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Najay's IM 25 - Man Cave Lagoon v2.0


Najay343

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I have learned a lot of lessons now on my third build in over a year and a half. Decided to finally go with an AIO. I love the dimensions of the IM 25 Lagoon tank and was especially a fan of its filtration. Going back to my first build I have documented on NR, having a sump in my first custom set up, I had many issues with overflow, flow in general and the draining into the sump. My second custom build had no sump, I had a hang on the back refuge which held my skimmer, reactor, heater and filtration. This was compact and made every day maintenance like cleaning a filter sock a huge pain. It was also very hard to clean as I had to completely disassemble it. Ultimately I believe my poor understanding of biopellets lead to an overwhelming algae problem that took this tank to the point of no return. I moved my LR, sand and Live Stock into my 14gal biocube while I planned out my next attempt at a shallow lagoon setup. This hobby is not one you just throw a couple hundred bucks into and hope it works out which was an oversight of mine getting into it. I believe I am finally set in all areas of equipment needed. My new build includes the following equipment.

 

Innovative Marine 25 Lagoon Tank

JBJ 24x20x36 Stand

 

Nanobox Duo w/ gooseneck

Black Ai Prime HD w/ Mount

Kessil A150W w/ mounting arm + LED UV light w/ gooseneck

 

x3 Sicce MicraPlus 158 GPH Pumps. (two for return, one for Phosban 150 DIY Macro Reactor)

x2 Sicce MicraPlus 158 GPH Pumps. (one for return, one for Phosban 150)

 

Duel desktop filter socks with Chemi-pure blue for filtration

IM Desktop Reactor w/ Carbon

Phosban 150 DIY Macro Media Reactor

Phosban 150 Reactor with BRS GFO

IM Desktop Reactor w/ Biopellets

BRS Mini Reactor with Carbon/GFO Mix mounted to back of stand

 

IM Ghost Desktop Skimmer

Tunze 9001 Protein Skimmer

 

Fluval E100 Heater

JBJ Nano Glo LED grow light for Macro in filtration chamber

 

RO Buddie - 50GPD

Aquaforest Reef Salt

25 LBS of Reef Saver Dry rock

20 LBS FIJI Pink Arag-Alive Live Reef Sand

 

914558_1773400819550433_632416006_n.jpg?

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Well it wasn't exactly what I was looking for but I made due with what BRS was able to find for me. I do have tons of hiding places for my bashful clowns. I did get the scape to peak out of the top a little which is good. Its a little off center so I am gonna try and balance out with the Mangroves on the left side of the tank. Most everything arrived yesterday, everything except my damn stand so everything is in holding pattern until I have my stand here, assembled and in position. Frustrating.

 

 

 

 

Cycling I am going to go the Ammonia route. Any advice on how much ammonia to dose for a 25 Gallon? rock is not cured. I am using arag-alive sand though.

 

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#ToxicTank

 

Today, 3/3/16, I got my salinity and pH at the right level and added 5mL of Ammonia. This is 1mL per 5 gal. Is this an appropriate dose to use? Do I need to add it more than once or just get it to a peak level and let the cycle do its thing?

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5mL was WAY too much Ammonia. I tested within 30 minutes and was off the API chart 2 or 3 shades darker than the darkest reading on the key card. I finally found some forums after the fact, people suggest adding drop by drop to attain 5-6ppm. Well, complicated thing about that is the API test kit only shows 4ppm then 8ppm with minimal color change between the two. Anyway, I did a quick 3 gallon RO water change and now it reads right at 8ppm. Gonna let it ride.

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Day Two of my Cycle. Ammonia is still at 8+ppm. I do have a low level nitrite reading. Added a cap full of bio-spira. It I plan on testing the system a few times with lower level ammonia spikes before adding the fish.

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Cencalfishguy56

Day Two of my Cycle. Ammonia is still at 8+ppm. I do have a low level nitrite reading. Added a cap full of bio-spira. It I plan on testing the system a few times with lower level ammonia spikes before adding the fish.

This is way sexy
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This is way sexy

Have you used this method? this is first time using pure ammonia. biggest fear is starting a huge algae problem before I even have anything in the tank. Obviously diatom bloom sucks...

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Cencalfishguy56

Have you used this method? this is first time using pure ammonia. biggest fear is starting a huge algae problem before I even have anything in the tank. Obviously diatom bloom sucks...

I used this method to seed my dry rock in a bucket and it worked, i only see you having algae problems due to using live sand, I'm using dry sand and dry rock so maybe diatoms if anything
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Approaching the end of week 1. Most recent test showed ammonia at 8ppm, nitrite at 5ppm and nitrate at 180ppm. Maxed out the entire api chart. I ended up doing a 12 gallon water change that day. After the water change Ammonia was at 2ppm, nitrite still at 5ppm and didn't take nitrate. I could only assume 80ish ppm. Within 12 hours, ammonia was at 0ppm, nitrite was still around 5ppm. Assuming all the ammonia is finally gone I would suspect when I check tomorrow ammonia and nitrite will both be at 0ppm. Pending on how high the nitrate is, I'm going to dose 0.25-0.50ppm of ammonia into the tank and if it is 0ppm in 12 hours, I will do a large water change, enough to get nitrate down to 10ppm and add the two clowns and what corals I have. Feeling pretty excited.

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Ammonia 0ppm

Nitrite 0ppm

Nitrate 0ppm

 

I did dose 0.5 mL of ammonia to bring the ammonia to 1.5ppm. As long as the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm by the same time tomorrow I will add the fish.

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Tested this morning, roughly 12 hours later. Ammonia is less than 0.25ppm, Nitrite is less than 4ppm. Today I am figuring out how to mount my BRS mini reactor to the back of my stand. I am going to set up a photo-bucket account tonight so I can add all of the pictures of my set up. Will be completely operational today except for my ghost skimmer, macro algae (unless I find some today) and I purchased a LED UV light, I received the bulb but have yet to receive the gooseneck for it. Using the UV with my Kessil A150W Ocean it really makes my corals pop.

 

May add some snails/hermits tonight. Don't know about the fish yet just because I am super cautious from previous experiences. Work a 24 at the Fire Station tomorrow so I may just hold off on adding fish until tuesday when I know I will be home all day and my missing equipment will have arrived.

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Not going as planned. Massive power outage. Over 200,000 without power. Going on about 16 hours now, expected to be out for another 24 minimum. I had my generator on for most of it thus far. Getting ready to go to work for 24hrs. Little stressful. Hopefully generator will last most the day until gf gets home from work.

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Well it has been one day since I moved my live stock into the new tank. The fish seem happy and the corals didn't even seem phased. I had a little trouble with the pH. Got it to 8.0 after adding pH buffer and Baking soda. Nothing seems affected by it though. You can kind of get a feel of my set up from my pictures. I ended up changing to the BRS Mini reactor. I mounted it to the back of the stand. The hoses are kind of an eye sore. I change my chamber #1 into a chato macro chamber with a JBJ glow light and chamber #2 has my IM ghost desktop skimmer. My BRS Mini reactor is a Carbon/GFO mix. It draws out of the return pool in the rear middle and pumps back into the same. Very satisfied. Hopefully I am better prepared for an algae outbreak this time around with better control on nitrates and phosphates. My lack of knowledge using bio-pellets was to blame.

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PODS?

I had a credit through AquariumDepot so I went ahead and used it to get some Pods and Chato. I was mainly interested in the Chato for my new tank and because of their very slow shipping I ended up getting some Chato from a local shop. Anyway the pods and Chato arrived. These pods are massive. I have had natural spawning pods in a previous tank that were tiny and all over the glass but these suckers are huge. I went ahead and put them and the Chato in the 14 bio cube I just moved everything out of. It seemed to be having a huge algae problem so their is plenty of food for the pods. Anything I should do to ensure they survive and populate. I would like to use them as a food source for now on and dose them into my main system weekly. There is nothing in the old take they are in except sand, LR, snails and some hermits. Lots of algae.

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AquariumDepot is just the old Reefs2Go rebranded because they gotten so much bad publicity to their old name. Everyone hates them. For pods, they are probably ok but don't ever order corals from them. Better yet, just dont order from them ever again. If the pods are huge, they could be amphipods which are known to eat zoas.

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AquariumDepot is just the old Reefs2Go rebranded because they gotten so much bad publicity to their old name. Everyone hates them. For pods, they are probably ok but don't ever order corals from them. Better yet, just dont order from them ever again. If the pods are huge, they could be amphipods which are known to eat zoas.

That makes sense. Thanks for the info. Yea they have not been good to me thus far. I still have $20 worth of credit to use. May wait till I need some snails or something.

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5 days since stocking the new tank. I did not do a water change before adding the stock. It was 0ammonia 0nitrite and 5nitrate. Since adding livestock, today the results are 8.0pH, 0ammonia, 0nitrite, and 0 or undetectable nitrate with test kit. I have quite a bit of macro-algae in my tank. Seeing as there is no need for a water change is it necessary to still do them as often? I am starting to get some diatoms on the sand and rock-work so i moved three hermits and a couple of snails over from the old tank.

 

Today I added a small cleaner shrimp and a small .75" six line wrasse. The bigger clown is already a little territorial. Plan on having no more than 5 fish in the tank (one per 5 gallons). Would really like to add a mandarin, some fire fish, or a tang of some sort. I am also wanting to add a few mangroves to the tank. Feel like their isn't enough nitrate or nutrients left over from my macro for them to survive right now though. my skimmer has been running for 5 days and has produced anything. The little bit of liquid that was in the skimmer was crystal clear. Anyway, I think things are going pretty good. Corals are all fully open, macro is visibly growing, larger clown had a couple stress spots today, not worried about it as s/he has had them before and they went away in a day or two, may be because of my gf doesn't feed as often or as much when I am away at work but i made sure s/he ate a healthy amount today and added the cleaner shrimp. The clown is acting completely normal though. Will try and post pics of tank soon.

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Today my big clown is its normal self. No more stress spots. New wrasse is a little bashful. Doesn't help the bigger clown is already a little territorial. The wrasse spent the first day and night in a crevice of a rock. Today, it swam around a little. Still being antagonized by the clown. Hoping they become friends soon.

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2 Weeks Post Cycle (WPS)

 

Added two mangroves. I have 5, but the roots are too tangled to all go in the tank. i may need 5-10 more lbs of sand...image_zpskytua2ly.jpeg

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  • 1 month later...
reefernanoman

I have learned a lot of lessons now on my third build in over a year and a half. Decided to finally go with an AIO. I love the dimensions of the IM 25 Lagoon tank and was especially a fan of its filtration. Going back to my first build I have documented on NR, having a sump in my first custom set up, I had many issues with overflow, flow in general and the draining into the sump. My second custom build had no sump, I had a hang on the back refuge which held my skimmer, reactor, heater and filtration. This was compact and made every day maintenance like cleaning a filter sock a huge pain. It was also very hard to clean as I had to completely disassemble it. Ultimately I believe my poor understanding of biopellets lead to an overwhelming algae problem that took this tank to the point of no return. I moved my LR, sand and Live Stock into my 14gal biocube while I planned out my next attempt at a shallow lagoon setup. This hobby is not one you just throw a couple hundred bucks into and hope it works out which was an oversight of mine getting into it. I believe I am finally set in all areas of equipment needed. My new build includes the following equipment.

 

Innovative Marine 25 Lagoon Tank

JBJ 24x20x36 Stand

Kessil A150W w/ mounting arm + LED UV light w/ gooseneck

Duel desktop filter socks with Chemi-pure blue for filtration

IM Desktop Reactor w/ Biopellets BRS Mini Reactor with Carbon/GFO Mix mounted to back of stand (figured out Biopellets were causing more harm than good in my previous system)

Tunze 9001 Protein Skimmer IM Ghost Desktop Skimmer (Tunze 9001 does not fit in tank without modification and I have had a good experience with IM Ghost Midsize in previous tank)

Smart ATO Micro - AutoAqua

Fluval E100 Heater

JBJ Nano Glo LED grow light for Macro in filtration chamber

RO Buddie - 50GPD

Aquaforest Reef Salt

25 LBS of Reef Saver Dry rock

20 LBS FIJI Pink Arag-Alive Live Reef Sand

 

914558_1773400819550433_632416006_n.jpg?

 

image_zpsm81pn03w.png?1458433484407&1458

Very nice! I love both of my AIO tanks. I think that you made a good decision.

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