Starting a new IM15 cube would love suggestions

[Cthulukelele]

Hi all!

I am setting up a brand new IM15 cube with some liverock from my sump. Does anyone have some can't miss equipment and stocking ideas for the tank? I was curious about lighting as well as best flow options for such a small tank

Currently I'm considering replacing the return with a somewhat oversized return and just using that for flow.

What about fun 15gallon stocking ideas? Currently I had just planned to put one of my baby toadstool coral in there and have it be a tailspot blenny, a clown goby, and a pistol shrimp and goby pair to double as an emergency hospital tank.

Any suggestions appreciated :)

 

[Shnetts]

i have a IM 15 as my nem tank. its run with a axis 20 and RFG paired with a nero 3 for flow, the only filtration is a uv, and lit by a nicrew gen 2 150.

theres 2 clowns, a pajama cardinal and radiant wrasse.

its a pretty easy tank to get whatever flow you need, I can honestly easily get away with just the return.

be careful of how you mount a light since most of the time it completely blocks the middle chamber not allowing you to use any larger filtration devices.

another small thing ive noticed is how the acrylic that separates the main area and rear chambers dips down on the return side it creates a gap that allows gobies to jump through into the rear chambers

 

[StartingATank]

Some ideas:
- Anemone only tank, with designer clowns maybe
- Maybe a macroalgae tank?
- I don't know the right size for these, but maybe you could do a mantis shrimp? Can someone verify if this is the right size? I'm probably wrong

 

[X-37B]

You can do anything you want just on a smaller scale.
My IM15 mixed reef has 30+ coral 2 fish.
Sicci .5 return
Tunze 6040
Tunze ato
Hygger heater
Esv 2 part on Kamoer dosers
Radion xr15 gen 5 blue
9 month old system

 

[Cthulukelele]

You can do anything you want just on a smaller scale.
My IM15 mixed reef has 30+ coral 2 fish.
Sicci .5 return
Tunze 6040
Tunze ato
Hygger heater
Esv 2 part on Kamoer dosers
Radion xr15 gen 5 blue
9 month old system

What fish do you keep in there?

 

[Cthulukelele]

i have a IM 15 as my nem tank. its run with a axis 20 and RFG paired with a nero 3 for flow, the only filtration is a uv, and lit by a nicrew gen 2 150.

theres 2 clowns, a pajama cardinal and radiant wrasse.

its a pretty easy tank to get whatever flow you need, I can honestly easily get away with just the return.

be careful of how you mount a light since most of the time it completely blocks the middle chamber not allowing you to use any larger filtration devices.

another small thing ive noticed is how the acrylic that separates the main area and rear chambers dips down on the return side it creates a gap that allows gobies to jump through into the rear chambers

Luckily I have the optional mesh custom lid som IM15 not too worried about the jumping, or are you saying they can get through the small daylight there?

 

[Cthulukelele]

Some ideas:
- Anemone only tank, with designer clowns maybe
- Maybe a macroalgae tank?
- I don't know the right size for these, but maybe you could do a mantis shrimp? Can someone verify if this is the right size? I'm probably wrong

Macroalgae could he fun. Might bring some sargassum home from the beach next time I'm there!

 

[X-37B]

What fish do you keep in there?

I have a Pajama cardinal and this Transparent Cave Goby. It's a cool little fish.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I have a Pajama cardinal and this Transparent Cave Goby. It's a cool little fish.

It has such an expressive face

 

[Shnetts]

How that back wall dips down on the right. It creates a gap even with a lid that fish can jump through and end up in the back chamber

 

[Cthulukelele]

How that back wall dips down on the right. It creates a gap even with a lid that fish can jump through and end up in the back chamber

dang that's annoying. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[X-37B]

How that back wall dips down on the right. It creates a gap even with a lid that fish can jump through and end up in the back chamber

If I wanted, not worried about mine, I could easily mod the black pvc foam board I use to cover the open area. I need this because my ato sensor is sensitive to stray light.

 

[BriansBrain]

This tank really reminded that I can have a beautiful tank while keeping it very simple with bare minimum equipment and effort.

Radion xr15 g4
Sicce 1.0 return with vca random flow generator
Inkbird heater with 100w brs heater

2 clowns, watchman goby, lps and softies, but I’ll maybe pull coral for a Chicago or Colorado sunburst anemone.

4 gallon water change every 3 weeks and manually top off water daily.
These IM filter socks are garbage though and I don’t even use them anymore.

 

[Shnetts]

If I wanted, not worried about mine, I could easily mod the black pvc foam board I use to cover the open area. I need this because my ato sensor is sensitive to stray light.

yeah i have the intank rear chamber cover that also has a piece that comes down to completely block the gap off