AIO drop off from innovative marine.

[LEOreefer]

Hello all , my name is Brian. I am not new to reef keeping, it’s a passion that I hold true to my heart and helps me disconnect from the world. I was recently faced with a hard decision, life was pulling me away from my tank which is a 55 gal cube. I did not want to give up the hobby because I have been daily successfull over the years. So here I am embarking on my journey with a new tank. I downsized to a 20 gallon IM drop off. It’s a perfect fit for the space and can be moved easily! If anyone is interested here was my build thread for my cube https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-50-gallon-slice-of-the-ocean.306864/

 

[Barrett]

Ohh no you shut down the cube? I really do like the drop off tanks though. Hope everything is going good.

 

[LEOreefer]

I don’t have many pictures right now but I’ll give a rundown of my thoughts.

Tank: IM all in one drop off purchased from bulk reef supply

Equipment: apex 2016 with atk unit , extra FMM , WXM, 2 heaters, InTank media basket, MP10, radion ( bigger one)

On order: spinstream return nozzle, carbon/gfo media bags for use with intank, 2 extra sensors for monitoring water levels at different points through the system.

Game plan: so one thing I’m looking for with this setup is ease. My cube was not set up to make my life easy. So with this setup I’m trying to keep it simple and minimal. I transfers most of my livestock over to the drop off, the residents are a flame hawk fish, long nose hawk fish, a snowflake clown and black with white stripes clown, scooter blenny, dwarf angel , fire shrimp, coral banded shrimp. It seems like a lot for a 20 gal but they all play nice with each other

I carried over the the rock and bio media from my cube so there is no cycle. I used new sand to “start fresh”. In the back from left to right I have the intank media tray , marine pure bio block and apex probes, 2 heaters, and finally the return and ATO. I will not be running a skimmer for now as I do not have a good idea on what’s available to me. I ran a 10 gallon reef successfully without a skimmer so I am confident that I can do the same with this. I will take any suggestions for a skimmer as eventually would like to incorporate one.

The tank is sitting on a corner entertainment center that has decent storage underneath. Inside that cabinet I have my 10 gallon ATO container, both energy bars and room to spar for test kits and a few water additives like the Red Sea coral color program. The stand is on furniture sliders, we are getting the floor done at the end of January so it is important that the whole system can be moved easily. Everything is contained into the stand so all I have to do to move it is remove one plug from the wall outlet and that’s it!

I carried over most corals from my bigger system. I had to return a few of the bigger Corals to as I want plenty of open room. The look I’m going for is encrusting and hard corals up top with soft LPS at the bottom.

Like I said these are the only pictures I have on me at this moment but I will get more tomorrow ( I’m at work until 7am). And like I said I would love some suggestions on a skimmer ! Thanks and I look forward to talking with all of you! @usernam invalid

 

[LEOreefer]

Ohh no you shut down the cube? I really do like the drop off tanks though. Hope everything is going good.

Hey @Barrett unfortunately I had to downgrade I’ll be posting a final update on my cube in a few minutes. I did not want to leave the hobby so this was a win win for me as the wife is happy and I still get to be a part of this awesome hobby! I hope you’ll join me here from now on!

 

[Barrett]

Hey @Barrett unfortunately I had to downgrade I’ll be posting a final update on my cube in a few minutes. I did not want to leave the hobby so this was a win win for me as the wife is happy and I still get to be a part of this awesome hobby! I hope you’ll join me here from now on!

Yep I sure will I love a good drop off tank. I will be posting some updates on my cube tomorrow or the next day.

 

[btmedic04]

Im sorry to see you downsizing from your 50 cube, but I am glad that you are still here with the 20 drop off. As far as skimmers go, I have an eshoppps nano in my nuvo 20 in the second chamber. its a snug fit, but it does indeed fit. Hope that helps and I look forward to seeing your new setup continue to thrive!

 

[LEOreefer]

Im sorry to see you downsizing from your 50 cube, but I am glad that you are still here with the 20 drop off. As far as skimmers go, I have an eshoppps nano in my nuvo 20 in the second chamber. its a snug fit, but it does indeed fit. Hope that helps and I look forward to seeing your new setup continue to thrive!

Great. I’ll have to check it out. Right now I have a few pieces of marine pure blocks in there but I could always move it to the next chamber. I’m still on the fence if I want to commit to a skimmer or not

 

[LEOreefer]

One of my new year resolutions is to become more active on this site again! No matter how small the update!

The only thing I have to report back is that I am trying to stay on top of my alk consumption. When I had the 55 up I was getting lazy and testing alk every other week. Needless to say I was getting ALK swings ranging from 5.4ish and then back top to 9.0 once I caught it. This ticked off some of my corals and slowed growth rates. Going forward I would like to start testing every 2 or 3 days but sometimes my schedule dosnt allow for it. Ive been playing around for a long time with getting a Alkatronic but I don't think I can justify the price right now.

I still plan on getting some pictures of my full setup for everyone hopefully tomorrow.

 

[LEOreefer]

Here are some more pics!

A requirement from the wife was to be able to hide everything under one stand. So I went with a corner entertainment center with my ATO under neath. As you can see I have plenty of storage for my test kits and other miscellaneous gear.
I’m see an alk consumption of about .5 dkh a day. I’ve been able to stay on top of testing and dosing. I completed my first water change on the drop off yesterday and it was so much easier and quicker than it was on the cube. I will also be switching out the return pump as the stock one is very noisy but I am still looking into which pump I want to use.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Looking sharp! I really like the look of drop offs, how about some shots from the side?

 

[LEOreefer]

Check out this video of my Gonni chowing down on some reef roids

 

[LEOreefer]

Looking sharp! I really like the look of drop offs, how about some shots from the side?

I will deff get you a side pic tomorrow!

 

[LEOreefer]

Update time!

Everything continues to roll along. My filtration consist of marine pure block, a bag of gfo in my intank media basket and a carbon filter pad. I was noticing the my glass would get film algae much quicker than my 55 gal. I made my own little frozen cubes ( smaller than the once you find in the stores) and I feed 1 a day.

I also do weekly 10 gal water changes. But I felt it wasn’t enough so I just purchased the new IM desktop skimmer. It’s been operational for under 24 hrs. I was shocked with how quite it is! My spinstream is significantly louder ! It fit with room to spare in my second chamber and I assume will start to pull nasty stuff out in no time.

I placed an order with @CherryCorals as I found a gift card I had received a few months back and forgot about! That order is set to be delivered tomorrow

 

[Barrett]

Please keep me updated how the Cherry Corals order is, I have been thinking about ordering from them. I ordered a Battle Box from Adam at Battlecorals and it arrives tomorrow, I am so excited. Your tank is looking great, really like the drop offs, you are making me want one now

 

[Hella_Reef]

Here are some more pics!

A requirement from the wife was to be able to hide everything under one stand. So I went with a corner entertainment center with my ATO under neath. As you can see I have plenty of storage for my test kits and other miscellaneous gear.
I’m see an alk consumption of about .5 dkh a day. I’ve been able to stay on top of testing and dosing. I completed my first water change on the drop off yesterday and it was so much easier and quicker than it was on the cube. I will also be switching out the return pump as the stock one is very noisy but I am still looking into which pump I want to use.

That sun coral is nice. Sorry to hear you had to break the 55 gallon cube down. At least u got urself a nice little setup with that drop off. Can u film how loud the spin stream is? I wanted to get two for my cvue 40 but if its noisy I may pass.

 

[LEOreefer]

That sun coral is nice. Sorry to hear you had to break the 55 gallon cube down. At least u got urself a nice little setup with that drop off. Can u film how loud the spin stream is? I wanted to get two for my cvue 40 but if its noisy I may pass.

Sure thing I will do that now. It deff got quieter but still louder than expected

Please keep me updated how the Cherry Corals order is, I have been thinking about ordering from them. I ordered a Battle Box from Adam at Battlecorals and it arrives tomorrow, I am so excited. Your tank is looking great, really like the drop offs, you are making me want one now

will do. I plan on documenting and unboxing the hole order. I really like the drop off. The size is definitely good for my situation and the 2 tears gives me the ability to kind of separate corals. I have a few sticks and a bunch of encrusting LPS on the top half and mostly Euphyllia and gonis on the bottom

 

[LEOreefer]

That sun coral is nice. Sorry to hear you had to break the 55 gallon cube down. At least u got urself a nice little setup with that drop off. Can u film how loud the spin stream is? I wanted to get two for my cvue 40 but if its noisy I may pass.

@Hella_Reef here is a video of the noise. Keep in mind I’m right next to the tank

 

[Hella_Reef]

@Hella_Reef here is a video of the noise. Keep in mind I’m right next to the tank

Yikes, that is way too loud for my liking. I will opt over to buying the random flow returns instead. The sea swirls are such a cool design though. Bummer!

Your tank looks really happy and nice too. Bravo [emoji122]

Thanks so much for the video.

 

[LEOreefer]

Yikes, that is way too loud for my liking. I will opt over to buying the random flow returns instead. The sea swirls are such a cool design though. Bummer!

Your tank looks really happy and nice too. Bravo [emoji122]

Thanks so much for the video.

No problem glad I could help. Thanks for the compliment! Stop by 2moro night to see the coral from cherry corals !

 

[Hella_Reef]

I'll be following along. Have a good night.