My IM 30l Journey....

gamjunior · Nov 13, 2018

Been out of having a tank for a while, about 8 years now, and decided to get back in it again. This will be a slow build even though I just purchased the Fusion 30l, it was on sale and should be here this Friday, I will be building a stand for it and hoping to pick up a lot of the parts on black Friday and cyber Monday for this thing. I just need some help on the parts list for the build like what lights, pumps, skimmer, etc. What I am going for will be primarily a softy setup and a few fish.

Tank- IM Fusion 30l

Stand- custom

Sand- 30 lbs Caribsea special grade arag-alive

Rock- 30 lbs local

Salt- Red Sea Pro

My parts list of what I will need,

Water-4 stage RO/DI system, 75gpd

Top off-ATK top off

Lights-Maxspect Razor R5 200w

Heat-Neo-Therm 100 watt heater

Pump-Maxspect XF250 Gyre pump and controller

Flow-IM Spin streams

Not sure on which skimmer or if I would need to upgrade the return pump now or wait. My wish list is the Apex controller. If I have missed anything please let me know, thanks in advance.

gam

Oscaror · Nov 13, 2018

gamjunior said:
Been out of having a tank for a while, about 8 years now, and decided to get back in it again. This will be a slow build even though I just purchased the Fusion 30l, it was on sale and should be here this Friday, I will be building a stand for it and hoping to pick up a lot of the parts on black Friday and cyber Monday for this thing. I just need some help on the parts list for the build like what lights, pumps, skimmer, etc. What I am going for will be primarily a softy setup and a few fish.

Tank- IM Fusion 30l

Stand- custom

Sand- 30 lbs Caribsea special grade arag-alive

Rock- 30 lbs local

Salt- Red Sea Pro

My parts list of what I will need,

Water-4 stage RO/DI system, 75gpd

Top off-ATK top off

Lights-Maxspect Razor R5 200w

Heat-Neo-Therm 100 watt heater

Pump-Maxspect XF250 Gyre pump and controller

Flow-IM Spin streams

Not sure on which skimmer or if I would need to upgrade the return pump now or wait. My wish list is the Apex controller. If I have missed anything please let me know, thanks in advance.

gam

Looks solid! Good luck and welcome to R2R

RFL · Nov 13, 2018

I have the IM 25 Lagoon and love it. I would suggest you check out the length of the 100 watt Neo Therm heater if you plan to put it in the rear sump. It's too long for my sump so I went with (2) 50 watt Easy Therms instead which are shorter in length. Mine are controlled by an APEX so I opted not to pay additional $ for the Neo Therms. Having two heaters also provides a bit of added protection for the tank just in case one heater suddenly decides to go belly-up. I would also suggest that you look at IM's AquaGadgets. Their AIO MiniMax reactor works nicely and the media towers come in handy for filtration options. You mentioned you are undecided about which skimmer to go with; I have the AquaMaxx HOB 1.5 and it's awesome. Easy to set for dry or wet skim and pulls lots of skimmate. It's not silent but probably no louder than the competition's offering. Enjoy the new tank and welcome back into the world of reefing!

RFL · Nov 13, 2018

One more thing... you are considering swapping out the stock IM return pump. I suggest you try the stock pump that comes with the aquarium before spending the money to replace it. The stock return pump that came with the IM Lagoon wasn't terribly loud - but too loud for our living room setting. After running it for a few days I replaced it with a Cobalt Aquatics MJ900. This pump, if it isn't resting against the sidewalls of the rear sump, runs silently.

NY_Caveman · Nov 13, 2018

Welcome to the forum. Looks like a solid plan!

hdsoftail1065 · Nov 13, 2018

Welcome! Sounds like a nice build.

HawaiianReef · Nov 13, 2018

This is going to be a nice thread!

gamjunior · Nov 14, 2018

Thanks everyone.

RFL - the 30l is right at 13" tall so the 100w Neo would work but you have a point that it is nice to have 2 so I will pick up 2 50w ones. The Apex is still on my wish list unless it goes on sale at a good price next week. Also the only reason I was thinking of upgrading the return pump was that I was going to use 2 of the spin streams and not sure how much flow I will lose with them. I was even thinking of running 2 of the IM mighty jets, just for the extra flow but I might be over thinking it though.

gamjunior · Nov 14, 2018

Thanks everyone.

RFL - the 30l is right at 13" tall so the 100w Neo would work but you have a point that it is nice to have 2 so I will pick up 2 50w ones. The Apex is still on my wish list unless it goes on sale at a good price next week. Also the only reason I was thinking of upgrading the return pump was that I was going to use 2 of the spin streams and not sure how much flow I will lose with them. I was even thinking of running 2 of the IM mighty jets, just for the extra flow but I might be over thinking it though.

NY_Caveman · Nov 14, 2018

gamjunior said:
Thanks everyone.

RFL - the 30l is right at 13" tall so the 100w Neo would work but you have a point that it is nice to have 2 so I will pick up 2 50w ones. The Apex is still on my wish list unless it goes on sale at a good price next week. Also the only reason I was thinking of upgrading the return pump was that I was going to use 2 of the spin streams and not sure how much flow I will lose with them. I was even thinking of running 2 of the IM mighty jets, just for the extra flow but I might be over thinking it though.

Just throwing this out there FWIW, the 75 Watt is the same size as the 50 Watt and only a bit more money. If one were to fail the other would probably suffice unless room temperature was very low. I think in a long tank like that you will be happy with two heaters in general giving good coverage.

gamjunior · Nov 19, 2018

Tank arrived Friday so I was able to get a stand made this weekend and I picked up a few items I caught on some pre black friday sales. Still need to pick up the ATO, RO/DI unit, lights, sand and rock.

CJS80 · Nov 19, 2018

Looking good. Welcome to R2R.

Pbh-reef · Nov 19, 2018

Nice stand!

sdreefrob · Nov 24, 2018

Looking forward to the build

gamjunior · Nov 26, 2018

Just a small update, took advantage of the Black Friday deals and according to UPS I should have this in by this Friday,
RO/DI unit
2 AI Prime HD lights
2 AI light mounts
Neptune ATK
Digital refractometer
Dr Tim's One and Only

robodude666 · Dec 13, 2018

gam,

Did you get your new toys? Looking forward to see more progress pics.

-robodude666

gamjunior · Dec 13, 2018

robodude666 said:
gam,

Did you get your new toys? Looking forward to see more progress pics.

-robodude666

Yes I did, I almost have everything to get this project going.

So here is a little update, not too much done due to work being busy. I received my parts I ordered from BRS on the black Friday deals and in between work and honey doos I got the RO/DI installed and plumbed, I have a mixing garbage can set up, its cycling the rock right now, and I have 40lbs of live sand. Still in the air on a bare bottom or the sand.... Went to the LFS and picked up the live rock, they measured out the dimensions of my tank on a board so I could aquascape and see what it would look like.

And here are a few pics of the RO/DI installed in the wash room,

So as of right now I only have the rock cycling in the can and the tank is still dry. I still have a list of items to decide on,
-what skimmer
-ATO reservoir
-do I go ahead and upgrade the return pump to a mighty jet, picked this only because its DC and controllable.
-media baskets, the InTank ones
-do I go ahead and set the tank up now for a fuge since the tank is dry

Again, thanks all for the help....

gam

Nano30 · Dec 17, 2018

I have the same tank. A friendly suggestion is that your rock work looks a little bit low. I had an issue on that and rescaped before I even put anything in my tank because I felt parts of it was too low.

We have more vertical height to play with than depth. Another issue I have is that my scape is a bit too vertical. I should have done another shelf towards the right but yours looks good to me on that front. I’ll attach a pic that demonstrates the height variance.

On another topic, you mentioned upgrading your return due to spin stream nozzles which effectively reduce your flow. The RFG nozzles don’t do that. I upgraded to a Sicce 1.5 but I would not want any more flow, I just use stock nozzles. The tank being not deep means you get lots of flow on the returns.

Thanks

Haggisman14 · Dec 17, 2018

Great start to your build! Nice clean water set-up too.

gamjunior · Dec 23, 2018

First off I changed the title of this post to more match to whats going on in this post.....

So I picked up some more rock to place in the tank and have it all in the can cooking at the moment until I get everything for the tank ready. I also picked up a 5.5 gal tank to be a ATO reservoir and a 10 gal for a QT set up for new arrivals. Had to make a top for the 5.5 out of acrylic and bought a glass top for the QT tank. I then went and changed my RO/DI lines around to accommodate for the 5.5 and the QT tanks. Luckily my display tank is on the other side of the wall of the RO/DI setup.