J-Ranko's IM Drop-Off Panorama 20g - new pics

[J-Ranko]

FTS 3-18-2017

 

-------------------------------------------

So not long after I got my 11-gallon back into decent shape, I decided to go for an "intermediate" upgrade and move the rocks and livestock into a bigger nano.  I wanted the flexibility to add more corals, maybe fish, better equipment, without it being a full-fledged restart.

 

I was eyeing those drop-offs from Innovative Marine and settled on the Panorama.  (I was originally gonna go for the Peninsula but found the upper shelf too short to be of much visual appeal and use, and the back chambers too limited.)

 

Here's new tank in the box:

 

 

Here it is one day after the move. (Not the final coral placement, but I had to make quick placement decision.)

 

 

The only new equipment I'm adding with this upgrade is an Aquamaxx HOB skimmer.  The options available for the tiny skimmer chamber was inadequate for me (e.g., Ghost skimmer). I also replaced the stock return pump with a Sicce Syncra 1.5, as the stock one was unbearably loud.  

 

System Summary

Tank: Innovative Marine Nuvo Concept Abyss Drop-off Panorama 20 gallon

Lighting: AI Prime

Skimmer: Aquamaxx HOB-1

Water circulation: Jebao P-4

Return Pump: Sicce Syncra 1.5

Heater: Eheim Jager 50w

ATO: Tunze Osmolator (nano)

 

Livestock:

Clarkii clownfish

Elegance Coral 

Red Scoly

Duncan

red Acan

Orange Acan echinata

Green Chalice

Fat-heat dendro

Purple Monitopora Digitata

Green Monitopora Digitata (bleached from a few months of neglect, but now recovering)

Pink Montipora cap

Purple-tipped green birdsnest

Acropra Valida (tri-color)

Orange psammocora

Rhodactis mushroom

Red Palythoas

 

[hedgeclipper2]

Nice!  We have the same tank and light set up.  Just curious what settings you are using for your Prime?

[fishhands]

Nice tank! I was tempted with getting one of those but i figured i would spend the money on light instead of tank. I found a thread a whole back with people listing thier ai prime data with graphs

[J-Ranko]

34 minutes ago, hedgeclipper2 said:

Nice!  We have the same tank and light set up.  Just curious what settings you are using for your Prime?

 

Fairly simple.  Mine is set up so that I arrive home at the tail-end of the photo-period (a couple of hours before sunset), when the cooler blue light is on a lower setting, making all the colors pop.  Peak photo-period for growth and photosynthesis, which is more 10K in color, occurs when I'm away at work.

• sunrise at 11am, ramp up to 2pm
• main period between 2pm and 7pm, with a peak at 4pm
• sunset at 9pm
• moonlight through 2am

 

Peak is 70% B, 75% DB,  70% CW, 60%UV, 60% V, 10% G, 4% DR

 

I plan to drive up the intensity as my new tank is deeper than my previous one, but I have to get nutrients as low as I can first. Excess light + excess nutrients is a bad combo, and not just for the algae. It'll tend to brown out then bleach SPS.

[Rehype]

Looks great J. Cant wait to see it progress. 

[J-Ranko]

I scaped the tank with the exact same rocks I had in the previous 11g tank, and luckily it was a good mixture of shapes and sizes that could be reworked to yield many different workable shapes.  

 

My biggest piece I oriented so that it created a tall vertical surface that could be capped with a small "spire"-like piece, to emphasize the drop-off side of the tank.  Rather than making the rock work follow the steps by having them start high from the left then down into the right, I opted to contrast the steps and have the peak be positioned above (and pointed away from) the drop-off, then gradually slope down onto the upper shelf. 

 

Here are three different FTS

 

Pump and powerhead off, for feeding time right before lights out:

 

A slightly different angle:

 

I went bare bottom for this tank, at least initially, because I hated how my sand bed turned out in the previous tank. I also lost many sand cleanup crew (ceriths and turbos) to the deadly tentacles of the elegance coral, and I didn't want to keep replacing them.  I think it's only a matter of time before my newest turbo gets stung, but I'm hoping it survives for a bit longer.

 

Down the line I might still add sand, but so far I'm OK with the bare bottom look.  The biggest downside to the bare bottom setup is that many detritus remain suspended in the water, rather than settle down into a substrate. This is often considered an advantage, but visually it is very distracting. 

[gena]

Great tank!  I went with the panorama also because of the bigger platform at the top! 

 

That acrylic scratches easily.  I really recommend you do not use the magnetic cleaners that say they are acrylic safe.  They aren't.  I use an acrylic sleeve (fits on a pad) that I picked up at my LFS.  I think any of the acrylic safe pads will work.  It takes more time, I think.  But it's worth it to avoid the scratches.

 

It's a great tank!  I'm happy to see another here to follow along with :).

[J-Ranko]

17 minutes ago, gena said:

Great tank!  I went with the panorama also because of the bigger platform at the top! 

 

That acrylic scratches easily.  I really recommend you do not use the magnetic cleaners that say they are acrylic safe.  They aren't.  I use an acrylic sleeve (fits on a pad) that I picked up at my LFS.  I think any of the acrylic safe pads will work.  It takes more time, I think.  But it's worth it to avoid the scratches.

 

It's a great tank!  I'm happy to see another here to follow along with :).

 

Thanks, Gena! I've bee looking around at getting those magnet cleaners but haven't decided on one so far. Thanks for the warning.  

 

3 hours ago, Rehype said:

Looks great J. Cant wait to see it progress. 

 

Thanks, Rehype. I'm liking this drop-off style a lot more than my initial impressions. It really does make for rather interesting aquascape options!

[Oceanus]

I love these drop off tanks! I was pretty tempted when I saw them sitting at the LFS lol. Good to see a build on here, and you're off to a great start!

[Rehype]

16 minutes ago, J-Ranko said:

 

Thanks, Rehype. I'm liking this drop-off style a lot more than my initial impressions. It really does make for rather interesting aquascape options!

 

It definitely grows on you. Just wait until your coral growth fills in the gaps...its gonna look fantastic.

[Bella's Reef]

It looks great, I dig the barebottom and the scape looks amazing! I hope to have mine up and running in the next month, waiting on a DIY Hack to an IKEA Besta stand and trying to decide on live or dry rock.

[TinyOcean]

This is so gorgeous! I mean just stunning! Normally I find bare bottom odd looking but I think it works perfect in this tank. Your colors and corals are just wow...

[J-Ranko]

14 hours ago, Bella's Reef said:

It looks great, I dig the barebottom and the scape looks amazing! I hope to have mine up and running in the next month, waiting on a DIY Hack to an IKEA Besta stand and trying to decide on live or dry rock.

 

Thanks!  Good luck with your build.  This tank could definitely use its own stand--I wish IM made one for it.  But there are several good DIY ones, too.  How do you plan on modifying that Besta stand?

 

13 hours ago, TinyOcean said:

This is so gorgeous! I mean just stunning! Normally I find bare bottom odd looking but I think it works perfect in this tank. Your colors and corals are just wow...

Thanks, TinyOcean!  I hoping the bottom fills out with coralline instead of nuisance algae.   This is the first tank I've had with no sand. 

[J-Ranko]

Along with the new tank last week, I also bought a couple of SPS frags to put front and center: a blue-purple montipora digitata and a tri-color acropora valida

 

 

These guys were under a big T5 fixture in the store, so I'm a little worried about my weaker light, but hopefully I can gradually ramp up in time before they brown out on me.   Long-term, I'm thinking of upgrading to something with more coverage and power like a Hydra or Radion, since those seem to have the best results with SPS.

 

Here are my LPS at the bottom of the drop-off section:

[J-Ranko]

Looks like pics are working again.

 

I don't have a macro lens yet, but here's an attempt at a close-up of my scoly with its feeding tentacles out.  

 

[J-Ranko]

So I took non-lazy pics today and actually put that camera tripod to use. 

 

scoly

 

birdsnest

 

 

LPS zone at the upper shelf.  (My bleached digitata butting in the pic.)

 

Top down views are the best.  

 

 

[J-Ranko]

My elegance coral being its elegant self:

 

[Bella's Reef]

On 2/20/2017 at 11:19 PM, J-Ranko said:

 

Thanks!  Good luck with your build.  This tank could definitely use its own stand--I wish IM made one for it.  But there are several good DIY ones, too.  How do you plan on modifying that Besta stand?

 

Thanks, TinyOcean!  I hoping the bottom fills out with coralline instead of nuisance algae.   This is the first tank I've had with no sand. 

 

While browsing different ideas to raise the stand up from it's 25 1/4" height to a more view-able level for an aquarium I came across this http://placeofmytaste.com/ikea-tv-stand-hack/

 

Where I work there is a guy who builds and sells a ton of wood furniture so I showed him this and explained what was going on and the weight and he is making a heavier duty version of this to add 10" to the cabinet itself. I hope to have it back within this next week as he has had it for a week  now  but has a busy schedule & completing other high end projects.

 

How do you like the Aquamaxx HOB? I have a IM Reactor & Ghost Skimmer that I got from a buddy I was going to use but liked the idea of a bigger HOB skimmer. I plan on a similar minimalist rock layout and going BB as well, how bad is the detritus issue floating in the water column?

[J-Ranko]

11 hours ago, Bella's Reef said:

 

While browsing different ideas to raise the stand up from it's 25 1/4" height to a more view-able level for an aquarium I came across this http://placeofmytaste.com/ikea-tv-stand-hack/

 

Where I work there is a guy who builds and sells a ton of wood furniture so I showed him this and explained what was going on and the weight and he is making a heavier duty version of this to add 10" to the cabinet itself. I hope to have it back within this next week as he has had it for a week  now  but has a busy schedule & completing other high end projects.

 

How do you like the Aquamaxx HOB? I have a IM Reactor & Ghost Skimmer that I got from a buddy I was going to use but liked the idea of a bigger HOB skimmer. I plan on a similar minimalist rock layout and going BB as well, how bad is the detritus issue floating in the water column?

 

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's larger than it seems in product photos and does stand out hanging on the back of the tank, unlike the more discreet Ghost Skimmer.  On the other hand, it is a lot bigger, with a more powerful pump, larger reaction chamber and bubble plate, so it's much more efficient at skimming. 

 

Here's what it looks like:

 

I've debated painting the front and sides black, just to get it to be less conspicuous. But my mind's not made up.

[teenyreef]

I love the scape! I think that bare bottom really complements the modern/clean look of the drop off with all the panes of acrylic. It might be different once all the coral gets grown in and you can't see flat planes everywhere - a sand bed might give an organic look that fits better. 

 

On the skimmer, could you fit an Eshopps Nano in there? I was able to shoehorn one into my IM10, and it's a much better skimmer than the desktop ghost. The cup would still stick up but it wouldn't be as visible as the Aquamax. Which is by far the best of the three skimmers, of course. But if the appearance bothers you, there might be other options.

[J-Ranko]

19 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

I love the scape! I think that bare bottom really complements the modern/clean look of the drop off with all the panes of acrylic. It might be different once all the coral gets grown in and you can't see flat planes everywhere - a sand bed might give an organic look that fits better. 

 

On the skimmer, could you fit an Eshopps Nano in there? I was able to shoehorn one into my IM10, and it's a much better skimmer than the desktop ghost. The cup would still stick up but it wouldn't be as visible as the Aquamax. Which is by far the best of the three skimmers, of course. But if the appearance bothers you, there might be other options.

 

Thanks, teenyreef! I do agree that the drop-off makes a bare bottom more appealing.  Along with the various panes of acrylic, I think the fact that the bottom is not one continuous surface, but instead broken up into two separate planes, helps to minimize the appearance of a bare bottom.

 

An Eshopps nano will likely fit, but since the collection cup will still be very visible, I don't think it would be a big improvement.  I'm not bothered that much by the Aquamaxx.  I'd rather paint it black than go with a smaller, less efficient skimmer. I like how unobtrusive the black acrylic Aqua-C Remora HOBs look, for example (though I prefer the Aquamaxx's overall design). 

[WV Reefer]

21 hours ago, J-Ranko said:

My elegance coral being its elegant self:

 

The tank looks great!  That Elegance Coral is the sh*t! 

[J-Ranko]

23 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

The tank looks great!  That Elegance Coral is the sh*t! 

 

It's my favorite coral. Here it was back in May of last year when I first introduced it to my 11g. 

 

Looks like an anemone, sting's even as powerful (or more) as an anemone, but it stays put and is a lot less finicky.   

[tam]

8 hours ago, J-Ranko said:

 

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's larger than it seems in product photos and does stand out hanging on the back of the tank, unlike the more discreet Ghost Skimmer.  On the other hand, it is a lot bigger, with a more powerful pump, larger reaction chamber and bubble plate, so it's much more efficient at skimming. 

 

Here's what it looks like:

 

I've debated painting the front and sides black, just to get it to be less conspicuous. But my mind's not made up.

Vinyl wrap it?

[J-Ranko]

13 hours ago, tam said:

Vinyl wrap it?

 

I guess that's another option. Hadn't thought of it. Thanks.