IM50 Fools Gold

[Schulks]

Welcome to my Innovative Marine EXT 50 gallon build thread! I am a beginner reefer who started a few years ago keeping fish and took my time learning everything I could to care for them. About 4 months ago I started this build and started buying coral so officially I became a reef keeper. I have always loved euphelia so I am trying for an LPS tank.



I called this build fools gold because I saved money for the 'important' things. I should have just gone all the way and bought a stand a this point.. A lot of it was purchased used too.

Gear list:
1x Innovative Marine 50 EXT
1x Trigger Triton 20 Sump
1x 55 Lbs Gulf Live Rock & 15 lbs live sand

1x Reefmat 250
1x Royal Exclusiv Mini Bubble King 160
1x Pentair 40w UV

2x Nero 3
1x Vectra S2
2x Radion xr15
1x Kessil a160we

1x Innovative Marine Helio Universal heater controller
1x Aqua Ready FR-S Reactor (carbon occasional)

1x Hydros Launch
1x Hydros Minnow
1x Hydros 2ml/min doser

Hydros controls everything. I am using 7 of the sense ports and 3 of the drive ports. On the sense ports I have 5 level sensors, a temp sensor, and a rope leak sensor.
3 level sensors are in the return chamber. A low level sensor, normal level sensor, and overflow. Then I have 1 in the ATO reservoir and 1 in the Fresh Salt Water bucket I use for auto water changes. On the drive ports I have a pump for fresh top off water and 2 pumps I rigged up and use for the AWC. I plan on using the last drive/sense ports to setup an ATO for an AIO on the other side of the room.

On the AC outlets I have return pump, skimmer, UV, and the 2 ml/min doser. I might free up the doser spot so I can connect the Helio Heater controller but I don't think it is necessary unless I finish my plans to setup a battery backup. I have some idea of how I can use the 0-10v input on the launch so it can detect when power goes down and change to power saving mode. Hurricane Helene had me pretty worried... I actually ran out and bought a generator but returned it when I did not need it. I want a better deal.

Hydros Auto water changes 5% a week right now and my N and P are at 24 and 0.126.


My Launch is rigged up under my desk. Here you can sort of see the Launch, fresh salt water, and waste salt water buckets(1st picture(reef crystal buckets))
I cant see the mess of wires unless I crouch under my desk. You can also see my UV there. It runs tee'd off the return plumbing (3rd picture) and I have a gate valve on the return line to control the flow rate. I aim for about 120 gph to make sure I am eradicating protozoa.

Fish list:
2x Snowflake clowns
1x Yellow Watchman goby
1x Royal Gramma
1x Neon goby

Shrimps list:
Scarlet Cleaner shrimp (At least 3 years old!)
tiger pistol shrimp


These guys got me started in the hobby. $25 a piece nearly 4 years ago. Everyone says their clownfish are problems but mine have always been great. I love them and I am terrified of crashing my tank because of them. Please help me figure out how I am most likely to crash! I do think I have made them more timid because they lived in a fluval 13.5g for a few years. It was just them in it but now they stay hidden behind and under the rocks most of the time.

I have a yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp as well. I've had them about a year less than the clowns. I care less about him because he is pretty territorial and I've seen the most aggression from him but 3 years is a long time. He has grown a lot.




Then there is my royal gramma. She cool. Sits in this hole in the rock and just watches from the shadows.. lol



And a neon goby but I don't have any good pictures of him. I plan on picking up a McCosker's Flasher Wrasse to start QTing soon. Then I think I will have room for 1 more wrasse someday.

Corals!!!


I have a lot of acans.. I am having a lot of fun feeding them lol.






This arrived on my gulf live rock and it isn't the best looking but I've been feeding it and it seems to be growing a lot. Can anyone ID it? Sorry it is hard to get a good picture with the glass distorting it.


This torch is at a fellow reefers. It was having a hard time so I gave it to him to hold while I tried to improve my system. I plan on picking it back up today or tomorrow. It has about 7 heads. I did not grow them though but I did get a great deal from TCK corals.



And a quick shot of each side this morning.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along! Love the way your tank looks!

 

[SliceGolfer]

Very nice build!

 

[Devaji]

great tank. I do love the IM tanks.
keep up the good work.

 

[kevgib67]

Really came together, well done!

 

[Msz3389]

Well done, your setup is cool. How's the hydros treating you thinking to add one to my frag tank

 

[Schulks]

Well done, your setup is cool. How's the hydros treating you thinking to add one to my frag tank

I have ran into some issues early on and I had some buyers remorse but it has grown on me. Coralvue support has been pretty great. Some things I had to wait for an update to fix but the update arrived. I've had no issues for awhile now.
It is simple to setup the basic things with guides online but can be complex beyond those guides. Some things you have to learn. Like what takes priority over what or how the depends on setting works.. I was skeptical of the hydros AWC method at first but it was cheap to setup (if you have drive ports) and has been working great. Beyond that everything has been working and there are plenty of securities/redundancies. Nothing catastrophic has happened.

I am adding an xp8, x2, and kh carer.

 

[Schulks]

I haven't updated much but.. the end is near for this tank.




Seam damage :C


Most of what is here is normally doing fine but I just cleaned the glass and rushed some pictures for this post.
That torch is not ok though and the avatar chalice touched the stellaria chalice and I learned something..