Skoch's IM Fusion Peninsula 20

[skoch]

I have used this site so much in my research that I thought it would be best to chronicle my journey here.  I am new to reefing and after half a dozen books and countless hours online I finally took the plunge and bought an IM Fusion Peninsula 20.  

 

For lighting I found a good deal on a Current Orbit Marine PRO 24" and so far I really like it (but then again, I'm new so not much to compare it too).  I also swapped out the filter sock for an inTank media basket and changed the stock pump to an Eheim compact 1000 after a few days of dealing with the noise (this tank is on my custom built work desk).  The tank has 20 lbs of live rock from the LFS and 10 lbs of CaribSea Ocean Direct sand.  I also added a Jebao SW-2 powerhead to the back wall and an IM Hydrofill hooked up to a TOM Aqua Lifter for ATO.  There is a 75w Cobalt Neo-Therm heater in the third chamber as well.  Here it is the day I flooded it:

 

 

 

I mixed my own salt with RO water from the LFS that I transported back to my house in truckload of Home Depot buckets.  I used Tropic Marin Bio-Actif and did the mixing in a new Rubbermaid Brute 28 gallon recycle bin with a heater and cheap powerhead.  I installed my new RO/DI system a few days later and my TDS is zero.  I rigged it up so I could bypass the deionization if I wanted drinking water.  Here it all is under the sink:

 

 

It has an dual in-line TDS meter measuring both RO and RO/DI separately.  I calibrated it to my handheld TDS meter and it reads true.  Red hose is for fish, blue hose is for me.  The tank I have been using to store RO/DI has an air release port that the water line fits into perfectly.  I used a sharpie to make the measurement marks on the jug more visible from across the room.  I have a 1/4" airline from my ATO pump running into the same hole when it is set up near the tank for that purpose.

 

 

 

[skoch]

I added Bio-Spira to help the cycle and with LR and some controlled ammonia dosing it finished up in about 12 days.  I did a water change and waited a couple days before going to the LFS to get some CUC guys and my first two fish.  Say hello to Lil' Wayne (with the teardrop face tats) & Jane (my wife is not so creative)...

 

 

[skoch]

My two clowns, two scarlet hermits, two nassarius snails and two trochus snails have been doing great and all of my levels have remained stable.  The Black Snowflake Clowns spend their nights in the bottom back corner of the tank together and come out when the lights ramp up in the morning.  They spend most of their time in the open front area of the tank and have certainly begun to recognize the guy that feeds them.

 

I also picked up a few beginner corals from a guy I found on Craigslist who happens to live in the neighborhood.  I put in two nuclear green zoa rocks and three small xenia frags that had broken off and settled at the bottom of his tank.  Total was $40 and after a couple days of acclimating to their new home they seem to be doing great.  The two smaller xenia heads even pulse when I turn off the pumps and powerheads.

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

 

i think it is looking great!  Wayne and Jane are super cute. 

[skoch]

Lil' Wayne & Jane have a new friend that occupies the archway.  Dali has moved in and has already started reaching out to them to offer his services (yes I know, "he's" a hermaphrodite).  He loves frozen mysis shrimp and likes to hang upside down...

 

 

Here's a video of him being not so shy when the food hits the water...

 

 

[ninjamyst]

Love your rockscape.  Watch out for the xenia taking over your rock.

[skoch]

13 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

i think it is looking great!  Wayne and Jane are super cute. 

 

Thanks!  They've got a ton of personality and love being up front and center.

 

8 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Love your rockscape.  Watch out for the xenia taking over your rock.

 

Thank you, I really like the way it turned out as well.  I have heard that about xenia, but its a coral that I fell in love with after all of my visits to the different LFSes.  I've heard of it taking over entire tanks, but to be honest I think those look quite awesome in pulsing monotone.

 

[ninjamyst]

49 minutes ago, skoch said:

Thank you, I really like the way it turned out as well.  I have heard that about xenia, but its a coral that I fell in love with after all of my visits to the different LFSes.  I've heard of it taking over entire tanks, but to be honest I think those look quite awesome in pulsing monotone.

 

I love them too till they overtook part of my tank.  Best to isolate them to their own rock so they can overtake it.  They are really pretty when pulsing.

 

 

[WhiteWulfe]

Whoohoo, the thread fires up... Can't wait to see more as this tank is an ever so enticing one ^_^

[skoch]

12 hours ago, WhiteWulfe said:

Whoohoo, the thread fires up... Can't wait to see more as this tank is an ever so enticing one ^_^

I really love the shape and dimensions of the tank.  It has great viewing angles so I can find all of the livestock.  The shallower depth also reduces the cost of lighting.  I've had to turn the light down some so my zoas would open back up.  I have some standoffs coming to raise the lightbar up and increase coverage.  At that point I could turn things back up a notch.

 

My only problem with this tank is the size of the sump/equipment chambers.  It is the same size as the 10 gallon IM tank, with double the water.  Kind of tough to get everything you need back there and I wish their were more protein skimmer options in a size that fit.

[skoch]

Here is a shot of the tank from the front.  I positioned the two zoa rocks so it appears that they are actually part of the larger rock formation but have been separated by sand.

 

 

And I got a better picture of the strange one, Salvador Dali, while I was feeding last night.

 

[debbeach13]

Welcome to NR. Looks like you are off to a great start. Good luck with your reefing adventures.

[skoch]

I removed the two large palythoa rocks because after all of my research I determined there was a 50/50 chance they were the poisonous type.  Not worth the risk for me so they are now gone.  I replaced them with a few more pieces of live rock and moved one of the Xenia frags over to the new formation.  

 

I got a shipment from KP Aquatics in today that included 4 different ricordea, a red rock flower anemone and they threw in a free nano blue zoa frag! Everything was acclimated with a quick drip and then dipped.  All is doing well and adjusting nicely.  Here is the new nem, he was a real b**ch to get out of the small piece of PVC he was shipped in.  I placed him on the rock and he has opened up!

 

 

Here is the new rockscape at the front of the tank with Xenia and new Zoas on the recently added liverock.

 

 

The ricordeas are in an acclimation location so I'll get some pictures of them when they get moved tomorrow.

[Lula_Mae]

4 hours ago, skoch said:

I removed the two large palythoa rocks because after all of my research I determined there was a 50/50 chance they were the poisonous type.  Not worth the risk for me so they are now gone.  I replaced them with a few more pieces of live rock and moved one of the Xenia frags over to the new formation.  

 

I got a shipment from KP Aquatics in today that included 4 different ricordea, a red rock flower anemone and they threw in a free nano blue zoa frag! Everything was acclimated with a quick drip and then dipped.  All is doing well and adjusting nicely.  Here is the new nem, he was a real b**ch to get out of the small piece of PVC he was shipped in.  I placed him on the rock and he has opened up!

 

 

Here is the new rockscape at the front of the tank with Xenia and new Zoas on the recently added liverock.

 

 

The ricordeas are in an acclimation location so I'll get some pictures of them when they get moved tomorrow.

Don't all palys have toxins to some extent?  New stuff looks nice!

[skoch]

24 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Don't all palys have toxins to some extent?  New stuff looks nice!

Not all, and there are some ways to physically identify the most likely carriers.  This article does a great job of explaining the history of the species and what to look for.  The palys I had just checked too many boxes in the related to palythoa heliodiscus column for me to feel comfortable having them in my tank.  Now that I know what to look for, I feel a lot more comfortable with keeping some palys/zoas (just today I added some).  Even if its just for my peace of mind.

[Lula_Mae]

Interesting.  I've always heard you're generally fine as long as you don't handle stuff with cuts on your hands (which you shouldn't be putting in the tank anyway).  Can also wear gloves!  But then, I could never keep zoas/palys alive very long lol.

[skoch]

Unfortunately I end up with cuts on my hands all the time from building things.  I've been using disposable nitrile gloves lately, but sometimes I just forget.  Don't want that to be a bigger mistake than it already is 

[Lula_Mae]

47 minutes ago, skoch said:

Unfortunately I end up with cuts on my hands all the time from building things.  I've been using disposable nitrile gloves lately, but sometimes I just forget.  Don't want that to be a bigger mistake than it already is 

Eek!  Yeah maybe a good call to get rid of them then lol

 

Wash well with soap after tanking lol

[skoch]

9 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Eek!  Yeah maybe a good call to get rid of them then lol

 

Wash well with soap after tanking lol

I feel like a surgeon "scrubbing in" sometimes. 

[kurtjeee]

how is this tank running now? Any updates

[PshThisGuy]

Any updates? Would like to see how the tank is progressing? 

[skoch]

Tank has been really stable and mostly low maintenance.  I had a real long fight with cyano, but it seems to have finally subsided.  I have had a bubble tip anemone in there for 11 months now and it split once.  So now there are two that have stayed in the same spot for the last 6 months or so.  

 

I lost the smaller of the two clowns in a horrible overflow accident.  The clowns hang out in the corner by the overflow and overnight the male slipped through the vents and ended up getting crushed between the basket and the overflow lip as I tried to get him out.  Was a really sad day.

 

Currently there are a handful of snails, three or four scarlet hermits, and about 100 asterina starfish.  The starfish don't seem to harm anything and they definitely help clean up so I've left them be.  Their population has remained stable for the last 6 months.  The scarlet shrimp lost a battle with a flame hawkfish I had while I was on vacation.  The clean-up crew made him disappear before I returned except for a few bits of leg here and there.  I still have the larger female clown and a medium sized royal gramma that get along real well.  There are several stalks of pulsing xenia, a kenyan tree coral and four ricordea.  I also have coralline algae slowly covering the surfaces of my live rock.  I also have a healthy population of copepods, tube snails and tiny fan worms.  Its a real live ecosystem in there!

 

I have an Apex Controller hooked up monitoring Salinity, Temp, ORP, and PH.  It has been amazing.  Especially great for checking on things while out of town or getting warnings when something is up.  I actually had my heater fail one night and the alarm woke me up as the temp dropped below 72 (It had been emailing and texting me before then, but I was asleep).  Threw an extra one in there and everyone was happy.

 

I currently run Purigen and Chemi-Pure and that is it.  I haven't run the skimmer in 9 months and everything is stable and tests just perfect.  I do a water change about once a month.  

 

Future plans are for a lighting upgrade and some more inverts.  The fish are happy and healthy so I don't really want to upset that balance.  I think some small shrimp or a pom-pom crab are in my future.

 

 

[sm32589g]

Nice write up....I may do something like this when I get mine going. Very influential. Thank you. 

[devaji108]

how about an update with lots of pics?

 

[Aquademiksreef]

On 03/05/2017 at 21:56, skoch said:

Eu usei este site tanto em minha pesquisa que achei que seria melhor registrar minha jornada aqui. Eu sou novo em recifes e depois de meia dúzia de livros e incontáveis horas on-line eu finalmente tomei a iniciativa e comprei um IM Fusion Peninsula 20.  

 

Para a iluminação eu encontrei um bom negócio em um atual Orbit Marine PRO 24 "e até agora eu realmente gosto dele (mas, novamente, eu sou novo, então não há muito para comparar também). Eu também troquei o filtro de meia para um inTank Mídia cesta e mudou a bomba de estoque para um Eheim compacto 1000 depois de alguns dias de lidar com o ruído (este tanque é na minha mesa de trabalho personalizado construído) .O tanque tem 20 libras de rocha viva do LFS e 10 libras de CaribSea Oceano Eu também adicionei um cabeçote Jebao SW-2 à parede traseira e um IM Hydrofill ligado a um TOM Aqua Lifter para ATO.Há também um aquecedor Cobw Neo-Therm de 75w na terceira câmara. dia eu o inundai:

 

 

 

Misturei meu próprio sal com água de RO do LFS que transportei de volta para minha casa em caminhões de baldes Home Depot. Eu usei o Tropic Marin Bio-Actif e fiz a mistura em uma nova lixeira Rubbermaid Brute 28 galões com um aquecedor e um powerhead barato. Eu instalei meu novo sistema RO / DI alguns dias depois e meu TDS é zero. Eu arrumei tudo para que eu pudesse ignorar a deionização, se eu quisesse beber água. Aqui está tudo embaixo da pia:

 

 

Ele possui um medidor TDS em linha duplo que mede o RO e o RO / DI separadamente. Calibrei-o ao meu medidor portátil TDS e ele lê verdadeiro. Mangueira vermelha é para peixe, mangueira azul é para mim. O tanque que tenho usado para armazenar RO / DI tem uma porta de liberação de ar que a linha de água se encaixa perfeitamente. Eu usei um sharpie para tornar as marcas de medição no jarro mais visíveis do outro lado da sala. Eu tenho uma companhia aérea de 1/4 "da minha bomba ATO correndo para o mesmo buraco quando é montada perto do tanque para esse propósito.

 

 

 

Olá!!! Olá seu tanque está ótimo, eu fiz um inspirado nesse modelo, mais eu mesmo fiz aqui no Brasil é difícil  Comprar um tanque deste sem importar e isso sairia caro de mais. Neste caso fiz o meu totalmente @Aquademiksreefde uma olhada e me dê sua opinião! Parabéns!