Greg’s I.M SR80 (New rock in!!)

[GatorGreg]

Venturing into new territory. This will be my largest tank to date. After the 22g doser auto siphoned 2 times within a month and emptied whole bottles of 2 part. There was no saving it. Broke down the tank and thought about quitting but couldn’t bare the thought. Ended up going all in on this setup.

I’m in the early stages. Hoping to be wet by early September

 

[GatorGreg]

So far I’ve accumulated

40lbs Aussie Rock from Eric. Picking up end of this month from airport.

*(2) Hydra 32s
*(2) AI Primes
*(2) Sicce heaters
*Hydros Minnow w/ WiFi strip
*Hydros X2 w/ WiFi strip
*(2) AI Nero 3
*(2) Jaebo cross flows
*BRS 7 stage 75gpd w/ booster pump
* Hanna salinity, Phosphate, Nitrate, Calcium and AlK
*Hydros ATO
*Hydros feeder
*Red Devil 150 skimmer….Chyna lol

Also everything that came with tank stock. Pumps, filtration equipment, lid, magnet cleaner.

Some of the equipment I already had. But most is new.

 

[GatorGreg]

Stands built and leveled

 

[GatorGreg]

Ran a test on the water system today. Extremely satisfied.

 

[GatorGreg]

Next up on the plan is to recruit some guys from work to help me get the tank on the stand and start assembling everything to prepare to add the sand and water then just wait till the rock comes in.

I did plan on waiting out hurricane season to set up. But the gambler in me is feeling lucky.


I’ve been tossing around Bare Bottom, TLF reactor media or Fiji pink for substrate. I was hell bent on bare bottom. But the warden of the house really prefers sand. So I guess Fiji Pink it is.

 

[GatorGreg]

Wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[TheWB]

Wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be

I just read through your old thread. Love the 22g tank. I am a fan of the IM aio tanks and this new one you got in particular. I would have chosen it for my latest upgrade if I hadn't gone custom instead. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one.

 

[GatorGreg]

I just read through your old thread. Love the 22g tank. I am a fan of the IM aio tanks and this new one you got in particular. I would have chosen it for my latest upgrade if I hadn't gone custom instead. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one.

Yeah the 22g was going really well. I had setup the automation because my son started BMX racing and we were traveling a lot between BMX and travel Gymnastics for my daughter. Against my better judgement I went with a “budget” doser. I still to this day never figured out how or why it did it. But two times within a month it fully drained an entire bottle of Alk and an entire bottle of Calc. I think the first time it was recoverable because the bottles were almost empty. The second time they were brand new. We came back from a weekend of racing and the tank was just horrifying. I basically just topped it off for a year. It was a disgusting sight lol. I broke it down and salvaged what I could and rebuilt my deskmate. But QUICKLY outgrew that. My wife was supportive and that’s all it took

 

[GatorGreg]

Here’s some pictures of the deskmate I’ve been nurturing

 

[GatorGreg]

Deskmate

 

[TheWB]

Deskmate

Looking really good. Lot's of color. Zoas and LPS are always a great combination.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Here’s some pictures of the deskmate I’ve been nurturing

How long have you had the deskmate? You have it filled with some awesome coral!

 

[GatorGreg]

How long have you had the deskmate? You have it filled with some awesome coral!

This deskmate was setup with the Aussie rock and the sand from my old 22g. So the rock and sand are approaching 2 years old wet in my possession.

The deskmate and the corals have been in there since around June 1st.

The deskmate is controlled by Hydros everything lol. It’s how I keep the temperature and salinity so stable.

 

[GatorGreg]

Basically in the deskmate I just do 10% water changes 1 time per week. Stir sand before waterchange. Clean acrylic daily, change floss daily, UV is running 247. Also add All for Reef daily and feed frozen food daily.

Alk 8.5. Nitrates hang around 12 to 15 and phosphate between .1 and .05. The phosphates are really the only variance I struggle to chase. Everything else stays pretty stable. The only things I test regularly are AlK, Phosphate and Nitrate. Every now and then I bump the calcium test.

Every now and then if I see a patch of some algae getting too big. I’ll pull the rock and toothbrush it and put it back in. Easy peasy

 

[GatorGreg]

I actually did have something very strange happen this week in the deskmate though. Last weekend I did the first deep clean. I pulled out all the equipment out the back and cleaned it all. Drained all the water out the back sump cleaned it up a bit. Did a 100 percent water change and pulled the entire scape and gave it a scrub and stirred really good the sand under the rocks.

Reassembled the entire setup and put fresh saltwater in. Waited a day and tested the nutrients. Nitrates were good. Phosphates a tad lower than I wanted (0.03). So I grabbed my trust bottle of phosphates and added the usual 3 drops that I add when my phosphate drops that low. Well come yesterday I test the phosphates (3 times). And the Hanna checked was blinking .90 and I almost fainted. Everything looks fine and nothing is closed up. So I’m basically just slowly brining it down with diluted lanthanum chloride.


I don’t fully understand the “equilibrium” with the rocks and bound phosphate and the phosphate in the water column. I’m wondering if because of the deep clean and me disturbing the equilibrium. The rocks leached bound phosphates back into to the water in an attempt to re establish the equilibrium. I probably have that concept way wrong. Hopefully one of you can enlighten me

 

[TheWB]

I actually did have something very strange happen this week in the deskmate though. Last weekend I did the first deep clean. I pulled out all the equipment out the back and cleaned it all. Drained all the water out the back sump cleaned it up a bit. Did a 100 percent water change and pulled the entire scape and gave it a scrub and stirred really good the sand under the rocks.

Reassembled the entire setup and put fresh saltwater in. Waited a day and tested the nutrients. Nitrates were good. Phosphates a tad lower than I wanted (0.03). So I grabbed my trust bottle of phosphates and added the usual 3 drops that I add when my phosphate drops that low. Well come yesterday I test the phosphates (3 times). And the Hanna checked was blinking .90 and I almost fainted. Everything looks fine and nothing is closed up. So I’m basically just slowly brining it down with diluted lanthanum chloride.


I don’t fully understand the “equilibrium” with the rocks and bound phosphate and the phosphate in the water column. I’m wondering if because of the deep clean and me disturbing the equilibrium. The rocks leached bound phosphates back into to the water in an attempt to re establish the equilibrium. I probably have that concept way wrong. Hopefully one of you can enlighten me

I'm no expert reef chemist and usually do not offer advice on these type of questions but fwiw I do think you basically have it right about the equilibrium situation. Next time you do a huge water change like that maybe wait another couple of days to test PO4 before making adjustments? Let things settle out.

 

[GatorGreg]

Recliner viewz

Wishing it was wet..

 

[ralquist]

Beautiful looking tank, following along and wait to see what you do with it!!

 

[GatorGreg]

Friday Fun shots of the deskmate