Blopple's (first ever) IM 40L AIO Build

[Blopple]

DISCLAIMER: This is my first saltwater/reef tank. I really have no idea what I am doing. *ANY* and all advice/input/criticism is requested and appreciated.

I am moving to an apartment where I can finally have an aquarium in 9 days! I have wanted a reef tank for a long time and have done lots of reading and watching, but I am sure there will be a steep learning curve.

I waffled between a 25 lagoon, 35 cube, and the 40L for a while and, based on input from this forum (and my desire for a larger tank) have decided to go with the 40L.

Current plan is to do primarily a softie tank, maybe a few pieces of LPS, and potentially a clam way down the road.

This is my equipment/shopping list. Everything ordered/on the way except for skimmer, and having trouble finding sand in stock. Pictures will follow once I am in my new place.

Dry/Equipment:
Tank - Innovative Marine Fusion Pro 2 AIO 40L
Stand - Innovative Marine Black APS
Return - MightyJet 22W/24V 538 GPH DC Return Pump w/ Controller
Lights - 2x NooPsyche K7 Mini
Cycle - Dr. Tim's One and Only
Testing - Hanna HR Nitrate, Hanna ULR Phos, Red Sea Ca/Alk/Mg
Skimmer - BubbleMagus MiniQ
Power Heads - Maxspect Jump 2k Gyre w/ controller
Heater - 2x Helio 100W elements w/ Smart PTC Controller
Filtration - 2xCustomCaddy Media Basket
ATO - Kamoer ATO One 2
Rocks - 40lb CaribSea Life Rock
Sand - 20lb CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade
RODI - BRS 5 stage w/ booster pump (kiiinda set up)


Livestock:
Fish:
Davinci Ocellaris Clownfish x2 (4/24/23) - both dead d/t disease
Midas Blenny (4/29/23) - Unfortunately deceased d/t intestinal parasites/digestive issues
Yasha Goby - Deceased d/t (likely) aggression
Black Ocellaris Clownfish (5/23/23)
Blackcap Basslet (5/23/23)
Blackstorm Clownfish
Midas Blenny (#2) Rehomed d/t aggression
Sixline Wrasse
Sharknose Goby
Tailspot Blenny
Whitetail Bristletooth Tang

Inverts:
Rockflower Anemone pink/green (5/1/23) - Moved/died when new RFA added
1x Emerald Crab - Starved?
Tiger Conch (5/8/23)
5-7?x Blue Legged Hermits (5/8/23 + 5/17/23)
2x Margarita Snails (5/8/23)
5ish? Trochus Snails (5/8/23)
5x Astrea Snails (5/17/23)
6? Nassarius Snail
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (5/17/23)
Randall's Pistol Shrimp
1x Turbo Snail
10x Rockflower Anemones (various colors)
2? Stomatellae
1x Crocea Clam

Corals:
Bizzarro Cyphastrea - Light issues
Clove Polyps (4/30/23) - Overtaken by algae
GSP (4/30/23)
Zoas green w/ yellow (4/30/23)
Zoas bluish w/ orange (4/30/23)
Rhodactis orange/red (4/30/23) - Currently partially bleached
Green 'finger leather' (5/1/23)
Rhodactis yellow/green/purple (5/14/23) Splitx2
Zoas 'Tubbs Blue' (5/14/23)
Ricordea orange (5/14/23) - I think it might be toast
Duncans (5/22/23)
Green Paly/zoa
Green Frogspawn (5/22/23)
Green Tipped Toadstool
Pink Goni(Bernard?) Bleached, dead
Pandora Zoas
Knock off Rainbow Infusion Zoa
Gorgonian/leather
Green Goni
Blue/Green Hammer
Jack O' Lantern Leptoseris
Reddish striped Acan Lord
Dragon Soul Favia
Striped Candy Canes
Cream tipped Octospawn
Green/pink tipped aussie torch
Miami Hurricane Chalice
Blue/Orange Chalice
OG Dragon Eye Zoas
Clove Polyps
JF Goldmeister chalice
Acanthophyllia orange/green/blue/purple
Jawbreaker discosomas
Dragon Soul Torch
Splatter hammer
Weirdish Dark Rainbow Chalice


Damages: I lost interest in tracking this, but will leave the spreadsheet here anyway.

 

[Saltyreef]

I advise watching all the BRS videos you can. They are the best stop for beginners in todays day of media.

 

[JoJosReef]

Great start! VERY similar to my new build in my tagline.

You don't have a blenny yet, so might swap clowns for a midas blenny or other cool blenny. They have great personality.

With CaribSea LifeRock, I think you run a higher risk of getting nuisance algae problems. A lot will depend on your approach. If you throw every chemical in the arsenal at it, prepare for dinos. Have a UV handy just in case.

TBS rock is great stuff. The sand is great too. If you go that route, you will skip the cycle, have a mature system quickly and can get coraline going super fast. A few pointers for making the most of TBS rock/sand and pest control:
1. Keep it wet all the time. Take out pieces to inspect while pouring wter over it with a turkey baster. Lots of life on those rocks, including sponges that don't like air, and you'll preserve a lot of life and have next to no die off this way.
2. Have an extra set of hands. They can do simple stuff like pouring water over the rocks, checking for pests, or just making coral concrete so you can quickly put pieces together.
3. If possible, put the rocks into a separate tank or bucket with saltwater in it to watch for pests to come out. Main things to watch for in my order of worst to least bad: cirolanid isopods, mantis shrimp (never had one but don't want the headache), eunice worms, flatworms, bristleworms/fireworms, gorilla crabs. Gorillas can be caught with bottle traps, as can the bristles/fireworms. Flatworms I don't know. I've only seen one off my rocks and I just sucked it out. Eunice worms (people like to call them bobbit worms, but those are indo pacific ambush predators whereas the Eunicids in FL live rick are mostly detritivores and may be opportunistic predators) are freaky and very hard to remove. They might get a badder rap than they deserve.
4. If getting sand, set up a few paint pans or something like that and sift your sand to pull out pests. You'll find a lot of freaky lancelets which look like hyperactive squiggly worms but are harmless and mostly just die off--I removed just because.if you find spaghetti worms, those are keepers. I would remove any and all isopods, even if you suspect they are spheromatid (good guys) to remove doubt. It is a painfully long orocess sifting pounds of sand but you'll be happy if you get out some pests.

Anyway, highly recommend TBS if you can get it and want to take a leap of faith. Pros far outweigh cons in my opinion because manually pulling out chunks of GHA in a dry rock tank is depressing.

Watch out for bubble algae. Gulf rocks are not immune to bubble algae plagues!

For ATO, I had the same concern as you, but since mine is an office tank, I'm even more cautious because I can't afford a disaster. Had an optical sensir ATO/AWC unit but returned it and cancelled plans for AWC (too many ways it could go wrong) and went with the IM Hydrofill ATO (without the super expensive water container -- sheesh!). I like the idea of the titanium closed circuit switch as opposed to optical sensor switches, but I haven't tried it yet.

Love the Noopsyches! When I get clam(s) though, I am adding a Kessil with the 35degree reflectors to blast them with light--learbed the hard way with a starved crocea that clams need more light than you think they are getting!

For corals, softies and some LPS are good places to start. You might want that GSP on an island so it doesn't take over everything else. Same if you get pulsing xenia. Look into branching GSP--same bright color, same ease but less invasive. With zoas/palys, a mistake I made was mixing them on the same rock without considering their growth patterns -- in the end I had green palys and fairy dust palys that covered and killed all my other interesting zoas. Strategic zoa/paly placement is important. Mushrooms also give lots of options but reseach ahead which ones can take over your tank. Once you have a stable system, you might consider a pink nepthea aka koji wada, which is a beautiful coral like a kenya tree but noninvasive. Lots of LPS options too. Blastos and acans aren't difficult. Alveopora also grow well. Trumpets. Torches/hammers/frogspawn/octospawn can be tougher and you want to watch for disease. All of the above become much easier with gulf rocks since the system matures so much faster. You can even get into easy SPS that way--mint pavona seems like a great starter SPS and looks great. Don't forget anemones! If you want easy and colorful, rock flower anemones are a way to go. I just read about Hellfire Frags today and looked at their site. 10 RFAs (their choice) for $140 is a steal and is basically instant color splash for your tank (and they can have babies!). Easy nems. I've had much harder times with BTAs, but finally getting some success. Haven't tried maxi minis but they can be colorful too.

I have the Maxspect Jump 2k. For my 40L AIO, and I'm still testing it, but it seems plenty powerful and is making large dunes in my cycling tank. I also went double in the MightyJets and have one going to each return hole with 2x random flow generators off each.

For skimmer, I have the IM nuvoskim one, but I've read bad things about it. Not ready to try it yet though.

That's a lot, but hope it helps and looking forward to your progress to learn from your lessons too!

 

[Blopple]

Great start! VERY similar to my new build in my tagline.

You don't have a blenny yet, so might swap clowns for a midas blenny or other cool blenny. They have great personality.

With CaribSea LifeRock, I think you run a higher risk of getting nuisance algae problems. A lot will depend on your approach. If you throw every chemical in the arsenal at it, prepare for dinos. Have a UV handy just in case.

TBS rock is great stuff. The sand is great too. If you go that route, you will skip the cycle, have a mature system quickly and can get coraline going super fast. A few pointers for making the most of TBS rock/sand and pest control:
1. Keep it wet all the time. Take out pieces to inspect while pouring wter over it with a turkey baster. Lots of life on those rocks, including sponges that don't like air, and you'll preserve a lot of life and have next to no die off this way.
2. Have an extra set of hands. They can do simple stuff like pouring water over the rocks, checking for pests, or just making coral concrete so you can quickly put pieces together.
3. If possible, put the rocks into a separate tank or bucket with saltwater in it to watch for pests to come out. Main things to watch for in my order of worst to least bad: cirolanid isopods, mantis shrimp (never had one but don't want the headache), eunice worms, flatworms, bristleworms/fireworms, gorilla crabs. Gorillas can be caught with bottle traps, as can the bristles/fireworms. Flatworms I don't know. I've only seen one off my rocks and I just sucked it out. Eunice worms (people like to call them bobbit worms, but those are indo pacific ambush predators whereas the Eunicids in FL live rick are mostly detritivores and may be opportunistic predators) are freaky and very hard to remove. They might get a badder rap than they deserve.
4. If getting sand, set up a few paint pans or something like that and sift your sand to pull out pests. You'll find a lot of freaky lancelets which look like hyperactive squiggly worms but are harmless and mostly just die off--I removed just because.if you find spaghetti worms, those are keepers. I would remove any and all isopods, even if you suspect they are spheromatid (good guys) to remove doubt. It is a painfully long orocess sifting pounds of sand but you'll be happy if you get out some pests.

Anyway, highly recommend TBS if you can get it and want to take a leap of faith. Pros far outweigh cons in my opinion because manually pulling out chunks of GHA in a dry rock tank is depressing.

Watch out for bubble algae. Gulf rocks are not immune to bubble algae plagues!

For ATO, I had the same concern as you, but since mine is an office tank, I'm even more cautious because I can't afford a disaster. Had an optical sensir ATO/AWC unit but returned it and cancelled plans for AWC (too many ways it could go wrong) and went with the IM Hydrofill ATO (without the super expensive water container -- sheesh!). I like the idea of the titanium closed circuit switch as opposed to optical sensor switches, but I haven't tried it yet.

Love the Noopsyches! When I get clam(s) though, I am adding a Kessil with the 35degree reflectors to blast them with light--learbed the hard way with a starved crocea that clams need more light than you think they are getting!

For corals, softies and some LPS are good places to start. You might want that GSP on an island so it doesn't take over everything else. Same if you get pulsing xenia. Look into branching GSP--same bright color, same ease but less invasive. With zoas/palys, a mistake I made was mixing them on the same rock without considering their growth patterns -- in the end I had green palys and fairy dust palys that covered and killed all my other interesting zoas. Strategic zoa/paly placement is important. Mushrooms also give lots of options but reseach ahead which ones can take over your tank. Once you have a stable system, you might consider a pink nepthea aka koji wada, which is a beautiful coral like a kenya tree but noninvasive. Lots of LPS options too. Blastos and acans aren't difficult. Alveopora also grow well. Trumpets. Torches/hammers/frogspawn/octospawn can be tougher and you want to watch for disease. All of the above become much easier with gulf rocks since the system matures so much faster. You can even get into easy SPS that way--mint pavona seems like a great starter SPS and looks great. Don't forget anemones! If you want easy and colorful, rock flower anemones are a way to go. I just read about Hellfire Frags today and looked at their site. 10 RFAs (their choice) for $140 is a steal and is basically instant color splash for your tank (and they can have babies!). Easy nems. I've had much harder times with BTAs, but finally getting some success. Haven't tried maxi minis but they can be colorful too.

I have the Maxspect Jump 2k. For my 40L AIO, and I'm still testing it, but it seems plenty powerful and is making large dunes in my cycling tank. I also went double in the MightyJets and have one going to each return hole with 2x random flow generators off each.

For skimmer, I have the IM nuvoskim one, but I've read bad things about it. Not ready to try it yet though.

That's a lot, but hope it helps and looking forward to your progress to learn from your lessons too!

Oh wow we do definitely have very similar builds, love it!

A blenny is an awesome suggestion. Really like the way the tailspots look, or a bicolor. I also somehow forgot about hawkfish, so maybe a longnose hawk and a blenny instead of the clowns?

I am going to pass on the TBS sand, but the rock is super tempting. I noticed you went with dry rock and seeded with TBS rubble. That is a super good idea. I feel like managing pests/hitchhikers would be easier with a small volume of rock, and smaller sized rocks. The hope is that all the good bacteria will seed to the rest of your dry rock, yes? Did you do any bottled bacteria as well, or sticking with the rubble?

Pink nepthea looks cool, will definitely end up in my tank at some point. Mushrooms for sure, probably ricordia. Nems are great, but I thought they needed a much more established tank which is why I had left them out for now.

I also think I've decided on ATO. Gonna go with the Kamoer ATO One 2. I've heard Kamoer makes solid equipment, and it looks like in addition to the 2 optical sensors you can add a float valve as an additional failsafe which is really appealing to me. Optical and mechanical.

Really appreciate the response!

 

[JoJosReef]

Good idea on the ATO. I'm finding multiple fail safes critical thinking long-term. I have my ATO and water volume set up so that even if it went nonstop there wouldn't be a tank overflow, although the salinity drop would spell doom for a lot of corals.

I was also looking at a long-nose hawkfish, but I run a very invert-heavy tank, so that got crossed out. My tailspot is the most personable fish I have out of the 4 (firefish, 2 ocellaris clowns and the TSB).

The only reason I'm going dry rock/TBS rubble (the TBS rubble I already had) as opposed to 100% TBS rock is budget. I found the dry rock from a local reefer who's had that rock for ~30 years, and it's real coral skeletons from Fiji and Marshall Islands. Super light and porous, so I'm hoping it seeds well. Fingers crossed. CaribSea LifeRock is like white cement when it breaks apart, so I have my doubts about it's utility as a biofilter. I put a small bottle of Fritz turbostart into the tank as well, just in case there was a lot of dried organic matter in the rocks that might decompose. In fact, the rocks are full of old worm tubes and I even found the mummified remains of a trochus that seemed to have gotten wedged into a hole and couldn't get out.

For Nems, RFAs generally do well, and I would feel fine adding them to a relatively new tank if it's past the diatoms phase and algae isn't completely taking over. I would hold off on a BTA until a tank matures more. They can be hard. I've had a few RFA deaths--they start wandering around and moving into caves away from light and then you find them hanging by a thread and then fall off into the sand, which is basically the end for them. But I've found that any time a nem starts looking "off", I dump some cipro into the tank and so far I've had 100% bounce-backs. Not sure what that's all about, but lots of people treat nems with cipro.

Good luck getting started!

 

[Blopple]

I've got most everything ordered and on the way. Still do not have bottled bacteria or salt (will do LFS), sand (can't find it in stock), and some extra stuff like buckets, nets. Also tracked down a used BRS RODI system that seems like a good deal from a person that -just- tore their tank down. More stages, higher GPH, booster pump, extra filters, cheaper, and local. So I think I am going to go with that once I get up to Sacramento.

Also realized I am spending a lot of money and should keep track of it so I made a hyper basic spreadsheet so I know how much to hate myself. Obviously this will be shared and edited into the 1st post.

 

[Chris4reef]

Out of all the IM tanks I own, the new 40Long is definitely my favorite. Congrats on the new tank and build!

I really like the IM UV sterilizer, I would highly consider getting one and also the bubble Magus miniQ Skimmer does a great job for the secondary filter chamber.

 

[Blopple]

Out of all the IM tanks I own, the new 40Long is definitely my favorite. Congrats on the new tank and build!

I really like the IM UV sterilizer, I would highly consider getting one and also the bubble Magus miniQ Skimmer does a great job for the secondary filter chamber.

Oh wow, your tank looks incredible. I'm far too scared of SPS for the moment, but one day haha.

Thanks! I'm so excited you have no idea, haha. Is the UV sterilizer something you added right after cycle, or did you wait a bit. I hadn't seen the IM one before, but it looks pretty nice - and compact.

My biggest concern with the bubble magus was that it seems really undersized/underpowered compare to the Tunze or the IceCap. That said whenever I check out other people's builds they almost always have the miniQ so I feel like I'm missing something.

 

[Chris4reef]

I run the UV from day one, but you can definitely add it on later. Even if you dont keep a lot of fish, the UV is great to keep the water clear.

On my 40 I actually use the ice cap K1 nano skimmer. It’s alittle more powerful but I use the bubble magus on my 25 and 20. Depending on your setup you might not need a skimmer or it might be too effective at controlling nutrients but both are great options!

 

[Blopple]

I run the UV from day one, but you can definitely add it on later. Even if you dont keep a lot of fish, the UV is great to keep the water clear.

On my 40 I actually use the ice cap K1 nano skimmer. It’s alittle more powerful but I use the bubble magus on my 25 and 20. Depending on your setup you might not need a skimmer or it might be too effective at controlling nutrients but both are great options!

Hmm, I think I'm gonna hold off on skimmer until I can do some water testing after adding livestock. If I can get away with the smaller bubblemagus I think I will go that route. I've seen great things about the icecap though!

 

[Blopple]

Tank has been delivered! And is cracked. Have reached out to IM already, and we'll see what they say. All their protocols for delivery/inspection were followed, so hopefully no issues. Here are some pictures of the tank/damage.

IM has been great so far, but the freight company was a little weird. Wouldn't move tank into garage as IM says they are supposed to, wouldn't wait for tank to be opened, wouldn't even let us move it off of the pallet.

 

[JoJosReef]

Tank has been delivered! And is cracked. Have reached out to IM already, and we'll see what they say. All their protocols for delivery/inspection were followed, so hopefully no issues. Here are some pictures of the tank/damage.

IM has been great so far, but the freight company was a little weird. Wouldn't move tank into garage as IM says they are supposed to, wouldn't wait for tank to be opened, wouldn't even let us move it off of the pallet.

That's weird. I got mine about a month ago and the guy brought it into the garage (warehouse garage) and waited until we opened everything and took pictures of everything. Methinks the delivery person might've heard a cracking sound during loading/unloading...

 

[Chris4reef]

Tank has been delivered! And is cracked. Have reached out to IM already, and we'll see what they say. All their protocols for delivery/inspection were followed, so hopefully no issues. Here are some pictures of the tank/damage.

IM has been great so far, but the freight company was a little weird. Wouldn't move tank into garage as IM says they are supposed to, wouldn't wait for tank to be opened, wouldn't even let us move it off of the pallet.

Oh no!

They will replace for sure, Their CS is amazing.

 

[Blopple]

Been a busy day, but I heard back from IM less than 30 minutes after I emailed them pics and info. They said they submitted a claim to the freight company, and that once it goes through they will send a new tank. Said they appreciated the quick info, pictures, and actually following their instructions. Couldn't be more pleased with IM thus far.

 

[Blopple]

I have finally moved into my new place. It's great so far. I had to rent sight unseen, so I am pleasantly surprised by it being larger than expected with high ceilings, big windows, and it being in pretty nice neighborhhod!

More importantly IM sent a replacement tank that arrived undamaged and they included a new set of pumps/baskets/filter media etc which they said they weren't going to send. IM was awesome through the whole process. Would buy again from them in a heartbeat!

At this point I have pretty much everything in hand. Need to level out the stand, leak test, get some sand and bacteria and get going!

Not very exciting, but here is a pic of all the crap. Half finished stand, un-broken tank, rock in a trash bag, and pumps/heaters etc. Getting closer!

The tank looks like it will being going in the 'dining room' right outside the kitchen. I was going to put it in my second bedroom/office because I'll spend more time there, but I would like for guests to be able to see it better, and I will spend a decent amount of time in the kitchen/living room and I have more space out there.

 

[ShoalSister]

Congrats and hope the set up goes swimmingly.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck with the set up!!

 

[Blopple]

And we're off!

Tank passed the leak test with flying colors. I threw together scape which I struggled with, then bought sand/bacteria and got everything started. Decided to go with LFS saltwater for now until I can get the RODI situation sorted out. Lemme tell you, living on the second floor and carting 40g gallons of water up the stairs is no fun, but it's done and I have enough for top off and a water change. The tank has already cleared up significantly, but I elected to use the cloudy picture for honesty's sake.

I did have a minor pump issue. Mightyjet kept throwing an E5 error after running for a few minutes. Did some searching around here and ended up taking the pump apart and adjusting a bushing which seems to have fixed the problem. Worst case I have a backup pump because they sent a pump with the first (broken) tank and with the replacement. IM is awesome!

Starting to think more about livestock. I know I said I didn't want clowns, but I am really struggling to find a size appropriate alternative, and am not sure I want to field the "where's nemo?" question everytime somebody sees the tank. I really enjoy most wrasse and considered doing a flasher instead of the clowns, but I'm not sure how that would work out with the eventual sixline.

 

[JoJosReef]

Looking great! I like the scape. I put two fo the same MightyJet pump in the back for added flow and redundancy, and that's practically all the tank needs--will end up using the Maxspect at around 10-20% to prevent dead spots.

Clowns are so ubiquitous, almost like you said, "where's Nemo?". Pair of plain old Ocellaris clowns are still a great addition. I have a blenny and a firefish, which also go well in that tank. I was advised against a flasher wrasse and told they were best in a 5' or 6' tank due to their natural behavior, but we didn't discuss six-lines (except for their tendency towards aggression), and we did discuss possum wrasses, pink streak wrasse and the smaller leopard wrasses (not for beginners because of sensitivity and getting them to eat). That's the info I gathered for wrasses. Pistol shrimp/goby pair are also fun and work for that tank. I have even considered a flameback angel (not flame angel), but scared of the potential coral-eating. Lots of options before getting to the tang-sized tanks!

 

[trophyhimbo]

Your tank and aquascape look so good! Makes me wish I started with more seasoned rock instead of having to wait for everything to grow over the Marco rock.

IM had to send my LFS another tank too because the first one was cracked, glad you also had a great experience with them.

I was reading this wrasse guide to help inform stocking decision: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses-in-aquaria.28/. Haven't completely settled on one, but was advised I could pick one of the smaller and peaceful species for this tank size. Hope it helps!