Polo's Reef Makeover- IM EXT200 build

wrongpolo

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I've been a long time lurker on this forum but have never sat down and put the time into sharing my slice of the ocean. I've been in and out of the hobby over the past 12-15 years, but never had the time to really keep up with my tanks due to crazy work hours,so ultimately would tear it down and sell them. After a rough go it during the pandemic, I landed a great IT job working from home finally in 2020. Fast forward to 2022 and I thought to myself "you never leave the house anymore so why not setup a new aquarium". Knowing myself and my history in the hobby, I didn't want to spend big money on a brand new tank just to tear it down in 1-2 years. This is where the Facebook special 125 gallon setup came into the picture. It was a little rough around the edges but for $200, I wasn't complaining.
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After finding my bins of dry rock in the basement, my wife and I got to work on an aquascape. Nothing too crazy but it got the job done. Fast forward to the end of 2023 and I decided that since I'd been able to keep the fish and coral and clam alive for this long, maybe it was time for the tangs to move into a bigger house.
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I started researching, and it came down to a Cade or an Innovative Marine tank. Google had obviously been listening because the next morning I saw an ad for Innovative Marine's Winter sale. I did a little more research on their tanks and decided to bite the bullet on Dec 31. The tank was supposed to ship at the end of march, but to my surprise it was ready to go in the beginning of February. I opened the crate and immediately thought "well, this is bigger than I thought it would be... How the hell am I going to get this into the house, let alone on the stand"

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My wife has been so awesome through all of this, as I had the dining room and living room chock full of things to prep for the move. The EXT was going to go in the same place as the 125, so it needed to be torn down and the livestock needed somewhere to live temporarily. Livestock tanks came in handy here, as did some new trash cans for recycling the "old" water.
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We didn't take any picture of us moving the tank, but rest assured it took 5 bodies to wrestle it into the house. I bought a hydraulic lift cart to help lift and move the tank into place on the stand, that plus glass suction cups saved the day. I built a small makeshift pallet out of 2*4s and the plywood from the shipping crate to help move the tank from the garage to the house. We had 3 steps to go up and a 90 degree turn to get through the front door. The lift cart and pallet came in handy here as we didn't have to worry about the tank hitting the concrete. Once in the house it was straight into the living room and just a matter of pumping it up and manhandling it onto the stand. After that, pizza was ordered because we were all exhausted.
In went 160lbs of special grade caribsea sand and the the old tank water. I had 100 gallons of fresh seawater in the basement ready to go, and the Kamoer auto water changer came in handy here, it took forever and a day, but it was just a matter of letting it run while I worked.
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A stop out at menards for some PVC sheeting and then some 3D printing of brackets turned out pretty well(other than running out of black PLA on the last bracket)
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After some wire management and volunteering my wife to help label the wires the sump area started coming together.
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I had my wife help me move all the rocks back into the tank and then we hung the lights. I thought about doing a custom 80/20 rail for hanging them, but ultimately decided just to grab the RMS rail because after totalling up everything for the 80/20 it was pretty close to the premade, (plus it would be easier to assemble)
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Here's the finished product for those who made it this far.


The tank is an IM EXT200 complete system (with their stand and sump)
Lighting - 3x Neptune Sky, I've had them for a couple years now and they haven't let me down het.
Flow - 4x MP40s
Skimmer - Simplicity 240
Heater- Helios 600 watt package from BRS
Kamoer Auto water changer runs my weekly changes, as well as the auto top off
36 watt Jebao UV sterilizer
Kamoer KH Carer for alk dosing
Milwaukee ORP/PH controller paired with an Enaly Ozone generator
Asus Chromebox converted to windows 11 paired with a Seneye for backup PH/Ammonia monitoring post tank move.

Livestock-
6" Maxima Clam
1x Chocolate Tang
1x Sailfin tang
2x black onyx Clownfish
A plethora of acro and monitopora frags that are/we're starting to take off (I'm sure they will take a bit to get going again after the move)
Some Stylos, Leptoseris, Cyphasytea, goni, and a Christata colonies as well.

I feel like I just wrote a book! I'll add pics of the livestock here in a bit. Feel free to ask away any questions in case I missed anything or formatting is weird!
 
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wrongpolo

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Thanks everyone! Added a few pics of the livestock and coral. Everyone seems happy so far. Crossing my fingers it stays that way! Been racking my brain with the best way to add a shelf above the sump to put the AWC and KH Carer. Ordered a 12x24 HDPE sheet today to hopefully clean up the cabinet area a little more. Stay tuned for that fun!
Wow great introduction to your new tank, looks awesome and I love your rockscape. I’m going to give your wife all the credit for it.
(She definitely deserves it, I just drilled the holes for the acrylic rods where I was told to!)
 

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wrongpolo

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Getting the cabinet finished up this week. I added a small shelf above the sump using 20 series Tnuts and some black shelf brackets. I got some HDPE sheets from Zoro.com (retail facing Grainger) for ALOT cheaper than some other placed. the Auto Water changer fit nicely. Still need to wire in the Ozone. The little PC box on the bottom left is an Asus Chromebox that I have Windows 11 that runs my seneye. I figure if the inkbird and the helio both decide to fail ON this should at least ping my phone and say "Yo your tank is cooking, my man.. go check it out"
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I also cut some 1/4 HDPE to make a lid on the 5.5 Gal tank I'm using as an ATO. This allowed me to have a nice spot for the KH Carer along with the reagents and Alk solution. I swear in real life the wires look pretty good, but in the pictures they look like spaghetti.
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This weekend I need to finish putting in the milwaukee ORP/PH controller for the Ozone. I know it doesn't get rid of parasites, but it sure does get rid of the smells, so it was wife endorsed after the first week. Still debating if I should hook up the UV sterilizer this time around or not, it seems like it's 50/50 on the benefits whenever I go down a rabbit hole.

All in all, I'm really liking the setup. A few minor nitpicks about the stand, moreso the doors. I think 2 of them aren't truly square so they have some weird panel gaps. I'm also going to 3d print a brace to screw into the studs just to get rid of the tiny bit of back and forth sway. Barring all that, I'm happy with the tank (the cats aren't though...They loved to scratch the old wood stand)
 

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Congrats on the new tank! I too got a 125 off of facebook for a few hundred dollars with stand and canopy in 2020 and am looking at the IM ext200 to upgrade to but i have to rip up and install new flooring at the same time I upgrade so that will be a challenge. Ho do you like the sump? I have a filter roller and have been looking at other sump options because the IM sump won't accept the filter roller from what I've seen.
 
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wrongpolo

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Congrats on the new tank! I too got a 125 off of facebook for a few hundred dollars with stand and canopy in 2020 and am looking at the IM ext200 to upgrade to but i have to rip up and install new flooring at the same time I upgrade so that will be a challenge. Ho do you like the sump? I have a filter roller and have been looking at other sump options because the IM sump won't accept the filter roller from what I've seen.
Right on! Good luck on the upgrade! The sump is well made and there's nothing glaringly wrong with it, other than not accepting a filter roller without some modification. I had the issue of all my livestock and water being in bins/stock tank in the dining room and living room so time was of the essence (Before I ran out of patience from my better half) My biggest gripe is that the sump is SMACK DAB in the middle of the stand (when using their plumbing), rather than offset, so it really puts a hamper on what you can put where in the stand. Took some brainstorming on how I was going to fit everything where I wanted.
 

ShoreReefer

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Right on! Good luck on the upgrade! The sump is well made and there's nothing glaringly wrong with it, other than not accepting a filter roller without some modification. I had the issue of all my livestock and water being in bins/stock tank in the dining room and living room so time was of the essence (Before I ran out of patience from my better half) My biggest gripe is that the sump is SMACK DAB in the middle of the stand (when using their plumbing), rather than offset, so it really puts a hamper on what you can put where in the stand. Took some brainstorming on how I was going to fit everything where I wanted.
It definitely looks like you crammed a lot under the stand. I plan on building a cabinet next to the tank to hold my apex, ato, MP40 controls etc so it's not under the stand. Did all of your livestock survive the transfer?
 
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wrongpolo

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Yeah I crammed it all in there. I didn't want really have space for anything next to the tank, so creativity was key. All the livestock survived luckily enough, BUT I noticed 2 days ago that I may have some acro eating flatworms..... What I don't understand is how.. I haven't added anything for almost 6 months and they just appeared out of thin air it seems. Hopefully with some dipping and the new wrasses that are coming in from Dr Reef, management of the AEFW shouldn't be too bad (Fingers crossed)
 

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