New Tank (IM 25 Lagoon Ext)

[manderx]

so i'm finally back and serious with my tank...i know nobody is really watching this forum anymore, but i wanted to post it anyway just as a place to document it.

got an IM 25 gallon lagoon ext (external overflow box, not the false-wall AIO version). it's a very-very-very cool tank, 24x20 footprint. tho once i got the rock in, i started wishing it was just a couple inches taller to give corals room to grow, but i'll worry about that when i get there. i really like not getting my whole arm wet anytime i want to mess with it.

i acid washed the rock, just to exfoliate years of mistreatment and start fresh (it had been dry for years anyway). i got a bottle of the purple helix 'coralline in a bottle' to seed it, but it'll be a few weeks before that shows if it worked or not. the packaging and documentation was very well done, didn't feel like a bottle of snake oil.

the light right now is a kessil 360. still working on modifying a shade for it to block the light spray (per the significant other's request). once i get it figured out i'll add my kessil 160 just to fill shadows.

sump is just a regular 10g glass tank. it just barely fits under the stand (the APS aluminum IM stand).

i got some smart powerstrips for it, so i can setup timers and turn outlets on/off from my phone. and a friend just gave me an old alexa dot, which integrated effortlessly so now i can just say 'alexa, turn return pump off'. pretty neat. great stuff for when my hands are wet before i realize i need to turn pumps off.

 

[sam.basye]

Nice little tank [emoji1303]

Looking forward to seeing it fill in!

 

[manderx]

tank update

still haven't bothered to glue corals to rocks (thinking of restacking), but coralline has exploded and just recently the corals perked up and started growing. of course i changed 10 things at once, so no idea what exactly made it happier .

ultimate has a new $10 frag tank, i picked up some sps from that as test pieces and they are doing fantastic.

biggest change was i went from a small skimmer (aquamaxx nano) and aggressive fuge to relatively big skimmer (nyos 120) and no fuge. my nitrates/phosphates where undetectable on salifert, now i'm barely reading traces on both tests and things are *much* happier. trying to get n/p up just a little more even. i love the nyos, it just started skimming right off, no break-in (tho that could just mean my water was that nasty to begin with) and it's almost silent. with the stand doors closed, the fans on my kessils are louder.

i'm mostly using b-ionic for calcium/alk, but i sub in a dose of tropic-marin bio-calcium once or twice a week. once im out of biocalcium im going to try their carbo-calcium or maybe all-4-reef (same thing plus traces). been seeing good things about it, and it looks like it's doing good things for ultimate's sps.

im lightly dosing amino acids, alternating between tlf acro-power and aquavitro fuel. the fuel especially (amino+traces and stuff) seemed to jump-start growth on some things back when i suspect the fuge was stripping my water. dunno if it was because it was aminos specifically, or just nutrients.

I'm also dosing vibrant. i don't have an algae problem, but wanted to start some bacterial supplements just as preventative maintenance and to beef up the overall microbial activity. dunno if it was the vibrant or the bigger skimmer, but my water is *much* clearer now and the gravel is cleaner. it's probably the clearest water i've ever seen in any of my tanks over the years. i'm totally sold on it. more than happy to share some doses with anyone local if you want to try it.

i got an IM mini-maxi media reactor to try biopellets. not for nutrient reduction (im trying to increase nutrients, so not even 1/4 dose), but to feed microbes to in turn feed corals. even with it wide open, it's not tumbling the media, tho i think i can mod it a little to fix it. i already sealed where it was leaking around the flow diffusor plate and that helped, now i think i need to make a few of the pinholes bigger. and i'd love to find a new lid for it, it's made of stinky rubber. smells like a tire-fire.


i originally had a small sailfin and tried to add a tiny tomini. the sailfin instantly *tore* into the tomini. so i separated them, eventually got the sailfin down into the fuge for a month then re-introduced. they are doing just fine with each other now. tomini just needed enough 'i was here first' confidence to stand up to the sailfin.

 

[Chemguy85]

Looks great Matt


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