Honey I though your were getting 50 gallon tank, why does it look much bigger?! IM 100 EXT

daybreaksky

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Updated 12/17/20

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Initial plan was to get a 50G lagoon but after a bit of deliberation and encouragement from my SO to treat myself for change I ended up cancelling the 50 backorder and got 100G IM EXT instead.



Equipment:
Tank: Innovative Marine EXT 100 - 48x24x19"
Stand: Aluminum IM stand with black glass
Sump: 20G long with DIY baffles, nothing fancy
Light: 2 vipras with 120' lenses installed and better fans (was trying to make them quieter by replacing with arctic fans and ended up louder but more airflow SMH)
Rock: ~95LB dry Marco Rock
Sand: Caribsea special grade shallow bed
Return: Jbao DCP-8000
Skimmer: IOAOI 130 - was on sale for $50 new, worth a try - works great, pump is a bit loud but other than that
Flow: jabao 120 cross flow
Heater: 200W titanium BRS element with Inkbird controller and a 150W glass heater backup
ATO: TBD

Animals:

Pair of ocellaris clowns + bta
Orange spot prawn goby + tiger pistol shrimp
Striped fang blenny
Carpenter's wrasse still in QT ( got a trio and lost 2 in QT, pretty certain velvet so kids QT your stuff)
 
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daybreaksky

daybreaksky

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Ok... I got Marco cement expecting to glue a lot of small pieces of rock together... But BRS came through on some great shapes. Since I only have 16" of vertical space and wanted a clean look, I might just do something that will look like a zen rock garden. 3 structures - largest back left placed using rule of thirds, then smaller one on the right that complements the main feature, also rule of thirds. And a small rock in front left. This way the viewers eye will travel from largest rock to the right and back over to the small rock on the left ‍
Long story short... I don't think I'm going to chisel rock and try gluing crazy shapes and start cycling this rock to be used as is.

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daybreaksky

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Found some time to do maintenance on my 2 decades old RO system. Replaced the filter and carbon. Still has the Original 100gpd membrane... also looks like the flow restrictor is 600 .. Not good, it should be 800 for 100gpd.
tested TDS and came up with 140 from tap and 42 out of RO before DI. So that's about 70% .. not good. But I have a 75gpd membrane on the way.
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Also installed a flush valve. very simple, just 2 Y-adaptors before and after the flow restrictor with a valve in the middle. It just bypasses the flow restrictor and blasts full flow of water past the membrane flushing all the gunk.
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Finally installed an auto-shutoff switch, the old one made a terrible noise and the check valve was metal and rusty!!!! why would someone use a non stainless metal check valve in a water system?! the flow actually doubled, I think it was stuck in a partially open position.
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just when it all seems to come together, I find a small leak on the push-in connector on the auto-shutoff [facepalm]
replacement is on the way... :D
let's get all the bad juju out before tank arrives
 
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daybreaksky

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Pretty happy with the rock look... Time for a soak

Put it in a 28g bin with a heater and a power head. Will give it a day or 2 and add microbacter7. I've never done a cycle with a bottled product before so we'll see. Hopefully by the time the tank is ready this rock would be over a month in to the cycle :cool:

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daybreaksky

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Tossed a capful of microbacter7 as per instructions last night along with Dr. Tim's ammonia drops. Guestimated the ammount. This morning the water is looking clear and ammonia tested at about 1.5ppm. will add more tonight as instructed on the bottle for new setups

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daybreaksky

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Luck be the lady... Someone was selling a 29gallon with a metal stand for $35 so I grabbed it the other day. The quarantine tank is setup and salty!!

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Placed an order for some initial livestock today. To be delivered next week
2 clowns Black Ice
Diamond goby
Yellow watchman goby
Fire fish

And inverse:
5 blue leg hermits
5 astraea snails
Emerald crab
Cleaner shrimp
Pistol shrimp
And a cluster of feather dusters

These are coming directly from a reputable wholesaler who seems to have humane and responsible practices. The fish will be treated with antibiotics right away to help with any ammonia burns and shipping dings and then watched for any parasites. Will decide from there. The inverts get their own QT with cycled live rock in a brute.

The tank is still about 45 days away which gives me perfect amount of time to qt and treat the animals if necessary.
 
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daybreaksky

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So 8 days ago I dosed my dry rock in a brute with some Microbacter7 expires in 22, saw a video on BRS and they mentioned it and without much research I grabbed a bottle along with ammonia. It wasn't labeled as instant like some others but I figured save a couple of bucks I'm not in a rush... dosed all week as prescribed after raising ammonia to 2ppm.

Day 8 test showed ammonia 2ppm, nitrites 0, nitrates 0. Whelp that was a waste of $8.

Yesterday after setting up the QT I grabbed some IO Bio-Spira and dosed the Qt with ammonia and dosed Bio-Spira to both the cycling rock and QT. 10 hours later I have 1/2 ammonia, nitrates and nitrites present oh my what a difference!
 
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daybreaksky

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Whelp change of plans. Canceled 50 lagoon and ordered 100G EXT instead. IM made the process a breeze and they have them in stock. Also picked up 40lb of additional rock and sand. Please don't tell my wife ;Nailbiting;Nailbiting;Nailbiting
 
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daybreaksky

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Picked up a few critters about a week ago. They are in my 29g qt tank. No copper but I'm doing 2 doses of general cure and salinity is at 1.014. Also got a tiger pistol shrimp and 5 tiny hermits in a separate 10g.

Everyone is doing great, eating and getting along. Clowns are starting to pair and establish order.

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daybreaksky

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Got this guy the other day. Was told it's a black widow and I only paid $50 so I wasn't going to pass it on. Been in coral QT for 3 days now, moved the first night but seems to settle in and opening with the light. Mouth looks tightly closed so I think he's relatively happy.

Need to learn how to take phone pics with LED now

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daybreaksky

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An update is overdue.
The tank arrived in one piece and I set it up on thanksgiving so it's been up for 3 weeks. Since the rocks were pre-cycled it was an easy no cycle transfer. All the corals and most inverts are in nano/QT until the first week of January but BTA and a couple of shrimp came over with the fish. All healthy and doing great.

Of course they all hid when I snapped a pic lol

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