Innovative Marine 50 EXT - Office Lagoon

[chrisriker]

Hi all!

My first reef tank, a Waterbox Peninsula Mini 25, has been a great little tank, but unfortunately I have had issues keeping the little guy stable with my busy schedule. So during the last IM sale, I decided it was a good time to upgrade it to a system with more water volume and, critically, more space in a sump for automation & filtration equipment. The plan is for a mixed reef - softies, LPS and nems.

The tank has been sitting on my office floor for the last 2 months or so while I've been on work travel, but I've finally got some breathing space to get this thing up and running.

Stand is put together, which was a MAJOR pain in the rear - getting all of the profiles lined up properly without a completely flat and level surface is an incredibly arduous task. In any event, I got everything close enough according to IM CS, so I got the tank on and the stand in its spot. I think it fits pretty well there.

As for scape, I have an awesome custom aquascape built by Reef Assist CT. I wanted something rear corner heavy that opens up into bare sand and small rock islands in the front corner, and I think he nailed the main structure.

I'll be running this with a single Radion XR-15 G6 Pro, pending a PAR map. I suspect with G6 lenses this will be fine, but once I get it filled I'm going to do a map and decide if I need another. Once that decision is made, I'm going with a TopLids lid.

As far as filtration goes, and this is my primary motivation for making this thread for such a quick project, my plan is to try and figure out what the best solution for automatic fleece rollers is for the RFS-22 sump that comes with this setup, which is a well-designed sump in many respects. The problem is that its design is so tightly coupled to the plumbing setup that comes with the tank that it doesn't seem very easily modified to support a fleece roller like some other sumps without basically gutting the thing. I was able to find basically no information on compatible (either natively or w/ mods) systems in this area, so I'll be sharing my findings and any associated modifications as I go.

 

[chrisriker]

Alright, let's talk fleece rollers. This will serve as a bit of a brain dump for myself, and hopefully will be helpful to someone else in the future

I've looked at a couple of models in depth so far, and skimmed a couple of others.

RedSea ReefMat 250
This came out with incredibly apt timing, as I think it's currently the best option that I've looked at so far. The dimensions are incredibly close to a perfect fit, and I think any mods I would have to make would pretty much just be some minor dremeling work. Max flow rate (900 GPH) is lower than that of the MightyJetXL that comes with the tank, but it's possible with head height in the mix that it would work fine with the return pump on the lowest setting.

CoralVue Klir DI-4
This would most likely work right out of the box with no modifications. Have not actually used one of these yet, but have heard okay things about them, at least considering they take no mods. I have one in my Inifnia 165 which is still empty. Flow rate is low, 725 GPH, so I suspect I would probably have to run 2 of these in series in order to support the return pump. As a bit of a gearhead, I'm leaning more away from this option just because I already have one on one of my systems, however the fact that it doesn't require any mods to the sump or stock plumbing setup is a huge plus, especially considering how busy and/or lazy I am at any given time.

 

[chrisriker]

Well I have been working over in this thread - I ended up going for it and trying to get the ReefMat to work. This was mostly driven by my desire to try the ReefMat, as I already have a Klir in my Infinia 165. I took on some extensive modifications to the sump that took a few days of trying to get right. I ended up cutting out the first 2 baffles, so the entire first compartment is totally open. Used a combination of SKIL saw and Dremel to get this done, which is what I had available to me. Other tools might be better. I tried the sump modification kit, but this sump is evidently chemically bonded together rather than using silicone.

Pics of the final setup. I had to cut out a bunch of the top plate to get the fit well without tipping the unit, but all said and done everything fits pretty well, albeit a bit tight. I will use the void leftover for rubble and such to allow micro-fauna to hang out in relatively still water. Stock plumbing has been hacked off and replaced. Emergency drain did not need to be cut off, but I was going a different route with the modifications which I thought required that.

 

[Slevin007]

Well I have been working over in this thread - I ended up going for it and trying to get the ReefMat to work. This was mostly driven by my desire to try the ReefMat, as I already have a Klir in my Infinia 165. I took on some extensive modifications to the sump that took a few days of trying to get right. I ended up cutting out the first 2 baffles, so the entire first compartment is totally open. Used a combination of SKIL saw and Dremel to get this done, which is what I had available to me. Other tools might be better. I tried the sump modification kit, but this sump is evidently chemically bonded together rather than using silicone.

Pics of the final setup. I had to cut out a bunch of the top plate to get the fit well without tipping the unit, but all said and done everything fits pretty well, albeit a bit tight. I will use the void leftover for rubble and such to allow micro-fauna to hang out in relatively still water. Stock plumbing has been hacked off and replaced. Emergency drain did not need to be cut off, but I was going a different route with the modifications which I thought required that.

Hey great thread. Wanted to see how the reefmat is doing in the RFS22. Wanted to see if it’s still working well. Thanks in advance

 

[chrisriker]

Well what I can say is that it's working and advancing the roll. My only gripe with the setup really is that the water level for the reefmat is so high up in the sump that it makes it hard/impossible to run the sump at a water level that lets the water sit at lower levels in each chamber, which puts the water very high up on the skimmer. I don't know enough to know if this is a big issue, but I did test a power out scenario and there is at least enough headroom in the sump such that it won't overflow.

 

[braaap]

I have this exact tank and stand sitting in a crate in my shop. No room in my house as my housing situation changed. Got it for $750 to my door so I can’t let it go.

Hopefully I can set it up in the fall. I’ll be watching this build looks nice so far.

 

[Slevin007]

Well what I can say is that it's working and advancing the roll. My only gripe with the setup really is that the water level for the reefmat is so high up in the sump that it makes it hard/impossible to run the sump at a water level that lets the water sit at lower levels in each chamber, which puts the water very high up on the skimmer. I don't know enough to know if this is a big issue, but I did test a power out scenario and there is at least enough headroom in the sump such that it won't overflow.

This is great feedback. I’ve been told by a few people that if a reefmat is in use a skimmer might not be necessary but that’s a bit above my level at the moment. Any thoughts ?

 

[chrisriker]

Seems believable. I've not got any critters in the tank yet so I can't speak to the nutrient levels w/ the reefmat running. I would think you could at least undersize the skimmer with a filter roller.

 

[Slevin007]

Seems believable. I've not got any critters in the tank yet so I can't speak to the nutrient levels w/ the reefmat running. I would think you could at least undersize the skimmer with a filter roller.

Any chance you could post a pic when you have time of where the water level is with the reefmat in there?

 

[chrisriker]

Sorry about the delay, work/life has been crazy lately. Pardon the reflections, the lighting in this room is really not great. With the water this high, I can still get cascading through the chambers, though the water is probably about 3/4 the way up the reefmat outlet, so there is not a full/perfect siphon through the drain. The result is that there is a very slight audible trickle, but nothing too bad. I can try to post a sound clip later, but qualitatively the return pump is louder than the trickle. I don't mind it, personally. If you want it dead silent, you have to run it somewhere around where you can see the water lines you can kinda see on the top left panel, roughly 1/4 of the way up it. I think you could frankly run it a bit lower and still get it silent, but I have not played around with the levels all that much yet.

Just as a note, I ran it at the top bubble line you can see about half way up the same top left panel, and there was plenty of water volume headroom in the sump for a power out situation. That said, I raised the return nozzles quite a bit, almost all the way to the water surface, just to be extra safe (and to get extra surface agitation).

 

[Slevin007]

Sorry about the delay, work/life has been crazy lately. Pardon the reflections, the lighting in this room is really not great. With the water this high, I can still get cascading through the chambers, though the water is probably about 3/4 the way up the reefmat outlet, so there is not a full/perfect siphon through the drain. The result is that there is a very slight audible trickle, but nothing too bad. I can try to post a sound clip later, but qualitatively the return pump is louder than the trickle. I don't mind it, personally. If you want it dead silent, you have to run it somewhere around where you can see the water lines you can kinda see on the top left panel, roughly 1/4 of the way up it. I think you could frankly run it a bit lower and still get it silent, but I have not played around with the levels all that much yet.

Just as a note, I ran it at the top bubble line you can see about half way up the same top left panel, and there was plenty of water volume headroom in the sump for a power out situation. That said, I raised the return nozzles quite a bit, almost all the way to the water surface, just to be extra safe (and to get extra surface agitation).

This is awesome thank you so much for the post and the image. I’m going to go ahead and try this out.

 

[Arkayology]

I'm looking forward to the build! I'm considering an IM EXT 75 for my next build.