IM SR80 build!

[Davy Jones]

Thanks for the response! I’ll give that a try. The reason he’s is in the box is because he kept wondering towards my blowers and wouldn’t stay put to heal up. :mad:

If it is a bubble tip, try and find a small hole/crevice it can wedge its foot into on the back/bottom side of a rock so it can stretch up into the light. This is the preffered type of placement for most bubble tips

 

[Davy Jones]

Scrolled through your build and I love it! Love the thought process!

Thanks!! There is a method to the madness some of the time haha

Looks great! Love these IM AIO tanks! I've got a 20g nuvo and would love to get my hands on an SR tank for another build.

I really do like the dimensions of the tank, but miss the freedom of a proper sump..

 

[Deiblerj]

If it is a bubble tip, try and find a small hole/crevice it can wedge its foot into on the back/bottom side of a rock so it can stretch up into the light. This is the preffered type of placement for most bubble tips

It is a bubble tip! Thanks again!

 

[Triquatics]

Thanks!! There is a method to the madness some of the time haha}


Isn't it always! That is what makes it fun

 

[Davy Jones]

Unfortunately I wasnt able to get time to take photos of the tank yet however i did end up testing my alk again and it had risen to 10.1 dkh. I Lowered dosing and will test again this weekend!

Goal for this tank will be alk in the Low 9's so im on the right track! Thankfully i have basically 0 sps so the swing didnt effect anything negatively.

Moving forward I am getting closer to swap into the 120 fatboy I have sitting dry in the other room. It will nearly double my display volume as the SR-80 has a display of about 60-66 gallons after you factor in the Filtration area in the back of the tank.

Currently there is still a TON of work that needs to be done before then however:
1. Remove the current overflow system (center overflow) and silicone a pane of glass over the already drilled holes in the bottom panel.
2. Drill the back panel for a reef savvy ghost overflow and 2 return lines
3. Purchase a custom stand from FramingTech, I am short so I would like this stand/tank to be as short as possible and still fit the sump/skimmer underneath
4. Plumb everything, do a leak test with tap water for a couple days, Drain the system and prep to transfer
5. Move all sand/rock/livestock to the new setup including as much water as possible ( I figure it will be about 60-70 gallons max that will move to the new tank) leaving me with ~85 gallons to add to the system (120 gallon tank, 34 gallon sump - rock, sand, equipment) I figure itll be about 135-140 gallons total water volume.

Here are a few problems that I can see already so am hoping to come up with a good solution before hand:

P1.The water volume will be a bit of an issue, I have 2 brute cans that are 20 gallons each. So even with both of them full and mixed, I will still be 40-45 gallons short which will take roughly a day to make and mix up. My plan is to fill the display completely or as much as possible, put my temp probe and heater in teh display with the powerheads and just let it sit for a day or 2 while water is made and put in the system until it is able to fully run.

P2. I will be using my sand from the display in this new build. It is ~8 months old. I stir it up pretty often and vacuum the dirty parts out when i do my waterchanges, but it will no doubt cause the re-build to be dirty/messy.

P3. There is currently ~4 feet or so of snow outside my house, so the drilling will have to be done indoors, in my basement where the tank is. Ill be using a shop vac to keep things clean and plumbers putty to keep water around the drill spot. Still nervous as ive never done it before!

 

[Davy Jones]

Some shots a friend took with his iphone max xs and the aquarium cam app

 

[samnaz]

nice rock nem collection there!

 

[Davy Jones]

nice rock nem collection there!

Thank you! I have 3 others not pictured here

 

[Davy Jones]

Double post deleted..

 

[Davy Jones]

Huge post ahead. Lots of reading. Not all in order unfortunately but ill do my best. Much of this is just my own rambling and documentation but thanks for reading along lol This is your warning to skip down to the photos.

Been quite a while since my last update, so Ill try to remember everything that has happened since then, its been quite a bit! I encountered some odd brown algae in the tank, like a mix between dinos, cyano and diatoms, but really wasnt any of them.. hard to explain, but it was a light brown color that would grow on the rocks, back wall, sand bed, frag plugs, even closed up zoas. Not super easy to brush off either. Tried more waterchanges, carbon, Dr Tims waste away, but ultimately it went away in about a week and a half after adding an additional fish, and upping my feeding significantly (high nitrates, undectable phos on ICP test).

Next point, I (against better judgement) placed an order for some coral from AquaSD. Various chalices, favites, acan echinata, and a Blue/green/pink hammer coral. Most of the stuff arrived okay, and have done alright but no growth, not great coloration when it arrived and overall just heavy signs of them being a chop shop. The worst however, is the fact that the hammer coral died after about 18 hours, and when it did it took out all the rest of my euphyllia. Torch died, 3 different hammers died, frogspawn died, and lost 3-4 heads on the largest colony I have which somehow survived. I believe the issue was bacterial, and I did Iodine dips but that only slowed the infection, It would not stop it. I am down to a single (very sad) head of gold/purple hammer, and the main colony of green/purple ive had for years. Although the polyps have not looked the same since that incident.

I also won a frag pack from Legendary corals and picked up a few things to go with the package. Between the time I won and the time the package arrived I was having some tissue narcosis on most of my non zoas so I sent in an ICP test and found my Phosphate was undectable, nitrates were 19ppm, Iodine was extremely low. salinity was high and DKH was 10. (my testing has been a bit lacking with the house projects going on) So, I lowered salinity, stopped my dosing, upped feeding significantly, added a fish and have been dosing 2 drops of Brightwells lugols solution (iodine) every day/couple days. The corals arrived super healthy from LC however due to my tank condition they started having narcosis right away. Most have recovered with only a few still showing stress.

In that pack was a nice rainbow anemone, which is awesome since I love anemones. Well after about a month and a half my sherman rose closed up and deflated for quite a while. about 2 weeks actually. I took the rainbows out of the tank and placed them in the anemone tank, and crossed my fingers.Its been about a month since removing them and the sherman rose is finally starting to look a bit better. No where near what it was a few months ago but starting to recover thankfully.

Speaking of anemones, my nem tank has had some changes as well. Went from a small holding tank, to a IM 40, now to an IM10. I like its current iteration the best. The nems are starting to regain color after all the mishaps that went on, but im not gonna document those. Lots could have been avoided on my side. I ended up losing about 8-9 anemones due to negligence and stupidity, including my last of the rainbow strain I had been culturing for 4 years

Not all bad news however, Ill have some photos of what it currently looks like later in the thread!

We are about caught up on things, im sure I forgot a ton of stuff but whatevs.

I picked up the white tail bristle tooth tang from @ChristopherKriens and it is quickly becoming my favorite fish. Non stop cruising the tank, picking at the rocks, back wall, frag rack etc. until I try to take a photo, then she likes to hide from me lol Which brings the total fish count in the tank to 7.
1. 12 year old clownfish named maevis
2. Oreo the Starry blenny, who is so fat im afraid he is going to burst every time I look at him, and he who bites my arm every time its in the tank
3. Pinky the yellow coris wrasse, who spends all day swimming along the surface of the tank trying to find where there isnt a screen top
4. Noelle the christmas wrasse, who wants to be in every picture I try to take
5. Carl, the orchard dottyback. Only comes out during feeding time, but has been with me through 4 tanks so I cant get rid of him
6. Dom the Purple tang. Not much to say about this guy, awesome grazer, beautiful fish, Man in charge.
and finally 7. Lulu the White tail bristle tooth. She plays hard to get.

Current issues are a plenty, Vermettid snails are quite prevalent, there are a few aptasia that im not sure how got into the tank, Some colonial hydroids, bubble algae and blue clove polyps.
Some of my zoa/palys are behaving a bit odd by having their skirts curled in constantly/missing? I have looked and looked and cant see anyone feasting on them, and it seems to only affect some of the palys, but not all. Gotta do a bit of research on that as time permits. I am also inclined to blame oreo for some of it as he is often found lazing around on top of my zoa colonies as if its a bed. Odd stuff I tell ya what.

Now for the good!

I have never in my reefing career been able to place and keep chalices, they always would turn grey and melt away. Well I can confidently say that I have 2 chalices that have been growing like crazy. Non stop growth rings all the way around!
Most of my zoas are still growing like mad, with the fastest being the LC Petroglyphs, UC Nirvannas, and captain Jerks. The slow growers include Bowsers, Pluto Passions, Rainbow rhinos and candy apple reds
My purple stylophora just keeps on getting larger, and then shading its base due to the growth pattern it has chosen. Super hardy coral though.
I recently have fallen in love with Lobos, which also happen to be one of the significant others coral of choice so win win! I have one single head one that is giant and always happy looking and just picked up a 3 head one from reef collective.
I also have a rockflower anemone garden which is doing awesome, and a ricordea garden with the most unique color variants I can find. Including a deepwater belize one that gets to the size of a baseball in low light/flow, and a curacao ricordea that has a very unique color/texture.
Finally there is a mushroom forest growing in the back of the tank with rhodactis shrooms of various color. Green, orange/green, Blue/orange, and Gonzos golden dragon shrooms.

Now for the photos. I tried to get pics of every coral in the tank, again mostly for my own documentation as they arent super great photos. Thanks for reading along, sorry for the spelling mistakes and long winded sentences.

 

[Davy Jones]

 

[Davy Jones]

 

[Davy Jones]

Been a while since my last update so here are a few pictures

Tank has been doing great! I'm hoping it doesn't have any issues when we move at the end of April!

 

[Davy Jones]

Caught my rockflowers spawning tonight!

 

[Betex]

Did you ever end up deciding between the n18 and n24? I have similar size tank but curious to go bigger than the n18