IM 150 EXT soft coral lagoon and dartfish shoal

[hart24601]

Been 3 months since full test

No3 5-10
Po4 0.1
Silicates 0-1 -I can’t tell if any

I dumped a ton of spongexcel in so the system uses it preset darn quick. I also give it a pour of diy phosphate time to time. Seems to be working.

didn’t test calcium or alk since no hard corals.

 

[hart24601]

I’m going to switch from peroxide finally to TM NP bactobalance. I have always liked carbon dosing not for nutrient removal but organism growth and this is exact for that. I still have oxidators that will use some peroxide

 

[hart24601]

Have already had to frag the ruby xenia and a couple others too. Wow they grow fast. Thankfully the lfs will give me credit.

they about doubled from here:

but consisting they got fragged yesterday they bounce back fast.

 

[hart24601]

Couple monster snails my friend gave me for the sump since he took down his 300. Never seen anything like them!

 

[hart24601]

I have also been presently surprised with the ruby xenia. I heard it doesn’t spread badly like the normal types and this has been my observation as well so far. While it’s grown like mad, the original 3 “branches” just got thicker and branched further out, no spreading on the rock which is a relief.

 

[hart24601]

I have noticed with just 2 kessils while they light the tank fine and look good with fish, the soft corals in the front of the tank bend backwards. I have been wondering what to do about this as the kessils already have the extensions and I also don’t want light spill with little kids so attaching a bar hasn’t seemed like a great solution.

However the new AI blade leds I am hoping are the solution. The 39” model has 4” extensions to sit on a tank lid, and the IM black screen top that sits in the eurobrace is 40”. So it seems almost perfect to place one of these lights near the front of the tank across the screen top. This will hopefully solve the issue of the soft coral bending backwards which is only getting worse the larger they get.

I don’t know how well they will blend sitting on the top, but they were smart enough to make each “dot” a little cluster so I’m hoping they blend ok. Will find out in a few days. It seems like just what I needed and shouldn’t appear more intrusive than the screen top so here is hoping…. For $350 I hope very hard!

 

[hart24601]

Traded some of the softy frags to my lfs for credit and had a gift card so while I was only going to buy some frozen food I got a trio of Bimaculatus anthias. Male and 2 female. They took the 150ppm peroxide dip well.

​

 

[Acros]

Awesome tank! How do you like the depth? Would you stick to 24” in case you setup another tank?

 

[hart24601]

I really don’t notice all that much difference between the various tanks I have had that were 24” deep, the WB I think was 22” and this one at 20” deep. The sweet spot with these taller stands is probably 20-22”, 24” with a tall stand is ok but I wouldn’t want taller as I like being able to reach all spots. The 36” width even with my long arms I have to stretch to reach the middle back so 20” deep is good. I picked the rock out with the hight in mind as well. If I were growing acro I would start them lower to account for the shallower tank

 

[hart24601]

Bit skinny but hopefully can fatten them up. I feed the tank like crazy and happy out already after the dip

 

[hart24601]

Got the AI blade grow in today. Seems nice, myAI app worked easy and simple to make a program. Even sitting on the tank the clusters blend well and I can’t see spotting but there are not that many colors so that helps. It’s not easy to match the kessils, I have the tank quite white and here are the settings came up with to match the best I could.

I will say it does provide a ‘blanket’ of light as advertised. I miss some of the shadows but the softies need it to grow straight.

if I was going to set the tank up today I might just use 3 blades on the tank vs the kessils.

 

[hart24601]

New guys doing well so far

 

[hart24601]

CSB and fts. Can’t see the depth in the photo. Looking at the tank from a distance the blade LED really improved the look of the tank.

 

[Miami Reef]

Wow! It’s really come a long way since I last checked this thread.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Been a while since I was here as well. Loving the new progress you have made! Those Bimacs look fire!

 

[hart24601]

Appreciate it!!

 

[hart24601]

I ordered a biota yellow tang, I’m not a huge tang fan, and I feel my tank is really too small, but running so white of a tank the yellow will really pop and while the tank is only 4’ long by 3’ the diagonal distance there is 5’ so getting the YT this young hopefully it’s content in the DT for many years. If not I have 0 issue rehoming for free when/if it gets too large. I don’t like buying fish that can’t be in the tank forever, but sounds like more likely than not a YT can be, unless it grows to be exceptionally large. The color pop of the anthias made me think it could use for fish color.

 

[hart24601]

We had a decent snow but thankfully fed ex still delivered. I have had them delay before over 1/4” so I was quite worried but they made it and oddly enough before noon which they normally never make. So good on them.

little guy is just over 2”. Slight deformed top fin but hopefully will grow better as it matures. Always want it to be perfect but even if fin doesn’t correct it’s ok, not very noticeable in tank. Thankfully I don’t see any lateral line issues, that white bar is normal from what I know of the young. So overall it’s a solid fish. Bag temp was 76.6. Within 30 min of arrival it already is eating pellets.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

CSB and fts. Can’t see the depth in the photo. Looking at the tank from a distance the blade LED really improved the look of the tank.

Loving the progress with your tank!!!

 

[hart24601]

Tank still progressing well. Shifting to soft corals I think has been personally the best decision I have made in the hobby, lps would probably have been fine too, but looking back over the years of when I got rid of systems I personally can’t handle the ups and downs of acro tanks. You feel too of the world when they are growing so fast but inevitably one doesn’t look good and then I stop enjoying the tank and look for rtn constantly. So far this tank I am still enjoying more than any other system I have had. And honestly I think we just get pushed to acros because of them being “elite” and looking good under photoshopped pics and macro pics with gel filters. Unless you have a huge tank with large colonies you can ask 90% of people not in the hobby what tanks they prefer and it will be lps/softie. There is a reason for that!

Not all the softies do well, hit and miss but most do. Found out the sun was hitting the tank this time of year and they didn’t love that so had to close the blinds a bit, just minor issue.

Baby yellow tang is doing amazing and is a pig. The anthias females have not done well, one died right away the other is swimming odd, the chance you take when getting from lfs. The male is great and no zebra dartfish losses.

Ordered a few more softies from marine farmers, they have such nice selection or rarer softies.

the pipe organ corals not done well, not sure why, I wonder if the urchins eat the tubes.

still overall it’s been great, trading frags to lfs and having all the movement in the tank. Fragging will get intense once they get larger though.