Hey guys,
Long time lurker. Hobbyist about a decade ago now getting back into it (and how much has changed!)
I got my feet wet last year with an IM 10. I skimped on some stuff with a IM10 last year and now I getting into a 20.
I bought a nice package off of a fellow Reefer off of craigslist and I'm using his system and modifying it a bit.
the Im nano was a nice experiment. Long story short, I was in a terrible rush one day last year and was having great success with nanobox but one day during maintenance my light got some water on it and I wasnt able to find a replacement so i went to the store and bought a Radion. Tried to match the par from the spec sheet on the with the nanobox but no dice. Tank went ballistic, green hair algae, bubble algae, cyano. I'm proud to say that it survived and Ive been using Vibrant and it's doing wonder. But, I lost a few pieces, (but miraculously my monti setosa and birds nest lived!!!!)
Anyway, time to move on. Bigger, better more fool proof (because I am a fool).
IM 20 BUILD/PHILOSOPHY
- Last time I was in the hobby people were saying you cant grow stony corals in Nanos. It was hard. Halides, chillers etc. Fast forward to today and you see some gorgeous stuff!
My goal for this nano is to have it be as automated as possible. I'm convinced that water changes are the single best thing to help a tank so with that in mind im going to automate them to make them easier (and thus making me more apt to do them and do them correctly!)
I don't want to grow like "sick acros bro." I'm going the classic but hard to do mixed reef with mostly LPS, some hardy sps like monti digitata and birdnest.
GEAR:
- IM Nano 20 tank
- Radion XR 30w suspended 10 inches from water line. Which i got for a song when my LFS was going out of biz. Like $400?
- 2x upgraded media trays on either side. (Might convert one to a little media tumbler later we'll see)
- Neptune Apex (Bit the bullet. Paying it out monthly on credit. I travel for work and It allowed me to make my IM10 much easier to take care of. All someone has to do now is tell my Amazon Alexa "Hey, let's feed my fish" and drop some pellets in. It also spies on me, which is nice...).
- Neptune DOS - For automated water changes. I'm also going to modify it to accept RO tubing because I am scared silly of leaks and live on the second floor of a bldg that specifically states I can't have fish tanks... haha. Oh well
- JEBAO DP-4 : For dosing. BRS two part and mag. Might do aminos later? Also converted to accept RO lines instead of plastic tubing.
- ROCKWORK: Stax by two little fishies and some Marco rock I have left over from previous tank.
- Two 10 gallon brutes: 1 for mixing one for waste water.
- Smart Autoaqua ATO
- Custom Acrylic quasi sump: Previous owner made this and it has containers for dosing and also 3 gallons for ATO.
- 100w Cobalt heater:
- Dual Tunze 1007.008 pumps in the back.
- Aqamai KPS Powerhead: Despise the app on this thing. Like truly. I thought Reeflink was a B*** this thing is so bad. But it works. Whenever I skimp on gear i regret it. Would love a vortech with the battery backup. I live in fear of an outage thats how i left the hobby first time.
- NEW DC IM Skimmer (on my 10 currently. Works well!)
- Media: Sipomax
Filtration breakdown: (from left to right)
- Filter floss, chemipure blue, bioballs, a compartment full of sipomax and then lots of tubes and probes (Return chamber) , skimmer and more return stuff. Might put a biopellet reactor there though.
Current state of things:
Tank's been up a month. I've been dosing ammonia and there's none detectable now and nitrites are at .25 so I think I'm close. Maybe another week or so I'll put my two clowns in there.
Did the scape today. Not thrilled with it... I love the idea of the STAX, but when i actually started putting it together it seems like, well, 3d printed or something. IT's nice to have all that flat surface area. Maybe I'll continue to tinker with it
I hung the light today too. Love the clean look of not having it clipped to the back. It have it exactly 10" above the water line and running at 40% intensity. this is roughly the schedule I have for my 10, but I need to get a par meter from my LFS and measure it out soon. Going for like 350 up top and 150 sandbed? Open to thoughts ideas... 10 hour cycle based off of Radion's "coral lab."
Going to be porting over my Apex in a month or so when the fishies are in. And then slowly the corals I have there. Still have some algae problems in the 10 so lots of scrubbing and dip. Vingar bath for the Skimmer and pump. Going slowly on this one though!
Anyway, I read a lot, I watch lots of videos online, but any questions comments welcome! I'm always missing stuff though. Def kinda like "intermediate" reefer here.
Going to be mounting apex on the underside of the table and the dos too and the radio. Just hide as much as i can. I built a little shelf in the wall behind though for the Jebao doser. bEcause i know I'm going to jump off of a bridge programming that thing with the stupid buttons if its also upside down.
Plan is to change one gallon automatically a day btw.
What else? Ill remember later!
Long time lurker. Hobbyist about a decade ago now getting back into it (and how much has changed!)
I got my feet wet last year with an IM 10. I skimped on some stuff with a IM10 last year and now I getting into a 20.
I bought a nice package off of a fellow Reefer off of craigslist and I'm using his system and modifying it a bit.
the Im nano was a nice experiment. Long story short, I was in a terrible rush one day last year and was having great success with nanobox but one day during maintenance my light got some water on it and I wasnt able to find a replacement so i went to the store and bought a Radion. Tried to match the par from the spec sheet on the with the nanobox but no dice. Tank went ballistic, green hair algae, bubble algae, cyano. I'm proud to say that it survived and Ive been using Vibrant and it's doing wonder. But, I lost a few pieces, (but miraculously my monti setosa and birds nest lived!!!!)
Anyway, time to move on. Bigger, better more fool proof (because I am a fool).
IM 20 BUILD/PHILOSOPHY
- Last time I was in the hobby people were saying you cant grow stony corals in Nanos. It was hard. Halides, chillers etc. Fast forward to today and you see some gorgeous stuff!
My goal for this nano is to have it be as automated as possible. I'm convinced that water changes are the single best thing to help a tank so with that in mind im going to automate them to make them easier (and thus making me more apt to do them and do them correctly!)
I don't want to grow like "sick acros bro." I'm going the classic but hard to do mixed reef with mostly LPS, some hardy sps like monti digitata and birdnest.
GEAR:
- IM Nano 20 tank
- Radion XR 30w suspended 10 inches from water line. Which i got for a song when my LFS was going out of biz. Like $400?
- 2x upgraded media trays on either side. (Might convert one to a little media tumbler later we'll see)
- Neptune Apex (Bit the bullet. Paying it out monthly on credit. I travel for work and It allowed me to make my IM10 much easier to take care of. All someone has to do now is tell my Amazon Alexa "Hey, let's feed my fish" and drop some pellets in. It also spies on me, which is nice...).
- Neptune DOS - For automated water changes. I'm also going to modify it to accept RO tubing because I am scared silly of leaks and live on the second floor of a bldg that specifically states I can't have fish tanks... haha. Oh well
- JEBAO DP-4 : For dosing. BRS two part and mag. Might do aminos later? Also converted to accept RO lines instead of plastic tubing.
- ROCKWORK: Stax by two little fishies and some Marco rock I have left over from previous tank.
- Two 10 gallon brutes: 1 for mixing one for waste water.
- Smart Autoaqua ATO
- Custom Acrylic quasi sump: Previous owner made this and it has containers for dosing and also 3 gallons for ATO.
- 100w Cobalt heater:
- Dual Tunze 1007.008 pumps in the back.
- Aqamai KPS Powerhead: Despise the app on this thing. Like truly. I thought Reeflink was a B*** this thing is so bad. But it works. Whenever I skimp on gear i regret it. Would love a vortech with the battery backup. I live in fear of an outage thats how i left the hobby first time.
- NEW DC IM Skimmer (on my 10 currently. Works well!)
- Media: Sipomax
Filtration breakdown: (from left to right)
- Filter floss, chemipure blue, bioballs, a compartment full of sipomax and then lots of tubes and probes (Return chamber) , skimmer and more return stuff. Might put a biopellet reactor there though.
Current state of things:
Tank's been up a month. I've been dosing ammonia and there's none detectable now and nitrites are at .25 so I think I'm close. Maybe another week or so I'll put my two clowns in there.
Did the scape today. Not thrilled with it... I love the idea of the STAX, but when i actually started putting it together it seems like, well, 3d printed or something. IT's nice to have all that flat surface area. Maybe I'll continue to tinker with it
I hung the light today too. Love the clean look of not having it clipped to the back. It have it exactly 10" above the water line and running at 40% intensity. this is roughly the schedule I have for my 10, but I need to get a par meter from my LFS and measure it out soon. Going for like 350 up top and 150 sandbed? Open to thoughts ideas... 10 hour cycle based off of Radion's "coral lab."
Going to be porting over my Apex in a month or so when the fishies are in. And then slowly the corals I have there. Still have some algae problems in the 10 so lots of scrubbing and dip. Vingar bath for the Skimmer and pump. Going slowly on this one though!
Anyway, I read a lot, I watch lots of videos online, but any questions comments welcome! I'm always missing stuff though. Def kinda like "intermediate" reefer here.
Going to be mounting apex on the underside of the table and the dos too and the radio. Just hide as much as i can. I built a little shelf in the wall behind though for the Jebao doser. bEcause i know I'm going to jump off of a bridge programming that thing with the stupid buttons if its also upside down.
Plan is to change one gallon automatically a day btw.
What else? Ill remember later!
