- Joined
- Aug 16, 2026
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 4
- What state or country do you live in
- Arizona
Hello all,
I am building my 60 gallon lagoon reef tank. Was in the hobby for years and then got out for about 20 years and came back and started this project about 3 months ago. It has 3 green chromis, 1 tomato clownfish, 1 bangaai cardinalfish, and 1 diamond watchman goby. I have 2 mermaid fan calcareous macro algae in it now that are thriving and have 4 carpeting halimeda and 4 velvet horn macro showing up this week. I do weekly 15 gallon IO Reef Salt water changes so Im hoping I wont have to dose but we will see how my calcium levels and iron etc look after the initial load of halimeda gets added and established with the mermaid fans. I run a bit of a dirty tank for the macro so ultimately if I add coral in the future (small amount) then I will head toward coral that prefer those parameters. I have a Fluval FX2 canister filter that is all mechanical and chemical when needed. mostly just carbon and occasionally phos pads if they get above .25ppm. I also have a Seachem Tidal 75 on the right side panel that pushes flow across the tank back to the left side where the intake for the FX2 is. I use a 36" spray bar for flow coming off the FX2 and its mounted evenly across the back of the tank. I have 2 nicrew nava reef 65w lights mounted on the back at 12" and 36" for even spacing across the 48" total length. I run hydor nano 465gph power heads also to add to encourage the ccw flow of the tank. The picture shows an emperor pro 450 as well HOB on the left side glass but I have since removed it for awhile. I was toying with the idea of converting it into a HOB refugium but in reality I am turning my display tank into one large refugium. I have 45 pounds of live rock and 60 pounds of well mixed sand made up of 30 pounds of oolitic sand, 20 pounds of carib sea fiji and 10 pounds of aragonite. I also have 4 astrea snails and 5 cerith snails to help the diamon goby with the substrate.

I am building my 60 gallon lagoon reef tank. Was in the hobby for years and then got out for about 20 years and came back and started this project about 3 months ago. It has 3 green chromis, 1 tomato clownfish, 1 bangaai cardinalfish, and 1 diamond watchman goby. I have 2 mermaid fan calcareous macro algae in it now that are thriving and have 4 carpeting halimeda and 4 velvet horn macro showing up this week. I do weekly 15 gallon IO Reef Salt water changes so Im hoping I wont have to dose but we will see how my calcium levels and iron etc look after the initial load of halimeda gets added and established with the mermaid fans. I run a bit of a dirty tank for the macro so ultimately if I add coral in the future (small amount) then I will head toward coral that prefer those parameters. I have a Fluval FX2 canister filter that is all mechanical and chemical when needed. mostly just carbon and occasionally phos pads if they get above .25ppm. I also have a Seachem Tidal 75 on the right side panel that pushes flow across the tank back to the left side where the intake for the FX2 is. I use a 36" spray bar for flow coming off the FX2 and its mounted evenly across the back of the tank. I have 2 nicrew nava reef 65w lights mounted on the back at 12" and 36" for even spacing across the 48" total length. I run hydor nano 465gph power heads also to add to encourage the ccw flow of the tank. The picture shows an emperor pro 450 as well HOB on the left side glass but I have since removed it for awhile. I was toying with the idea of converting it into a HOB refugium but in reality I am turning my display tank into one large refugium. I have 45 pounds of live rock and 60 pounds of well mixed sand made up of 30 pounds of oolitic sand, 20 pounds of carib sea fiji and 10 pounds of aragonite. I also have 4 astrea snails and 5 cerith snails to help the diamon goby with the substrate.

