Daasmo's IM 200EXT

[Daasmo]

Yeah, this is going to be a nice tank. I can’t wait to see how it looks with some color in it. My tank just delivered today. I started plumbing the return pump, but I need an adapter. Now you’ve got me second-guessing how tight I got my fittings - I have to go check that now - lol

I'm pretty sure I just forgot to tighten them all the way. I can be scatter brained like that. Hand tight was enough to stop the leak.

 

[Daasmo]

I think I'm done moving the big structures. The tall skinny piece I built with having it on the right side which is the most visible from the couch. But once I got it in the tank it was too tall. It just looked out of place. So after a couple variations I've decided to move it tu the back left corner. Here it helps hide the returns and then I can create a slope from the left to the right.

I also got the edge lights up. I'm pretty happy with the drawer slides. They allow my to push the fixture back almost 9 inches which is nice to move things around.

My goal this weekend is to try and take on the rats nest that has become the sump area. My controllers are still tied up with my existing tank so we'll see how far I can get. The tank is running in a lot of extra equipment. My goal is to start moving livestock next week.

 

[Daasmo]

This past weekend I setup my hydros controllers. I did buy a new x4 and xp8 starter kit. I also added a minnow that I had purchased a while back and never used on my nano tank. I moved all the coral that wasn't attached to the larger rocks and they seem to be happy. I'm ready to move livestock but unfortunately my ammonia seems to be stuck at 0.08-0.07 for the last week. I'm assuming it's die off from the live rock. Full testing done today.

Salinity 1.025
Ammonia 0.08
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 0.0
Phosphate 0.0
Alk 148

So the wait continues.

 

[Daasmo]

Ammonia 0.06 today. I am getting some uglies probably from the low Nitrate and Phosphates. Corals seem to be pretty happy otherwise.

 

[c4haskett]

Awesome tank man. Looking forward to seeing it fill in.

 

[Daasmo]

So I've been testing ammonia every couple days and really not seeing much change. 0.08, 0.07, 0.05 then right back to 0.08. I've added more cycled media, more substrate and more bottled bacteria and the number wasn't moving. So today I finally got the bright idea to test my established tank. 0.13 . That didn't add up. Everyone seems to be happily swimming around. So after 2 stops I came up with an API ammonia test from Petsmart. (LFS was out of salifert). And the results.

Looks like 0 to me. No idea what is going on with the hanna tester, the reagent isn't expired. I've over mixed the ammonia test before and it will give you a 2.5 reading and turn dark so I don't think it's that. I'll do the rest of my testing and repeat the ammonia test. If everything looks good I'll plan on the big move this weekend. I guess if nothing else I've hopefully allowed a pod population to establish in the new system.

 

[Daasmo]

The move was a little stressful. My existing rock work didn't really hold together like I thought it would so it came out in chunks. I had to hastily throw something together and get the fish moved over. All the fish were out this morning so we survived. I still have to adjust some rocks and to mount corals that came loose. Now to decide on the next fish to add. I'm thinking one or 2 more tangs then some wrasses. Also considering a hawkfish. I showed my wife a picture of a valentini puffer so that's her first choice. I need to do a little more research on them.

 

[Daasmo]

Proof there are fish in there. They are still a little skittish.

 

[Daasmo]

I had a wifi camera laying around so I used an amazon mount to suction cup to the glass. Now I can spy on my fish from work. I placed coral viewing glasses in front of it to filter the blues. It's janky but it works. Please excuse the algae. I just added clean up crew from reef cleaners and they haven't found the big rocks yet. I have a fox face on order as well.

 

[Finn450]

great build...love the footprint of this and the 170.