Stan’s Innovative Marine 25 Lagoon

[Stanboy]

Yes it is the ocean box ones. It’s expensive but it’s because the quality of the frag mounts are outstanding. Also it uses an epoxy coated magnet that the owner has performed multiple test on to ensure they don’t leak in the tank. Love these things for acclimating new corals and very nice to look at. Definitely the most used gift I got for Christmas by far. 
 

Vibrant update -

 

Actually saw a bubble algae disappear today. Not sure if it’s due to vibrant or due to strong currents. But I think the source tiny bubble algae might be a goni skeleton since I keep seeing the bubble algae growing. Yesterday I saw the bubble algae in the morning before work. When I came back at night to go remove the algae it wasn’t there no more. 
 

Also not sure if it’s the vibrant but coraline algae is exploding. My bare bottom has a lot more coraline algae dots. The only thing is I can’t seem to get it on the back wall. The power head is filled with it. But my acrylic wall has nothing. 

[Zer0]

Well I know corraline and algae in general definitely does grow on acrylic, but maybe it just takes longer? I’m not sure, but my tank grows film algae on the glass overnight, whereas the acrylic piece still doesn’t have any algae on it to speak of.

[Stanboy]

9 hours ago, Zer0 said:

Well I know corraline and algae in general definitely does grow on acrylic, but maybe it just takes longer? I’m not sure, but my tank grows film algae on the glass overnight, whereas the acrylic piece still doesn’t have any algae on it to speak of.

Ye I think I have film? Looks like the normal stuff on the glass. I never scrap. Just waiting patiently for the purple to come along. 

[Stanboy]

Light update: 

 

I got a new kessil 360x after I have been pining over the kessil light for ages. Finally found a cheap one on my local forums so I pulled the trigger.

 

After getting the light I also upgraded the mount after finding out how sturdy it is. It is 100x better than the prime light. I love the light the only complaint is that the program is not as good or as nice as the prime. 
 

Now I have a kessil 360x on the right. AI prime 16 on the left and an Aliexpress bar light on the back with 380, 420, and 460 LEDs. The 380 is to add the UV. 
 

I have to say replacing the AI prime 16 in the same spot as the HD and it makes a big difference. Guess those three extra LEDs make the corals look so much better. With the kessil people pine over the shimmer but I don’t see any difference in the shimmer. The corals are very happy. I set the PAR the same on the top. With the kessil mounts I can bring it up and I don’t have the huge hot spot like before so the spread is much better and reach the bottom corals better. 
 

 

 

Bonus torch shot.

[Stanboy]

Little update: 

 

I have increased the dosage of vibrant since I saw no ill effects. I have given up my tang to a buddy of mine since the fish wasn’t too happy with the small space. I have since gotten a lawnmower blenny to replace the tang job on eating algae. Also added a cleaner wrasse to help with bugs in case some show up. Tried to add a six line but it has not turned out too well. 
 

Since I have one less big fish, I have been trying to adjust my feeding to have enough food for corals and not too much food wasted floating around. This has gotten my nitrates up and I think it started up some bubble algae. Hence also why I added more vibrant. Hopefully the following updates will be good news ok bubble algae 

[Stanboy]

Monthly Update - 4/24 

 

Vibrant dosing -

so I have noticed that my tank has no ill effects of vibrant dosing. So I have up the dosage now to 2ml a week. All in all I have seen very rare sightings of bubble algae here and there. As for other algae on the rocks, the coraline has started spreading like crazy. 
 

Coraline/Bare bottom-

I have made the decision to go bare bottom after I had battled all the issues with a dirty sand bed. I enjoy being able to see where the detritus is and suck it all up. The only thing is with a bare bottom you have to go through the phases. It’s the green film, then diatom dots, then little hair, now I’m at the coraline stage. This is a nice stage because the tank is slowly getting covered in the purple. 
 

Corals - 

I haven’t been able to see my tank for couple of weeks due to working super late hours. The only time I get to see my tank is at night when the lights are out and I’m feeding them. So the only thing is everything seems to be very happy and extended. My SPS has become a bush now where I can’t even see the skeleton just a fuzzy mass. As for my hammers I had to move some around because my big purple hammer was getting so big it was shading everyone else. All the torches I have are growing big and splitting. My gold torch has split into two heads and looking for a third. My other torches are all pinching in to make more heads. Not sure if it’s because I am spot feeding them in a way since they so high up the water that they get the full dose when I feed Red Sea energy. 
 

All in all I am pretty happy with the growth of the tank. It seems the new lights have gotten things to start growing like crazy. Also my clownfish has started to host my Duncan so it’s fun to watch it snuggle. Started taking videos for today to look at the peaceful tank while I’m at work. 

[Stanboy]

Quick update:

 

Pretty nice moment of accomplishment. My tank has a lot of coraline algae encrusting on the glass bare bottom. The only weird part is that the coraline on the rocks seems to be receding. As though the coraline is relocating to the glass bottom. I have little specks of it on my acrylic wall. Just waiting patiently for it to start growing as fast as the ones on the bare bottom. 
 

Vibrant dosing 

 

I have not noticed only small dots of bubble algae. I am very aggressive in the removal, where the moment I spot it I will get rid of it the day of while I’m feeding my fish. I am just going to maintain the dosage of recommended vibrant a week. Gotta start feeding seaweed more just because there is no algae for my urchin. 
 

[J>T]

tank looks great. just setting up an IM 20 I hope it looks half as good as yours. Following along now.

[Stanboy]

On 5/25/2021 at 10:06 PM, J>T said:

tank looks great. just setting up an IM 20 I hope it looks half as good as yours. Following along now.

Thanks thanks. Be looking out for your tank. I like looking at other people’s tanks to see their new strategies. The tank took a lot of time but it sees so many goods and bads. Good luck with your tank! 

[Stanboy]

May Update 5/30/21:

 

Vibrant dosing: 

 

From what I can tell bubble algae is gone. Every once in a while I got one. But now I has a goni that was dying so the skeleton was the home for bubble algae. Been battling with that goni for a while about it, but since I saw it sprout a little bit of bryopsis it was the end. I threw that goni out and I think the bubble algae has been dormant. The usual places that I see the bubble algae appear (ie. coral skeleton) don’t really have it no more. I still have the full bottle of vibrant so I am just going to keep the recommended dosing since I don’t see any I’ll effects and my tank is clean of algae.

 

Fishes:

 

After I think 6 months I started with a couple of fish. But I am only left with the first three I ever had that moved from my old 10g nano. Only two clown fish, urchin, and my peppermint shrimp is with me now. My purple tang I had to trade away because he was getting antsy and nipping corals. My neon goby jumped out of my tank. My cleaner goby starve to death I think because my rocks were so clean. I tried to add two six line wrasses into my tank and they never made it past a week. Cleaner wrasse he just crawled under a rock and that was it. Survived for a good month, eating shrimp but just stop coming out. 
 

Nitrates:

 

My nitrates was slowly creeping up. It started with 4 and over 6 month it seem to go up to 8ppm. I have been super religious with my water changes and since I have bare bottom I sucked up a lot of poop everytime. After my cleaner wrasse death I had to locate that fish since i don’t have bristle worms or sand to process the fish. I had to uncover every rock, while doing it I was finally able to suck all the detritus up from under the rock. My water change bucket was so cloudy afterwards. After testing I am back to 4ppm. I guess bare bottom detritus does a lot. Also glue down and cement rocks into pieces or parts. Since my rock work was all the flat bottom rocks I was able to take everything apart and put it back in pretty much the same spot. 
 

Corals: 

 

During this month I had to give up one goni to bryopsis. Have another goni that is super sad. A torch that was super happy that manage to grow into 4 separate heads but now it is super happy with one head receding down. Might give it an iodine dip and hope for the the best. All my corals super happy so I am not going to mess with my water chemistry over one sad torch. I manage to get an ORA goni. I love gonis and have been hunting this goni down which is a nice fast grower and super acclimated to aquariums. I learn an important lesson, all these expensive corals and colorful ones are nice. But corals that are much better to watch is the happy corals. Even the most bland corals when it is happy is the most beautiful coral. Could only recommended to new comers to the hobby don’t need to get the most expensive. The cheapest ones that you can make really happy brings more joy, than the pricey one that complains everyday. 

Dosing:

 

I have been dosing ESV bionic with kalkwasser. I am still having trouble dialing in ESV, some reason the calcium is getting higher while Alk just sits still. Did this multiple test and have just started dosing unequal parts. I wish my Alk consumption wasn’t so high so I can just use kalk. I guess this is the bad of growing corals in a nano tank. 
 

 

Finally tank shots: 

 

Full tank shot. 
 

 

Full tank shot. I like my lights blue and I just buy safety glasses to look at my tank. 
 

 

The ORA goni is pretty much the same size as my other gonis. My green gonis are growing a lot of new tentacles so it shows happy growth. 
 

 

My favorite section. The hammer and Goni section. 
 

 

The front torch and within the 4 months I’ve had it. It went from 1 head to 4. Hopefully it covers up the entire top of the rock. 
 

 

Side euphyillia shot. 
 

thanks for all those who sit through my ramblings. It’s fun to show people the process and talk about the struggles and the tweaking of my tank. Hopefully people can learn from my journey. 
 

[Stanboy]

7/10/21 Update:

 

Been a little busy lately so June update got a little late. Better late than never I guess.

 

Coral losses:

 

Lost my nice green torch. It was in pretty poor shape before I went on vacation. When I came back it went from 4 heads to 2 heads. I was hoping for the two heads to survive but once it fell into my large goni. It was stung to death and just jellied to death. 
 

As for moody corals, my black torch is not looking too good and my nice yellow octospawn is pretty sad right now. Hoping to bounce back.

 

Vibrant dosing:

 

I started lowering the vibrant dosing from 2ml a week to 1 ml a week since I don’t see any bubble algae any more. Now I’m starting to get some hair algae and a lot of coraline.
 

I am thinking of starting to dose some microbacter7 or some other bacteria to help with nutrients or just add bacteria in the tank. Since I have started to see some cyano every once in a while, but I think that is just a flow issue. 
 

New coral addition:

 

As for new corals I have bought a nice new torch to replace the one that I lost. Also traded my colony of sour apple birdsnest for some slimer acro. Going to see what the fuss is all about with these acros.
 

Overall:

 

My tank is very happy. Some of the hammers and frog spawns are all trying to grow new heads. My gonis are growing longer and bigger. Would really hope to figure out why my torch and octo is sulking but don’t wanna disturb a entire happy tank over two corals. Lastly I want to try and give six line wrasse one more try since the tank looking a little lonely with just two clowns. 
Also have to start selling some corals to make some space.

 

Finally just tank shots:

 

 

 

 

 

[Stanboy]

Been planning on making a battery back up after watching Jim (Telegraham) and the whole Texas incident. Well my building is going to look to do some electrical upgrades, and will be shutting my electrical off in my home for a couple of hours. This push me to finally order the stuff and make my own. 
 

I went with the DIY route because it cost cheaper, and want to be more custom to my needs since I have some devices that use 12V and other that use 24V. 
 

Here is the final product. With a meter, battery and a 24v converter. Not shown in the pic is the second battery that is going to be connected on the outside since the box can’t hold two batteries. 
 

 

The top of the box with a feed mode switch that kills off all the outputs. 
 

 

Here is showing all the output plugs. Going to put some nail Polish to paint the plugs a different color so I don’t accidentally cross it. Going to run some male to female cords to go from the battery to my devices. Those 10ft cables are standard since they use them a lot for audio and security cameras. The last cord is the battery charger plug.

 

 

Here is the insides of the box. It’s a lot of space since the battery just sits flat on the top lip. So it made wiring and everything pretty easy. I made sure everything was using lugs and battery is using quick disconnect lugs. This allows me to quickly move or change battery out. After performing maintenance on my fish tank I realize how important it is to have things quick disconnect.
 

Here is a copy of the schematic Incase anyone want to do the same. Finally I gotta add a second switch to wire it away from the box higher up in my stand, so it’s more ergonomic for my mom, when she feeds the tank. 
 

I have not performed the calculations yet since I can’t find the data sheet of my pumps. But I think with two batteries I should be able to survive around 4-5 day. I am only running my two return pumps, powerhead, and maybe skimmer for air which is bare essentials. If it ever drains very badly I can jump and run to autozone and buy a couple of car batteries since it just takes 12V.  

The last thing I need now is a plan for adding DC computer fans if it ever gets hot hot. Also plan for heater to heat up tank. Thinking of an alternative to batteries since heaters drain batteries quick.

 

Thanks for reading! 

[PeterU]

My concern with your backup is that the 12v and 24v connectors appear to be using the same connectors and same colour wires. At a minimum I would use different colour wires to help prevent a mis-hookup.

[Stanboy]

6 hours ago, PeterU said:

My concern with your backup is that the 12v and 24v connectors appear to be using the same connectors and same colour wires. At a minimum I would use different colour wires to help prevent a mis-hookup.

Yes I am going to add some nail Polish on the heads to distinguish the colors. But I am also using different jumpers so I’m just going to label the wires for where they go. Didn’t want to change the heads too much because all the pumps and DC devices all use the same size head. 

[Stanboy]

Little update:

 

Hooked up the battery back up to the tank. Manage to transfer most of the devices on the tank. This is my two return pumps and my fan. I replaced my old sicce 1.0 with a Jebao 1200 for the DC capabilities. 
 

I really wanted the skimmer to be transferred over but it seems like the head of the skimmer plug is a little different. Tunze did some non standard stuff and I have to figure out what size that is. 
 

But right now it seems like my battery back up is able to kinda handle the power of everything. My charger is only able to put out 2A of charge and it seems like with all the devices it’s pushing 2A. The only problem is my mightyjet, even though it say it only draws 15W max, it seems to be drawing around 31W. Which is higher than the new Jebao which I bought for 30W rating. I suspect either the return pump has to be cleaned out so nothing is dragging the motor. 
 

Other than that, the swap was super time consuming moving everything. I have placed my battery back up tucked away inside the couch. My extra battery tucked inside my stand. Also mounted an easy remote switch for turning everything off. 
 

Here is a picture of my battery back up. I placed a reef2reef towel over it so no one notices it. There is a switch on the battery back up for maintenance and also another one remotely. 
 

 

Here you can see all the power draw and everything. 

I have drilled a hole to route the charger, remote switch, and the battery wires to the battery back up outside the stand. The battery just barely fit inside the cabinet. I have to cut the screws down a little just so it slide in perfectly. 

 

I have placed the remote switch right next to the door. This way if anyone ever forgets to turn it back on. When they push the stand close, it will force the switch back in the on position. This is mostly for me because I tend to forget to turn things on sometimes. 
 

Now for the next upgrade. I am planning on building my automatic water change. I realize I had my profilux 4 and have just been using it as a fancy PH monitor. I guess it’s time to make it work for me and create an auto water change system. This battery build has allowed me to make some extra room for myself and throw out some junk. This is also one of the big reasons to leave the batteries on the outside. 

[J>T]

Looks good. Hope you don’t have to use it.

[Stanboy]

On 7/19/2021 at 11:49 PM, J>T said:

Looks good. Hope you don’t have to use it.

Actually had to use it for the power outage in my building to upgrade the electrical. Lost power for 8 hrs but the pumps was running so the no casualties. Wasn’t too hot that day so my fishes didn’t even feel it. 

[Stanboy]

7/30 Update:

 

I have switched over from vibrant to eco balance to see if it helps the corals a little bit more to fight off infections it seem. But sadly my corals still ended up dying. So lost two beautiful pieces. Luckily my buddy had just broken some so he was able to get me a replacement. As for bubble algae I have none of that any more. But I have seem to gotten a bryopsis infestation. It’s not too bad, only shows up on a little bit of frag plugs and on the back of my return chambers. 
 

Coral Update:

 

I have started to add some acros. I got me a garf bonsai which I have been wanting for a while. I also tried a couple of nice beginner pieces. I have placed them in the frag rack for the time being to acclimate for a week before moving them to the permanent home. My buddy had given me a huge piece of slimer. I have chopped it up and it actually is healing quite quickly and dropped my alk. If anyone is in the NYC area and want some slimer hit me up. 
 

Fish Update:

 

Been wanting to add a fish for a while since two little clown fish don’t swim that much. My buddy seem to have a baby copper band which he couldn’t introduce into his tank since it kept getting bullied. I manage to snag the little buddy, since it was healthy and he had it for a year. The little guy eats shrimp, so I’m happy to add the fish to help boost my nitrates. Now time to train it to eat from the chopsticks. 
 

Here are some FTS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next post I’ll talk about the auto water change system. 

 

 

[Stanboy]

Now for auto water change update:

 

This was going to be a big project due to the fail safes I want to put in and also me being cheap and want to see how far my college degree can save some money. 
 

First big thing was making space in my little stand. I had to remove everything in my stand and remove a lot of dosing pumps. I have chosen the GHL 2.1 since it will be able to talk to my profilux 4 so it is easier to program. Next I have decided to use a safety solenoid since the pump will be located in the bottom and don’t want to accidentally siphon water from my tank, since the line will be about 5ft from the doser. Finally I want to add a float switch to prevent my from accidentally overdosing. 
 

Well here is the finalize product after of my stand. Trying to squeeze two big containers and a new doser. 
 

 

I have utilize every last inch in that stand. I was planning on putting gate valves for the future to avoid having to bleed my lines. But then I found out it was unnecessary since the doser 2.1 have a build in reverse dose to clear the lines instead of trying to slowly bleed all the lines through the output. 
 

As of right now I have it just dosing and removing the same volume. No fail safe. I have taken out the two big BRS dosers and just use the extra two dosing heads for ESV Bionic. Found out my calcium line on the BRS was messed up and it explained why I had to dose double just to maintain the calcium. Hopefully now it has fixed the problem and is more stable.

[Stanboy]

Had the auto water change running. Everything is super happy. The only thing is I messed up and my auto water change water seems to be sitting at 1.024. Now my tank is slightly lower salinity. I have corrected the salinity of the water and hopefully as it is changing the water it will bring the Salinity of my tank back to 1.025 which is where I like to keep it. 
 

Also here is a video of my tank if anyone is interested to see all the movement not just a static picture. 
 

 

[Stanboy]

So my neat aquatics feeding portal cover broke and that motivated me to finally change my screen top. I have already bought the screen top fabric, which was tutu fabric like mesh that inappropriate reefer had used for his tank. Now time to replace it. Forgot to take some before pics but I would give a look into the process.
The new mesh screens that innovative marine tanks come with use a rigid spline so the replacement is very easy. There is absolutely no tools needed for install. For removal just need a knife. 
 

 

Here is the original screen top. I was getting tired of the portal because I don’t ever use it. Every time I feed my fish I feed in the center. Also I go and feed my corals Red Sea energy so I’m all over the tank. When I go feeding I take the top off anyways, and I always drop that little door. Secondly that little door always cast a small shadow and shades some corals. 
 

Now to change it you have to do the opposite of when you install. Innovative marine has the manual which has pictures. You first install the inner edge which is the longer lip before the outer edge lip. So to remove I placed a knife on the outer lip and lifted. Tip is as you go along the edge prying with the knife, Try to lift the spline with your other hand to keep the spline free. Key is don’t pull too close to the knife or it will make it harder to lift. Slowly pry up all around the top as to not damage the spline. 
 

 

To install just do as you would with any screen top. Innovative marine tip is when installing the spline pull the screen tight and install bottom(long), top(long), left side(short), and finally right(short) sided. Just push the longer lip of the spline into the inner grove and then push the other side down. No tools, very easy. 

 

 

Here is the finished product. Love this mesh because it is almost invisible all it does is cast a very small black haze. You can kinda see the difference with the old screen in the back. 
 

Now before and after kinda. I just put the old screen on top. 

 

New screen 

 

It’s almost invisible and looks like just black euro bracing. Now I want to figure out how to get an acrylic rim to do this with so it will just look like an open top. The only con is that with an invisible screen I can see how dirty my screen top rim is. So much salt. Hope this inspires people to try to change to an invisible top. Or helps someone who trying to switch to maybe the thinner BRS screen top for smaller fish. 
 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MJD85KG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&fpw=alm&linkCode=sl1&tag=mathshin-20&linkId=ced80e7c72f7ff3bd4d211c1b1c22b52&language=en_US

 

Here is a link to the screen in case anyone wants to try the same. As inappropriate reefer said. The white one is very reflective vs the black one. 

 

[ninjamyst]

Looks like you need a bigger tank soon =P

[BlueDevil-Reefer]

10 hours ago, Stanboy said:

So my neat aquatics feeding portal cover broke and that motivated me to finally change my screen top. I have already bought the screen top fabric, which was tutu fabric like mesh that inappropriate reefer had used for his tank. Now time to replace it. Forgot to take some before pics but I would give a look into the process.
The new mesh screens that innovative marine tanks come with use a rigid spline so the replacement is very easy. There is absolutely no tools needed for install. For removal just need a knife. 
 

 

Here is the original screen top. I was getting tired of the portal because I don’t ever use it. Every time I feed my fish I feed in the center. Also I go and feed my corals Red Sea energy so I’m all over the tank. When I go feeding I take the top off anyways, and I always drop that little door. Secondly that little door always cast a small shadow and shades some corals. 
 

Now to change it you have to do the opposite of when you install. Innovative marine has the manual which has pictures. You first install the inner edge which is the longer lip before the outer edge lip. So to remove I placed a knife on the outer lip and lifted. Tip is as you go along the edge prying with the knife, Try to lift the spline with your other hand to keep the spline free. Key is don’t pull too close to the knife or it will make it harder to lift. Slowly pry up all around the top as to not damage the spline. 
 

 

To install just do as you would with any screen top. Innovative marine tip is when installing the spline pull the screen tight and install bottom(long), top(long), left side(short), and finally right(short) sided. Just push the longer lip of the spline into the inner grove and then push the other side down. No tools, very easy. 

 

 

Here is the finished product. Love this mesh because it is almost invisible all it does is cast a very small black haze. You can kinda see the difference with the old screen in the back. 
 

Now before and after kinda. I just put the old screen on top. 

 

New screen 

 

It’s almost invisible and looks like just black euro bracing. Now I want to figure out how to get an acrylic rim to do this with so it will just look like an open top. The only con is that with an invisible screen I can see how dirty my screen top rim is. So much salt. Hope this inspires people to try to change to an invisible top. Or helps someone who trying to switch to maybe the thinner BRS screen top for smaller fish. 
 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MJD85KG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&fpw=alm&linkCode=sl1&tag=mathshin-20&linkId=ced80e7c72f7ff3bd4d211c1b1c22b52&language=en_US

 

Here is a link to the screen in case anyone wants to try the same. As inappropriate reefer said. The white one is very reflective vs the black one. 

 

Where did you get the dosing tube holder? 

[Stanboy]

10 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Looks like you need a bigger tank soon =P

Regret not getting the nuvo 40 which is exact same foot print just taller. 

[Stanboy]

9 hours ago, BlueDevil-Reefer said:

Where did you get the dosing tube holder? 

I think that was the bubble magnus one. But you can go on Amazon, eBay, or Aliexpress your a cheaper one. Exact same item just a Chinese name. This one is nice because it keeps the tubes out of the water when I turn the returns off to feed.