Diving Back In - Innovative Marine 170 EXT

[Dom_P]

Hi all,

After a very long (15 year) hiatus from this amazing hobby I've decided it's time to setup a reef tank again. This time around I'm going to be focusing mostly on SPS (though I love the look of clams, so I'm sure I'll have a few).

I've been lurking for a couple of months doing research and ended up deciding on the Innovative Marine EXT 170 (I also chose quite a bit of equipment/items based on recommendations researched on R2R that I'll document in future posts).

This week this beast arrived at the tail end of a snow storm, and with a little coaxing ($$) I convinced the delivery person to pull half a ton of crates up a slightly icy driveway and into my garage

Here's some unboxing pictures

Sump:

Tank:

Building the stand:

And the controller cabinet for the Hydros gear (X4, XP8, Wave Engine LE, and Minnow - more on this later)

Mounted the wall brackets for the lighting (3 x ReeFi Uno 2.1 Pro):

Mounted the ReeFi lights, installed the under cabinet lighting, and leak tested the sump last night:




And now I'm waiting for a local aquarium maintenance company to arrive today to move this heavy tank down some stairs and onto to that stand. Wish me luck as I think it's about 450 lbs


More to follow...

 

[X-37B]

Looking forward to this build. I have the same system. Enjoy!

 

[Dom_P]

Well the first attempt on Sunday was a fail. Navigating a tight landing at the top of my basement stairs made this quite a challenge.

But the guys came back tonight and they managed to get it down the stairs and into place.

Tank leak testing is underway. It's filled with tap water to just under the overflow so pretty much full water weight minus the salt. Of course, there's also a 100 lbs of sand and 100 lbs of dry live rock going in as well.

It's been 3 hours and so far so good. No way it's going back out of the basement in one piece... so it better be OK :)

I also installed all the plumbing. I'll connect the return pump tomorrow and leak test the plumbing.

If all goes well, I'll drain it in a day or two and try to push it back to the wall and check level. This version of the 170 EXT has a leveling base with feet, so it's pretty easy to adjust to level.

It will probably take a couple days to make all the RODI water needed, as I only have two Brute garbage cans. I've also got two buckets of Tropic Marin Reef Pro ready to go as well.

In the meantime, I'll see about unpacking the rock and do some basic aquascaping. I'm not planning to go too crazy on that front, but would like to have some open areas and a cave or two for the fish to use.

Then sand, rock, water and on to fishless cycling....

 

[Dom_P]

Plumbing leak testing has been running for a day or so. I did have a couple of bulkheads that needed to be tightened a bit more, but besides that no drips anywhere.

I have to say this overflow setup and DC return pump are significantly quieter than my setup from years ago (thanks @BeanAnimal)

I also installed two temperature sensors and two 500W heaters and configured the controllers. It took the better part of 10 hours to get it up to temperature, but that looks good as well now. I have the heaters setup in a primary/backup configuration using the Hydros where they are both on when temperature drops too low, but only one of the heaters is used to maintain temperature in range once max temperature is achieved.

I'm going to let it run a couple more hours then will start draining the tap water out of it and try to push this beast back up to the wall, and level it.

If all goes well then sand, rock and saltwater goes in over the weekend.

 

[Dom_P]

OK I spent the evening unpacking 100 lbs of Tropic Eden Morroca rock that the folks at Premium Aquatics so diligently wrapped individually in bubble wrap and placed in a few very large shipping boxes.

I was able to make good use of our air hockey table and took a first pass at an aquascape :)

The brown paper the structure is sitting on is the length/width of the tank. At it's highest point the scape stands about 17 in tall, and the water line in the tank is about 20in from the bottom glass.

While it's hard to tell from the picture there's good open space on the lower right part of the structure behind the shelf piece in the foreground

I numbered all the rocks individually and took pictures each time I removed one, so that I can jigsaw puzzle it back together and try to cement some of this to make it easier to move into the aquarium.

As it got late, I'll be emptying the tap water out sometime tomorrow.

 

[Dom_P]

The rock is now in the aquarium with some minor tweaks to the aquascape. All in all I’m pretty happy with it. It’s got some good space behind it as well. In my setup from years ago the rock was against the back glass and detritus just accumulated there all the time. Hoping I can get some good flow back there in this tank.

I also got the sand in. And started filling with salt water. As the sand is the type with live bacteria (Tropic Eden Live Mesoflakes) it started off pretty cloudy as I couldn’t rinse it. It’s been a few hours now and it’s starting to clarify.

Making RODI is going slowly. I have about 90 gallons in the tank right now and the sump is still dry. I decided to drop the small heater and power head I use for mixing salt into the tank just to keep temperature in a decent range. Not sure if the sand has some ammonia in it. If so, maybe the heat will help the bacteria to start multiplying.

I also added the Innovative Marine ATO reservoir on the left (15G capacity), added the ATO pump to the reservoir, ran the tubing to the sump, put in the sump level sensor and configured the Hydros for it.

In addition, I laid the leak detection rope on the floor behind the cabinet. I need to buy another section of rope to complete the rest of the space under the cabinet. Will get that connected to the Hydros when everything comes back online.

Hoping I’ll get all the remaining salt water in tomorrow. Then on to adding more bacteria and ammonia to get the cycling really going.

 

[Gman83]

Looks great!

 

[Dom_P]

All the water is in, return pump is running... I'll bring it up to proper temps, then start cycling. Here's a picture with water in.

It doesn't look this blue in reality :)

 

[signal7]

Love the aquascaping!

 

[Dom_P]

Love the aquascaping!

Thanks! I'm actually kind of surprised it came out pretty much as I was hoping for.

The tank got up to temperature last night, so I dropped 8 ounces of Fritz TurboStart 900, and brought up the ammonia to 2.5ppm (a little higher than I wanted, but should be OK)

I also measured Alk. I was a little surprised to find it was 6.7 dKH given it's a fresh mix of TM Pro Reef. As it was the first time using the Hanna test kit for me, I'm going retest tonight to make sure I didn't mess up. I'm not too worried about about it at this point. But if it's low, I'll work on correcting that.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

All the water is in, return pump is running... I'll bring it up to proper temps, then start cycling. Here's a picture with water in.

It doesn't look this blue in reality :)

Best of luck with the cycle!

 

[Dom_P]

Hey everyone

So, I just started cycling around 24 hours ago and I already have nitrite and nitrate showing up in my testing. This seems a little odd to me. But maybe not?

Starting at the bottom of the table below, last night I measured Ammonia at over 2.5ppm. I didn’t check for nitrate as I assumed there wasn’t any. Tonight I measured Ammonia again at just under 2.5ppm. Then I measured nitrite and nitrate. To my surprise nitrite nitrogen concentration is over 200ppb (or > 0.658 ppm nitrite ion concentration). And Nitrate is already at 12.8ppm.

Reading	Unit	Method	Date	Time	Status
12.8	ppm NO₃⁻	Nitrate Marine HR	2/5/25	9:58:22 PM
> 200	ppb NO₂⁻-N	Nitrite Marine ULR	2/5/25	9:40:24 PM	Over Range. Check Sample/Prep
2.47	ppm NH₃	Ammonia Marine	2/5/25	9:17:14 PM
6.5	dKH	Alkalinity Marine	2/5/25	8:50:59 PM
6.7	dKH	Alkalinity Marine	2/5/25	7:32:55 AM
> 2.50	ppm NH₃	Ammonia Marine	2/5/25	12:51:16 AM	Over Range. Check Sample/Prep

I wasn’t really expecting this on day 2. But maybe between the bacteria in the sand and in the turbostart things are already off to the races. The ULR nitrite test isn’t super useful for cycling given the max range. But it’s all I have. I suppose I could dilute it to get a better reading, but maybe best to just keep an eye on ammonia falling and nitrate rising until nitrite reduces and comes into the range of the test.

Oh, it does seem alk is really 6.7 ish so looks like that will need to get addressed

 

[Dom_P]

Several days ago I mentioned I'd provide a little more detail on this setup. So, here we go

Innovative Marine NUVO 170 EXT Complete Reef System:

• 170 Gallon EXT Aquarium (Eurobraced with external overflow)
• RFS50 Acrylic Sump
• Mighty XL Return Pump (will likely replace in the future)
• Plumbing Kit (Bean Animal)
• APS Aluminum Aquarium Stand (white)
• Leveling Frame with Adjustable Feet (white)

Controller System:

• Hydros X4 - Main controller with primary temp sensor and pH probe
• Hydros XP8 - outlet controller
• Hydros Minnow - for dosing
• Hydros Wave Engine LE - Powering two Maxspect Gyre XF350's
• Hydros Accessories - Hydros ATO Kit, additional sump temp sensor, Sump Level Sensor, leak detection rope
• Assorted Hyros cables
• Adaptive Reef Controller Cabinet V2

Lighting:

• Main: Three ReeFi Uno 2.1 Pro
• Refugium: ChaetoMax™ 2-IN-1 Refugium LED Light [18 Watt]

Protein Skimmer:

• Reef Octopus Regal 150INT Protein Skimmer

Heaters

• Two Finnex THU Series 500 Watt Titanium (in primary/backup config)

Testing

• Hanna HI97115 Bluetooth Marine Master Multiparameter Checker
• Milwaukee Digital Seawater Refractometer

ATO Reservoir:

• Innovative Marine HydroFill™ Ti ATO Water Reservoir [15 Gallon]

Reverse Osmosis

• IceCap 4 Stage RODI 100GPD (will add an additional DI resin or two in the near future)

Rock and Sand:

• Tropic Eden Morroca Rock - 100 lbs
• Tropic Eden Live Mesoflakes Sand - 100 lbs

 

[Dom_P]

Cycle continues - Here’s an update with tonight’s data

Ammonia is dropping and Nitrate is increasing. It’s somewhat a surprise to me that the process is moving quicker than I’d expect, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

As for Alkalinity dropping, I found this that explains why. Thanks @Randy Holmes-Farley you’ve been unknowingly bailing me out for many years . I’m not sure the water changes needed to lower nitrates at the end of the cycle will suffice to correct this. We shall see…

I tested calcium tonight to get a sense of where it was at. Looks ok at this point which makes sense to me as nothing should be taking it up.

Reading	Unit	Method	Date	Time	Status
466	ppm Ca²⁺	Calcium Marine	2/6/25	11:21:10 PM
> 200	ppb NO₂⁻-N	Nitrite Marine ULR	2/6/25	11:13:36 PM	Over Range. Check Sample/Prep
37.5	ppm NO₃⁻	Nitrate Marine HR	2/6/25	10:34:21 PM
1.60	ppm NH₃	Ammonia Marine	2/6/25	10:18:54 PM
5.9	dKH	Alkalinity Marine	2/6/25	9:51:56 PM
12.8	ppm NO₃⁻	Nitrate Marine HR	2/5/25	9:58:22 PM
> 200	ppb NO₂⁻-N	Nitrite Marine ULR	2/5/25	9:40:24 PM	Over Range. Check Sample/Prep
2.47	ppm NH₃	Ammonia Marine	2/5/25	9:17:14 PM
6.5	dKH	Alkalinity Marine	2/5/25	8:50:59 PM
6.7	dKH	Alkalinity Marine	2/5/25	7:32:55 AM
> 2.50	ppm NH₃	Ammonia Marine	2/5/25	12:51:16 AM	Over Range. Check Sample/Prep

 

[Dom_P]

Another day another set of readings.

Ammonia is now down to 1.03 ppm and Nitrate up to 54.1 ppm. Things look to be progressing well. I won’t bother testing nitrite until Ammonia gets close to zero. When it does I’ll dose another 1ppm of ammonia into the tank and watch progression.

I decided to order some Chaeto today. I should get it next week sometime. I’m hoping to get it growing in my fuge given the high nitrate levels and then introduce some pods in a few weeks if this cycle continues to go well. And then probably a bonded pair of occelaris or percula clowns.

On that note. If anyone has some fish stocking recommendations I’m all ears.

Right now I’m thinking:

• Bonded clowns
• Magnificent Foxface
• Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse
• Diamond goby
• Six line Wrasse
• A mandarin (if I can get a good pod population going)
• Purple tang
• A few anthias (would love some ideas as I’ve never had them in my tanks before)
• And one that’s probably a bit crazy - a juvenile emperor angel

As I plan for this tank to be SPS dominant I’m wondering if I can pull off having the Emperor. I’ve raised a couple from juvenile to adult in FOWLRs years ago and just love them. I think I may give it a shot in hopes of getting one that is somewhat “reef safe”.

Oh, I also added the two Maxspect gyres to the tank on the right and left sides and configured them on the Hydros wave engine. I couldn’t set them any higher that 70 percent without the gravel getting blown around.

 

[parclife]

Awesome build!! Enjoying the updates

 

[strich]

What an exciting time for you - I love watching these fresh start builds, so good luck!

One thing on the scape - I do worry if its a bit high longer-term. I would imagine the corals etc will really fill out that space over the next year or 2 and my instinct says you may come to regret the height/amount of rock there.
But! It still looks great!

 

[Dom_P]

What an exciting time for you - I love watching these fresh start builds, so good luck!

One thing on the scape - I do worry if its a bit high longer-term. I would imagine the corals etc will really fill out that space over the next year or 2 and my instinct says you may come to regret the height/amount of rock there.
But! It still looks great!

Thanks strich. Good eye.

You are probably not wrong. I’m not going to mount any sticks on the very top pieces of rock. I specifically placed the arch pieces where I did so I could remove them down the line if it becomes an issue.

 

[skey44]

Beautiful system. Love your wall mounted light racks. Something I wish I would have done to add supplemental light bars for fill down the line.

 

[Dom_P]

Beautiful system. Love your wall mounted light racks. Something I wish I would have done to add supplemental light bars for fill down the line.

Thanks skey44,

I’ve been trying to think things out best I could and make sure I didn’t repeat the issues of past setups. Part of my thought with the wall mounting and the bars is that if at some point in the future if I need to run a “cross member” across the three posts to add more (or heavier lighting) that I’d also be prepared for that.

Of course, not all things get thought of ahead of time and one thing that is somewhat annoying is that because of the length of the tank many of the equipment cables fall a foot or two short to make it to the controller cabinet. So I’ve been having to order extension cables for the Hydros and a couple of extension cords for the heaters. It’s really a minor annoyance but I figured I’d post it for anyone in the future who might come across this post.