buxton.nc’s IM10

[buxton.nc]

I wanted to share my IM10 build. I set up an IM 20 last August that is still going strong and I have been wanting an IM 10 to use as an observation/stating tank for my IM20. I picked up the tank, inhabitants, and some hardware from a fellow forum member that was departing the hobby for a little. I have added some of my own components to the setup along the way. The tank does have some algae but it is going away with the maintenance that I am performing. I expect that it will be under control shortly.

 

Here is my equipment list:

·       Innovative Marine Fusion Nano 10 tank with stock return pump, filter sock and screen, currently using filter floss to remove nutrients every other day.

·       Tank stand is a used Biocube 14 stand purchased from my LFS. I think it fits the IM10 really well.

·       AI Prime (non HD) light with tank mount arm

·       Tunze 3155 ATO

·       Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Therm 50 watt heater

·       Neptune Systems Apex Controller

·       Apple Airport Express acting as a bridge for Apex Controller

·       Using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt

·       Live rock

·       7# CaribSea Special Grade Arag-Alive reef sand

 

Current livestock:

·      Red Monti Cap

·      Red Monti Cap

·      Grafted green and red monti

·      Easter egg chalice

·      Orange and green chalice

·      Purple and white acan

·      Purplish green hammer (3 heads)

·      Green hammer/torch hybrid (3 heads)

·      Purple hammer/torch hybrid (2 heads)

·      War coral

·      Plating coral

·      Purple plate coral

·      Purple Zoas (4 flags)

·      Purple and orange something

·      Black ice clownfish

 

 

Some pics are below.

 

 

 

 

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, buxton.nc said:

I wanted to share my IM10 build. I set up an IM 20 last August that is still going strong and I have been wanting an IM 10 to use as an observation/stating tank for my IM20. I picked up the tank, inhabitants, and some hardware from a fellow forum member that was departing the hobby for a little. I have added some of my own components to the setup along the way. The tank does have some algae but it is going away with the maintenance that I am performing. I expect that it will be under control shortly.

 

Here is my equipment list:

·       Innovative Marine Fusion Nano 10 tank with stock return pump, filter sock and screen, currently using filter floss to remove nutrients every other day.

·       Tank stand is a used Biocube 14 stand purchased from my LFS. I think it fits the IM10 really well.

·       AI Prime (non HD) light with tank mount arm

·       Tunze 3155 ATO

·       Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Therm 50 watt heater

·       Neptune Systems Apex Controller

·       Apple Airport Express acting as a bridge for Apex Controller

·       Using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt

·       Live rock

·       7# CaribSea Special Grade Arag-Alive reef sand

 

Current livestock:

·      Red Monti Cap

·      Red Monti Cap

·      Grafted green and red monti

·      Easter egg chalice

·      Orange and green chalice

·      Purple and white acan

·      Purplish green hammer (3 heads)

·      Green hammer/torch hybrid (3 heads)

·      Purple hammer/torch hybrid (2 heads)

·      War coral

·      Plating coral

·      Purple plate coral

·      Purple Zoas (4 flags)

·      Purple and orange something

·      Black ice clownfish

 

 

Some pics are below.

 

 

 

 

Nice!  Clown is gorgeous!

[buxton.nc]

Thanks, Lula_Mae!

[VW_TDI_02]

Glad to see everything made the trip well. The coral look to be doing fantastic. I was a bit worried about the monti possibly falling and breaking but it looks to have survived in perfect condition. Can't really see the grafted monti but I'm sure it's tucked away in the back somewhere. It's a bit of a slow grower compared to the red monti but hopefully it colors up and takes off soon enough. Looking forward to seeing more updates.

[buxton.nc]

Yes, everything made it and appears to be doing well. The clownfish ate the second night she was here and eats every time I place food in the tank. She takes dry and frozen. The grafted monti is doing well, just cannot see it behind the other monti. Working to reduce the algae in a slow fashion. It is going away, will just take a little time. I plan to re-scape the rock to mimic your layout in the next few weeks. Thanks again for everything. I hope you enjoy the progress update. Perhaps I can share some frags when you are ready to get back in the game again.

[Lula_Mae]

Oh nice! I missed that it came from another Nano Reefer! I have several frags from members who were shutting down. Kind of cool to let the legacy live on. 

[buxton.nc]

Yes, I agree. Happy to have this setup.  

[Clown79]

Looks good.

Your clown is cute.

 

organized cabinet- well done ?

I need to get some of those wire clips.

[buxton.nc]

Thanks.  I am not using wire clips inside the cabinet. It is a white Velcro. Picked up a roll at a local hardware store. 

[Lula_Mae]

You can also find Velcro straps designed to contain cords at places that sell computer stuff/office supplies.  Very handy!  Or zip ties but you have to cut them to get them off so not as ideal.

[buxton.nc]

Yes, they are very handy. I have zip ties to bundle together some cables behind the stand and retie the light cable to the light mount.

[gena]

Gorgeous clownfish!  Your plate coral looks fat and happy .

[buxton.nc]

Thanks, the clown is eating regularly and doing well. I fed the plate a chunk of Reef Frenzy Nano last night for the first time. It was amazing to observe the ingestion process. Nature is really amazing! I am planning to target feed the plate once a week moving forward.

[gena]

On 8/12/2017 at 4:40 AM, buxton.nc said:

Thanks, the clown is eating regularly and doing well. I fed the plate a chunk of Reef Frenzy Nano last night for the first time. It was amazing to observe the ingestion process. Nature is really amazing! I am planning to target feed the plate once a week moving forward.

That's a good amount.  I like putting piece of food on the outside edge of the plate and watching it work it into the center mouth....fascinating LOL. 

[buxton.nc]

It reminds me of a Venus fly trap. ?

[VW_TDI_02]

On 8/8/2017 at 9:10 PM, buxton.nc said:

Yes, everything made it and appears to be doing well. The clownfish ate the second night she was here and eats every time I place food in the tank. She takes dry and frozen. The grafted monti is doing well, just cannot see it behind the other monti. Working to reduce the algae in a slow fashion. It is going away, will just take a little time. I plan to re-scape the rock to mimic your layout in the next few weeks. Thanks again for everything. I hope you enjoy the progress update. Perhaps I can share some frags when you are ready to get back in the game again.

That's great to hear. I'm really hoping that the grafted monti starts taking off in your tank. I was surprised how quickly that red monti took off. I initially tried to remove it from the plug and ended up cracking it into 3 pieces while it was still on the plug so I just cut the bottom of the plug and glued it on and it quickly healed and took off. Thanks for the offer. It would be incredible to see how that tank is doing in 2-3 years when everything is fully settled in and has had time to fill in.

On 8/11/2017 at 2:04 PM, gena said:

Gorgeous clownfish!  Your plate coral looks fat and happy .

The plate is incredible. When I first saw it in the store there were a bunch of the flat green/yellow plates and that one just looked so fat and healthy. I'm assuming it's probably just a different species or variation but it really stuck out to me. Glad to see it doing well.

[buxton.nc]

Tank is coming along fine. Still focusing on exporting nutrients to get the GHA under control.  The ATO has really helped me maintain the proper salinity level in the tank and minimize the amount of touch on the tank.

 

The monti's are doing great. The red-green is beginning to color up and the green is starting to pop.

[buxton.nc]

Installed an MP10wQD on the tank this evening to supplement the stock return pump. Hope that adding flow will help with nutrient export and getting this GHA under control and out of the tank. I am running it on the lowest setting at the moment and will increase it slowly based on observing how the livestock responds. I plan to start looking for a deal (hopefully) on a WXM so I can integrate it into my Apex.

[VW_TDI_02]

On 8/18/2017 at 6:45 PM, buxton.nc said:

Tank is coming along fine. Still focusing on exporting nutrients to get the GHA under control.  The ATO has really helped me maintain the proper salinity level in the tank and minimize the amount of touch on the tank.

 

The monti's are doing great. The red-green is beginning to color up and the green is starting to pop.

That's great to hear. I think my issue with the grafted monti was my light. It was a 10K light and I think the lack of blue really had an impact on the coloration. Glad to hear that the green is coming back. ATOs are great. In regards to the nutrients I think physical removal is one of the better ways to do it. I would just go with a toothbrush and scrub whatever you can off and then do a good water change to remove all the floating algae. 

21 hours ago, buxton.nc said:

Installed an MP10wQD on the tank this evening to supplement the stock return pump. Hope that adding flow will help with nutrient export and getting this GHA under control and out of the tank. I am running it on the lowest setting at the moment and will increase it slowly based on observing how the livestock responds. I plan to start looking for a deal (hopefully) on a WXM so I can integrate it into my Apex.

Those are great but with such a small tank I was having trouble directing the flow where it wasn't too powerful and would mess with the livestock. Eventually I ended up pointing the RW-4 against the back wall. The MP10s are definitely better than the RW-4s but they were just too far out of my budget. I believe they can go lower and their flow is far more spread out and not as narrow as the RW-4 which is very beneficial on the smaller tanks. The WXM would also be nice because you can control it all in the same place and remotely from your phone. 

 

Good to keep in touch. Excited to see some new pictures soon.

[buxton.nc]

Agree on the nutrients. I have stepped up the toothbrush activity to once a day now, using the MP10 to move the algae to the filter floss and then replacing the filter floss once a day. Currently doing 2 gallon weekly water changes. I am going to re do the rock scape to mimic what you had assembled once I get all of the algae out of the tank and under control.

 

I am kind of spoiled with my IM20 tank since it also has an Apex and a WXM module. Used to running everything through the Apex, which is just easier for me. No hurry, but if i run across a good deal on a WXM, I will move forward with it. I am very happy with my MP10's.

 

I plan to keep up with pictures, no worries. I will try to get some this coming weekend. Stay in touch - you will be back in the game in no time. 

[buxton.nc]

MP10 has definitely helped with flow; glad I added it to the tank. Still fighting nutrients but making progress. Continue to perform weekly 2 gallon water changes and swapping filter floss every other day. I added a clean up crew from Reefcleaners to help with the algae earlier this week. I plan to re-home some of the crew to my other tank once this is under control. I added a small amount of GFO (1.5 TBSP) to a small media bag and placed it in the bottom chamber of the IM custom caddy for the first time today. I will keep any eye on it an see if this helps reduce the phosphate level with my Hanna phosphorus checker. I have not tested for phosphate yet because I suspect that the algae has been consuming it as soon as it was available. Perhaps with the GFO addition, the testing will be beneficial.  The picture below  was just taken after completing the weekly water change change today.

[buxton.nc]

Used my Hanna checker to test for phosphate on 9/4 and observed reading was 0. Expected this since algae was locking in the phosphate. GFO has been in the tank for 3 days and I am seeing a reduction in the amount of visible algae. Hanna checker test taken 72 hours after introducing GFO is 0.12. Excited to see a real number. It is high, but the checker is reading a number and I believe the GFO is lowering the levels. Never thought I would be this happy to see a high phosphate reading.

 

 

[buxton.nc]

Pulled a water sample this morning and phosphate is at 0.02. Hair algae is pulling away from attached surfaces much easier now and some is turning to a dark brown color so I suspect it is being starved out by the GFO. Will continue to run GFO while I manually remove hair algae throughput the week. Will continue weekly 2 gallon water changes and vacuuming sections of the sand each week to remove excess nutrients. End goal is to get away from GFO and rely on filter floss/socks and weekly water changes to manage the tank.

[buxton.nc]

Weekly maintenance performed today - 2 gallon water change, remove nuisance algae, brush rocks, replace filter floss, vacuumed sand and cleaned powerhead. Tank is showing progress.  

 

 

[buxton.nc]

Still doing my weekly maintenance and tank is doing well. I have a couple rocks that I have not vacuumed under yet. Plan to start those sections soon to wrap up removing the excess detritus and hope to get the rocks into their final location shortly. Tank has been responding positively to my maintenance activities so far. It has not been a quick process, but I think has helped me maintain the tank with minimal stress on the inhabitants and me.  

 

I recently ordered and inexpensive frag rack to help me sort through things until I have determined a final mounting place for frags in my tanks. Expect the rack to arrive within the next week or so.