First-timer's Fusion 20

[Wankell]

Nice choice for a first time reef aquarium! (I'm a bit biased though )

Couple of things that you may want to consider as the tank grows:

• The IM filter socks are pretty bad in my opinion, they clog up in a couple of days and then the water just bypasses them completely and goes through that side of the tank without being mechanically filtered. As it fills up and causes water to back up, it's going to cause your other overflow to take in more water as the water flow resistance will be lower on that side. This will cause the side with the filter sock to sometimes go slack with little to zero flow, meaning if you have a skimmer also on that side that it will no longer be working to remove nasty stuff from all of the tank water. Right now it's not that big of an issue since you don't have a skimmer on the tank. Just keep an eye on that filter sock though and clean it often.
• I use two IM Custom Caddys on my tank. The stock media racks are junk and you should replace them eventually if you're still using one of them. I usually put two cut to size pieces of filter floss in the top two sections with either Chemipure Blue Nano on the bottom or phosphate reducing pads. Side note: GFO and Bio-pellets are usually too strong for nano tanks and will cause more problems than they solve, in my experience at least

Couldn't agree more, the stock baskets are terrible and the socks are even worse. Get the custom caddys and use some sort of floss or medias is you wish. Personally I only use the blue/white floss and put a cut rectangle on every level, usually only the top gets gunked up.

 

[sam-k]

This is my first saltwater tank. I had a nice 30 gallon fresh water tank for a number of years but took it down when I moved. Over the summer I set up a 3.5 gallon guppy tank for the kids and end up enjoying it more than them. Loved the guppy tank so much that I decided to build a nano tank. Although it's just a nano, it's still a pretty deep rabbit hole for me.

I went to a few local fish stores to see what would be right for my house. I decided on a Fluval 13.5 and ordered one online. It arrived cracked. The online store was awesome and shipped me a replacement, no questions asked. While the second one was shipped, on a whim, I looked on Craigslist and found a Fusion 20 with matching stand and lights for sale. The seller was only about 5 miles away so I had to check it out. Rest is history. I still have the Fluval 13.5 because the seller was awesome and would feel bad for returning it.

Equipment:
Innovative Marine Fusion 20 (pickup up used from a local hobbyist)
Filter Sock (1)
MarinePure spheres (about a handful in chamber 2)
IM Media Caddy (top rack: floss / middle rack: Chemi-pure Blue / bottom rack: empty)
IM Stand for the Fusion 20
IM Skkye Light (2)
Tunze Osmolator 3155
Tunze Nanostream 6040
Eheim 75 watt heater
Innovative Marine Reservoir
Coralife Power Center

What's in the Tank:
20 lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive
11 lbs live rock from local fish shop

Timeline:
8/26/17
added rock, sand, and water
temperature set at 78.5

9/26/17
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

9/30/17
3 gallon water change
clean pump
pH 8.2
added 2 Ocellaris Clownfish; 1 Neon Blue Goby; Green Star Polyp frag

Nice looking tank, IM do make a really good tanks, I own one my self and I am really enjoying it, good luck

 

[wannaheli]

Sorry about your clown Wankell. It's never a good feeling.

Update
10/14/17
Changed 2 gallons of water in the morning
Added the following in the afternoon:
1 Spiral Trochus Snail
1 Firefish
1 Ocellarius Clown
1 Pulsing Xenia

10/15/17
Changed out filter sock
Added 2 nano packets of ChemiPure Blue but did not take out the old ones
Replaced filter loss in the basket

By afternoon, the new Ocellarius died. I'm not sure what happened. He looked fine in the morning but after the frozen brine feeding in the morning he didn't look as well. Feeding was around 10 am and by 2:30 pm he was dead. I'm thinking it was the frozen food. Although I fed him frozen food the night before and he was okay in the morning. He was also a very small clown. I should never have purchased a clown as small as he was.

pH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I want the pH higher and I'm not sure how to do that. The test is also at night and the aquarium lights have been off for a few hours. I'm not sure if that affects anything.

Wished I had good news to share. Hopefully, others can learn from my mistake.

 

[wannaheli]

Blue Goby and new Xenia. Xenia is actually attached to an empty snail shell.

 

[wannaheli]

Update
10/16/17
I wished I had good news to report but my Firefish jumped. I thought he was doing okay but he must not have been happy. I had the lid on but somehow these fish find the gaps. There is about a 3/8 inch gap all around with the lid on. I do wish it was a tighter fit.

I did not retest the water because I just tested it the night before. I did test the pH again and the reading looks to be 7.8 or 8.0 depending on the light and how I hold the test tube to the white background. Not the most accurate test. I also tested the water from my LFS to see what I'm working with and I get the same reading with the new water. I think my tank and filtration is actually fine. Perhaps I didn't acclimate him properly.

On a positive note, everything else looks fine. The one clown and neon goby seem to be doing well. I find them together every morning in the same low flow corner. The snails are doing a number on brown stuff (not sure if they are algae or what) on the rocks. The rocks are cleaning up nicely that I'm actually worried what is left for the snail to eat. What do you feed snails? I'm also see what appears to be purple coralline on the rocks.

 

[wannaheli]

I picked this switch up to make it easier to turn the pump on/off during feeding.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Update
10/16/17
I wished I had good news to report but my Firefish jumped. I thought he was doing okay but he must not have been happy. I had the lid on but somehow these fish find the gaps. There is about a 3/8 inch gap all around with the lid on. I do wish it was a tighter fit.

I did not retest the water because I just tested it the night before. I did test the pH again and the reading looks to be 7.8 or 8.0 depending on the light and how I hold the test tube to the white background. Not the most accurate test. I also tested the water from my LFS to see what I'm working with and I get the same reading with the new water. I think my tank and filtration is actually fine. Perhaps I didn't acclimate him properly.

On a positive note, everything else looks fine. The one clown and neon goby seem to be doing well. I find them together every morning in the same low flow corner. The snails are doing a number on brown stuff (not sure if they are algae or what) on the rocks. The rocks are cleaning up nicely that I'm actually worried what is left for the snail to eat. What do you feed snails? I'm also see what appears to be purple coralline on the rocks.

Firefish are notorious jumpers, it's just a bad behavior that doesn't usually end well for them, I wouldn't blame anything in the tank on it I too wish the lids were tighter on these aquariums, I've lost a watchman goby and an engineer goby because of it.

The brown stuff if most likely diatoms (I would need a picture to confirm). It will subside eventually and is a common occurrence in a new tank, so nothing to worry about there either unless it turns your whole tank brown If you're worried about the snails not having enough to eat, you can take nori or some other algae based feed and place small chunks in front of them, snails don't really need a whole lot to eat so as long as you do it at least one time a week (if they don't have any natural algae to eat), they should be fine!

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Following along. Dig the aquascape!

 

[wannaheli]

Thanks WarEagle88. Appreciate the compliment.

 

[wannaheli]

I made a modification to the lid that helpfully would prevent any more “jumpers.” I found the item online. It's meant for glass shower door.

 

[wannaheli]

TANK UPDATE

10/21/17
Added an Ocellarius clown

10/22/17
Added a Hammer

10/29/17
Added an Acan
Added a little rock with some zoas frags

Everything seems to be doing well. Maybe the Hammer is losing some color - hard to tell. I cut the light back to 6 hours based on a local vendor's recommendation. I may also move the frag to an area with less flow.

 

[wannaheli]

 

[Lynchdude]

For a cheap light upgrade if you decide you want LPS corals look into the the Hipargero nano led light. I have one on my Biocube 14 and I’m really happy with it. You want two of them for the 24” tank and they can be controlled with a Current ramp timer Pro for ramping the lights on and off. For less than $200 for everything on Amazon it would give more coral options and even anemones. Just my two cents but it’s much cheaper than either the ai prime or kessil h80 and controller.

 

[Lynchdude]

As for the PH issue look into turning one side into a refugium with a reverse light cycle or install a chaeto reactor on a reverse light cycle. Also invest in a test kit for Ca Alk and Mg such as Red Sea or salifert ( I recommend Red Sea). Also ensure there is plenty of surface agitation so CO2 can gas off because CO2 causes pH to drop.

 

[wannaheli]

Thanks Lynchdude for the tips. I do like the Hipargero mounting bracket. I haven't decided if I want new lights yet. Black Friday is also around the corner so who knows. As for pH, I may also source another local fish shop to see if their water is any different. I buy my salt water and noticed that the salinity has not been consistent and the pH was low to start with. Maybe they are not doing a good job replacing their RODI filters.

 

[Lynchdude]

Thanks Lynchdude for the tips. I do like the Hipargero mounting bracket. I haven't decided if I want new lights yet. Black Friday is also around the corner so who knows. As for pH, I may also source another local fish shop to see if their water is any different. I buy my salt water and noticed that the salinity has not been consistent and the pH was low to start with. Maybe they are not doing a good job replacing their RODI filters.

The RODI water they use will have little to no effect on the PH of the water. Do you know what salt mix they use? The buffer capacity of saltwater will maintain a ph of about 8.4-8.5 when CO2 is not a factor nitrates and phosphates can bind with free hydroxide ions in the water as well creating nitric acid and phosphoric acid which will lower the ph nominally as well but CO2 lowers it much more. Do you use any powerheads in the tank?

 

[wannaheli]

I'm not sure about the salt mix the store uses. I'll have to check the next time I'm there. I do have a Tunze NanoStream 6040 which is way more power than I need. It's normally on the lowest setting.

11/11/17 Update
The tank seems to be doing pretty well except for the hammer. It's droopy and the mouth can be pretty wide open at times. I did find a 3-4 inch bristleworm that must have hitch-hiked on the rock frag I got.

 

[wannaheli]

Picture of the hammer.

The rest of the tank.

 

[wannaheli]

I just have to share. Love this acan.

 

[Tahoe61]

^ That is a beauty.