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!