all the cyano

 

Top down you can see the diatoms in the back

 

Love the pocillopora and it's fuzzy-ness. The pink stylo below looks almost exactly the same as when I bought it.

 

Zoa Garden is growing out nicely but covered in cyano ?

 

Lovely goni ?

 

I will update with new photos after the treatment. Hoping I can get this tank to stabilize a bit. 

 

Cheers!

[utopiatalks]

Hi everybody! Little update and some photos.

 

The chemiclean worked wonderfully! There isn't any cyano left that I can see.  I am going to do another water change on Sunday since my nitrates are a still little high. Everything is looking good except the monti.  It was pretty retracted but hopefully it bounces back. Here are the current numbers as of today:

 

Latest tests results were:

Alkalinity (Salifert): 8.8 dkh 

Calcium: 425 PPM

Magnesium: 1290 PPM

Nirtrate (Nyos test kit):  .05 PPM

Phospahtes (Hanna Checker): .03 PPM

 

 

 

Looking better! 

 

Bright top down view 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!