Upgrade to IM SR60

[Chris Nano Reef]

I’ve decided to make the upgrade from an Coralife 16 and purchased an IM SR60. This post will be for tracking progress on the build and future questions. It’s on order from my LFS and I’m waiting for delivery. Right now I’m just trying to gather supplies. Tank will be mostly LPS no acros. I have an XR15 on the 16 I plan to move over so I don’t need a light right away if at all. Plan to get all new real LR and the plaster rock I have now stinks so I don’t plan on moving any of it to the new tank. The corals I have now are LPS and zoas which I’ll frag or remove from the rocks to place into the new tank once setup and cycled.

Here’s where I can use some help.

First thing I want to get is a wave maker. BRS has eotech pumps on sale right now so I want to get it soon. Can’t decide if I should do 1 or 2 MP10’s. Looking for opinions. Was thinking 2 MP10’s on either side of the tank would be great.

 

[TheWB]

I’ve decided to make the upgrade from an Coralife 16 and purchased an IM SR60. This post will be for tracking progress on the build and future questions. It’s on order from my LFS and I’m waiting for delivery. Right now I’m just trying to gather supplies. Tank will be mostly LPS no acros. I have an XR15 on the 16 I plan to move over so I don’t need a light right away if at all. Plan to get all new real LR and the plaster rock I have now stinks so I don’t plan on moving any of it to the new tank. The corals I have now are LPS and zoas which I’ll frag or remove from the rocks to place into the new tank once setup and cycled.

Here’s where I can use some help.

First thing I want to get is a wave maker. BRS has eotech pumps on sale right now so I want to get it soon. Can’t decide if I should do 1 or 2 MP10’s. Looking for opinions. Was thinking 2 MP10’s on either side of the tank would be great.

Congrats on the new tank. I have the Lagoon 50 which is the same thing you are getting, just slightly smaller. My tank is mostly LPS and Zoas. I have two AI Nero 3 wave makers both placed toward the top of the tank, one on each side. They provide plenty of flow along with what the return pump adds. For LPS I would do one MP10 on each side just to be able to control the flow direction at lower power levels. I'm assuming you are looking for that swaying motion from eyphyllia and Goni's, etc... You could always just start with one and add if needed but I think you'll end up wanting two for a 36" long tank.

 

[JoJosReef]

Congrats on the upgrade! @steveschuerger is a good resource for all things IM SR60! I am running the IM 40L AIO, which has the same length as the SR60, but less width. I think 2 mp10s is a better choice since getting flow all across the 3ft tank is a challenge. I use a single gyre right now, but will eventually get the second gyre up and running to get opposing cross-flow. Gyres help with the dead spots. I don't have experience with mp10s, but I understand they are quite good as well.

 

[steveschuerger]

Hey nice upgrade. I’ve found a good mix of wavemakers for me. Two Nero 3 on the right side and a Jebao TL series on the other side. Here’s a video of the tank

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

Thanks all for the input. I went ahead and ordered 2 MP10’s. One for each side of the tank.

@TheWB yes I’m definitely going for that swaying motion. So to have them both pulsing opposite of each other is the plan.

@JoJosReef I thought about getting a gyre on each side the only draw back for me was I wanted to not have any wires in the display. I do like all the surface movement from them.

@steveschuerger Very nice tank! I also looked at the Nero’s but again I didn’t want wires in the display. I currently have a Jebao MLW-5 in the 16 gallon and love it. Can’t beat it for the price been up and running for almost 2 years now no problems.

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

The 2 MP10’s were delivered today. The first thing checked off the list of supplies I need for the new SR60. Hope for a nice Black Friday sale to pick up more. Starting all over new with most things. The light and apex with the trident is the only things I’ll move to the new setup. Of course the fish and corals will move over but the zoas will not. A coworker is taking the 16 and I’ve decided to leave the Jebao, heater, rock, sand and zoas in there for him. The rest will make the move. So for now I’ll just continue to chip away at the supply list and wait for the tank to arrive. Putting together a fish list is the hardest part. My wife and son have a list of fish they want as do I but somehow my list is last lol.

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

Just got word the tank has shipped! Woohoo! Also bought the heater, some extra filter socks and longer RO tubing to reach the bucket by the tank so I don’t have to carry 10 gallons of water to the tank every week for the water change. I’m waiting to buy sand and LR until the tank is setup. I’ll post pics of the tank once I get it up. I’ve got off from work Xmas week until after new years so I’ll wait until then to put it all together. Also bought all new parts to rebuild the 5 stage RO/DI filter. New membrane, flow restrictor, carbon blocks, di resin and TDS meter for inlet and outlet. Hasn’t been completely rebuild in years except for changing out the filter cartridges so figured now’s the great time with the new tank.

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

It’s has arrived! The stand wasn’t hard to build at all. Went together smoothly. It’s level side to side and front to back. Now I just need to buy a new bucket of salt to make water. I don’t have nearly enough salt to mix for the tank. Still need to buy the LR and sand but I’m in no rush. For now I’m just happy the tank is here and ready for the next steps.

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

Spent a good part of the afternoon filling the tank with LR and sand. 43 pounds LR and 25-30 pounds love sand. I bought to 20 pound bags of sand but didn’t use it all I have a little more then half a bag left. Got 2 big rocks and 2 small rocks to fill in the middle. My LFS made me a great deal on it and assured me it is real LR from Australia. One of the big rocks he broke into his front display for me. Gave me a great price too so I’m very happy about that. Right now I’ve just got the stock return pumps running to keep the water circulating. Tomorrow I’ll setup the duo MP10’s on either side of the tank and get to playing with the settings. I still need to pickup some test kits for the cycle testing. I have left over ammonia I’ll begin to dose once I get the kits tomorrow. If it is real LR should have no problem cycling the ammonia out. So we will see. For now just enjoying seeing the tank run. Probably wait until after Christmas for fish even if it cycles quick. Just want to watch to see if there’s any hitchhikers I should be worried about before adding fish and be sure the cycle is complete. I’ll move over my clown and blue damsel after I figure out what else I want in the tank. Try and put them in some sort of order so nobody gets to territorial. Might pick up an arch for the middle not sure. I do like what I have so I need to look at it for a few days and decide. Some pics below. Best I could get tonight. I’ll try for some better pics tomorrow.

What do you all think of the scape? Should I add an arch or something to the top middle area? I welcome any criticism or suggestions.

 

[Daniel92481]

Awesome tank! You will love the MP10’s. I also think it’s a good idea to have one on each side. As far as the scape, looks cool. Maybe play with the arch idea to see if you like it.

 

[steveschuerger]

Looks good so far. I had an evolving rockwork during the time I had my SR60 up and running. Started with arch or two but as I got more rock it turned into more of a cliff.

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

I’ve got the MP10’s up and running. One as the parent the other as the child on anti sync short pulse at 50% for now. There’s nothing in the tank so I’ll leave like that for now until the corals go in and make any adjustments to the flow. The past couple of nights I’ve come to the tank during the dark hours and have seen 4-5 mini brittle stars on the big rock to the right. Seen a few amphipods as well. Also lastnight I seen 3 baby fish fry. No way to know what kind of fish but they are but definitely babies. The LFS I got the rock from was closed today but I plan to call tomorrow and maybe get an idea of any fish that were housed with the rock. Either way they probably won’t make it very long once I stock the tank. They might become a meal for someone. Guess we will see. Still need to get some basic test kits to monitor the cycle. That is if it cycles at all. I had to have some sort of die off the 30-45 minutes the rocks were out of water on the ride home to fill up. Haven’t put any of the dr Tim’s ammonia in since I can’t test for it so I’ll wait.

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

Today I finally got around to adding some Dr Tim’s ammonia to the tank. Added 60 drops which was close to 2ml this morning. Went to the LFS and picked up a Red Sea multi test kit. Just tested the water came back at
Ammonia- .8 Red Sea test
Nitrite- 0 Red Sea test
Nitrate- 6.8 Hanna HR test

To my surprise there was nitrate present. I’m guessing there was some die off on transportation from LFS to my house and I had a mini cycle. I’ll wait until tomorrow morning and test ammonia again to see where it’s at hopefully the system processed it. If so I’ll pick up a few snails, hermits and maybe a cleaner shrimp to start. I’ll also do a water change before I add the clean up crew.