Nuvo 25 Lagoon Build

[nuvo25lagoon]

Hello!

 

I decided to start a thread for my new build. My wife and I bought our first home a month ago, and decided it was time to have a clean start. I have an old 34 gallon Solana that is still running at our old roommates house, that I will bringing over some items from. The Solana was just looking dated so I wanted to start over.

Here is what I have so far:
Tank: Innovative Marine 25 Lagoon 24" wide by 20" deep (17' inside) by 12" tall. 

Rock: Walt Smith 2.1 Reef Rock
Heater: Cant remember right now. WIll update
Pump: Sicce 1.5

Flow: MP10wQD
Media Basket: 2x Custom Caddy 20

Light: XR15w
Stand: Custom
ATO: Autoaqua Smart ATO

Extra: Reeflink to control my powerhead and lights

[nuvo25lagoon]

Lets take a look at the ReefRock 2.1 from Walt Smith. I had plenty of live rock from my Solana, but most were larger pieces. I believe im going to go bare bottom, and want to have a minimalist look.

 

Here is a closer look at the rock. Not as porous as I was hoping, so hopefully this works out. 

 

I ordered the Mini-Nano series. I think it is great that they offer this, because it comes in much smaller pieces. This is what 11lbs of this rock looks like. I did a quick unboxing and review here 

 

 

 

[nuvo25lagoon]

Time to build the stand! My wife told me if I wanted to keep the tank downstairs, it needed to have a stand with clean lines, and look nice. The stand that was made for this tank was $300, So I decided to build my own. 

 

I did a basic design I found online for the tank

.

 

I added a small shelf in there, and used some plywood for the bottom. I decided to use MDF for the paneling on the outside. I know MDF does not do well with water, but since i am using it for decorative purposes, I thought it would be ok. If they do warp in the future, I can always pull them off and make something new. To finish the MDF, I primed, painted, sand, paint, etc etc, then sealed it. With lots of work you can get MDF to be as smooth as glass!

I started to play around with aquascaping. Even though I wanted a minimalist look, I don't think 11lbs will be enough. I have ordered more, and it should arrive on Monday.

[nuvo25lagoon]

The stand is done! It took about 6 hours of work to finish the panels, but I really think they turned out great. The left side panel pops out to have access underneath. 

 

Someone online told me my stand design was not strong enough, so I might be adding some additional support.

 

I started the cycle on Tuesday 3/8, and used Dr Tim's One and Only to help. In the past I had always done fishless cycle with raw shrimp, but thought id try something different this time. As of last night my parameters are:

 

 

Salinity: 1.026

Ammonia: .25ppm

Nitrite: 10-15ppm (Who knows this actual number. The colors on the test kit are so similar I cant tell)

Nitrate: 10ppm

 

 

I was thinking about doing a water change to get the Nitrites down, but have heard so many conflicting opinions on water changes during a cycle. What do you guys think?

 

[burtbollinger]

looks great so far.  hit me up if you have any unused rock...I could use a chunk or two.

 

no water change during cycle.

[wazupjames]

Tank looks great, stand looks great - Nice job.

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @nuvo25lagoon! This is a nice build, you're off to a great beginning.

 

The stand is very sharp, the finish on the MDF turned out great, that must have taken some patience. Adding extra support to the stand wouldn't hurt, is the top framed just like the bottom? The middle shelf supports increased the rigidity of the frame on the sides, is there a shelf support board running between the two posts at the back of the stand as well? If not, adding some sort of cross bracing to the back seems important. Covering the back with a sheet of plywood screwed to the frame would work as well. Imagine someone trying to push against the tank from the left or right side, it needs to be braced against that force.

 

Hold off on a water change, you want the nitrites to spike during the cycle, it's part of the process. 

[nuvo25lagoon]

2 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Welcome to the community @nuvo25lagoon! This is a nice build, you're off to a great beginning.

 

The stand is very sharp, the finish on the MDF turned out great, that must have taken some patience. Adding extra support to the stand wouldn't hurt, is the top framed just like the bottom? The middle shelf supports increased the rigidity of the frame on the sides, is there a shelf support board running between the two posts at the back of the stand as well? If not, adding some sort of cross bracing to the back seems important. Covering the back with a sheet of plywood screwed to the frame would work as well. Imagine someone trying to push against the tank from the left or right side, it needs to be braced against that force.

 

Hold off on a water change, you want the nitrites to spike during the cycle, it's part of the process. 

Thanks for the ideas! Yes the top is just like the bottom. I'm gonna see if I can manage to add some cross braces without having to empty the tank. 

 

My Nitries were off the charts for multiple days, and now tonight came back down to about .30 by themselves. Going to dose ammonia back up to 2ppm to see how fast it zeros out. 

 

[J-Ranko]

Nice job on the stand!  The smooth and shiny finish works really well with the tank.

 

[Christopher Marks]

Sounds like your cycle is processing well, with your nitrites coming down now, you should be seeing a continued increase in nitrates. Now that you've added more ammonia you'll just need ammonia and nitrites to hit zero and you should be good to go.

 

When reinforcing your stand, consider using metal bracing, perhaps Home Depot has something you can utilize.

[nuvo25lagoon]

1 hour ago, J-Ranko said:

Nice job on the stand!  The smooth and shiny finish works really well with the tank.

 

Thanks!

[Nart]

Awesome job! Can't wait to see the scaping once you are done.

I am trying to think of some rockscaping ideas for mine.

 

How's the stock pump working out for you? And will you be running any additional powerheads?

Any plans with upgrading the filtration?

[nuvo25lagoon]

2 hours ago, Nart said:

Awesome job! Can't wait to see the scaping once you are done.

I am trying to think of some rockscaping ideas for mine.

 

How's the stock pump working out for you? And will you be running any additional powerheads?

Any plans with upgrading the filtration?

Thanks!

 

I believe for the scape im going to do something similar to the doogans setup. His tank is my inspiration for my stand, and a lagoon tank.

I took out the stock pump and put in a Sicce 1.5. The new pump is a little more quite, but not as powerful as I was hoping. I might use the Sicce and the stock pump to raise the water line in the display. I have a MP10 pump for additional flow. For filtration, I bought 2 Customcady 20's. Im thinking floss-> marinepure-> Chemi pure blue nano in the media baskets.

 

Did your tank hold 17-18 gallons like I mentioned to you? (on Youtube)

Edit- I see you replied on Youtube. Yea I was thinking this tank was going to actually hold 25 gallons, when operational. It looks like if it was a bare cube with nothing inside that it might hold a true 25.

 

[Nart]

20 hours ago, nuvo25lagoon said:

Thanks!

 

I believe for the scape im going to do something similar to the doogans setup. His tank is my inspiration for my stand, and a lagoon tank.

I took out the stock pump and put in a Sicce 1.5. The new pump is a little more quite, but not as powerful as I was hoping. I might use the Sicce and the stock pump to raise the water line in the display. I have a MP10 pump for additional flow. For filtration, I bought 2 Customcady 20's. Im thinking floss-> marinepure-> Chemi pure blue nano in the media baskets.

 

Did your tank hold 17-18 gallons like I mentioned to you? (on Youtube)

Edit- I see you replied on Youtube. Yea I was thinking this tank was going to actually hold 25 gallons, when operational. It looks like if it was a bare cube with nothing inside that it might hold a true 25.

 

 

I am trying to stay away from having to use an additional powerhead in the display to keep everything as clean as possible.

I heard some folks use MJ1200 pumps, not sure if they are having to use additional poweheads though.

 

Yeah - so I did some exact measurements and found that, when almost brimmed to the top, it almost holds 20 gallon, with nothing in the tank.

I think, when it's all said and done, it will be 17 gals max.

 

slightly disappointed. but oh well, I still like the tank.

[nuvo25lagoon]

Looks like my cycle is almost done! Most nights I have been dosing ammonia to 2ppm. 

[Christopher Marks]

Pretty cool to see a cycle charted out like that! Are you using digital probes, or did you just input the data somewhere?

[nuvo25lagoon]

Just now, Christopher Marks said:

Pretty cool to see a cycle charted out like that! Are you using digital probes, or did you just input the data somewhere?

I'm using an iOS app called Aquarimate. It lets you input just about everything you would test for. Also lets keep track of your equipment for maintenance, and helps you with timelines to track growth of coral. 

[4x5]

Looking good. What are your plans for the tank? 

[Nart]

On March 21, 2017 at 2:52 PM, nuvo25lagoon said:

I'm using an iOS app called Aquarimate. It lets you input just about everything you would test for. Also lets keep track of your equipment for maintenance, and helps you with timelines to track growth of coral. 

Thanks for the app tip! I didn't know that ?

[nuvo25lagoon]

My tank finished cycling last week, so I decided to test the waters by adding a single Nerite snail. First day it seemed to be doing great, but then stopped moving. I test my water and everything looked good. The next day the snail seemed very lethargic, and on day 3 it was fully pulled in its shell. I received my InkBird temperature controller in the mail that same day, and plugged it up. Wow! My heater had been set at 78 degrees, and the temperature controller was showing my water was at 89 degrees. I cooked the little guy. 

 

If you're not ready to do a full controller I recommend picking one of these up! It was $35 on Amazon Prime, and pretty easy to set up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And to anyone else who has this tank, have you had an insane amount of microbubbles? I don't have my skimmer plugged in yet, but my water has an insane amount of micro bubbles. Looking in the front of the tank you can almost not see the back. Its all very milky white. I have checked my water level in the back, and the pump is fully submerged, and does not appear to be pulling in any air. Not sure where they are coming from. Any ideas?

[nuvo25lagoon]

 Transferred my coral from my old tank, to the new tank. Everything looks like it's doing well so far. 

[Nart]

Were you able to solve the microbubble issue?

 

Tank is looking great!

[nuvo25lagoon]

Just now, Nart said:

Were you able to solve the microbubble issue?

 

Tank is looking great!

Yea, looks like some air was getting in from the return heads. I tighten them as much as I could and that seemed to fix it. Now i'm running into another problem. 

 

I cycled with Dr Tim's one and only. This really sped things up. I would dose Ammonia to 2ppm, and I waited until it would breakdown from 2ppm Ammonia to 0 ammonia, and 0 Nitrites in 24 hours. I waited a few more days, and then transferred my corals and a few inverts.

 

Everything is looking great, but I tested last night and saw about 1ppm Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and 5 Nitrate. I'm assuming I increased the bioload too fast. I spoke with my LFS, and they suggested using Seachem Stability to help increase the bacteria. I know the bacteria doesn't live in the water, but for some reason i'm still hesitant about doing a large water change right now. Any ideas? 

[Nart]

Correct - looks like the bio-load was too much for it so soon.

 

I would personally use Prime and Stability for a week and continue to closely monitor any spikes with Ammonia and Nitrite.

Prime helps to detoxify both Ammonia and Nitrite for 48 hours and you can also safely dose up to 5 times the amount. So if you are 1PPM Ammonia, you would dose 1x Prime, if you have 2PPM Ammonia, you dose 2x the Prime, and so forth.

 

You can perform water changes, but I always found for me... it delayed my cycle.

Maybe, if it got to 2PPM Ammonia, then consider doing a water change and dose Prime?

 

Also - you transferred all your rocks over as well? How long has your old tank been up and running? Strange that you would get a spike with your old rocks in the new tank.

 

For me, I always run Matrix bio-media in the back. Which builds a solid BB colony and I don't run into issues like this. Also, if I needed to set-up a quick QT tank. I can rely on my bio-media instead of messing with any rocks from the display tank. Just a food for thought.

 

 

[flatlandreefer]

Everything is looking good!