IM Fusion 15

HiggsUSA · Dec 9, 2023

Hi! This will be my second build. It's been a few years since the last one was running due to moving and starting a family but I'm ready to go again and the wife's on board. Unfortunately, I have very minimal supplies and no tank from the last round so we are basically starting over.

For now, I'm going to do this with an IM Fusion 15. Boss lady said keep it small until we fall in love with the hobby again. She's worried about the reef taking up all our time and we have a toddler. I don't blame her... I fall down rabbit holes hard and fast but if my son is anything like me we will have a significantly larger tank in due time.

So, let's break it down.

Tank: IM Fusion 15 (On order, will be shipped end of December).
Livestock: 2 Clowns (non-negotiable), a small CUC with hermits and some snails to get some life crawling around the rocks and sand. Maybe something small when the tanks more established?
Sand: 10 lbs Ocean Direct
Rock: Around 10 pounds of Life Rock.
Filtration: Replacing the sock for the caddy and those neat floss balls, MarinePure, and then who knows. I adapt. I overcome.

Here we go. Fingers crossed I don't mess this up.

HiggsUSA · Dec 9, 2023

From my old tank I have an RODI system so I'll be making my own water. I am waiting on some things to get it all set up in my laundry room.

I played around with the rocks today while I wait for the tank. I think I found a scape I like but it's definitely still a work in progress.

Front (Check out the shot of my dumb face in the fireplace):

Top:

Sides:

HiggsUSA · Dec 10, 2023

Got all new filters in for the RODI last night so I went ahead and replaced all those. Still waiting on a few things for the laundry room.

For lights I decided on the Aqua Knight A029. The 3rd Gen one on Amazon. Looks like a sweet little light to get started up with.

Locked in a lot of the rock work from the previous pictures. The bottoms are chonky so I took those away and I'll probably pull the small structure in front of the arch on the right side of the front shot and use it as a little zoa, gsp, or xenia island.

Gumbies R Us · Dec 11, 2023

HiggsUSA said:
From my old tank I have an RODI system so I'll be making my own water. I am waiting on some things to get it all set up in my laundry room.

I played around with the rocks today while I wait for the tank. I think I found a scape I like but it's definitely still a work in progress.

Front (Check out the shot of my dumb face in the fireplace):

Top:

Sides:

Aquascape looks nice!

HiggsUSA · Dec 11, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Aquascape looks nice!

Thank you! It's a lot different than my first go around with a giant rock wall on the back glass.

That tank was a standard 55g that I drilled and a DIY sump with the sharpest glass possibly known to man. Probably had 70 pounds of rock.

SliceGolfer · Dec 11, 2023

Scape looks good. I'm an "island guy" so I like the two separate islands and ditch the top middle arch. The only thing that raises concern is the height. With water and sand, you'll have about 12.5-13 inches of water. Will the high arch be a concern with the corals you intend to keep? Good luck!

PizzaIan339 · Dec 11, 2023

This thread seams interesting as I have the same tank! I will definitely follow along.

HiggsUSA · Dec 11, 2023

SliceGolfer said:
Scape looks good. I'm an "island guy" so I like the two separate islands and ditch the top middle arch. The only thing that raises concern is the height. With water and sand, you'll have about 12.5-13 inches of water. Will the high arch be a concern with the corals you intend to keep? Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback! I don't think the high arch will be a huge concern for me but depending on how it plays out in the tank I can remove a rock from both sides to lower it substantially. About 6-7 inches high at the peak if I did that (it's just about 10 inches tall now). That may be the play anyway once I drop it in.

I'm mostly looking at softies and zoas to get my feet wet and back into it. Down the road probably an LPS like a hammer, frogspawn, or torch and maybe a plating monti but nothing that will grow super tall.

kevgib67 · Dec 11, 2023

I like how well you have this thought out. Following.

HiggsUSA · Dec 11, 2023

RODI in the laundry room is set up and leak tested. Letting it sit for a few hours and will go check on it but so far so good. 6-10 tds in, 0 out. Hopefully these filters last forever.

Only bummer is that my pressure gauge no longer works but that's a problem for another time.

HiggsUSA · Dec 11, 2023

So, I went ahead and got the Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5 and the IM spin stream. I've heard they're loud but I have a loud toddler so I feel like this is the best way to get adequate and random flow for now. Especially in a low profile and plug and play kind of way.

I'll probably use the included pump to mix my 1 gallon of salt water every week

.

I also picked up this ATO. I feel like it'll be safe since it won't be fighting off snails or other curious critters and if it does get into a fight with one it's got a nice backup switch. When the time comes I'll show off how I plan on storing my water.

Hint:

Mikeltee · Dec 11, 2023

If you want coral you should consider a skimmer. I just got a bullet 3 for a 40g breeder. It's awesome! It's the best way to strip nutrients and keep dinos away.

HiggsUSA · Dec 11, 2023

Mikeltee said:
If you want coral you should consider a skimmer. I just got a bullet 3 for a 40g breeder. It's awesome! It's the best way to strip nutrients and keep dinos away.

I will definitely keep a skimmer in mind as this plays out.

HiggsUSA · Dec 19, 2023

Got bored waiting on the tank. Took some comments into consideration and reduced the overall height of the scape to around 6.5-7 inches. I think it looks significantly better now but I don't know if I'm 100% happy with it. Maybe like, 85%. Still have my arch

.

I also returned the Aqua Knight A029 and got the Noopsyche K7 Mini after browsing several threads. For the same price I wanted the extra functionality the K7 Mini provided.

Front (ignore my sons toes):

Top:

Side 1:

Side 2:

HiggsUSA · Dec 24, 2023

Merry Christmas everybody! My son decided it was the day to try and climb our tree and snapped the top support bar on it. Nice.

On a more relevent note, the tank has been shipped! (Merry Christmas to me from IM). Looking forward to getting it setup. Looking at about 5 days according to the tracking number.

Ordered the Noop K7 Mini on the 18th but it still hasn't been shipped according to the website. That's okay. Don't need it until we are cycled anyway!

HiggsUSA · Dec 28, 2023

We've got the tank. We've got the salt. We've got the water. We've got the scape! Letting it settle in and de-cloud.

Light should be here soon. I'm excited about that!

I am a bit bummed. The intended stand is not working out. I woke up this morning to a pretty big sag on the front of it. I had to run to HD to grab some 2x4s to wedge under to brace it. Brought it back to level and all is well for now but I hate it. I bought a new stand (that the wife likes) so I'll have to drain and transfer to that when it gets here on the 4th.

For now, the final scape. Excuse any messes you may see in the background:

noobreefer2 · Feb 10, 2024

Hey got an update?

HiggsUSA · Feb 11, 2024

noobreefer2 said:
Hey got an update?

I do! We went on vacation so I had to put the tank on an auto mode and it did great. I got through the cycle and I added a pair of clowns. I'll get pics later. Also introduced about 6 hermits and a jar of Ecopods and they're thriving. I also added some easy to keep corals:

Colt coral
Toadstool
Green Birdsnest
Green/Purple Acan
Green Hammer

I want to grab some Trochus snails, some GSP or Xenia, a Purple Birdsnest, some mushrooms, and another Acan. I think I also want a Firefish and then in a month or two a Springeri Damsel to round out the stocking.

Tanks going through a smaller than normal ugly phase. I contribute that to regular maintenance and the early introduction of pods. Lots of green spot algae and I'm getting a bunch of film algae on my glass.

Finally, we are redoing a few rooms in the house (bathrooms and living/family rooms) and I'm going to move the tank off the wall we initially had planned. I got the wife to agree to convert one of our living rooms into a sitting room/aquarium room as the showpiece. When that's done I'll get some pics posted.

What that means is I already get to get a second tank. We are looking at a Fiji 108, IM INT 100, or a Glass Cages aquarium. I really like the Glass Cages route but I need to finish convincing the wife that an extra grand + shipping is worth a 105 gallon custom tank

.