Daveg99 Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Most Current Tank Shot Ive been in and out of the hobby since 2002. Ive had several tank builds on this forum as well. Ive been tankless for about 2 years now. Not sure what happened or how the reef bug got me again but I decided to start up another tank. I guess the reef bug never truly leaves us. But this time I wanted something small and easy to take care of. So I got online and started researching. And we all know once you start researching you get hooked! Well I came across the Innovative Marine Fusion 10 and thought to myself that this is the tank! Its nice and small, it looks great, no sump needed, water changes will be a breeze since it only holds about 7 gallons with the rock in it. My perfect tank! I actually thought about doing a lagoon 25 but decided against it because I plan on moving (back to Florida) within a year or 2 and the smaller the tank the easier it is to move. I may upgrade to a IM 50 gallon EXT when I move. The plan for this tank is mostly a mixed reef with some inverts, maybe a pom pom crab, lots of sps, and probably 1 fish. Maybe a clown goby or something like that. I also plan on decorating the room the tank is in with some nice paintings like the ones Rachel Fogle does. But I plan on doing the paintings myself with UV fluorescent paints. Equipment: Flow: upgraded return pump for now Sicce 0.5 (will add a aqamai KPS later) Light: AI Prime HD Black ATO: XP Aqua Duetto Dual Sensor ATO container: 12.75 quart dog food container Stand: Chesterfield Bathroom floor cabinet from Target Rock: Reef Saver Dry Rock from BRS 10 lbs Sand: Caribsea Special Grade sand Filtration: Media Basket with Floss Heater: Via Aqua 200 watt titanium (from old tank will change) 2 Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 I was going to build a custom stand but I was looking online and found a bathroom cabinet called the chesterfield at Target for $65. Thats cheaper than it would be to build a stand. Especially considering paint/stain and high quality wood. The only problem with this stand is that the back to front measurement is about 3/4 -1" to short. The tank would probably be fine on it but I figured Id add a piece of wood on the back to be sure it has support back there. I bought a small piece of wood and painted it to match and fastened it to the back of the stand with two screws. It also adds some rigidity to the stand and looks pretty good. I guess Sheba (my 9 year old pit mix) was interested in what I was doing as she snuck into the picture) 1 Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 So last Monday Feb 11th I added water to the tank to get the cycle going. In the past Ive always used live rock and hardly had any cycle at all. This time Im starting with dry rock because Im doing all I can to eliminate the possibility of pests! Ive had my fair share of algae and other pest battles. Some Ive won and some I lost. Never again. I figured since this tank is so tiny why not just use $0.80 distilled water from Walmart. Cheap and effective. I also havent bought a big thing of salt yet. I probably will but I was at petco and figured this little box of reef crystals will last for a while. Again another benefit of a tiny tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 Another challenge with a small stand is fitting an ATO container in the stand. I found a 12.75 quart dog food container at Target and it seems to work fine. 3 gallons of water should last at least a few weeks. When I filled the tank up with water I added a dead raw shrimp. I was making gumbo that night so it worked out perfectly. I planned it that way. I also added a bottle of Bio Spira after the shrimp was in there for 24 hours. Hopefully this stuff helps move the cycle along. One thing I have to say is that if you sniff the water it is truly nasty. Really Really Nasty! But hopefully it starts to smell better as the bacteria grows. I was going to go barebottom but I actually placed an order for some caribsea special grade live sand last night. Among some other things. I was sipping on some western son vodka (local Dallas vodka) and I did a little online shopping. Alcohol plus a smart phone and the need for equipment is a bad thing....lol. I order the xp aqua duetto ATO (onsale for $109), a bag a sand, and a new sicce 0.5 return pump. The stock return pump is a little noisy but working fine but I figured Id replace it. Also last night (remember I was sipping on that vodka) I got a private message from a guy on our local reef club forum. I guess I posted about getting a AI Prime HD and he just happened to have one for sale for $150 with the bracket part. He sent me a picture of it and it looks new. So today Im going to meet up with him and pick up my new light. Aquashella is coming to Dallas MArch 30th and Im hoping to have this thing in good enough condition to add some corals by then. If you dont know about aquashella look it up. Its a pretty cool event for reefers. 2 Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 Got my AI prime HD with the aluminum arm mount for $150 today. This app controlled lighting is new to me. I'm running the david saxby ai prime schedule right now. This light is cool! And the tank doesnt stink too bad any more. The smell is almost gone. I'm cycling this thing without any test kits. So crazy I know. 2 Quote Link to comment
Daniel91 Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Hi David - (Edit: I don’t know where I got this name from?) Welcome back. I have the IM10 as well, neat little system with almost unlimited possibilities and upgrades. Hopefully you’ll have thing stocked up in no time (with the needed patience in mind ofc) 2 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Welcome back @Daveg99, it looks like you're off to a great beginning, congrats on the new start! 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 On 2/14/2019 at 10:25 PM, Daniel91 said: Hi David - (Edit: I don’t know where I got this name from?) Welcome back. I have the IM10 as well, neat little system with almost unlimited possibilities and upgrades. Hopefully you’ll have thing stocked up in no time (with the needed patience in mind ofc) You got it right. My name is David. I have a feeling I'm going to love this little tank. I love that I can do a 50% water change with 3.5 gallons. Lol I also checked out your build thread. Your tank looks great! 1 Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 My marine depot shipment will be coming in Monday. Caribesea special grade live sand, sicce .5 pump, and the XP aqua duetto ATO. All three will be added to the tank Monday night. I know I dont need lighting during the cycle but I've been messing around the settings. I'm currently running the david saxbys settings with the percentages turned up a bit. I think it looks great. Should be even better with the white sand on the bottom. I'm going to get some coraline algae scraped off a friends tank to seed mine. I may also pick up a tiny piece of live rock that I know is 100% pest free. I really dont want anymore rock though. The 10lbs I have is a little much IMO. I'm going to leave it for now though. 5 days in and the shrimp is still looking like a shrimp. I thought it would decay faster. But at least the tank doesnt stink anymore. Day 2 was nasty! 2 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Looks like you’re off to a great start... looking forward to following along. Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 Well the new stuff came in. I ordered the special grade sand and it came labeled as reef sand. Fine with me though. It's the larger grain sand which is what I wanted. I added about 6-7lbs out of the 10lbs bag. I also installed the sicce 0.5. I had to cut the hose to make it fit correctly. Once I cut it it fit nice and snug on the smaller barbed connection that came with the sicce pump. This pump definitely has some more power. I am going to add a aqamai kps so I ordered the 0.5. If I wasn't going to add a kps I would have gotten the 1.0. Going to install the xp duetto Ato tomorrow. The sand settled pretty fast. Some shots of the tank...... So after 1 week of running ive used exactly 1 gallon of ATO. I'm really liking this since my last tank used 5 gallons in the same time frame. Loving the nano life. 1 Quote Link to comment
Daniel91 Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Looks good. Is it secure? You actually do not need the wave maker. I run the .5 sicce as well (with spin stream) and this gives me enough flow for majority of corals. Quote Link to comment
xthunt Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 I always added the first fish and biospira at same time. No ammonia or nitrites. Not sure I'd want a huge shrimp decaying in a small tank like that. Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 My rock is somewhat secure. The pieces almost interlock with one another. Im probably going to order a spin stream and see how it goes with that. I may take out the shrimp or at least most of it. I figure I should leave a little of something that creates ammonia though to feed the bacteria. . Its been in there for 6 days. Water doesnt smell and its clear. Quote Link to comment
Daniel91 Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Shrimp is fine - better than live fish cycle IMO. Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 25 days in. I got a huge bunch of chaeto from a local reefer. His tank is stunning and I'm sure it doesnt have pests. I put the chaeto in my tank and left for a 3 day business trip to washington DC. Cane back yesterday and noticed my ATO has been putting out a lot of water. Well the drain slots got clogged with loose chaeto and caused the auto top off to dump a bunch of water. So I cleaned it off and ran a filter sock while hitting the rocks with a Turkey baster. So all is clean now. Removed the filter sock and installed a intank media basket with filter floss. The same guy I got the chaeto from gave me an emerald crab as well. He seems to be doing fine. The cycling shrimp is still there but almost gone. I bought a small sponge suction cup holder and put chaeto in it. Got rid of the rest of the chaeto. Saw some bristle worms in the chaeto and threw them away. Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 For now this little sponge holder caddy I got a walmart is going to hold my chaeto. I just want the pods and other life to spread through the tank. And this way it doesnt require a lot of work and another light. Figured some chaeto out of a thriving mature system should help. I'm not sure if I'll turn my second chamber into a fuge or not. I also added a piece of caribe sea life rock that was in a tank at a LFS. It's not really full fledged live rock but it has been sitting in a tank for a while so it should help. My only inhabitant at the moment is my emerald crab. I fed him some flake food today and he seemed to enjoy it. Still no algae in the tank though besides the chaeto. Found a small piece of the shrimp I threw in a few weeks ago. It's almost completely disintegrated. I'm probably going to add an easy soft coral in the next week or so and see how it does. Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 Yesterday I went to a LFS and bought 4 tiny blue legged hermits, 3 snails, and a orange zoanthid frag with 4 polyps. I wake up this morning and notice polyps are gone! I suspect the emerald crab ate them. I think it's time for him to go! Good thing it was only a $10 frag. I feed this guy almost every day and there is plenty of green hair algae to eat. Weird. I've had many emerald crabs in the past and they never ate my corals. Quote Link to comment
Kriswendorf Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Looking good! I like that stand. I think its the windows that i like. Gives it a better look and i like that you cant see in too much so you can still have things in there. Quote Link to comment
billygoat Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 I've never heard of an emerald crab eating zoanthids! That is definitely super weird. I guess you never know with crabs; I feel like they'll eat practically anything under the right circumstances. Are you positive there isn't a fireworm or some other nasty pest hiding in there though? Anyway, slick little tank you've got there! I'm looking forward to following along 🙂 Quote Link to comment
Daveg99 Posted October 16, 2019 Author Share Posted October 16, 2019 Well I broke this tank down and sold off the rock and crab back in June. I moved from Dallas to Clearwater Florida. I just set the tank back up today. This time I got one large piece of live rock from a LFS here in Clearwater. We have an awesome LFS here called "A Tropical reef". Added the sand and some water. Shouldn't really need much cycling. We will see. I plan on adding a little more rock. Going to order 5lbs of the reefsaver dry rock from BRS. I also will likely add a mangrove plant to the tank. I can get a seed for free here on the beach. I live 1.2 miles from the ocean now! tank is still cloudy since it's only been running for a couple hours Quote Link to comment
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