Greetings all. I am going to start a build thread, albeit I am apprehensive when I read and view some on here that are truly amazing.
So, During Innovative Marine's 40% build to order sale in Late Sept 2022 I took the plunge. I had one of their 75gallon EXT and enjoyed the platform.
Upon retirement in late Sept 2022 I moved to the Cincinnati, Ohio area. I placed an order for the IM 150 gallon EXT lagoon combination. It arrived right at 12 weeks after ordering.
I won't bore you with the details of stand assembly. Since I had previous experience it went quite well.
So, the tank is truly amazing. it is euro-braced, more on this later.
Tank was leak checked, issues with a union, found out it had NO o-ring in it. Trip to Lowes solved that. I am on day 10 of a fishless cycle. It is turning ammonia into nitrate in 24 hours, so first fish in this weekend. Will ask about fish stocking later, I am hoping this will be a mixed reef, mostly softies and LPS. ( During LFS visit Saturday my wife now wants a Coralife biocube 32 for her own corals.)
So, here is the equipment list, about 90% are purchases from R2R forum.
1- COR 20 return pump, NYOS Quantum 160 skimmer, a pair of 500 watt titanium heaters with controllers, an APEX2016 setup, 2 each Ecotech MP40s, Neptune ATO v2 system, and 2 each
Kessil A360WE lights.
2- I have about 100 pounds of life rock ( the final scape doesn't match what it looked like as a mock-up, but the wife likes it.) along with 120 pounds of arag-alive pink fiji sand. I did also
purchase a Trigger systems Platinum 34 sump with the 10 inch fleece roller.
So, that is the start. I am attaching two photos, 1 of tank and 1 of sump area. Sorry for the bad cell phone pics. More to follow. Any ideas and advice greatly appreciated. This is my second reef tank after about 15 years of planted freshwater tanks.
Ok, sump pic includes part of our cane corso who has to be the center of attention.
So, During Innovative Marine's 40% build to order sale in Late Sept 2022 I took the plunge. I had one of their 75gallon EXT and enjoyed the platform.
Upon retirement in late Sept 2022 I moved to the Cincinnati, Ohio area. I placed an order for the IM 150 gallon EXT lagoon combination. It arrived right at 12 weeks after ordering.
I won't bore you with the details of stand assembly. Since I had previous experience it went quite well.
So, the tank is truly amazing. it is euro-braced, more on this later.
Tank was leak checked, issues with a union, found out it had NO o-ring in it. Trip to Lowes solved that. I am on day 10 of a fishless cycle. It is turning ammonia into nitrate in 24 hours, so first fish in this weekend. Will ask about fish stocking later, I am hoping this will be a mixed reef, mostly softies and LPS. ( During LFS visit Saturday my wife now wants a Coralife biocube 32 for her own corals.)
So, here is the equipment list, about 90% are purchases from R2R forum.
1- COR 20 return pump, NYOS Quantum 160 skimmer, a pair of 500 watt titanium heaters with controllers, an APEX2016 setup, 2 each Ecotech MP40s, Neptune ATO v2 system, and 2 each
Kessil A360WE lights.
2- I have about 100 pounds of life rock ( the final scape doesn't match what it looked like as a mock-up, but the wife likes it.) along with 120 pounds of arag-alive pink fiji sand. I did also
purchase a Trigger systems Platinum 34 sump with the 10 inch fleece roller.
So, that is the start. I am attaching two photos, 1 of tank and 1 of sump area. Sorry for the bad cell phone pics. More to follow. Any ideas and advice greatly appreciated. This is my second reef tank after about 15 years of planted freshwater tanks.
Ok, sump pic includes part of our cane corso who has to be the center of attention.
