10001110101 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Been out of the hobby since 2014, just didn't have the time for tank maintenance, previous tanks include a 20H, 20L, 40BR and a standard 55 (not in that order). Tank is Innovative Marine AIO 25g Lagoon, started cycling the display about 2-3 weeks ago, did a bleach then SW cure for rocks which were pukani leftover from my previous tank. I think the tank cycled super fast because of the curing I did with the rocks and the fact that I included a piece of aquacultured LR as well. Cycled using NLS pellets and MicroBacter7. Ammo and Nitrite are solid 0 with no spiking after even heavy feeding. Equipment: -IM Lagoon 25g AIO (includes media basket and 384gph DC return pump) -*OLD* TEK 6 Bulb T5 fixture running only 4 bulbs (some really really old KZ new generation, actinic plus, and blue plus) (I have one of the new AI Prime16HD's pre-ordered just waiting for it to ship) -Vortec MP10w (usually run it at like 60-70% Reef Crest Mode, occasionally switch to NTM to help clean up detritus) -Filter sock for mechanical filtration, carbon, and GFO. -No protein skimmer, will probably add one when bio-load increases. -Hydor 100w basic glass heater -4 Stage RO/DI -Plan to add 5g ATO, possibly premixed with kalkwasser to maintain Cal/Alk/pH Current livestock: -Pair of extreme misbar Ocellaris clowns (already showing pairing behavior) -3 Turban snails -Orange Zoas -Purple/orange Favia -Green with light green highlights Montipora Digitata -Duncan I'm sure some of you are thinking I'm nuts for putting SPS in such a new tank, but it's doing great, excellent polyp extension and aside from very, very light initial browning it's regained 90% of its full color. Also it's a montipora, in my experience most montipora are pretty easygoing compared to acropora. The favia came slightly damaged as well, didn't notice until I got it home, but it has been recovering well. I got the monti dirt cheap it will serve as a way of knowing if my parameters start to get out of line as well. Corals are always dipped and acclimated before addition to display. Current params are: Salinity: 1.025 pH: 7.9 Alk: 8.5 dKH Cal: 400 ppm Mag: 1200 ppm NO3: 5 ppm PO4: 0.04 ppm Temp: 79-82 deg F Goals for the tank (Subject to change 😉) : -Keep it simple, basic equipment and just regular water changes are going to be what keeps this tank going. -Stability above all else -No carbon dosing -LPS dominant mixed reef with some Zoas and a few hardy SPS. -Minimal fish and invertebrates. -Hopefully resist the temptation to buy every coral that catches my eye at the LFS and stick to a few really eye catching pieces that complement each other well. As you can tell I'm currently experiencing a diatom outbreak, this has happened in every single tank I've owned in the early stages and the turban snails are dealing with it. Also let me guys know what you think of the aquascape, it is very lightly glued together but can be changed if I get inspired. Just waiting on those bright white rocks to get some lovely coralline. Excuse the pictures, they were just quick snapshots taken from my iPhone so yeah, just there to give you a general idea, tank isn't that pretty right now anyways. 4 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 4 minutes ago, 10001110101 said: Been out of the hobby since 2014, just didn't have the time for tank maintenance, previous tanks include a 20H, 20L, 40BR and a standard 55 (not in that order). Tank is Innovative Marine AIO 25g Lagoon, started cycling the display about 2-3 weeks ago, did a bleach then SW cure for rocks which were pukani leftover from my previous tank. I think the tank cycled super fast because of the curing I did with the rocks and the fact that I included a piece of aquacultured LR as well. Cycled using NLS pellets and MicroBacter7. Ammo and Nitrite are solid 0 with no spiking after even heavy feeding. Equipment: -IM Lagoon 25g AIO (includes media basket and 384gph DC return pump) -*OLD* TEK 6 Bulb T5 fixture running only 4 bulbs (some really really old KZ new generation, actinic plus, and blue plus) (I have one of the new AI Prime16HD's pre-ordered just waiting for it to ship) -Vortec MP10w (usually run it at like 60-70% Reef Crest Mode, occasionally switch to NTM to help clean up detritus) -Filter sock for mechanical filtration, carbon, and GFO. -No protein skimmer, will probably add one when bio-load increases. -Hydor 100w basic glass heater -4 Stage RO/DI -Plan to add 5g ATO, possibly premixed with kalkwasser to maintain Cal/Alk/pH Current livestock: -Pair of extreme misbar Ocellaris clowns (already showing pairing behavior) -3 Turban snails -Orange Zoas -Purple/orange Favia -Green with light green highlights Montipora Digitata -Duncan I'm sure some of you are thinking I'm nuts for putting SPS in such a new tank, but it's doing great, excellent polyp extension and aside from very, very light initial browning it's regained 90% of its full color. Also it's a montipora, in my experience most montipora are pretty easygoing compared to acropora. The favia came slightly damaged as well, didn't notice until I got it home, but it has been recovering well, I got it dirt cheap as well it will serve as a way of knowing if my parameters start to get out of line as well. Corals are always dipped and acclimated before addition to display. Current params are: Salinity: 1.025 pH: 7.9 Alk: 8.5 dKH Cal: 400 ppm Mag: 1200 ppm NO3: 5 ppm PO4: 0.04 ppm Temp: 79-82 deg F Goals for the tank (Subject to change 😉) : -Keep it simple, basic equipment and just regular water changes are going to be what keeps this tank going. -Stability above all else -No carbon dosing -LPS dominant mixed reef with some Zoas and a few hardy SPS. -Minimal fish and invertebrates. -Hopefully resist the temptation to buy every coral that catches my eye at the LFS and stick to a few really eye catching pieces that complement each other well. As you can tell I'm currently experiencing a diatom outbreak, this has happened in every single tank I've owned in the early stages and the turban snails are dealing with it. Also let me guys know what you think of the aquascape, it is very lightly glued together but can be changed if I get inspired. Just waiting on those bright white rocks to get some lovely coralline. Welcome back to the hobby. 😊 I like the scape. 1 Quote Link to comment
BKATZ1 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Looks good man, Love the 25 lagoon... 2 Quote Link to comment
kimdawg Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Welcome back to the salty side. I love your rock work, it has lots of places for coral. The ugly brown will go away in no time and your rock will be covered in coralline soon, 1 Quote Link to comment
10001110101 Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 New FTS from today: 11/23/19 New gear: -AI Prime16HD Black, mounted on a 12" flex arm. -IM Aquagadget Desktop Protein Skimmer New Fish/Inverts: -Midas Blenny! (LOVE THIS GUY 🥰, he's skinny and was flashing I think he had gill flukes, did 2 treatments of prazipro and he seems to be doing better, he eats like a pig and flashing has stopped, breathing seems more relaxed, he usually perches up top underneath my green montipora, I am so glad I kept my old pukani rock because he goes in and out all the little holes and crevices in the rock its so cool) -Handful of new snails, another banded trochus, half dozen ceriths, a couple nerites, and I think 1 astrea snail -Peppermint shrimp (Aiptasia = gone.) New Corals: -Superman Montipora -Ponape Birdsnest So the tank is definitely coming along. The new lighting is a huge upgrade, I think I'm going to add one more AI prime for better coverage on the sides, some spots probably don't even hit 50 par on the outer rockwork, and I'm starting to think I might lean towards SPS Dominant, just because how expensive and hard to get LPS are these days (omg coral prices amirite). Algae is pretty much gone, I've got some weird blue macroalgae though and some bubble algae, really hope I don't have to buy an emerald crab, I just don't trust crabs. Corals are growing nicely, green montipora is growing visibly, it has encrusted on the rockwork, zoas have added a few polyps, I see three new heads forming on my duncans, favia is about 75% healed, but still has a tiny bit of exposed skeleton, lots of visible growth on the sides though. I've been feeding fish/inverts/LPS a mixture of PE Mysis, PE Calanus, and NLS Pellets (had amazing results from these in my previous tanks but nobody seems to feed it anymore, gonna try out Reef Nutrition TDO Chroma-Boost in place of the NLS pellets and see how I like it, as is my fish have simply amazing vibrant coloration and eat like absolute pigs with whatever I feed them. The duncans and favia I've been hand feeding NLS pellets and the duncan also gets mysis and (probably calanus too though I dont target feed the calanus). The favia in particular seems to be responding very well to feeding, I just put a single nls pellet right into two or three of the larger mouths and it gobbles it up, it started healing extremely rapidly when I started feeding it. Corals are getting reef chili a couple times a week and Reef Energy A&B every other day as well. Reef Energy seems to have helped my superman monti's colors considerably since I started using it, it had some brown spots and lightened coloration in spots, which seem to have mostly gone away and the blue is bluer and red, redder. This could just be them acclimating to the tank and lighting though, it seemed to lose a bit of coloration when I dipped it so might be recovering from the dip as well. Added a few smaller pieces of rock to "complete" the aquascape, and upgraded the heater to 100w which has stabilized the temperature to pretty solid 80 deg F, removing the T5's helped stabilize temps as well. Coralline growth is happening slowly, trying to slowly up alkalinity to encourage coralline and SPS growth, mostly green coralline RN but a few spots of pink here and there. Small clownfish is showing ich, other two fish are asymptomatic at this time and small clown's ich is very very mild, maybe 6-7 spots total, he's still eating like a pig and I'm not ready to commit to treatment yet, so we'll see how it goes. Worst case scenario I'm prepared to pull all the fish out of the display and doing TTM and leaving display fishless for 3 mos, but just keeping a close eye on it for now and trying to keep fish stress down (The female is pretty aggressive towards the smaller male, i'm assuming this is probably just normal mating behavior, but it still probably is stressful to the little guy and is probably what made him vulnerable to the ich which probably came in on the blenny or a piece of coral/LR, or they've both had it the whole time, who knows) NO3 Undetectable PO4 Undetectable dKH is 8.6 CA is 390 last I tested but I have since dosed calcium, so probably around 410 rn. pH 8.0 Salinity 1.023 Temp 80 DegF LOOK AT THE MIDAS BLENNY AND TELL ME YOU AREN'T IN LOVE. 4 Quote Link to comment
wrenchclench Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 nice! the IM25 Lagoon is def going to be my next tank. looking forward to following along! Quote Link to comment
10001110101 Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 Update! So ich is gone, got rid of intestinal worms in all my fish with a few rounds of prazipro, lost a few corals (ponape & johnny jump up birdsnest, superman montipora, and a favia). Fish are happy and fat. Midas blenny has put on a ton of weight and is super happy. Added a yellow clown goby that ended up being a coral muncher, all my sps polyps were retracted for a week or more and lost a couple bn after just one day in my tank, returned to LFS and said keep him, my carl acro is still stressed out and has low PE, but seems to be recovering slowly, no signs of bleaching. If anyone wants to know how to get a clown goby out of their tank put a frag of a coral he likes in a net, he'll perch on it and just take the net out, EZ. New additions: -Purple/mint green torch -Toxic splattered aussie wall hammer -Orange micromussa lord (some might call it an Acan but not technically correct since 2016) -purple/green micromussa lord -bgm chalice -Pink birdsnest -Pink Millepora -Carl Acro -one of the best looking Maxima Clams I've seen I got a $250 gift card to cherry corals for xmas anyone got a suggestion for what I should add? I am definitely getting some Zoas/Paly's, probably some encrusting stuff like monti's/leptastrea, maybe an acro or two. Also thinking about adding a royal gramma, all my fish are very yellow/orange colored need a splash of purple in there. Also considering a pair of neon gobies or maybe a shrimpgoby and a pistol shrimp. Also considering just leaving it as is fish wise and maybe adding a skunk/cleaner shrimp. Params are great, just did a 20% water change two days ago and tank has responded nicely, I think some minor/trace element was depleted because my lps were acting weird and my green montipora had less PE, after WC it looks best it's looked in weeks. Had to remove GFO and carbon as it was stripping too much from the water and bleached a few corals and messed up my BGM's color. Once or twice a week a leave a bag of carbon in the sump for a few hours just to keep the water clear and that's it. dKh 8.6 (slowly raising this), dosing and checking either daily or every 2 days. pH is between 7.9 and 8.1 depending, trying to slowly raise this to 8.1-8.3 consistently temp is 79-80f po4 undetectable n03 0.5ppm 3 Quote Link to comment
10001110101 Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 On 12/10/2019 at 2:18 PM, wrenchclench said: nice! the IM25 Lagoon is def going to be my next tank. looking forward to following along! Yeah it's a great little tank, I was torn between this and the IM40, really wish I had gotten the 40 even though I like the shallow look, I would keep my aquascape just like it is but it would be nice to just have that empty space above the rock work, would be more visually appealing, give the sps up top more room to grow, and it would make the water chemistry almost twice as stable, as it is i'm managing it with EOD testing and dosing for Alkalinity and weekly testing/dosing for cal and mag and that seems to be keeping it fairly stable, but with a larger tank would be significantly less maintenance. Also the evaporation on the 25 basically means an ATO is required or you are gonna have to top off twice daily to keep parameters stable. I have to say I've gotten used to the EOD testing (hanna checker is a must) and I don't mind it, but I know a year or two from now I'm probably going to get lazy, by then my corals will probably need a bigger house anyways. This whole thing was supposed to start as a casual low maintenance softy and clownfish tank, but you know what happens, you start buying SPS and it's hardcore reef nerd mode. 1 Quote Link to comment
BKATZ1 Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Just a quick update on the tank, Everything has been growing great. I have some hair algae growth but I'm knocking back my feeding and seeing a big difference. I have been feeding once a day, rotating between Mysis, Reef Frenzy, and Pellets. The corals are being feed twice a week with AquaVitro Fuel and Fauna Marin LPS pellets. All live stock has been doing great and with weekly water changes my parameters have been pretty stable. Hope everyone likes the progress. I set up an IG as well if anyone is interested on following the progression of the tank @ellies_reef. Parameters: Temp 78, Alk 7.8-8.2, Ph 8, Calcium 425-450, Magnesium 1350-1370, NO3 2.5-5.0, and Salinity at 1.026. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
SaltyTanks Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 On 12/28/2019 at 9:52 AM, 10001110101 said: I got a $250 gift card to cherry corals for xmas anyone got a suggestion for what I should add? I am definitely getting some Zoas/Paly's, probably some encrusting stuff like monti's/leptastrea, maybe an acro or two. Still have that CC gift card? How about a piece of Z's Prize acro on top left of your pillar with some Tangerine Juice lepto on the perch below the clam and Raspberry Lime zoas bottom front left? Curious to see what you add and excited to watch your tank grow. Quote Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Awesome looking tank. Aquascape looks good. And coral selection so far is great. Quote Link to comment
10001110101 Posted February 18, 2020 Author Share Posted February 18, 2020 New FTS 2/16/20 1 Quote Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 On 2/18/2020 at 7:29 AM, 10001110101 said: New FTS 2/16/20 Man that’s looking great. Quote Link to comment
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