Jack's EXT-50 Lagoon

[jservedio]

After 10 years of running my 20g Tall tank nonstop and dealing with all of it's design flaws, it's finally time for an upgrade. This time I properly designed things!

 

Equipment:

• Tank: Innovative Marine EXT-50 Lagoon - 30x24x16
• Stand: White Innovative Marine APS
• Lighting: Radion XR30 Pro (G2) with 120 degree wide-angle TIR lenses, 2x AI Prime 16HD
• Flow: Maxspect Gyre XF330
• Sump: Trigger Systems Triton 26 V2
• Return: Sicce Syncra Silent 2.0
• Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 5 Elite
• ATO: Avast Marine with Aqualifter
• Temperature: Inkbird Controller connected to Eheim 200w Heater
• Dosing: Bubble Magus BM-T01 with BRS 2-part
• Salt: HW Marinemix Reefer

 

 

Full Tank Shot (05/10/22)

 

[mitten_reef]

wait long enough for that white stand....nice 👍  

 

 

[jservedio]

22 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

wait long enough for that white stand....nice 👍  

 

 

Hey, they've been out for days now...days!

 

I really wish they had the 50 lagoon as an INT, but it's been 10 years, so I think I've waited long enough? I'm pretty sure if it didn't get replaced this year, my stand would have given out by next year and instead of needing a $1,350 budget for equipment, the 10x that it'd cost for new floors would be coming out of my half of the divorce that would follow from having a tank crash down onto the hardwood.

[A.m.P]

Hey man, sometimes glass bounces.

[That dank Reefer]

Great tank, I have the same one except I built the stand. I’d take the ext over a int all day, soo much space in this tank. I run the same light except g3, but eventually upgrading to 2x g5 xr15. The older 30 doesn’t  spread enough. I  Also use a mp10 like you, careful to not knock it off, happens easily that glass is thick for those pumps.

[jservedio]

11 minutes ago, That dank Reefer said:

Great tank, I have the same one except I built the stand. I’d take the ext over a int all day, soo much space in this tank. I run the same light except g3, but eventually upgrading to 2x g5 xr15. The older 30 doesn’t  spread enough. I  Also use a mp10 like you, careful to not knock it off, happens easily that glass is thick for those pumps.

Thanks! I was planning on building the stand as well and had spent like a year designing it, but the fact that they released the APS stand in white right after we had a baby and my free time vanished like a fart in the wind, I took the easy way out.

 

I've swapped out the lenses on the XR30Pro for the wider 120 degree optics which I've been extremely happy with for the last 7-8 years, so we'll see how that works out. The 90 degree optics just sucked on a shallow tank. I'll most likely add either a couple 24" T5 bulbs in a floating hood or at the very least get a few of the ReefBrites to supplement as I fill it up. It's only 16" deep, so I figured two fixtures would be overkill. That and my wife would kill me if I spent another $1,000 on lights while I still have a perfectly good (and expensive) light over my tank now!

[Jackal227]

I've really enjoyed this tank.  The EXT gives a lot of extra room in the display which is nice.  I didn't know that they came out with a white version.  It looks sleek.

[jservedio]

36 minutes ago, Jackal227 said:

I've really enjoyed this tank.  The EXT gives a lot of extra room in the display which is nice.  I didn't know that they came out with a white version.  It looks sleek.

They are brand new - the INT-50 tank only or reefer 200xl were what I was planning, but saw the white stand because of their 100g giveaway, made a snap decision and threw my plans out the window to buy one today along with the trigger sump. The black stand was a non-starter and the cube stand couldn't fit a 20" sump by like 1/2" which was a big check in the wrong column to boot.

 

I bought it before I even saw it was 30" wide - I assumed it was the same dimensions as the INT and just impulse bought. Then I saw it was 30 wide and shallow and was much, much happier!

 

Kind of lucky that a 30 impulse buy works out better than careful planning...

 

Edit: @Innovative Marine - see that, your giveaway marketing made you a sale today! Thank your marketing team and tell them they did well!

[jservedio]

Well all the plumbing has been ordered and man...gray schedule 80 fittings and colored PVC pipe is really, really freaking expensive. Budget is up another $200 from plumbing alone! The plumbing isn't all that much different from my 20g and I think that cost me about $30 in fittings and pipe.

 

Looks like the sump, plumbing parts, and new pump should all be in late next week and I can start on the lower half of the plumbing. Hopefully by then I'll have a ship date for the stand and tank. If it comes in all in one piece and quickly, this might be ready to go before the 20g turns 10 on the October 12!

 

I'm pretty sure I've got my fish stocking list put together for this tank and based on a bunch of other similar sized tanks, I should be safe, but if anyone who knows wrasse fairly well wouldn't mind giving it a once-over, I'd really appreciate it!

 

[Break]

Excited to see this build, congrats on the upgrade! Gave my 2¢ on the wrasse thread, though most of my experience with wrasses comes from being the "fish guy" at the different fish stores I worked at in my younger years, so take it with a grain (or heaping pile) of salt.

[mcarroll]

On 9/4/2020 at 4:00 PM, jservedio said:

gray schedule 80 fittings and colored PVC pipe is really, really freaking expensive. Budget is up another $200 from plumbing alone!

No sh**!  lol 80¢ for a sch40 elbow vs 400¢ sch80....for example.  How is $200 worth of sch80 worthwhile on a tank??

 

Great to see you upgrading to a larger tank!!  Can't wait to see it!

[mcarroll]

On 9/3/2020 at 11:27 AM, jservedio said:

Flow: 2x MP10

Any thoughts about going bigger or different on this front?

 

I had two mp40's in my old 50 Breeder (36x18x18") that was VERY full of SPS (similar density to your 20, I think) but I found them to be very inadequate no matter where I placed them.  Consistently worse than the two 6045's I was trying to replace.

 

I have trouble imagining that a pair of mp10's will fare better in your setup.  Even though your tank will be a little less full for a while, it's got an even larger footprint than my 50 Breeder.    

 

Ultimately, I was able to get excellent flow without having to prune the tank by dividing the duties between three higher-velocity pumps.  Three 6045's, to be specific.

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

No sh**!  lol 80¢ for a sch40 elbow vs 400¢ sch80....for example.  How is $200 worth of sch80 worthwhile on a tank??

 

Great to see you upgrading to a larger tank!!  Can't wait to see it!

The vast majority of that is in the spears valves for the herbie, the one way for the return, a a bunch of unions. It really only doubled the cost to get blue pipe and gray fittings. What is an extra $50 over the course of 10 years when it's in my office and visible?

39 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Any thoughts about going bigger or different on this front?

 

I had two mp40's in my old 50 Breeder (36x18x18") that was VERY full of SPS (similar density to your 20, I think) but I found them to be very inadequate no matter where I placed them.  Consistently worse than the two 6045's I was trying to replace.

 

I have trouble imagining that a pair of mp10's will fare better in your setup.  Even though your tank will be a little less full for a while, it's got an even larger footprint than my 50 Breeder.    

 

Ultimately, I was able to get excellent flow without having to prune the tank by dividing the duties between three higher-velocity pumps.  Three 6045's, to be specific.

It's temporary because it's what I've got laying around. I'll be going with either one 4k gyre or two of the smaller ones once I get it scaped depending on which way I want the flow. Either one of the big ones on the back glass mounted horizontally or smaller ones in the back corners vertically mounted. I'll decide once I get a feel for the tank.

[mcarroll]

1 hour ago, jservedio said:

It's temporary because it's what I've got laying around.

Makes perfect sense to start with that.

 

Will be interesting to see the final flow plan with the gyres...especially if you come up with a good way for it to be more or less concealed!

[jservedio]

3 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Makes perfect sense to start with that.

 

Will be interesting to see the final flow plan with the gyres...especially if you come up with a good way for it to be more or less concealed!

A few guys locally are running the 4k gyre as the sole flow for much, much bigger tanks so I'm hoping I can get just one, put it between the overflow and return up top and call it a day. One guy here had a single bigger gyre on a 4 foot 120g and it was full of huge acro colonies, so they can clearly do a really good job. I'm planning on a horseshoe/canyon shaped scape, so gyre bouncing off the front glass would be pretty ideal.

 

Plus, if I only need one, I'll probably end up walking away with cash after I sell my MP10s!

[jservedio]

The sump came in and it is far, far nicer than I expected. The quality of the Trigger sump, especially their high-end Triton line really is something else. Also, props to Bulk Reef Supply for not putting a packing slip on top with the price, that saved me an eye roll!

 

 

Forgive the falling apart and taped together boxes in the background - they are used for in-garage hockey practice, skates and all. Hopefully I'll get a shipping date for the tank itself this week and the rest of the plumbing should be in by Friday.
 

If you have a very discerning eye, you may notice that this is a minor upgrade from my previous, high quality sump. I think what I'm most excited about is that it doesn't have a seam-to-seam crack over 1/3 of the sump.

[jservedio]

Well...it's going to be a few extra weeks! While the tank will likely be here next week, it won't be getting set up for a bit. The feed line for the toilet in our downstairs bathroom exploded yesterday and flooded the downstairs pretty well. We've got water remediation people doing there thing, and then a plumber and hardwood flooring person going to have to do their thing before I can think about setting up the new tank. Plus, I'll have to break the 20g down once they need to do the floors underneath it.

 

Hooooooopefully the timing of everything works out and I'll have the 50g tank here, plumbed, and all ready to go so once the flooring is done, it'll be able to be set up the following day. But, with my luck, something will happen and I'll have to set the 20g back and and take it back down a second time. But at least our floors will look good!

[Christopher Marks]

Oh no, what a mess! That sucks! Fingers crossed you can line up the new tank transfer with the new floor install. 

 

On the bright side, at least it didn't happen right after you were all done setting up this new system! 

[jservedio]

On 9/18/2020 at 3:49 PM, Christopher Marks said:

Oh no, what a mess! That sucks! Fingers crossed you can line up the new tank transfer with the new floor install. 

 

On the bright side, at least it didn't happen right after you were all done setting up this new system! 

Thanks! Let's hope so. The cleaning equipment looks like something out of a movie and is as loud as an airplane - I'll have to post up a video of it tomorrow.

[jservedio]

I'll be breaking down the 20g so they can fix the floors once this monstrosity that sounds like a jet engine takes up half my downstairs is removed. Hopefully the new tank gets here soon and things go smoothly. So glad this wasn't caused by my tank, I doubt homeowners insurance would be quite so nice about taking care of things. Also, that wall looks so haphazard without my desk there!

 

[jservedio]

Finally some good news - the new tank will be delivered tomorrow and the contractor own insurance company sent over said he can't save the floor, so we're getting a new one! I should be getting a timeline this week for everything, but they seem to think it'll be quick, so I may have this tank wet within a week of my 20 gallon's 10th birthday.

 

Let's hope the tank comes in one piece and there isn't a troll living under my floor to bash my good news over the head with a wrench.

[mipster]

How goes the floor replacement and the new tank set up?

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, mipster said:

How goes the floor replacement and the new tank set up?

Construction starts on the 6th - the entire downstairs is having the floor replaced, retrimming everything to match our kitchen, few new doors, new patio door, and new bathroom. Figured while we have the floor out on the entire downstairs, we'll do all the work we were planning over the next couple years.

 

It should be about a week of construction before I can set up the new tank. I put together the stand and I'll be plumbing it out this weekend and doing a leak test.

 

I'll probably order dry rock and sand this week to start scaping. I'll build that scape, take pictures and then break it down. I'm just dumping my old tank into the 50g along with the dry rock and I'll let it establish for 6-8 months before I start removing some old rock and putting it in the sump.

 

I figure after a year I'll have it scaped how I want and all that coral glued down.

 

Anyway, here is the awesome new white APS stand with the film on it in the garage.

[TheKleinReef]

geez the white stands look so much better than the black ones

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, TheKleinReef said:

geez the white stands look so much better than the black ones

It's pretty fantastic - the aluminum is crazy nice looking. I'll ding them a half of a star for the paneling since it dings up easily and doesn't fit with the quality of the aluminum, but I'll probably make some shaker style doors at some point and replace the paneling with some sprayed wood paneling. The doors attach with just a couple pins so modifying is really simple.

 

Honestly, for the price it's insanely nice. Innovative Marine is going to sell a lot of these for sure!