SaltyJaytee IM 200 EXT Build

[jayteerq]

I have just hit a milestone of 1 Year Reefing. Decided to get my last & final upgrade for a while as a nice anniversary gift LOL. I went from Waterbox 65.4 AIO in May 2024 to Red Sea 525XL in January 2025 and now I have a Innovative Marine 200 in May 2025 :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:

3 upgrades in a year and I think its finally time to settle down.. This tank is used but in great condition. Glass weighs about 700lb and boy was it heavy. We had to lift it up 10 steps of stairs out of a basement storm door. It was very nerve wracking even with 4 guys but we made it happen and got it home in one piece! So far I've started to clean the tank and make it look a lot more new. Scraped a lot of coralline algae off the backwall. Unlike all my other builds, I will take my time with this one and make it the best I can! Everything will be transferred over from my existing tank but there will be some upgrades.

The sump, i decided to go with Bashsea 48 PRO! Shoutout to Steve he has been awesome to work with. Cant wait! This will be my first time hard plumbing a tank so I'm a bit nervous. I was able to model a draft out in Solidworks and now I feel a lot more confident! Plumbing & Equipment will have a red & blue color scheme.

Feel free to follow me on this journey! I'm pulling a lot nuggets from everyone else's build. Turns out a lot of people have this tank which is reassuring! A lot of inspiring builds on R2R.

A lot of updates on my Instagram as well @ SaltyJaytee

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[mlburchjr]

I'm looking forward to following along.

 

[jayteerq]

First order of business was removing this strip of vinyl on the side glass. I wonder why they did this. Now I have the full 30” side view to see! Hopefully it doesn’t spring a leak hahaha

 

[jayteerq]

This hobby is so dangerous... the rabbit hole you can go down when deciding on equipment is nuts.. I thought i was done modeling my plumbing earlier but now I just added 2 media reactors lol. Needless to say, im wicked excited to start plumbing!

 

[chapter7]

Cool, following!

 

[jayteerq]

Got the sump today. Very impressed with quality. Steve @ Bashsea was great to work with. Shoutout to these guys.. this matching set is really appealing for a sump/cabinet space

 

[jayteerq]

Getting a bit carried away with the 3D modeling as I wait for parts to arrive but so far this is what I'm envisioning. Will pick up some material next week to start building the cabinet. Planning to have both side panels on magnets so that I can access the inside which is where the birds nest of wires will be hidden :)

 

[akma]

That's my problem too right now. Last August started up my 25 nuvo again. A month later went to a waterbox 100 gallon. Now i am in the process of planning out a 300 gallon.
I really like the sump!

 

[jayteerq]

That's my problem too right now. Last August started up my 25 nuvo again. A month later went to a waterbox 100 gallon. Now i am in the process of planning out a 300 gallon.
I really like the sump!

Thank you! And yes! 300g is gonna be so nice! Hopefully keeps you happy for a while LOL

 

[jayteerq]

The tank build is chugging along... slowly but surely!
Some updates:

• Started building the controller board/cabinet. Going to mount some flush magnets on the side panels for easy removal to access the inside which will house all the power supplies & extra cable.
• Removed all old plumbing and replaced it with new bulkheads & sch80 plumbing.

 

[jayteerq]

Leak test has been going successful for 24hrs now. Been running it complete cycle. Also individually tested each drain for leaks. Only leak sprung came from the 3/4" return bulk head. Gave it another half turn with pliers and have been good since. Will leave this running for another day just to be safe.

 

[jayteerq]

Im doing backflips right now. This cabinet came out SICK!!

 

[jayteerq]

Marked up a rough layout last night. My girl said I was obsessing lol I call it boredom

 

[jayteerq]

It’s been a bit. Have all the remaining equipment coming in this week. @Mike Lemming is helping me with borrowing his 100g trough and @Royal is helping me transferring everything starting Friday night. Here’s a little bit of an update on the controller cabinet.

 

[jayteerq]

Transfer went so well!!!! Will post updates later but here’s where we stand. It came out so beautiful!!!

 

[jayteerq]

Installed some new Orphek light bars last night and also finished the manifold plumbing. Currently running carbon and GFO. Debating if I want to stay with gfo or switch to a liquid form. This is week two into the transfer and at this point I was just trying to get it done so the manifold could’ve came out better for sure, but it was my first time ever having a manifold and making a manifold so there was a lot to be learned. None the less, I’m really happy with this belt and I think I am finally done.

 

[jayteerq]

Pretty happy with how things came out. Expecting some fish to arrive this week & next. Looking forward to it! I've been debating of removing the side door on the right side to make a Moonshiners wall. What are your thoughts?

 

[Arkayology]

I like the idea of a Moonshiner's wall. I need to find some small shelves for my bottles for storage inside the stand.

 

[jayteerq]

I like the idea of a Moonshiner's wall. I need to find some small shelves for my bottles for storage inside the stand.

I found mine on Amazon! If you look up acrylic shelves there’s a lot of options to choose from.