IM Fusion 20 pro (DRILLED MIXED REEF)

crys · Apr 22, 2021

August 30th, 2020

this was the day I brought home my im fusion 20 pro. Besides the tank I was hoping to go with a more modest budget friendly setup.

I was able to setup my tank on a stand my brother and I made. I added black livesand and about 20lbs of love rock. I cycled my tank with a pair of clownfish and dr Tim’s.

September 1st 2020 I made my first post on reef2reef. This was where I may or may not have taken @vetteguy53081 advice too literally. He suggested I “buy the best CANNOT afford”, which is what I decided to do.

fast forward to April 22nd 2021. My current live stock list is as follows, an RBTA, 2 sps, 2 lps, and 2 softies. I have a pair between a mocha misbar and a mocha vinci (like a gladiator). My clean up crew is more like a cleanup unit, a collector urchin. There’s also a mandarin in there. In the very near future I plan on reseeding my tank with pods in hopes of housing a bluestripe pipefish. (Btw that hammer coral was apparently rare so I dropped 2 bills for him) I did not realize how addicting this hobby could be.

I think whoever’s reading this has somewhat of a good idea on how my DT looks like. Now for the behind the scenes, like filtration and stuff. I still run the caddy that came with the tank but recently changed out the carbon they provided with chemipure blue. In the chamber on the other side I occasionally put a filter sock in. But usually only for a few days after a water change. In the other two chambers of the back wall I cut and placed marine pure block. The middle chamber is cramped with the overflow box and weir and tubes and return nozzle and all of that.

That overflow box I mentioned leads to an Eshopps nano cube Refugium sump. In the Refugium chamber I put the remaining I had from the marine pure block 8x8x4 and some other fluval bio media or something. I have chaeto in there on a 16 hour light schedule which starts when DT lights turn off (10pm).

in the skimmer chamber I actually have a falco hawkfish because he bullied everyone on top. He still gets love tho.

a sicce 2.0 in the return chamber brings it back upstairs to the DT.

now I think that pretty much sums it up, I’ll probably try to attach some pics but uh yeah I haven’t tested my tank since idk when but I keep a consistent water change schedule.

I think that wraps that up if you’re still reading this I appreciate it.

mdrieder · Apr 23, 2021

What's up @crys, I think to some extent most of us start out with a budget and soon find that going out the window. I've found if I buy something cheap I usually just wind up buying the more expensive version later so it really pays off to get the right thing the first time. I would highly recommend you get off the chemi-pure routine. You can easily make your own for a fraction of the price and really dial it in for your needs. Also the carbon in chemi-pure becomes ineffective way before the GFO so after two or so weeks Your only running GFO.

crys · Apr 23, 2021

mdrieder said:
What's up @crys, I think to some extent most of us start out with a budget and soon find that going out the window. I've found if I buy something cheap I usually just wind up buying the more expensive version later so it really pays off to get the right thing the first time. I would highly recommend you get off the chemi-pure routine. You can easily make your own for a fraction of the price and really dial it in for your needs. Also the carbon in chemi-pure becomes ineffective way before the GFO so after two or so weeks Your only running GFO.

Wait that that’s crazy I was actually counting on it for it’s carbon benefits. I thought Chem pure blue would be a good substitute for the carbon I had before but I guess not. At the very least I expected it to last a while. It is the larger sized bag too rated for more than my tank size. But yeah I’d be interested in making my own especially for a fraction of the cost.

crys · Apr 23, 2021

mdrieder said:
What's up @crys, I think to some extent most of us start out with a budget and soon find that going out the window. I've found if I buy something cheap I usually just wind up buying the more expensive version later so it really pays off to get the right thing the first time. I would highly recommend you get off the chemi-pure routine. You can easily make your own for a fraction of the price and really dial it in for your needs. Also the carbon in chemi-pure becomes ineffective way before the GFO so after two or so weeks Your only running GFO.

Also yeah I can’t say I’m disappointed in my equipment. I’m trying to keep it as basic as possible but with a heavy bio load. A lil update, the falco hawkfish found a new home and I was able to reseed and introduce a bluestripe pipefish.

mdrieder · Apr 23, 2021

@crys yeah man I did the same thing on my first tank. I also got the bags rated for more than my aquarium volume, it was a huge mistake. It took a while for it to become an issue but your basically just overdosing GFO. If it bottoms out your phosphate it can cause some serious issues.. in my case Dinos. If you don't like that carbon doesn't last very long I have had great success with purigen in my freshwater tank. Never used it in my reef though, worth the research.

crys · Apr 23, 2021

mdrieder said:
@crys yeah man I did the same thing on my first tank. I also got the bags rated for more than my aquarium volume, it was a huge mistake. It took a while for it to become an issue but your basically just overdosing GFO. If it bottoms out your phosphate it can cause some serious issues.. in my case Dinos. If you don't like that carbon doesn't last very long I have had great success with purigen in my freshwater tank. Never used it in my reef though, worth the research.

Say less I’ll look into it my corals have all been chilling except the acans. I’ll do some research on purigen. I’ve been pretty heavily feeding the tank so hopefully no nutrient deficiency.

crys · Jun 11, 2024

crys said:
August 30th, 2020

this was the day I brought home my im fusion 20 pro. Besides the tank I was hoping to go with a more modest budget friendly setup.

I was able to setup my tank on a stand my brother and I made. I added black livesand and about 20lbs of love rock. I cycled my tank with a pair of clownfish and dr Tim’s.

September 1st 2020 I made my first post on reef2reef. This was where I may or may not have taken @vetteguy53081 advice too literally. He suggested I “buy the best CANNOT afford”, which is what I decided to do.

fast forward to April 22nd 2021. My current live stock list is as follows, an RBTA, 2 sps, 2 lps, and 2 softies. I have a pair between a mocha misbar and a mocha vinci (like a gladiator). My clean up crew is more like a cleanup unit, a collector urchin. There’s also a mandarin in there. In the very near future I plan on reseeding my tank with pods in hopes of housing a bluestripe pipefish. (Btw that hammer coral was apparently rare so I dropped 2 bills for him) I did not realize how addicting this hobby could be.

I think whoever’s reading this has somewhat of a good idea on how my DT looks like. Now for the behind the scenes, like filtration and stuff. I still run the caddy that came with the tank but recently changed out the carbon they provided with chemipure blue. In the chamber on the other side I occasionally put a filter sock in. But usually only for a few days after a water change. In the other two chambers of the back wall I cut and placed marine pure block. The middle chamber is cramped with the overflow box and weir and tubes and return nozzle and all of that.

That overflow box I mentioned leads to an Eshopps nano cube Refugium sump. In the Refugium chamber I put the remaining I had from the marine pure block 8x8x4 and some other fluval bio media or something. I have chaeto in there on a 16 hour light schedule which starts when DT lights turn off (10pm).

in the skimmer chamber I actually have a falco hawkfish because he bullied everyone on top. He still gets love tho.

a sicce 2.0 in the return chamber brings it back upstairs to the DT.

now I think that pretty much sums it up, I’ll probably try to attach some pics but uh yeah I haven’t tested my tank since idk when but I keep a consistent water change schedule.

I think that wraps that up if you’re still reading this I appreciate it.