IM 170 INT tank build

[DmitryB]

Sooo, I ordered my first fish: Coral Beauty from Biota. Should arrive on Wed. Very excited! Normally an Angel wouldn't be the first fish I introduce (and I have a Royal Gramma and a Starry Blenny) being quarantined at Marine Collectors), but the tank bred Angel is going to be tiny compared to the other incoming residents, so I figured it may actually be better to have him go in first. The Coral Beauty is also going to be one of the fish I move into the 170 when that's set up.

So far all the frags I got seem to be doing well, and the Elegance Coral is opening up huge! I'll take some photos tomorrow with the new lenses I got for my iPhone.

My latest parameters are doing pretty good except Nitrites are going up. They're up to 3. I assume it's because I've been feeding the corals and probably too much. So I'm going to cut down on that; these tiny frags aren't consuming all that much. It's just fun to feed!

I also just added a protein skimmer. Innovative Marine is sold out of the skimmer for their 40 tanks, but I found that Aqua Cave had them in stock and it arrive today. So hopefully once that begins to skim, it'll help improve Nitrites. How long does it take to break in these things anyway? So far it's not skimming anything, but it's only been running 6 hrs. I must say this skimmer is remarkably quiet. The loudest thing in the tank is water!

Now all my filtration is installed: Overflow 1 with carbon, Overflow 2 with UV, protein skimmer in chamber 3, media reactor (with GFO because of the phosphates) in chamber 4.

And I now added a second powerhead, Nero 3 to go with MP 10 (and the return.) That's more than enough flow, I'll need to work out the exact placement as the days go by. Flow is hard to figure out!

So my readings tonight:

Temp: 78
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: 9.2
pH: 8.1
Nitrate: 16.7
Nitrite: 3
Phosphate .66 (down from .9!)
Calcium: 370 (a tad low; who's consuming it??)
Magnesium: 1260

Photos tomorrow of the coral frags!

 

[DmitryB]

Bit of an update as I still wait for 170. The Coral Beauty is still hiding in the rocks. I get an occasional glimpse of him during a swim by. But he's still afraid of me the big bad monster.

I'm getting what looks like diatoms on my pumps and a few pieces of rock. I guess it was expected with high Phosphates.

And I've started prepping rocks for the 170. Basically almost all of LifeRock that I got I will not use because I really don't like their rock. I did become very fond of Marco's shelf rock, so I got some of that. Plus the dry Pukani rock from Marco, which I'm cycling with ocean live rock from GLR in a bucket. That dry Pukani rock is kind of amazing, extremely porous. You put it into the bucket and it just bubbles for a few minutes as it absorbs the water. It does smell a bit, but with a few water changes that's improved. I've began building some scapes with the shelf rock. I'll be making a few smallish structures and then combine them in some way in the tank. This is my first time working with Marco's cement. Once it's fully cured, I'll add that into the bucket to start cycling.

 

[DmitryB]

Welp IM emailed me this afternoon to say the tank has arrived in their CA warehouse and is being inspected, and then it'll be ready to ship. So it's a few weeks earlier than their original estimate and now I'm both excited and s**t's getting real!

 

[DmitryB]

Well the tank has left the building. Terrifying.

 

[CoralHole]

Man, im still waiting on my 170ext to be delivered too. When did you make the order? I spent way too much money prepping everything.

 

[DmitryB]

Man, im still waiting on my 170ext to be delivered too. When did you make the order? I spent way too much money prepping everything.

I ordered first week of May. This delivery is about two weeks ahead of schedule. When was your order put in?

 

[CoralHole]

I ordered first week of May. This delivery is about two weeks ahead of schedule. When was your order put in?

i got my order in on June 2

 

[DmitryB]

I ordered first week of May. This delivery is about two weeks ahead of schedule. When was your order put in?

i got my order in on June 2

Fingers crossed yours arrives a bit early like mine is doing! What estimate did they give you?

 

[DmitryB]

Well it's now or never.

 

[DmitryB]

 

[DmitryB]

Well the water test is on and I've got a leak - the main drain. I hope it's just the bulkhead needs tightening. Problem is I'm doing this test with the tank in its final place which gives me no access to the overflow to tighten it right now. So it'll have to wait for me to empty the tank again.

It does make me realize if ever I need access to the overflow.... ain't gonna happen.

 

[beardedman11]

Wow amazing aqua scape in your one tank. Love to see what you come up with on the 170. Following along.

 

[Vitabella]

Following!

 

[DmitryB]

Haven't updated in a while! Just so busy getting the 170 tank all set up. Every waking hour not at work is spent setting something up. It's amazing how many things there are to do! It never stops. I will take some pics soon and post.

The 170 has been filled and running for a few weeks. Got a lot of green hair algae on rocks. Gonna need someone to eat all that! Ordered a large CUC on Friday from Top Reef, but for some reason it hasn't shipped yet. No idea why the delay.

I finally installed the Octo Regal 200 INT skimmer. Last night started refugium with chaeto and live rock rubble, the agree pieces I sifted from the sand.) still figuring out how to plumb UV.) have 1 Orca running and have 1 more to install.

I added live sand 2 nights ago. Turned out to be a much deeper sandbed than I intended. What are the downsides and upsides of a 3"+ sandbed? I suppose it'll be a big waste of I don't get some sand sifting fish, which wasn't really on my list.

And this morning for a small spike in Ammonia, I assume from adding live sand and whatever minor die-off may have happened in shipping. (Sand from Gulf Live Rock, delivered by air freight and in water, not just paper towels!!

Photos coming soon.

Here are this morning's parameters, everything tested with Hanna, except pH, which is a Milwaukee probe.

 

[DmitryB]

Alright here's a few photos of the set-up and rock-work. I think I'm leaving rock work alone (unless someone has some great ideas!) I really tried to create a lot of hiding spaces and caves, and leave open spaces. While I had no sand I kept thinking "Hey maybe I like this bare bottom tank!" And then I put the sand in and was like "Nope, this is so much better!" But as I mentioned above, it's much deeper than I anticipated (because of rock scape.)

I need to figure out the rotation of the Orca on the right, which is blowing some spots bare. And I have to put in an Orca on the left as well. So my flow will be 2 Orcas rotating to move water behind the rocks in both directions. ReefWave 45 on top for surface flow. Probably keep an MP40 somewhere, but not sure where. And unlikely to keep ReefWave 25 (it's currently on bottom left, moving water behind rocks.)

With the deep sand bed, looking for suggestions on fun creatures who love sand. It'll need to be aerated and someone should make sure of it since it's deep.

Also, obviously the algae bloom is a little cray cray. Hopefully somebody eats that sooner or later.

There's also the hitchhiker Urchin (one of two in there) that came with live rock (from GLR.)

 

[vittpsu21]

Did you hook your uv up? Im getting ready to do mine, I did contact IM and they said both ends of the piping for the return are barbed. I couldn’t remember cause it had been so long. But if you did yours maybe you can confirm

 

[DmitryB]

Did you hook your uv up? Im getting ready to do mine, I did contact IM and they said both ends of the piping for the return are barbed. I couldn’t remember cause it had been so long. But if you did yours maybe you can confirm

I haven't hooked it up yet, still figuring out the plumbing! But getting close!

So the return is a silicone hose, very pliable, and it does attach to a barbed connection on the pump and barbed to the hard PVC that goes back into the tank.

 

[vittpsu21]

I haven't hooked it up yet, still figuring out the plumbing! But getting close!

So the return is a silicone hose, very pliable, and it does attach to a barbed connection on the pump and barbed to the hard PVC that goes back into the tank.

ah ok so you answered what they said too, it is barbed on both ends! ty