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Late to the party Lagoon


nolanrob123

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nolanrob123

Good afternoon everybody. For so many months I have been following your innovative marine lagoons. I finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago and picked mine up. I really hope to be able to scape and build mine to match your tanks. If anything it is fun just to be back in the hobby. Please tell me your thoughts on my layout and light position. I have the A160WE overhead and have switched out the baskets to inTank with chemipure, carbon, filter floss and am planning on phosban. I only want 2 fish so there will not be a large bio load. I want a skimmer but haven't found one yet that would be discrete. This tank has such beautiful simple lines that I would love to keep it that way. I will be doing weekly 5 gallon water changes to compensate. I do plan on making it a mixed reef as my last one. Any thoughts on me keeping a mangrove with the light in this position or should I pass on it and just enjoy viewing it in you lads and ladies tanks? Thank you for any input or advice. I'm looking forward to sharing with you guys!

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Sweet.. another thread worth folowing! tunze 9001 for the skimmer IMO mine is set with the cap just visible, and my water level is an inch higher than recommended.. perfect start on the tank

 

Congrats! you will love it...

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nolanrob123

Thank you so much! Can you post a picture of it in your tank? I'm getting very excited. Checked the parameters today and ammonia is at 2 and nitrite 1. 0 nitrates. Ph seems low at 7.8 but that is to be expected this early.

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just click the 25 dragonet link in my signature.. it shows it and a little about the MOD needed

 

in your pic, if that's your water level, the cap will be flush..

but you either need to split down low off the pump, or add 2 and run straight up (which I did) it's all in my build

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with only 2 fish, you either wouldn't need a skimmer, or less on the water change IMO.

putting two giant frogfish in there?

 

my GF wanted sexy shrimp n other fufu stuff... pfft*

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nolanrob123

That is a lot less exposed than I was thinking. Probably will go with that once I get heavy in sps again. I guess it will depend on the water measurements later on. Only thinking of adding a yellow tang and nurse shark anyway.....kidding, kidding. I want to add a YWG and either a true perc or ocellaris clown. I wish I could do a Midas Blenny but the tank is far too small. Instead I may swap the YWG for a bicolor Blenny. I'm not going to lie though, sexy shrimp are so cool, even though they are fufu. My only worry would be you buy it only to watch it disappear in seconds and never see it. Those guys are so small. I will be adding a small handful of other color guys to keep it active. Like a cleaner shrimp, cucumber or feather duster. I would also like a nice clam, but I remember with my old tank I had one that started out the size of a quarter, and ended up 8". It was a calcium beast. But gosh are they beautiful. Thanks for the input guys!

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I have a bicolor, and firefish.. they don't bother the shrimp at all

I also have an ultra maxima... does well, and the main reason I do a 25% WC weekly

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nolanrob123

Thank you! I want it to just feel natural. Something I forgot how hard it is to achieve. Seeing you guys tanks is real inspiration though. I also forgot how hard it is to wait for things :D

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nolanrob123

So I need some help from you guys. Do you have any advice on how to position your power heads? I am a few weeks into the tank and the water is still cloudy. I can turn the pumps off and it clears up in a few hours. I used the caribsea agri alive Fiji pink live sand. I have never used it before. Should I vacuum the sand to get the extra fine sediment out, adjust the power heads or just let it cycle and wait?

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powerheads? or the tank cycle pump?

 

you shouldn't need powerheads in the tank right now..

use the filter socks that came with it, and just run the regular tank pump. i'm guessing you have way too much flow if you are running a powerhead.. mine is stocked with plenty of wavy things to absorb and distribute the flow..

 

also, the sand is the same I have in mine, and the 2 eheim 600's were too much at first

 

when you get a buildup of life in the sand, it will bind together and not float around so easy.. turn the powerheads off and enjoy the tank, adding flow slowly

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nolanrob123

Right on. I should clarify. Not really additional power heads, but the ones that came with the tank. The two return nozzles. They aren't aimed down towards the sand either. I also thought it may be a bacterial bloom but you can see particulate floating about if you look closely. I will see by tomorrow and post a picture if possible.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys. Just a small update. Not a whole lot to report on other than the parameters are great. Added a ponape birds nest and a pink birds nest. Little clown is really happy with his tank mate the cleaner shrimp. Our son has named the fish dinky and the shrimp Piere.

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  • 10 months later...
nolanrob123

Having a hard time updating this. I was very sad because I lost a watchman goby. I couldn't find him anywhere. I just figured he passed away and became one with the sand. 3 months later by chance I was looking in the back chamber, and beneath the overflow area he was under there! After a rescue mission we recovered him. 3 months he lived in the back. Unreal. Moving on, things are progressing. As always there are challenges. I battled algae, aiptasia, montipora eating nudibranch you name it. I decided to purchase a controller for the kessil and it's probably the best thing I've done yet. So glad I did. I feel like I had to power levels too high and I was killing the sps. I will add more later. The guys at kessil are so great at advice. They have me the recommended settings based on the photos I sent them and setup. So thankful.  I'm finally on top of the tank again. These photos are a little old and things have grown more since then but give me your thoughts. I would also like to have some birdsnest or branching sps. Can you give any recommendations guys?

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Looks great so far, glad the goby was just a false alarm! I think you're off in the right direction, I may only have one suggestion for you. I purchased this tank because I love the depth of it, maybe consider trying to play with that a bit more? A small island toward the front to break things up perhaps?

 

Excited to see where this goes!

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burtbollinger

Classy set up.  Clean and tasteful.

 

keep that GSP isolated.  I'd full separate it and use it to provide depth...as well as most of the green color in the tank.  

 

id look into monipora digitata and maybe a purple or rainbow stylophora or something.

 

careful not to overload on green corals.  Make all your corals count.  Blasts of orange, pink, red, yellow...You have limited space.

 

also maybe look into some nice chalices.  I'm a big fan of: Mummy eye, Miami Hurricane, WWC Kingpin, Pink Boobies.

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nolanrob123
9 hours ago, schgr.cube said:

Looks great so far, glad the goby was just a false alarm! I think you're off in the right direction, I may only have one suggestion for you. I purchased this tank because I love the depth of it, maybe consider trying to play with that a bit more? A small island toward the front to break things up perhaps?

 

Excited to see where this goes!

Thank you very much. I had them separated for a while but was having problems with dead spots. Then I did try a small island in the front but it seemed crowded. I was inspired by an open tank by one of the members here. Feels very relaxed. 

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nolanrob123
7 hours ago, burtbollinger said:

Classy set up.  Clean and tasteful.

 

keep that GSP isolated.  I'd full separate it and use it to provide depth...as well as most of the green color in the tank.  

 

id look into monipora digitata and maybe a purple or rainbow stylophora or something.

 

careful not to overload on green corals.  Make all your corals count.  Blasts of orange, pink, red, yellow...You have limited space.

 

also maybe look into some nice chalices.  I'm a big fan of: Mummy eye, Miami Hurricane, WWC Kingpin, Pink Boobies.

I'm so glad you said the rainbow stylo, its next on my list as well as pink mille. Just waiting for the right ones to come along. The tank is finally stable after about a year going now. I'm not as gifted as some of you with your beautiful tanks, just trying to get there slowly. 

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Christopher Marks
On 8/2/2017 at 8:34 PM, nolanrob123 said:

I was very sad because I lost a watchman goby. I couldn't find him anywhere. I just figured he passed away and became one with the sand. 3 months later by chance I was looking in the back chamber, and beneath the overflow area he was under there! After a rescue mission we recovered him. 3 months he lived in the back. Unreal

That's an amazing story, wow! I dig your system setup.

 

How long have you had the mangrove in there? It looks like it's developing some roots, are the roots starting to branch wide in the shallow sand?

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nolanrob123
20 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

That's an amazing story, wow! I dig your system setup.

 

How long have you had the mangrove in there? It looks like it's developing some roots, are the roots starting to branch wide in the shallow sand?

Thank you very much! I'm so glad to be back in it full time. I went about 2 years out and it was tough. 

 

I have had the mangrove about 6 months. The legs really took off. Over the past few days it's sprouted a new set of leaves. Very quick too. I had to trim it back since it was getting taller than the light.

 

I found this picture of the night I discovered our friend. He can be seen right in the middle. That is actually a piece of glass above him. I cannot for the life of me figure out why there is this cave in the back. No telling. 

 

I hope to one day be back where I was before I got out but I know it takes a long time to stabilize the tank and keep that natural balance. 

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I was able to snap a photo of the little escapee. He's fattened up quite a bit since he got back in the good side. 

 

He was bery shy shy at first and would swim away and hide when you would just walk by. Now he's out in the open most of the time and eats from your hand. 

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