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IM or waterbox??


Hannahhhh

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I’ve narrowed down my tank upgrade to either a water box AIO 28.2 frag tank or an innovative marine NUVO fusion pro 25 lagoon tank. 

For people experiences with either of these brands or these specific tanks, I’m wondering which one requires more regular maintenance. I currently have my fluval evo, and my weekly care routine is just topping off my tank, cleaning my glass, and sometimes doing water changes, I don’t want a tank that ends up being much higher maintenance. 

Thanks guys!

 

https://www.innovative-marine.com/product-page/nuvo-fusion-lagoon-25-gallon-aquarium-desktop

 

https://www.waterboxaquariums.com/product/silver-marine-aio-28-2-frag/

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Maintenance depends almost entirely upon what you keep, and how much of it. You should be cleaning out your filter area when it gets filthy, also, and swapping out your filter floss as needed. Beyond that, it's all on livestock. If you start keeping stony corals, you may need to dose calcium and soforth. If you have livestock that demands the cleanest possible water, that's more and larger water changes. If you have more livestock and therefore more waste, you'll also need more and larger water changes. 

Tank size, especially when they're that close, won't affect anything in this department. You may be able to keep very slightly more in the larger tank. 

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My vote (as usual) goes to the 25 Lagoon. I just love that tank. It has beautiful dimensions and the shallow depth makes it easy to work in. I also hope to own one someday. 😊

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3 hours ago, Tired said:

 

Tank size, especially when they're that close, won't affect anything in this department. You may be able to keep very slightly more in the larger tank. 

I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy to upgrade to a 25-30 gallon tank when I know in the long run I will want a much bigger one. I’m just a bit scared that if I get too big a tank that I might be biting off more than I can chew and overwhelmed and get burned out of reefing. It feels safer to increase tank size in small increments. 

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58 minutes ago, billygoat said:

My vote (as usual) goes to the 25 Lagoon. I just love that tank. It has beautiful dimensions and the shallow depth makes it easy to work in. I also hope to own one someday. 😊

I wish I could see each in person. I’ll check out my local stores and see if they carry them. I’m guessing they have the waterbox but boy the other one. 

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Maintenance on these should be pretty identical. The waterbox one does not come with a lid or pump so you will need to supply your own.

 

You could go bigger if that is what you really want. I think the main difference is you may need a larger water mixing station, costs increases, and you may have an increased need a doser, etc. There is certainly more more area in a larger tank to manually clean if something gets out of hand. 

 

 

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Upgrading incrementally is probably a good plan. You can always keep the smaller tank as a quarantine after you upgrade. Or, heck, just have two tanks. 

30 gallons isn't all that large. What I meant was, there's not going to be any significant difference between a 25 gallon and a 28 gallon tank, in terms of maintenance. Shape (and how easy things are to reach) could change something slightly. It's probably a good size- you should be able to keep a few fish in there, and you have plenty of room to scape, but water changes are still going to be relatively small (especially if you keep some macros to suck up nitrates) and it's not too large of a tank. It also happens to give plenty of room to get a tiger pistol shrimp, which I highly recommend- they'll pair easily with a variety of common watchman gobies, and they're active and bold enough that you should see yours sometimes, especially with a goby. 

It'd definitely be ideal to see both in person. If you can't, get or juryrig some boxes of the same size and dimensions to get an idea of what it looks like.

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51 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Maintenance on these should be pretty identical. The waterbox one does not come with a lid or pump so you will need to supply your own.

 

You could go bigger if that is what you really want. I think the main difference is you may need a larger water mixing station, costs increases, and you may have an increased need a doser, etc. There is certainly more more area in a larger tank to manually clean if something gets out of hand. 

 

 

Ooh I didn’t realize it didn’t come with a pump (not sure how I missed that...) Makes me lean towards the IM. 

 

49 minutes ago, Tired said:

Upgrading incrementally is probably a good plan. You can always keep the smaller tank as a quarantine after you upgrade. Or, heck, just have two tanks. 

30 gallons isn't all that large. What I meant was, there's not going to be any significant difference between a 25 gallon and a 28 gallon tank, in terms of maintenance. Shape (and how easy things are to reach) could change something slightly. It's probably a good size- you should be able to keep a few fish in there, and you have plenty of room to scape, but water changes are still going to be relatively small (especially if you keep some macros to suck up nitrates) and it's not too large of a tank. It also happens to give plenty of room to get a tiger pistol shrimp, which I highly recommend- they'll pair easily with a variety of common watchman gobies, and they're active and bold enough that you should see yours sometimes, especially with a goby. 

It'd definitely be ideal to see both in person. If you can't, get or juryrig some boxes of the same size and dimensions to get an idea of what it looks like.

I see what you mean. I thought you were saying going from my 12 gallon to a 25-28 gallon wouldn’t make a big difference. 

I actually have (or had) a tiger pistol shrimp. It paired right up with my watchman goby. I haven’t seen it in a month or so, but prior to the last sighting it had been two weeks without seeing it. If I don’t see it again for a few more weeks I may try adding another one. I’m worried I could have injured it when moving some rocks around. I agree though, they are super cool (when you get to see them). 

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I have had the IM nuvo 10 and now have a waterbox 28.2, It does come with a return pump, filter socks etc. Is been fantastic. I really don't think you can go wrong with either. I am partial to the WB since I went with that one to be different and it seemed to be a touch more high end with the starfire glass. I see a lot of IM25's but only a few 28.2's on here.

 

Just food for thought.

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