Boomer's IM 20G Nano

boomeraudio · Jan 4, 2020

Tank set up in my home office. Started January 1, 2020.

Equipment:
Innovative Marine 20G AIO
AI Prime 16HD
AI Nero 5 Pump
InTank Media Basket (Filter Floss & Chemipure)
XTAqua Duetto ATO with 5 gal IM reservoir

Livestock:
2 x Bullet Hole Clownfish

Crabs McJones · Jan 4, 2020

Looks good! What schedule are you using and how are you liking the new Prime 16HD?

boomeraudio · Jan 4, 2020

Crabs McJones said:
Looks good! What schedule are you using and how are you liking the new Prime 16HD?

Currently using the Saxby schedule. So far so good with the light! A couple of hiccups, in the beginning, trying to learn how to load a schedule because you can't access it online anymore. I had to airdrop the schedule to my iPhone and then it worked. Once I figured that out, it was smooth sailing. I'm sure I'll make adjustments once I add some coral but that's a bit down the line.

I have done a ton of reading on quarantine tanks and am trying to figure out the best option. I want to eventually add a Goby and Shrimp, possibly one or two more fish also but also want to add coral pretty soon. I know quarantining is important but you're not supposed to use the same tank for fish and coral...any suggestions? I have a 5G tank from a buddy that I'm going to set up for a quarantine tank. Just trying to figure it all out without having to have 3 tanks setup...

JBKReef · Jan 4, 2020

I run two similar tanks, 14Nuvo and 25Nuvo...

Be very careful using floss with the InTank media baskets, I run it temporarily after a water change but the InTank baskets are so perfectly sized for the Nuvo tank it could cause a backup and overflow the tank. It’s happened to me twice even with changing out filter floss every 36 hours.

I’ve found best practices is to use media basket in one overflow and a piece of equipment in the other overflow.

Best of luck!

Crabs McJones · Jan 4, 2020

boomeraudio said:
Currently using the Saxby schedule. So far so good with the light! A couple of hiccups, in the beginning, trying to learn how to load a schedule because you can't access it online anymore. I had to airdrop the schedule to my iPhone and then it worked. Once I figured that out, it was smooth sailing. I'm sure I'll make adjustments once I add some coral but that's a bit down the line.

I have done a ton of reading on quarantine tanks and am trying to figure out the best option. I want to eventually add a Goby and Shrimp, possibly one or two more fish also but also want to add coral pretty soon. I know quarantining is important but you're not supposed to use the same tank for fish and coral...any suggestions? I have a 5G tank from a buddy that I'm going to set up for a quarantine tank. Just trying to figure it all out without having to have 3 tanks setup...

So you want to run coral qt and fish qt?

boomeraudio · Jan 4, 2020

Crabs McJones said:
So you want to run coral qt and fish qt?

I don't necessarily want to ha ha. I'd prefer to have one QT set up but have heard it's not good to quarantine fish with Coral.

TheShrimpNibbler · Jan 4, 2020

boomeraudio said:
I have done a ton of reading on quarantine tanks and am trying to figure out the best option. I want to eventually add a Goby and Shrimp, possibly one or two more fish also but also want to add coral pretty soon. I know quarantining is important but you're not supposed to use the same tank for fish and coral...any suggestions? I have a 5G tank from a buddy that I'm going to set up for a quarantine tank. Just trying to figure it all out without having to have 3 tanks setup...

If you want to quarantine corals and fish, your only option is to have three. Fish can’t be quarantined with corals. Pretty much every medicine used on fish kills corals. That’s why there are fish quarantines. Also, the entire purpose of quarantining corals is to keep fish parasites out of the display. Quarantining a coral with fish would this make the entire process useless. Three tanks is really your only option.
I’m excited to follow along and see how your tank progresses. I would love to see more pics!

Crabs McJones · Jan 4, 2020

boomeraudio said:
I don't necessarily want to ha ha. I'd prefer to have one QT set up but have heard it's not good to quarantine fish with Coral.

It's a bit of a grey area. Issue is theres so much room for cross contamination. If you quarantine coral for coral diseases and keep fish in there for pest control you risk the coral bringing in ich or velvet which you can't effectively get rid of if fish are always in the system.
I would personally do two tanks, one for coral, and one for fish. Keep in mind the coral tank is going to either need to have nitrate and phosphate supplemented or feed the tank regularly to keep nutrients up. Both myself and another moderator tried this and corals paled out from lack of nutrients from no fish in the system. We ended up supplementing with nitrate and phosphate doses.

boomeraudio · Jan 4, 2020

Crabs McJones said:
It's a bit of a grey area. Issue is theres so much room for cross contamination. If you quarantine coral for coral diseases and keep fish in there for pest control you risk the coral bringing in ich or velvet which you can't effectively get rid of if fish are always in the system.
I would personally do two tanks, one for coral, and one for fish. Keep in mind the coral tank is going to either need to have nitrate and phosphate supplemented or feed the tank regularly to keep nutrients up. Both myself and another moderator tried this and corals paled out from lack of nutrients from no fish in the system. We ended up supplementing with nitrate and phosphate doses.

This is really good info...I might end up just keeping my tank with the clowns and then adding coral for a while. When I want to add new fish, after I've got a few corals in the DT, I can re-establish a QT for fish. I can always pick up a small one on amazon too for coral frags...

Nick Steele · Jan 4, 2020

Nice looking tank and clowns! I just set up a Nuvo 20 also with a 16HD good light imo.

Will tag along to see the growth!

boomeraudio · Jan 10, 2020

1/10/20 Update - was traveling this entire week so my wife was able to ensure salinity and temperature were good throughout the week. Starting to see diatoms in the tank which is good. Possibly even the start of coraline in the back - not sure yet.

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 76.2F

The clownies are getting much more comfortable as the cycle continues. They are now eating from the syringe which is awesome! Helpful to control the amount of food that goes into the tank.

Parameters today - should I do a water change this weekend? Also picked up Marine Pure bio balls - not sure where to put them as of yet...currently running an intank with 1- floss, 2 - chemipure blue, 3- empty and an intank fuge basket with carbon. I'm thinking I'll take the carbon out and put some bio balls in there.

Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5ppm
Phosphate: 0.33ppm

Also seeing bubble/skimmer style waste in the back of the tank by the ATO sensor. Should I change up filter media/floss? Not sure why this is happening - is it normal?

Tahoe61 · Jan 10, 2020

Tank looks good. Foam can collect in the rear compartments, it may affect the ATO sensor so you may have to reconsider placement.
I prefer charcoal over bio balls.
Once the ammonia is not detectable proceed with water change.
Again tanks looks very good.
I loved my IM 20.

boomeraudio · Jan 10, 2020

Tahoe61 said:
Tank looks good. Foam can collect in the rear compartments, it may affect the ATO sensor so you may have to reconsider placement.
I prefer charcoal over bio balls.
Once the ammonia is not detectable proceed with water change.
Again tanks looks very good.
I loved my IM 20.

Thanks so much! What's weird is up until end of this week, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were all 0 after dosing Dr. Tims Bacteria and Fish cycling. Not sure why the ammonia spike all of a sudden but I'll keep an eye on it.

The ATO seems to be acting weird tonight - it's flashing blue at times. I may have to move the sensor like you said.

As far as the bio balls, I'll just keep running carbon for now with chemipure blue and filter floss. I also have the empty filter sock in there too. Think that's too much?

Tahoe61 · Jan 10, 2020

I do not run socks, just foam, Chempure Elite, a Tunze 9001, Aquashield 11 watt UV.
I have 2 IM now and had a 20 previously. Flow from back chambers is impeded by the use of socks in IM tanks.
Upgrade the return if you have not, that really helps.

boomeraudio · Jan 11, 2020

Definitely going to upgrade the return pump and I'll ditch the sock.

Thankfully I've got a Nero5 that's keeping the water moving around quite a bit!

boomeraudio · Jan 14, 2020

Quick update 1.14.20 (Birthday!)

Diatoms have bloomed. It seems like there is a significant amount of particles at the top of the water - I'm unsure that the filtration is doing what it's supposed to. (See pics) Here's what I'm running:

Filter Sock - First section
Carbon Bag - Second Section
Pump - Middle Section
Heater - Fourth Section
InTank Media Basket 1-Floss, 2-Carbon Sponge, 3-Chemipure Blue

Parameters:
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 79.7 (just lowered heater temp)
PH - 8.0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm

I ordered a cleanup crew from @reefcleaners and it should be here in a day or two! Excited to get those snails cruising around in there. I think those will help clean the tank up and make it more clear. Any advice/thoughts are welcomed!

Tahoe61 · Jan 14, 2020

You want noticeable water movement through the over flows. Consider lowering the water level and or replacing the stock pump. You want a waterfall effect through the overflow gates. Increased water movement between display and back chambers will carry those surface proteins to the back filtration.

TheShrimpNibbler · Jan 14, 2020

boomeraudio said:
Quick update 1.14.20 (Birthday!)

Diatoms have bloomed. It seems like there is a significant amount of particles at the top of the water - I'm unsure that the filtration is doing what it's supposed to. (See pics) Here's what I'm running:

Filter Sock - First section
Carbon Bag - Second Section
Pump - Middle Section
Heater - Fourth Section
InTank Media Basket 1-Floss, 2-Carbon Sponge, 3-Chemipure Blue

Parameters:
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 79.7 (just lowered heater temp)
PH - 0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm

I ordered a cleanup crew from @reefcleaners and it should be here in a day or two! Excited to get those snails cruising around in there. I think those will help clean the tank up and make it more clear. Any advice/thoughts are welcomed!

0 pH? Are you sure that is correct? pH should be at 8, and 0 probably isn’t safe.

Nick Steele · Jan 14, 2020

boomeraudio said:
Quick update 1.14.20 (Birthday!)

Diatoms have bloomed. It seems like there is a significant amount of particles at the top of the water - I'm unsure that the filtration is doing what it's supposed to. (See pics) Here's what I'm running:

Filter Sock - First section
Carbon Bag - Second Section
Pump - Middle Section
Heater - Fourth Section
InTank Media Basket 1-Floss, 2-Carbon Sponge, 3-Chemipure Blue

Parameters:
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 79.7 (just lowered heater temp)
PH - 0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm

I ordered a cleanup crew from @reefcleaners and it should be here in a day or two! Excited to get those snails cruising around in there. I think those will help clean the tank up and make it more clear. Any advice/thoughts are welcomed!

Increase flow or maybe even just aim your powerhead more toward the surface. I haven’t had build up on my surface yet but constantly have particles suspended due to water movement or my female clown creating a dust storm in the sand. Or maybe angle your return nozzle toward the surface that’s how I have mine. Gives a nice ripple and my powerhead comes in and throws random flow around.