Smith Family IM 200EXT build

[Jamie S]

It finally arrived! As much as I’m excited that it’s arrived, I’m nervous about moving the existing inhabitants from the 120 and biocube to the 200. I have to say the build quality is top notch for the price. I opted for the complete package because it seemed to be a great value if you’re willing to wait for it to be built. They say 12-16 weeks from order to delivery but it was literally half that time at about 6 weeks.
The move is going to happen in stages as I have to move the 2 tanks into the dining room, have new floors put down (we just gave the deposit today so it’s happening soon) then install the 200 and move everything over. Moving the 120 about 10’ is what I’m looking forward to the most. If anyone has done this and would like to share their experience I’d welcome all advice. I do have a few 30 gallon poly drums that I can move water into and some inhabitants. I’m not sure how much exactly to remove and whether I should just empty enough water to keep the fish, rock and coral in then fill it back up with the same water after moved over. I’m kinda stressing over this to be honest.
Anyway I’ll post again soon with the equipment list as I’m going to use a lot of the existing and I’ve bought a few extras. I do have to order the 8020 for the light rack as this build won’t have a canopy. After everything is moved over and the 120 is empty I’ll be posting the tank, stand, canopy, sump, return pumps, and filter roller for sale. I’d love to keep the filter roller but the sump doesn’t have room for one which is a bummer.
I’ll be posting pictures of each stage so enjoy the ride!

 

[diana a]

Congratulations!!!

 

[Jamie S]

Congratulations!!!

Thank you!

 

[Jamie S]

So with the help of a few friends, a pallet jack, and a lift cart the tank is finally in place in its new location. We moved the tank into a different room so I can get this set up and then move the inhabitants from the 2 tanks into this one. That will probably happen this weekend so I will have to find time to build a controller board in between softball practices and playoff games.

 

[diana a]

Very nice!

How difficult was it to get it all leveled? I have got to imagine it’s very heavy. I was looking at the IM 150 but my floor is uneven in the back and right side floor of the tank spot. To move the tank on and off would be hard on me

 

[Jamie S]

Very nice!

How difficult was it to get it all leveled? I have got to imagine it’s very heavy. I was looking at the IM 150 but my floor is uneven in the back and right side floor of the tank spot. To move the tank on and off would be hard on me

Fortunately I'm on a slab and it was dead level when we put it on, I was very relieved. I believe the tank dry is 500lbs and took three of us (with occasional help from my wife) about 2 1/2 hours to get it from my garage to the back of the house, through the slider and into the room. We had to turn it onto it's side when we rolled it onto the lift cart to get it through the slider. Then when we lifted it to the height of the stand we had to "roll" it onto the stand. Having the tank 3' in the air and doing this was very stressful, especially when the cart began to slide lol

 

[kabal2]

Congratulations, that is a big jump from the 120, any idea on what lights and skimmer will you be using?

 

[diana a]

What is a lift cart?

 

[Jamie S]

It's a hydraulic lift table. The one i borrowed from work has a 400lb capacity and with the tank being approximately 500lbs I was nervous but it lifted the tank with ease. Another issue is that the table was only about 30" long and the tank is 6' long so I had to strap a couple of 6' 1x6's to the cart with a moving blanket on top to protect the glass. I did cause the cart to want to tip forward so I had to hold it down the entire time. Needless to say i was very relieved to have pulled it off without a scratch. I wanted to take more pictures but that didn't happen.

 

[Jamie S]

Congratulations, that is a big jump from the 120, any idea on what lights and skimmer will you be using?

Thank you! I'm very excited to get it wet and yes it is a big jump. Similar width and height, just 30" deep opposed to the 120 only being 18" deep. I have 3xReeFi Uno 2.0's which I love along with a 61" aquatic life hybrid T5 light that I will be moving from the 120. Right now I have a lot of par but i know I will need more spread as the coral grow. I have a reef octopus 150int currently in the 120 I plan on moving over and will eventually upgrade if i see my nutrients start to creep up. I do plan on adding more fish so I'm expecting my bioload to eventually increase.

 

[Jamie S]

And she’s wet! So far I am absolutely loving it! But I do know this is the cleanest it will ever be . Bought a purple tang Sunday on sale from Michael’s in NY. Shipped it was just $150 and huge, about 4-5”. Still have some cleaning up to do and a few more pieces of equipment to move.

 

[Jamie S]

It’s been a while since an update. The only negative to the tank is that a did mysteriously lose my bangaii cardinal. I don’t know what happened everything seemed ok in the tank I just happened to notice one day he wasn’t there. There is a bit more aptasia in the tank than I would prefer but I did buy some cleaner shrimp and tiny berghia last month and I’m not sure if I’ve seen a difference yet but it definitely hasn’t gotten worse so that’s a plus. Coral are definitely growing which is a first for me because I’ve had many struggles in the past. With the windows open the last month and a half and the rise in PH, alkalinity consumption has gone up so I take that as a good sign. I’ve added around 30 new coral in the last month and I have to start getting rid of some coral that broke during the upgrade so I’ll probably be posting them soon. Enjoy some pics I’ve taken recently

 

[Jamie S]

My recent SBB order

 

[Jamie S]

More SBB

 

[mnat]

Tank looks really nice, are you dosing or running a calcium reactor?

 

[Jamie S]

Tank looks really nice, are you dosing or running a calcium reactor?

Thank you, right now I'm dosing 85ml/day BRS balling 2 part and 5ml of acropower/ day as well. I may look at calcium reactors during black friday. I know everyone says they are easy to set up but i still find it somewhat intimidating lol

 

[diana a]

I know everyone says they are easy to set up but i still find it somewhat intimidating lol

Me too

 

[mnat]

I just had Brian at reefco setup a new one for me so I took the guess work out of it. I am extremely happy with it though, my old one was not run off a controller or anything and we just adjusted it via the bubble counter. Now I have the hydros controller and a PH probe and that is how we set and monitor it. Makes it much easier and after getting it dialed in a bit we are very happy with it.

 

[Jamie S]

That's awesome. Which one did you get? How big is your system? What were you dosing before? sorry for so many questions lol. I have an APEX and an extra PH probe so I'd connect it to that.

 

[DEL]

Thank you, right now I'm dosing 85ml/day BRS balling 2 part and 5ml of acropower/ day as well. I may look at calcium reactors during black friday. I know everyone says they are easy to set up but i still find it somewhat intimidating lol

I run the avast marine cal rx. Not many have it, but quality and easy to setup. Plus easy to get parts for it. Been running since the tank was setup. All I change is media once it gets low, and refill co2 bottle. Nothing else.