exnisstech
Grumpy old man
4/26/26
I decided to break this little tank down. It never really thrived and I need the space that it's taking up when I decide what I'm going to do with my failing reefer 300 the 8g sits next to.
I moved the pistol shrimp and goby into my IM20 since it's the only other tank I have with sand. The sea Apple is still hanging in there after 9 months. I moved it to the sump of my 330 where it found a spot in the flow going over the weir to the return section.
Figured it's time to start my own thread and stop cluttering up @tbrown thread
which has quite a bit of activity with a lot of ideas.
I received the tank as part if a promotion from one of our supporting vendors @IOAOI and my goal is to spend as little cash as necessary since I have a lot of gear sitting around.
Tank filled 6/14/25
I set the tank on a black WB stand that I had sitting next to my living room tank, a WB 330.7
I decided to set it next to my Reefer 300 since it's really the only place left in our small house to put a tank.
For lighting I'm using a gen4 XR15s on a modified noopsyche K7 III pro tank bracket. Since the tank has a baffle dead center in the rear chamber I had to cut a slot on the bracket mount.
Scaping was a challenge. I'm not really good at it and have never scaped a tank this small before. After multiple attempts at creating something cool I decided to stay with my tried and true pile of rocks against the back wall.
I actually like it and am hopeful it will work for what I have planned for tank I habitants.
Sand was dry with a few spoons of live sand from the IM 20 but the rock is all live rock that I've kept in wet storage.
I'm running an IOAIO Nano return pump but was not happy with the amount of flow I was able to get through the back chamber which caused the level in the display to be higher than I like. With the pump in the lowest setting I only had 3/4" between the water surface and the tank rim. I removed some teeth from the wier and am now able to crank the pump up to max amd still have the same 3/4" distance . I'm ok with that with the pump at 100% not so much at minimum.
I'm not planning on keeping anything that will get through the larger openings but if I do I can add some 1/4" mesh to the back.
I have a JBJ ATO and the float switch fits perfectly in the 3rd chamber.
Since this ATO doesn't include a pump and the top off amounts will be small I'm going to use a brs 50ml a minute dosing pump and am going to run the tube over and share the 10g ATO container on the reefer 300.
__________________________________________________
EDIT 6/21/25 Got the ATO up and running. It isn't pretty but it works. The doser is silent compared tunze on the 300 ATO
I used silicone tubing from tank to the reservoir then I attached a section of RO tubing and placed it through the hole I drilled with a step drill. The hole is too small for the silicone tubing to fit so the tube acts as a stopper so the inside inside tube isn't sucking off the bottom.
__________________________________________________
I'm open to suggestions on a heater. I have a few spare heater controllers but no heater small enough.
My media basket and nozzle came today from @Projects with Sam Thanks Sam! The basket fits perfectly. The nozzle is just plain awesome. Now I can get decent in tank flow and some nice surface agitation. I was not able to get much surface agitation with the stock nozzle. I thought about going with a RFG from VGA but didn't want the lock lines in the tank. The tank is so small they just stand out too much for my taste.
A sample of the surface movement. I'm big fan of surface agitation. I think the oxygenation is a big plus and who wants to looks at a dusty protein slick on the surface. Pump is only running 50%
6/14 NO3 8.5 woot woot I love me some live rock to speed things up.
Now to start considering livestock. I have something in mind as a center piece but I have to research a bit more before committing. I want to run with just enough light for viewing so there will be no photosynthetic creatures. It's something I've not done and I try to do something new with each tank when I start one. Plans always subject to change tho.
10/21/25
Thought I'd add a few recent images here on the first page .
I decided to break this little tank down. It never really thrived and I need the space that it's taking up when I decide what I'm going to do with my failing reefer 300 the 8g sits next to.
I moved the pistol shrimp and goby into my IM20 since it's the only other tank I have with sand. The sea Apple is still hanging in there after 9 months. I moved it to the sump of my 330 where it found a spot in the flow going over the weir to the return section.
Figured it's time to start my own thread and stop cluttering up @tbrown thread
which has quite a bit of activity with a lot of ideas.I received the tank as part if a promotion from one of our supporting vendors @IOAOI and my goal is to spend as little cash as necessary since I have a lot of gear sitting around.
Tank filled 6/14/25
I set the tank on a black WB stand that I had sitting next to my living room tank, a WB 330.7
I decided to set it next to my Reefer 300 since it's really the only place left in our small house to put a tank.
For lighting I'm using a gen4 XR15s on a modified noopsyche K7 III pro tank bracket. Since the tank has a baffle dead center in the rear chamber I had to cut a slot on the bracket mount.
Scaping was a challenge. I'm not really good at it and have never scaped a tank this small before. After multiple attempts at creating something cool I decided to stay with my tried and true pile of rocks against the back wall.
I actually like it and am hopeful it will work for what I have planned for tank I habitants.
Sand was dry with a few spoons of live sand from the IM 20 but the rock is all live rock that I've kept in wet storage.
I'm running an IOAIO Nano return pump but was not happy with the amount of flow I was able to get through the back chamber which caused the level in the display to be higher than I like. With the pump in the lowest setting I only had 3/4" between the water surface and the tank rim. I removed some teeth from the wier and am now able to crank the pump up to max amd still have the same 3/4" distance . I'm ok with that with the pump at 100% not so much at minimum.
I'm not planning on keeping anything that will get through the larger openings but if I do I can add some 1/4" mesh to the back.
I have a JBJ ATO and the float switch fits perfectly in the 3rd chamber.
Since this ATO doesn't include a pump and the top off amounts will be small I'm going to use a brs 50ml a minute dosing pump and am going to run the tube over and share the 10g ATO container on the reefer 300.
__________________________________________________
EDIT 6/21/25 Got the ATO up and running. It isn't pretty but it works. The doser is silent compared tunze on the 300 ATO
I used silicone tubing from tank to the reservoir then I attached a section of RO tubing and placed it through the hole I drilled with a step drill. The hole is too small for the silicone tubing to fit so the tube acts as a stopper so the inside inside tube isn't sucking off the bottom.
__________________________________________________
I'm open to suggestions on a heater. I have a few spare heater controllers but no heater small enough.
My media basket and nozzle came today from @Projects with Sam Thanks Sam! The basket fits perfectly. The nozzle is just plain awesome. Now I can get decent in tank flow and some nice surface agitation. I was not able to get much surface agitation with the stock nozzle. I thought about going with a RFG from VGA but didn't want the lock lines in the tank. The tank is so small they just stand out too much for my taste.
A sample of the surface movement. I'm big fan of surface agitation. I think the oxygenation is a big plus and who wants to looks at a dusty protein slick on the surface. Pump is only running 50%
6/14 NO3 8.5 woot woot I love me some live rock to speed things up.
Now to start considering livestock. I have something in mind as a center piece but I have to research a bit more before committing. I want to run with just enough light for viewing so there will be no photosynthetic creatures. It's something I've not done and I try to do something new with each tank when I start one. Plans always subject to change tho.
10/21/25
Thought I'd add a few recent images here on the first page .
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