Keith's IM 100 INT

[crabgrass]

Wish there was more room under the cabinet, I would need to store my calcium reactor / trident / co2 tank and all the other nonsense involved with this lovely hobby.

Yep, separate cabinet for sure. On the plus side, I am able to make sure my electronics are never wet, etc.

Here is how I hung my reactor and UV. UV looks trashy, but I tried to keep it at an angle to avoid air bubbles, etc

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

Thanks! It took an about 24 hours of doing solid leak checks to make sure all the seals were good and minor tweaking. I think (hope) we’re good.

Overall, the total water volume (display + sump filled to 9”), is 86 gallons. That’s with 85 lbs of rocks + 80 lbs of sand. The INT reservior takes a lot of water volume. Your EXT should hold much more.

Wavemaker- I got a really good deal on the XF 330s, on CoralVues site. They were on clearance for under 100 a piece (not including pump). They are a lot quieter than I expected.

I wonder why my tank is bigger than yours but has a smaller sump? would have liked the separate skimmer/fuge. Might get another Mighty Jet to run the skimmer on. all I hear is a trickle of water in the overflow. Went with the recommended Sicce 5.0 and not the quietest.

 

[crabgrass]

I wonder why my tank is bigger than yours but has a smaller sump? would have liked the separate skimmer/fuge. Might get another Mighty Jet to run the skimmer on. all I hear is a trickle of water in the overflow. Went with the recommended Sicce 5.0 and not the quietest.

Must be something with layout of your stand and maybe not being able to fit a RSF 39 in there.? View it as a blessing and a curse

 

[crabgrass]

Before I start adding any livestock to the tank, I wanted to dial in flow, measurements, etc.

How I Set my Pump Flow

I am targeting for 3x-5x Turnover from my Return Pump. I am not using a flow meter (the ones for Hydros seemed like they were semi-garbage), so I have to manually calculate it.

The formula I used to calculate head height is:
.
(1x vertical feet) + (1x # 90° turns) + (0.5x # 45° turns) + (0.1x horizontal feet)

For me, that works out to:

(1x 4.2) + (1x 3) + (0.5 x 2) + (0.1x2.2) = 8.4ft

The MightyJet XL pump chart (below), then tells me my effective gph is about 1,200-ish. I am shooting for about 3-5x turnover in my tank. I have 86 gallons between Display and Sump, so that works out to 258 - 430.

430 / 1200 = 36%. The lowest setting I can put my MightyJet is 40%, which is close enough and gives me some margin for error as the pump gets dirtier over time.

Edit: To keep the temperature balanced between Sump and Display, I increased flow to 50% on the Pump. This gets the theoretical flow to 600 gph (7x tank capacity). This should also give me a margin for error as junk builds up and slows the pump down over time.

How I setup my Powerhead Flow

For my Gyres, I setup a 24 hour schedule that consists of a fixed flow overnight, and then a Step and Random patterns (including reverse) during the daytime - ranging from 10-50% of their full power. The Octopulses run at a fixed 30% 24x7.

I am targeting for 10x-20x Turnover from my Powerheads. This is somewhat simplier.

Total water volume 86 Gallons = 860 - 1720 target
2x Maxspect XF330 (2350 gpf max) @ 40% average = 1,880
2x OctoPulse 2 (1600 gpf max) @ 30% fixed = 960 (Edit: these will be will be repurposed for power outage situations)
Edit: Total = 1,880= 21x turnover. Given that overtime performance will degrade there could be a 10%-20% loss until cleaned, it will be within the 10-20x range.

 

[crabgrass]

Tuning the UV

Similar to tuning the pumps, my first step was to calculate the Head Height and target flow.

I have a VarioS-4 (Max GPH of 1,050). Using formula above, my Head Height is 4.1 (conservative estimate, probably less)

That works out to an effective Max GPH of 726.

Based on the AquaUV Chart

• If I am looking to Control Algae, I need to shoot for 800 GPH (essentially running at 100%). This is also almost 2x my total tank turnover
• If I am looking to Control Parasites, etc + Algae, I need to shoot for 400 GPH (or lower – based on other charts I’ve looked at). This means the pump needs to be running at 55% - 400 GPH to get 90k EOL
• If I want to use a conservative target of 3x tank turnover (258 GPH), I would need to run it at about 35%. This would be around 150-180k EOL – which is around the target that I have seen to kill/manage marine Ich

I am going to elect to start with the 3x turnover rate. This gives me at least 1.5x recommendation for managing parasites.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

wow, and I just was thinking to turn the pump on.
Mines running at about 50%. And just have a sicce stream 5000 in there. Thinking to get a MP40 for the wire free design. Are they the only ones? Missed the sales though.

 

[crabgrass]

wow, and I just was thinking to turn the pump on.
Mines running at about 50%. And just have a sicce stream 5000 in there. Thinking to get a MP40 for the wire free design. Are they the only ones? Missed the sales though.

I think so. I went for some very cheap sales on older power heads. MP40s are certainly better and slicker with the wire setup.

You probably can get away with a pair, unless flow is different in a peninsula?

 

[crabgrass]

Livestock Tank Transfer - YOLO

The Cycle
As I stated before, I cycled my rock for 30 days in my garage, along with 2x PolypLabs Genesys Rocks (aka bioBricks). I haven't done this before, but what i did was:

• Clean the *hit out of a trashcan
• Add 85lbs of Dryrock + 2 biobricks
• Add about 35 gallons of RODI water and appropriate amount of salt
• Add 2x 100W heaters, a small powerhead and a small pump
• Add 1 Shrimp + old bottle of Doctor Tims
• Add lid

I did 5% WC every week, and took the shrimp out after a week (it smelled terrible). I did ghost feed a few times a week, but did not have a diligent schedule around it.

The last time (only time) I cycled a tank, i was super dilligent about testing the Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates daily. IMO, the tests kits are questionable for Ammonia and Nitrate (very hard to see if you are in the deadly range, or perfectly fine), etc

I have not tested anything over the last 30 days outside of salinity. Lets hope winging it works.




The Setup
I added the rock to the new tank after I finished leak testing and dialed in my salinty. No water was transferred, so I essentially gave the rock a 100% WC. Then added Sand - I wanted to add the sand after the rock, so the rock looked like it had a really good base. However, that meant I also covered the rock in sand.

The sand cleared up in about 12 hours, however it took another 24-36 hours to get the sand cleaned up off the rocks, and semi balanced within the tank. It is super light sand and really kicks up.

The sand I added, was "live sand".. I don't believe this is truely live sand, but is probably more like Sand, water + Dr. Tims-ish bacteria?? Basically, i don't have any faith that the sand would be fully cycled at this point, but i don't know. My hope is that the rock will do the heavy lifting for ammonia reduction.

After dusting the rocks for about the 20th time, and dialing in the pumps, I let everything sit for one more night.

(right after the sand was added...)

(more dusting was required...)

The Transfer
Since I didn't do any formal tests for Ammonia or Nitriate, I wantd to be at least semi-responsible and not assigning my existing fish a death sentence, I bought a Seachem Ammonia Badge and slapped it on top of the new tank.

Now, time to start with the transfers:

• 2x Clownfish - These two have been bonded since I got them. They have only stayed in the top right of my 20G (right by the entrance to the AIO Sump). They will occasionally explore, but really seem to like the sump vent. Since they don't move out of the area, I just netted both of them up in about two tries, and transferred them to the new tank.

They explored the new tank briefly and then found there new spot --- at the top right of the new tank, at the Sump Vent entrance....​

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• Royal Gramma, Algae Blenny and Cleaner Shrimp - These are much more elusive, and there was no way I could extract them without taking all of the rock out. I filled up a large container with about 10lb of Saltwater and moved all of the rocks (with Coral) into the container. This made the process super easy to collect them and move.

Gramma - He/she was suprisingly the boss of the old tank as the oldest inhabitant. It did remain hidden about 90% of the time, and only come out to boss the clowns around or eat. After entering the new tank, the Gramma disappeared immedaitely under some rocks. It has made a couiple of brief appearances, so I know its alive (or not in the back of the sump).​

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Algae Blenny - Loving the sand life. Seems very happy. This new tank doenst have any algea, so I am going to find an alternate source for it to eat.​

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Cleaner Shrimp - this this always seems social and happy. It is exploring but seems good​

​

The old tank is still running and still has all of the Coral + an Urchni in it. I am not planning on turning my lights on for another month or so, and would like the get the new tank stable before transferring coral. So it might be a couple months before everythign is gone out of the old tank.

This is also my failback plan, if I see Ammonia spike this week.

​

​

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

looking good. could use that old tank for QT. I like the look of your sand covered rocks. Looks like the Sierras in winter.

 

[crabgrass]

looking good. could use that old tank for QT. I like the look of your sand covered rocks. Looks like the Sierras in winter.

Yeah, that was my thought. Maybe QT or hospital tank in the future.

 

[jastudee]

Just ordered this exact setup, super excited to get it going! Really like your aquascape, turned out great!

 

[crabgrass]

Just ordered this exact setup, super excited to get it going! Really like your aquascape, turned out great!

Awesome. There are a few of us building similar setups right now (112, 110 EXT, etc). I will be sure to follow you journey along as well.

Since I think its helpful, I will post out details of how I am setting up and adding stuff as I think its beneficial to see what works/does't work, etc.

 

[jastudee]

Awesome. There are a few of us building similar setups right now (112, 110 EXT, etc). I will be sure to follow you journey along as well.

Since I think its helpful, I will post out details of how I am setting up and adding stuff as I think its beneficial to see what works/does't work, etc.

Agreed completely! I’ll be sure to do the same.

 

[crabgrass]

Added about 15 lbs of live rock from KP Aquatics today. I gave it a quick rinse in saltwater and then dropped it in.

There is a lot more living stuff on it than I expected (corraline, sponges, filters, etc.). It honestly smelled amazing like the beach when I cracked open the box.

The coolest thing was, as I put one of the rocks down I saw what I thought was tentacles stick out. Then a brittle starfish pulled itself out of a rock and burried in the sand. For 30 seconds I thought it was an octopus and was like RIP fish for the next two years.

 

[crabgrass]

Added 3 new inhabitants from Dr Reefs today:

• Small yellow tang
• Yellow Eyes Kole Tang (Bristletooth)
• Leopard Wrasse

Outside of wanting these fish (and now having a larger tank), I am hoping they will also assist as utilitarian fish in the tank (Algae and coral pests). I wanted to add the tangs together to prevent aggression issues between tangs.

After acclimating, the two tangs immediately went on patrol and started eating, which is great. They seemed generally un-phased by the shipping process.

The Leopard Wrasse immediately borrowed in the sand and disappeared. I heard that they can hide for the first few weeks. I will try to not disturb them.

The existing inhabitants don't seem too bothered with the new additions

• Lawnmower blenny - strangely hung out and followed the Yellow tang at a distance
• Clowns - well, they stay in there corner and did their thing. They like their filter vent in the back right
• Royal Gramma - stayed under their rock, like she always does. Did come out for food, which is good

Out of an abundance of caution, I added 3 small containers of Bio-Spira to the tank earlier in the week. I don't think it was required given the rocks had been cycled, and I added live rock.. but I also didn't want to double the bio-load and cause issues. I will be watching ammonia closely today.

I have a wishlist of other fish to add at this point (and corals that need to be transferred and added), but its time to chill in terms of adding livestock (outside of a CUC) for a bit and let the ugly phase kick in and things stabilize.

 

[crabgrass]

All new inhabitants are alive and accounted for. No ammonia issues, so between pre-cycling the rocks, the sand, live rock and a little bit of bio-spira the tank is good to go (this is the two belts and pair of suspenders route).

The tangs spend their entire day poking at rocks. They must have been raised with just shrimp and flake, because the have no clue what sheets of Nori are. I had to break some up into flake form before they would eat any. I will try to acclimate them to sheets over the next week (maybe rubber band it to a rock).

The Leopard Wrasse showed up mid-day yesterday for a few hours, and hunted for pods. They then disappears for another 16 hours into the sand. It is again active this AM, 2-3 hours after lights turned on. This may be its schedule, or something else

 

[crabgrass]

Just ordered this exact setup, super excited to get it going! Really like your aquascape, turned out great!

As a heads up, I was unsuccesful in getting the Klir 4 to run effectively in the IM 100 INT. I don't think its an issue with the unit, but maybe how the sump intake is setup. It is also more than likely user error more than anything. At this point, I sidelined the Klir and just put in a couple of filter socks. Once I get sick enough of changing filter socks, I will re-investigate how to get it working.

 

[crabgrass]

Preparing for the Ugly Phase

Tank (with rock and sand) has been setup and running for about a week and a half, with some inhabitants in for a week and some newcombers a couple of days. Since I started with a combination of pre-cycled live rock, little bit of live rock, and "live sand" I am expecting to hit the ugly phase quicker than it would if it was all dry rock to start with.

Last weeks Nutrients:

• Nitrates - 2.2
• Phosphate - 0.0

This weeks:

• Nitrates - 5.5
• Phosphate - 0.3

The Phosphate spike might be from some heavy feeding, but more likely from the phosphate leaching from dry rocks. Please note that the Nutriets last week were tested 2 days after I transferred the rock form their cycling bin to the tank (essentially at 100% WC for them - so its probably not a really good baseline).

Last tank, I wanted to combat the ugly phase and used stuff like Vibram and GFO right off the bat (bad, I know) to "skip it". I was successful in skipping the initial ugly phase, but essentially just delayed the process and wreaked havoc in the tank 12-18 months later.

In the interest to minimize using chemicals this time around, and also minimize duration and impact of the ugly phases, I am taking a more "naturale" approaches:

1. Added some utilitarian fish (2x tangs and a lawnmower Blenny)
2. Added some Live Sand activator and other stuff from IPSF
3. Setup Fuge, and added some sand, rocks and Chateo + other macro algae from IPSF
4. Adding a healthy army of CuC from ReefCleaners
5. Weekly 10% Water changes (for now)

If Phosphate starts really getting out of hand, I will add a small amount of GFO to help manage it down. However, I do not want to starve the Fuge or 0 out phosphates, so I am leaning on leveraging it for emergency purposes only for the next 3 months or so.

I don't have anything against GFO long term, however right now were trying to let everything stabilize and I would like the natural processes work itself through first.

We will see how this experiment works out

 

[crabgrass]

quicker than I somewhat expected, I woke up to Diatoms covering patches of my sand. It has started..

 

[crabgrass]

Diatoms are starting to really fill in, sand it looking pretty ugly (as expected).

Industrial Strength Clean-up Crew

I added my CuC today. I purchased everything from ReefCleaners, who i also used to stock my 20G. Here is the Crew:

50x Dwarf Cerith
16x Florida Cerith
18x Astraea Snails
12x Nerite Snails
12x Ox Tongue Nerite
1x Tiger Conch

I previously transferred by Cleaner Shrimp + handful of hermits and other nerites over to the 100g.

The objective is to have enough horsepower to clean-up nuisance algea, and also keep my 1-2 inch sandbed turned over.

in my 20g, I will have a Urchin that will eventually move over + a few Astraes/Nerites