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SaltyBuddha's IM10 Fusion


SaltyBuddha

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SaltyBuddha

SaltyBuddha's IM10 Fusion with Fuge Mod

 

First off, shout out to all the guys and gals on this forum who help newbies out. Looking forward to being a part of this community.

 

I did a lot of research in preparation for my first saltwater tank. I love a challenge, and creating an ocean in a 10 gallon tank seems like a very rewarding endeavor. At first, I wanted to build my own tank, but acrylic is harder than I thought to work with. Ended up with a decent amount of acrylic, and bought an IM10 fusion. At least I have acrylic for random projects. Frag racks, tank dividers, etc. 

 

I upgraded the rear pump to a .5 sicce with a Hydro rotating deflector. Using a LOOP controller with the Current USA lights and wavemaker. The LEDS are not the best, but should be enough for the softies and LPS that I want to keep. The LOOP controller has some awesome features and I am expecting it to work out well.

 

Equipment

  • Tank - IM10 Fusion
  • Light - Current USA IC LED 18"-24"
  • Powerhead - Current USA e-flux with wave maker
  • Tempertaure - Neotherm 50W & Coolmax Microchiller with Iceprobe controller
  • Return pump - Sicce .5
  • ATO- Smart Aqua Micro
  • Substrate - 15lbs live sand & 7.5 lbs dry rock
  • DIY Stand - made this because I have a cat who gets into anything in reach. Was also fun while my dry rocks were curing. 

 

FTS 5/27/17- 2 Month Anniversary!

 

 

 

FTS 3/27/17

3/27/17 - First day of cycle
Spoiler

FTS 3/27/17 - First day of cycle

 

Current plan is to have 1 clown, 1 small goby (either Hi Fin or Yasha) & a Randalli Pistol Shrimp. All the rocks are mounted with acrylic rods and putty cement on the bottom for stability. The biggest structure has a piece of acrylic (see I found a use for that already) so it stays put. I wanted a lot of room under the sand for the goby and shrimp to do their thing. I was also looking for a different scape. I really loved everyones mound/cove scape, but wanted to try something else.

 

 

FTS Right Angle

 

Obviously, I hope the shrimp and goby like the little cave/cove in the middle. Only time will tell.

 

 

 

 


Fuge Mod

Spoiler

 

Fuge Mod

 

Modded the rear chamber for a larger fuge chamber. The 2nd chamber is just large enough for the heater. The 3rd chamber now has more room for LR and some chaeto once the tank is finished cycling. I made an acrylic divider between the return pump and the fuge to keep a lot of gunk getting into the Sicce .5

 

The .5 was bigger than I initially thought. Build post is below as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 1
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Nice work. Is this still in the beta stage or have you been using it for a while? I got the inTank fuge basket for mine to go in chamber 2 but still so early in the cycle haven't even unboxed it yet. 

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SaltyBuddha
2 minutes ago, 1891Bro said:

Nice work. Is this still in the beta stage or have you been using it for a while? I got the inTank fuge basket for mine to go in chamber 2 but still so early in the cycle haven't even unboxed it yet. 

 Thanks. Still cycling on day 13. I'm hoping the fuge area works out well. Its about 1 gallon so it is about 20% of the DT volume at this point. Keep tuned to see if was worth it

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SaltyBuddha
36 minutes ago, Pazos011 said:

Nice Mod! My best advice is take it slow and introduce things slowly :) I just started my IM 10g as well. I'll be following your progress 

Thanks! Been taking it real slow. Just waiting for my nitrites to go down now. Kind of had a weird cycle so far but hoping it finishes off in the next week

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SaltyBuddha

FIRST LIFE - MACROALGAE

 

First tank life. Flame algae and Halimeda. Made the mistake of assuming when my cycle was ending so I've been keeping them in a spare 5 gallon bucket. Flame algae is fine but the Halimeda is looking a little weak. First mistake - assuming your tank will do what you want when you think it should.

 

 

Also added some chaeto to the rear fuge. Not sure if I want to do a 24 hour light cycle or an opposite life cycle. Might test it out and see if one produces more growth then the other.

 

 

Tank is almost cycled. Nitrites have been taking longer to reduce. About 0.5ppm per 24 hours. Ammonia gets converted no problem. If things change, I'll be adding a cleaner shrimp this weekend to test things out. Maybe a small zoa frag as well.

  • Like 3
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SaltyBuddha

Day 19 of the cycle. Nitrites went down from 2ppm to .5ppm in 24 hours. Almost there.

Nitrates also went down from 40ppm to 30ppm in 36 hours. That's also including all the nitrates from the reducing Nitrites in the cycle. Still only have the chaeto on a small light cycle to acclimate as well. Looks like the fuge mod might be worth it. 

I did find some loose chaeto floating around my DT. Not too big of an issue cause I can just fish it out with a net for now. 

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SaltyBuddha

Thanks Pazos! I plan on having a small goby shrimp pair and a clown. Either a yasha or a hi fin. I redid my fuge and separated my pump with a micron bag yesterday as well. I'm expecting the same fuge results with less of the fuge mess. Looking good so far :D

 

Gave the fiance the choice of a hermit or a cleaner shrimp and she wanted the shrimp. So I'll be starting with that next week and I'll see how thing go from there.  

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Cool scape!  Waiting for the cycle is always the hardest part lol.  Your fiance made the right call cuz hermits can be little turds!

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SaltyBuddha

Thank! I figure I've put so much time into doing this right, another week of waiting won't be bad, but man I really want some livestock already lol

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SaltyBuddha
23 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

You can do it!  Be strong! :lol:

 

I'm trying! It helps to have some macro in the tank so it's not completely empty. The Halimeda is actually got a lot of little new growth on it. Wasn't sure if it was going to make it through my 5 gallon bucket abuse but it's really hardy.

 

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6 minutes ago, SaltyBuddha said:

 

I'm trying! It helps to have some macro in the tank so it's not completely empty. The Halimeda is actually got a lot of little new growth on it. Wasn't sure if it was going to make it through my 5 gallon bucket abuse but it's really hardy.

 

Haha yeah it does help to add macros.  I am glad the halimeda is looking better!  I used to have some that had hitchhiked on my rocks (Florida LR from an LFS that has shut down, sadly) and thought it was super cool.

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SaltyBuddha

TANK CYCLING SO FAR

 

I made a graph to show how my cycle has been so far. There was a random ammonia spike on day 3 and 4 that led to a nitrite spike. I didn't even have to dose ammonia again until day 12. I tried to let the nitrite spike handle itself, but in the end I had to do an 80% WC (even though I was doing 1.5g WC every day). This led to a stall in my cycle, so it had to do a re-boot. Macroalgae have been keeping the Nitrates consistent through my last Ammonia dosages.

 

Actually pretty cool graphing this cycle!  

 

58f3a1414c582_ScreenShot2017-04-16at9_49_13AM.png.8b52c4fb59106f9dc8c110ee022cacbd.png

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SaltyBuddha

Made a frag rack for all the corals I don't have yet. Will be adding plastidipped magnets to secure it to the side of the tank. 

 

20170416_153358_HDR-1.thumb.jpg.5f5c2807e2e4569f0752e52538b08f3a.jpg

8" x 2" with room for 14 frags

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SaltyBuddha

MORE MACRO ALGAES

 

Good news all around. Tank is able to process 2ppms of ammonia into .25 nitrites in 24 hours. Getting closer! I upped the last dose to 3ppm to boost the bacteria a little more.

 

New FTS

20170420_182128_HDR-1.thumb.jpg.07d68ce9be288972f005766fb863bccc.jpg

 

My plan is to start with a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp on Sunday :D I've also got a theme for all the names in my tank, but I'll get to that when I get him or her

 

Got some new macro algae today! I've been ordering from ReefCleaners and love their service. It takes 3 days for me to get the packages though, so they can be in rough shape. Especially when the package looks like this:

20170420_183526_HDR-1.thumb.jpg.485b58e8b84f964f788d3d69f9de8efb.jpg

 

In the package was:

Another red algae!

Palm Caulerpa times two!

Bonus Halimeda!

 

I'm most excited for the Caulerpa. This species is less likely to go sexual than others. Eventually I want it to cover the back right wall. It took it hard during the 3 days of shipping, but I'll prune it into shape when it's stronger.

 

20170420_182227_HDR-1.thumb.jpg.17ebe14faee16dade405ff46b8a062dc.jpg

 

Also, the hitchhiking Halimeda! It's a different species than the one. Already have too

 

20170420_182239_HDR-1.thumb.jpg.69bf5c2ac338003427f6d3eadc8730d4.jpg

 

My first Halimeda isn't looking too hot yet, but after the 5 gallon bucket of hell, who would. It does have some new growth though!

 

20170420_182153_HDR-1.thumb.jpg.5c18dddcd942bf06cfbefff4026d4192.jpg

 

That's it for now.

  • Like 3
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SaltyBuddha
4 minutes ago, WolveX said:

Nice going in you tank man. Will follow your progress to see how it goes.

Thanks. Glad to have you along for the ride

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SaltyBuddha

SEXUAL PLANTS AND FIRST HITCHHIKERS (INVERTABRATES)

 

Welp. The Caulerpa went sexual. It started melting yesterday so I took it out and trimmed it down to the harder runners. It lost ALL of it's leaves during the 3 days of transit and they never came back. It just kept getting worse and releasing nutrients back into my tank. Must have been a lot because nitrates went up from 10ppm on Saturday afternoon to 30ppm this morning. Glad I removed most of it when I did and I've removed it completely from the tank. Maybe I'll try it again later if I can get my hands on some closer to my location. The stress from shipping was too much for it. My tank might also be too new for it.

 

Back to the good news. My tank has started to show signs of life. I have pods crawling around the tank. Found and caught my first bristle worm. It was small and pink so I decided to throw it back on it the tank. It was digesting something so it is already doing some work. I also got another hitchhiking algae that looks like a type of shaving bush.

 

My little feather duster (hitchhiked on my halimeda) is growing some as well. Actually very excited about this one.

 

20170420_200512-1.thumb.jpg.f8d97b35e7a1249e7c706e7b52252d33.jpg

 

I also removed the rock in the back right. Wanted to clear up some space. It was actually a really cool little piece I made. Almost all my rocks have acrylic rods with either a flat acrylic base or little cement epoxy feet. I want my future goby and shrimp to have plenty of building room in the sand without me having to worry about them knocking stuff over.

 

I'll keep it for another day.

 

20170423_081051-1.thumb.jpg.9eb88be2b8cd5b57cdde49c3362f7c1c.jpg

 

I also added some Renew to the tank yesterday when I cleaned the rear chambers. The water is pretty clear already but it seems to be working nicely.

 

20170423_083237-1.thumb.jpg.a7a5a6b003fb350655f8a25322132ee9.jpg

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SaltyBuddha
2 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

This tank is so neat looking!  What sort of rock did you use for the flat "shelves"?  Also your little duster :wub:

Thanks! The feather duster is totally my favorite. After I saw yours I knew I wanted to get one, so it's perfect it found it's way into my tank. Hope it makes it through the cycle. It's so close!

 

I got the shelf rock from BRS. Super porous and easy to work with. I'm just hoping it leaves me with enough room for coral placements 

 

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43 minutes ago, SaltyBuddha said:

Thanks! The feather duster is totally my favorite. After I saw yours I knew I wanted to get one, so it's perfect it found it's way into my tank. Hope it makes it through the cycle. It's so close!

 

I got the shelf rock from BRS. Super porous and easy to work with. I'm just hoping it leaves me with enough room for coral placements 

 

I think the rock will!  Looks like lots of spots to put things to me. :)

 

Have you seen my new feather duster I got a week or two ago?  He's so fluffeh!  At some point I hope to get some of the dwarf yellow and dwarf pink and white ones from LiveAquaria cuz they are gorgeous (posted a few pics on my thread about some old ones I had).

 

Dusters tend to be pretty hardy.  My purple and yellow one has been a trooper!  I accidentally got a little peroxide on him the other day while trying to clean off some hair algae. :blink::wacko: He was pissed and made some stringy slime, hid for a day or so, and is back to being his amazing, gorgeous self!

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SaltyBuddha

That is good to know! I mean, it's been growing through my induced ammonia spikes so it must be pretty hardy lol

 

I did see it and it looks great! I've been interested in using Live Aquaria. Haven't seen too many bad reviews and I'm hoping to grab a yasha and shrimp pair of the divers den when I can. Little dwarf feathers would be awesome. I might get some too :lol:

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  • SaltyBuddha changed the title to SaltyBuddha's IM10 Fusion

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