aggressive lagoon

[hobogato]

after a short break from the hobby (sold off everything in june), i have decided to get back in with a new adventure. it is a 150 gallon tall rimless tank that will be all biological filtration. it will even be lit by sunlight from solar tubes.

i will be growing all kinds of macro algae and some mangroves for now. in a couple of months i will be looking for some captive raised S. bandensis to add. down the road i will keep some lower light corals and possible a clam or two.

here is my progress so far:

stand i built to match other furniture in our house- only 20" tall

brought the tank home yesterday

added DSB and water as well as molding to finish it out

this morning the water was nice and clear thanks to my home made water clearer upper - that plastic container with a powerhead and some foam

here it is after adding the 100 or so pounds of LR - water clouded up a bit again

 

[nitro4kthompson]

Unique idea. I'll tag along to see how this goes.

 

[hobogato]

it is a combination of a few things i have done on a few different systems - hopefully it will work well.....

i added a couple of mangroves and a little macroalgae and a couple more small pieces of liverock. i am gonna add one more mangrove some other types of macroalgae - especially the two red ones.

since the water is nice and clear now, here are a couple of pics

 

[nitro4kthompson]

Nice update pics. I really like the rockwork. I look forward to seeing it progress.

 

[Koshmar]

Are you worried about the cuttles jutting into the LR and getting butt burn? I remember when I had LR with my bandensis I would never see him. He just clung to the rocks all day and came out at night to sit in the sand.

 

[hobogato]

when i had them before, they stayed out much of the time, and when they went into the rock, it was never in a panic. i did raise them from very young hatchlings tho, so maybe they were more used to being in the tank because of that.

 

[the real fishman]

very nice setup. love the aqua scaping
ill definetly tag along for this

what are the dimensions of the tank?
you said you have biological filtration. excuse my stupidity but does that mean you will only rely on the LR and water changes to maintain water quality?

 

[hobogato]

the tank is 48"x24"x28.5" tall. it has a deep sand bed, 100lbs of liverock and will have three mangroves (eventually can grow 4' tall) and lots of macroalgae to filter the water. will aslo weekly 5gallon water changes and run carbon overnight once every week or two to keep the water from turning green.

 

[hobogato]

ok, had to redo the rocks a bit as i glued them in place. also added three mangroves and several species of macroalgae yesterday. today, i added two recessed halogen lights for night time viewing when necessary

the tank

the new lights - still have some finish work to do on the ceiling

the tank at night

 

[Koshmar]

It looks amazing. Post pics when the cuttles are in.

 

[hobogato]

i will, but it will probably be at least 6 weeks - i want to make sure the tank has fully cycled and is stable.

 

[aquavista99]

Great job on your new system, hobogato! I followed some of your SPS threads in the past. Looking forward to the cuttle additions as well.

 

[JStraz4991]

that is amazing really nice rock work to

 

[hobogato]

thanks for the comments

just finished adding in some stuff from a local reefcleaners group order, so i thought i would snap a quick pic

 

[usefulidiot213]

Looks really cool, and very different from what I normally see. I will tag along for this epic ride..

 

[barnett8]

Tagging along. Also, you might want to move the mangroves on the bottom up a little, I'm pretty sure tat they will die when completely submerged.

 

[mesamech]

Great concept! I'll tag along too.

 

[hobogato]

Tagging along. Also, you might want to move the mangroves on the bottom up a little, I'm pretty sure tat they will die when completely submerged.

i had heard that they would do ok like that, but i went ahead and moved em up to be sure

 

[hobogato]

got my LED lights in to replace the halogen bulbs i had in the recessed lights

here are the bulbs

here is a comparison shot

i will take a pic of the tank in a while when the light is gone from the sky lights.

 

[hobogato]

here it is - not really happy with the lights.

they are bright enough, but the light is too spread out - doesnt focus on the tank enough. found some more on ebay that are twice as bright and supposed to be spot lights - we shall see....