IM SR80 Build!

[davy jones]

Well, here we go again! After the disaster that was my last attempt at a larger tank this is attempt 2! After lots of searching and contacting manufactures about going custom again I stumbled upon a deal I couldnt pass up from a local reefer that wanted out of the hobby.

2 things:

1. I type. A lot, so be prepared to read through a lot if you are following along!
2. I also post lots of photos. Unfortunately they are cell phone pictures, and I do not take the time to edit them in photoshop/lightroom. Most turn out pretty good though!

Display: Innovative Marine SR-80 (I may bust out the AIO compartments and drill the back.. will see!)
Stand: Custom made from previous owner
Skimmer: Picked up a Tunze 9012 DC for this build
Lighting: 2 GHL Mitras LX7's
Sand: Tropic Eden reef flakes
Controlled with apex classic
Flow: 2 Jebao dcs 2000 return pumps
Flow: 4 mp40's (bought enough for a larger tank, might as well use them all at a lower speed)
Tunze 3155 ato
Eventually running apex dos with 2 ESV 2 part for consumption
RSCP salt
Occassional GAC from red sea, and brs rox.8 in a media bag (not reactor)

Current fish moving to this build include:
1 Clownfish (9 years old)
1 SMALL purple tang
1 Starry blenny
1 Orchid dotty back

Current inverts moving:
5-10 Rainbow Bubble tip anemones ( Have 10 now, Will likely give some away/sell some locally during the transition)
1 Sherman Rose anemone from Pieces of the Ocean
1 Black widow anemone purchased locally
1-3 Maxi Mini carpet anemones (Have 3, but have been unsuccessful in the past from removing them from rock/glass)
3-5 rock flower anemones (have 5 but 2 I dont think will make it)
1 anemone crab
~5 scarlet hermits

Current corals include (but not limited to)
Large hammer colony (20ish heads)
Purple torch (4-5 heads)
AoG zoa colony
Gobstoppers zoa colony
WWC Halle Berrey colony
ORA Purple Stylo mini colony
OG Tubbs blue zoas
OG rasta's
Cali tort
BC Orange tipped albrolhosensis
Teal hammer coral
Multi colored splatter hammer coral
ORA Tricolor Valida mini colony
Sky blue Yuma


The plan for this build is going to be a very mixed setup. Zoas, anemones, euphillia, ricordia/yumas and a few sticks will make it in. Ideally I will be able to run this display tank (or even drilled with sump and stuff) until I move (hopefully in about 3 years or so) and then upgrade to a custom size of 48"x30"x20". During this time, I plan on slowly moving towards more high end stuff. Will likely phase out the standard rainbow bubble tips and try to get a more ultra colored one. Hopefully the black widow and sherman will also thrive. I would like to eventually pick up a sunburst and or lemon drop as well. First things first though is zoas and palys. They are my SO's favorite thing in the tank, so as soon as this is up and stable after the transfer I will be on the hunt for a few nice ones (including WWC Purple monsters, RR Pink diamonds, CC Vamps in drag and so on)

I have already contacted innovative marine and they did confirm that the back panel can be drilled, as well as removing the AIO components will not effect the integrity of the tank. So this is an option for me, and I will go that route if I have to.

Ill be bringing the Tank home wednesday evening (august 8th) and will try to document the process as it goes!

[davy jones]

Electronics mounted
Tank in position
Lighting (kind of) mounted
Sand added
Rock added
Tank filled
Biospira added
Dr Tim's one and only added
Cycled seed rock added
Cycled siporax added

Will let it run for a few days to a week and I'll add the first coral and a fish or 2!

I have prodibio and zeobak ready for when the first livestock goes in

And the first full tank shot!

[StinkyBunny]

One word of caution if you haven't drilled a tank, TAKE YOUR TIME!! It should take 10-15 minutes to cut through that glass and keep it wet. I don't use the putty dam, I use my hose to help wash away the slag from drilling and keep the glass and bit cool.

[DaveFason]

Great to see you back. Take it slow and enjoy! It looks like you picked up a great setup. 

[spectra]

11 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

One word of caution if you haven't drilled a tank, TAKE YOUR TIME!! It should take 10-15 minutes to cut through that glass and keep it wet. I don't use the putty dam, I use my hose to help wash away the slag from drilling and keep the glass and bit cool.

 

I second this and one thing I do is take a piece of plywood and drill the same size hole in it to keep the bit from walking.......also as stated just put the hose on it and go to town.

 

Nice set up have always liked the bigger IM tanks.

[mitten_reef]

Nice! Surprise how rare it is to see these SRs on here. most people seem to move on to a sumped system after they’re done with their small IM. Look forward to progress. 

[ninjamyst]

I envy your water changing station.  very pro.

[Stoops718]

Anemones from POTO. Are you from Queens too? I'll take whatever doesn't make it into the new build. Lol

[davy jones]

On 8/14/2018 at 7:37 PM, StinkyBunny said:

One word of caution if you haven't drilled a tank, TAKE YOUR TIME!! It should take 10-15 minutes to cut through that glass and keep it wet. I don't use the putty dam, I use my hose to help wash away the slag from drilling and keep the glass and bit cool.

 

On 8/15/2018 at 7:24 AM, spectra said:

 

I second this and one thing I do is take a piece of plywood and drill the same size hole in it to keep the bit from walking.......also as stated just put the hose on it and go to town.

 

Nice set up have always liked the bigger IM tanks.

I have not drilled a tank before.. However I decided to wait on that project. I want to give the AIO a chance before I gut that section and drill. If it works out without breaking the setup then thats even better!

On 8/15/2018 at 7:18 PM, ninjamyst said:

I envy your water changing station.  very pro.

It is so nice. Flip a switch on the powerstrip to mix/heat the bucket, flip another switch to pump it into the display. Honestly, cant believe I ran so long without something like that. Makes maintenance 1000% easier.

On 8/15/2018 at 9:05 PM, Stoops718 said:

Anemones from POTO. Are you from Queens too? I'll take whatever doesn't make it into the new build. Lol

I live in minnesota 🙂 Pieces of the ocean had a "True sherman rose XL" for sale in april that i picket up. Looked awesome in the bag but declined from there over the next few months. Did a cipro treatment on it and its in the new display now settling in. Hoping for a full recovery and hoping it goes back to its former glory!

Testing has proven steady! Some uglies on the rockwork but already starting to go away.

Moved the sick anemone out of treatment into the tank and it has settled in nicely! Also moved over initial corals for testing and most are looking better in the new tank than they were in the other one so I continued moving stuff over. This tank will be running a heavy WC regimin the first month or so to account for general new tanky-ness.

Had to burn some credit I had at live aquaria and incidentally ALL the wrasses I planned for this build were in stock and arrive tuesday.

I have only had a single mp40 in the tank and even at 60% I find placing any lps difficult due to the flow it puts off. I'll have to monitor that and see what adding the second one across from that does with the flow dynamic.

Lighting is touch to balance as my other light is still over the temp tank, so the 3 kessil a80s the tank came with are over the second half of the tank .

Apex is setup and configured and so is the Dos. For now dosing will just be kalk on the Dos. It is set to dose ~150 ml or so a day and the ato will account for the rest of the evap. The reservoir is a 5 gallon bucket so it should last around 20-25 days of dosing. Will adjust as needed of course.

At this point about 3/4 of the livestock (other than fish) has been moved over and somewhat placed. The other tank is still setup and running as normal in case things start to go south I can quickly move them back for recovery but I don't think it will be needed as this is the third or fourth time I've setup a tank this way without issues.

Skimmer is dialed in and foam head is sitting nicely where I want it, adjustments will need to be made as the bioload increases but trucking along good for now.

Enough wall of text, pictures!

[Nano Nano Boo Boo]

Someday I will have his tank. Amazing build, looking forward to following. 

[davy jones]

5 minutes ago, Nano Nano Boo Boo said:

Someday I will have his tank. Amazing build, looking forward to following. 

Glad to have you! Hopefully I can figure out my lighting so I can take decent pictures lol

[LongBeachReefer]

Nice set up. 

[davy jones]

Tank update!

Got some uglies going on the rock and sand, but nothing bad!

Bought some pods and they are going crazy in this tank. If the population stays this high I will be looking into a manderin or Ruby red dragonet. Won't do so until I get a good couple months of pods the way they are however.

Of the 4 wrasses I got from live aquaria, 3 made it past day one. Lost the red line same day they arrived. The Christmas wrasse and yellow Cori's wrasse are doing great. The radiant wrasse I have only see twice since going into the tank, and spends all day/night buried that I can tell. Haven't seen him out to eat yet either which is concerning but is alive so I'll take it.

Corals are doing very well. Like scarily so.. I'm waiting for the bad cause it shouldn't be going this easy.

Managed to snag some stellar pieces during the cherry corals live sale including some nice zoa frags and a frag of the ARC fireworks acro for $20!!!

Here are some quick photos I took earlier today using the new polyp labs coral lense and my galaxy s6 edge+ phone. Haven't had more than a couple minutes to play so hopefully they get better as I go!

Gonna be gone camping for the next 4 days so interested tosee how it looks when I get back

[DaveFason]

It looks like this tank is off to a great start compared to the last. Buy a turkey baster and blast the rocks. 

[davy jones]

On 8/31/2018 at 8:26 AM, DaveFason said:

It looks like this tank is off to a great start compared to the last. Buy a turkey baster and blast the rocks. 

Much better haha Although I have much more algae growing in this one than the one that is in the garage (considering it is not water tight lolol) Im sure a few water changes and manual removal will get it under control!

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

So I just read through both your tank threads lol. Too bad sca didn't pan out for you. This tank looks great though.

[davy jones]

18 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

So I just read through both your tank threads lol. Too bad sca didn't pan out for you. This tank looks great though.

Thanks!

 

Yeah it was a bit frustrating but it happens. Worked out for the best however as i was able to get my refund, pick this one up for a good deal and then I also got a 120 eurobraced for free (long story) so ill definitely come out ahead! Ill be upgrading to the 120 in the coming months!

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

12 minutes ago, dirtrider225 said:

Thanks!

 

Yeah it was a bit frustrating but it happens. Worked out for the best however as i was able to get my refund, pick this one up for a good deal and then I also got a 120 eurobraced for free (long story) so ill definitely come out ahead! Ill be upgrading to the 120 in the coming months!

Oh that's great can't wait to see it. I'm going to be turning my 75 gallon cichlid tank into a reef tank sometime next year. Can't wait to have more room lol.

[davy jones]

Quick tank update!

Picked up some goodies during the brs Black friday sale!!

Upgraded my Algaefree Hammerhead float with the razor attachment and replaced the scrubby pad and flet pad and wow. 1000% better than before! Best scraper ive used, and ive tried them all.

Got another mp40qd to replace the older WES style I have on the once side and I hope to install it this weekend if i have time.

Picked up a deluxe reactor setup, but im unsure if im going to use it with this setup or just wait until I move to the 120.

Picked up t5 bulbs and mounting legs for my Giesemann fixtures im going to test out and use on the 120. I love the Mitras, but on the next tank Ill either be going full t5 with an 8 bulb Matrixx II Dimtech or the Aurora hybrid. My anemones have always looked best under T5 and as that is the direction I want to go it makes the most sense to me to incorporate that. I will keep the Mitras for a bit just to make sure I didnt make the wrong choice of course.

Past that, I setup a little 20 gallon long that I had for QT as an anemone tank. I managed to get a good deal on a broodstock of black widow nems, and a bunch of rose anemones so they are hanging out in there. Unfortunately it had a mini crash during the thanksgiving holidays as the lawnmower blenny i picked up died and there is no cleanup crew so it just sat and rotted. I hope to convert this system to a more permanent setup or buy another system locally for that purpose. I may or may not start another thread for that but likely updates to that system will show up in my main thread

Anyways, here are a few quick photos i took the other day. Thanks for reading!

[StinkyBunny]

I get the best growth from T5 and LED lighting. Use the LEDs to bring the tank from dawn, then kick on the T5s.

[davy jones]

Been a while since an update!

Things are going mostly okay, only losses have been a couple of Yumas that melted out of the blue unfortunately. Zoa's and everything else seems to be doing well so I'm not going to change much

Ordered an ATI test and ATI essentials pro thanks to the @MarineDepot sale that is going on now! So hopefully I can get some insight in why any sps dies in my tank.

Got my webcam setup as I will be traveling for a bit coming up, so hopefully the tank keeps trucking along as it has been!

Tried to take some pictures but didn't have a lot of time so this is all I got

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DaveFason]

Tank looks great and looks like you are enjoying reefing again! 

-Dave

[davy jones]

On 2/7/2019 at 9:45 AM, DaveFason said:

Tank looks great and looks like you are enjoying reefing again! 

-Dave

I am Dave! Thanks for checking in! Dino's beat my love for the hobby down pretty hard. Things have been pretty good over all for the last 8-12 months so that's cool!

 

Hope all is well with you and your business!

 

 

[mitten_reef]

need a new FTS of this one 🙂

[davy jones]

Huge post ahead. Lots of reading. Not all in order unfortunately but ill do my best. Much of this is just my own rambling and documentation but thanks for reading along lol This is your warning to skip down to the photos.

Been quite a while since my last update, so Ill try to remember everything that has happened since then, its been quite a bit! I encountered some odd brown algae in the tank, like a mix between dinos, cyano and diatoms, but really wasnt any of them.. hard to explain, but it was a light brown color that would grow on the rocks, back wall, sand bed, frag plugs, even closed up zoas. Not super easy to brush off either. Tried more waterchanges, carbon, Dr Tims waste away, but ultimately it went away in about a week and a half after adding an additional fish, and upping my feeding significantly (high nitrates, undectable phos on ICP test).

Next point, I (against better judgement) placed an order for some coral from AquaSD. Various chalices, favites, acan echinata, and a Blue/green/pink hammer coral. Most of the stuff arrived okay, and have done alright but no growth, not great coloration when it arrived and overall just heavy signs of them being a chop shop. The worst however, is the fact that the hammer coral died after about 18 hours, and when it did it took out all the rest of my euphyllia. Torch died, 3 different hammers died, frogspawn died, and lost 3-4 heads on the largest colony I have which somehow survived. I believe the issue was bacterial, and I did Iodine dips but that only slowed the infection, It would not stop it. I am down to a single (very sad) head of gold/purple hammer, and the main colony of green/purple ive had for years. Although the polyps have not looked the same since that incident.

I also won a frag pack from Legendary corals and picked up a few things to go with the package. Between the time I won and the time the package arrived I was having some tissue narcosis on most of my non zoas so I sent in an ICP test and found my Phosphate was undectable, nitrates were 19ppm, Iodine was extremely low. salinity was high and DKH was 10. (my testing has been a bit lacking with the house projects going on) So, I lowered salinity, stopped my dosing, upped feeding significantly, added a fish and have been dosing 2 drops of Brightwells lugols solution (iodine) every day/couple days. The corals arrived super healthy from LC however due to my tank condition they started having narcosis right away. Most have recovered with only a few still showing stress.

In that pack was a nice rainbow anemone, which is awesome since I love anemones. Well after about a month and a half my sherman rose closed up and deflated for quite a while. about 2 weeks actually. I took the rainbows out of the tank and placed them in the anemone tank, and crossed my fingers.Its been about a month since removing them and the sherman rose is finally starting to look a bit better. No where near what it was a few months ago but starting to recover thankfully.

Speaking of anemones, my nem tank has had some changes as well. Went from a small holding tank, to a IM 40, now to an IM10. I like its current iteration the best. The nems are starting to regain color after all the mishaps that went on, but im not gonna document those. Lots could have been avoided on my side. I ended up losing about 8-9 anemones due to negligence and stupidity, including my last of the rainbow strain I had been culturing for 4 years

 

Not all bad news however, Ill have some photos of what it currently looks like later in the thread!

We are about caught up on things, im sure I forgot a ton of stuff but whatevs.

I picked up the white tail bristle tooth tang and it is quickly becoming my favorite fish. Non stop cruising the tank, picking at the rocks, back wall, frag rack etc. until I try to take a photo, then she likes to hide from me lol Which brings the total fish count in the tank to 7.
1. 12 year old clownfish named maevis
2. Oreo the Starry blenny, who is so fat im afraid he is going to burst every time I look at him, and he who bites my arm every time its in the tank
3. Pinky the yellow coris wrasse, who spends all day swimming along the surface of the tank trying to find where there isnt a screen top
4. Noelle the christmas wrasse, who wants to be in every picture I try to take
5. Carl, the orchard dottyback. Only comes out during feeding time, but has been with me through 4 tanks so I cant get rid of him
6. Dom the Purple tang. Not much to say about this guy, awesome grazer, beautiful fish, Man in charge.
and finally 7. Lulu the White tail bristle tooth. She plays hard to get.

Current issues are a plenty, Vermettid snails are quite prevalent, there are a few aptasia that im not sure how got into the tank, Some colonial hydroids, bubble algae and blue clove polyps.
Some of my zoa/palys are behaving a bit odd by having their skirts curled in constantly/missing? I have looked and looked and cant see anyone feasting on them, and it seems to only affect some of the palys, but not all. Gotta do a bit of research on that as time permits. I am also inclined to blame oreo for some of it as he is often found lazing around on top of my zoa colonies as if its a bed. Odd stuff I tell ya what.

Now for the good!

I have never in my reefing career been able to place and keep chalices, they always would turn grey and melt away. Well I can confidently say that I have 2 chalices that have been growing like crazy. Non stop growth rings all the way around!
Most of my zoas are still growing like mad, with the fastest being the LC Petroglyphs, UC Nirvannas, and captain Jerks. The slow growers include Bowsers, Pluto Passions, Rainbow rhinos and candy apple reds
My purple stylophora just keeps on getting larger, and then shading its base due to the growth pattern it has chosen. Super hardy coral though.
I recently have fallen in love with Lobos, which also happen to be one of the significant others coral of choice so win win! I have one single head one that is giant and always happy looking and just picked up a 3 head one from reef collective.
I also have a rockflower anemone garden which is doing awesome, and a ricordea garden with the most unique color variants I can find. Including a deepwater belize one that gets to the size of a baseball in low light/flow, and a curacao ricordea that has a very unique color/texture.
Finally there is a mushroom forest growing in the back of the tank with rhodactis shrooms of various color. Green, orange/green, Blue/orange, and Gonzos golden dragon shrooms.

Now for the photos. I tried to get pics of every coral in the tank, again mostly for my own documentation as they arent super great photos. Thanks for reading along, sorry for the spelling mistakes and long winded sentences.