A Calm Blue Ocean - IM Fusion Pro 50 Gallon AIO Lagoon

[TheWB]

Four E's Scientific 1-10ML Single-Channel Pipettor Adjustable Variable Volume Micropipette High Accurate Pipettor for Laboratory

I picked up some spare 10ml tips and use it for both water tests and manual dosing. Really nice for dosing AFR which always clogged my syringes.

Thanks. That will come in handy.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

First of the month tank maintenance.

Tested PO4 on the 27th and found it had increased by a surprising amount, so I retested yesterday only to find it even higher, so I threw in a bag of BRS High Capacity GFO. Haven't run GFO since the end of April so maybe that finally caught up with me? Delayed reaction?

Pulled the whole media caddy to give it a scrub and found a nice big smiling aiptasia under it. Darnit, I thought I'd conquered the aiptasia in the back chamber. I'll have to deal with that another day.

Threw in a new bag of Chemi-pure Blue. Not sure why I don't just change to Elite and get carbon and GFO all in one.

Refilled the CO2 reactor.

Tomorrow I'll scrape glass.

The tank is overdue for a deep cleaning. Seems that it might be time to stop finding excuses.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

That BRS High Capacity GFO is a whole lot more potent than IM's GFO! I put 1/3 cup in a bag less than a week ago and we've gone from a PO4 of almost 0.4 to 0.1. It's been over 2 years since I've seen a number that low. Alkalinity took a small hit which I guess is not unusual with GFO. I tried this GFO before and didn't see such dramatic results. I'll test again tomorrow to confirm my results.

I did a small water change on Saturday. Just as I was finishing up my red lined wrasse decided to have a feakout and charged across the tank, hit my birdsnest face first, breaking it off at the base, and then he hid in the corner. At least he stayed in the tank this time (he actually jumped out during a water change once). Left a few little scratches on his head, broke some tips off the birdsnest but otherwise everyone seems ok.

Somehow I forgot about the darn aiptasia under the media caddy. I'll get it during next week's water change.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

First things first, it sounds like our county has declared a state of emergency due to flooding, which is very much not a normal thing around here, we're more of a fire type of emergency region. Roads and bridges out all over, and at least one cabin reported going down the river. The guy across the street had his house upgraded to riverfront property overnight as the river has completely overrun the park. I got gas for the generator before they closed the road into town. Hopefully it's enough when we lose power (I think it's a given at this point)!

In other news, I got the anemone out of my overflow...and it seems it may not be an aiptasia after all! It's actually a kinda cool looking little guy. I'm going to try to grow it out.

And here's a FTS since I haven't posted one in a while. The fish all have the zoomies like they know there's something up today and the hermits have decided to overturn the duncan. I'll fix that when they're done making trouble. And I might have a zoa problem, why did I put those on two rocks??? It's madness!

 

[TheWB]

First things first, it sounds like our county has declared a state of emergency due to flooding, which is very much not a normal thing around here, we're more of a fire type of emergency region. Roads and bridges out all over, and at least one cabin reported going down the river. The guy across the street had his house upgraded to riverfront property overnight as the river has completely overrun the park. I got gas for the generator before they closed the road into town. Hopefully it's enough when we lose power (I think it's a given at this point)!

In other news, I got the anemone out of my overflow...and it seems it may not be an aiptasia after all! It's actually a kinda cool looking little guy. I'm going to try to grow it out.

And here's a FTS since I haven't posted one in a while. The fish all have the zoomies like they know there's something up today and the hermits have decided to overturn the duncan. I'll fix that when they're done making trouble. And I might have a zoa problem, why did I put those on two rocks??? It's madness!

Sorry to hear about the flooding and power outages. I hope you escape having to deal with that too much. At least you’re prepared.
The tank is looking great. I too have a Zoa infestation problem, much worse than yours, so I sympathize. Beat ‘‘em back now before it’s too late Lol.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

It looks like we escaped the worst of it, but a lot of others in the region were not so lucky. They expect water levels to rise again this weekend but don't expect it to be so bad. One of our neighbors across the street said they could hear boulders crashing down the river all night. Yup, suddenly glad we didn't build right on the river! Only one bridge left standing to get into town. Internet and cell service have been up and down, but we were lucky to only have two brief power bumps at our house. Crazy stuff.

I'm planning to take on the zoas this weekend. Even though there are three other corals on the rock I think the best plan will be to pull the rock and do the surgery outside the tank. I did some removal a while back and the things slime like crazy. I'm at the point where I think I'll go for 100% removal on that rock since they're doing a good job overrunning the third island, too. I think that's plenty of zoas. I've got some monti cap frags growing out in the nano that might look good in their place.

Clowns laid eggs again this morning, right on schedule! Sorry for the blurry picture, the cave is dark, and the clowns are manic!

Lots of people have pistol shrimp/goby pairs. After losing his goby, Doozer (Tiger Pistol Shrimp) decided to pair up with Lil' Papa (Peppermint Shrimp). Not sure how common this combination is, but they've been hanging out like this for months!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I have some reservations about water quality following the floods. The TDS meter coming out of the RO membrane was showing in the 80s on Tuesday and it's normally around 4. It was back in the 6-8 range yesterday. I just replaced the RO membrane and I'd hate to burn through it right away due to unusually crappy water. As soon as things look satisfactory, though, I'm going to do up a couple buckets because the tank needs surgery!

We've already talked about the Mango Cooler zoas. They've killed the Purple Hearted Emeralds and are chasing the King Midas out of town. They're trying to overrun my montis and duncan. Nothing seems to bother these guys!

Next is my Alien Eye Candy Cane. He's becoming a bit of an aggressor and is slowly stinging my teal candy cane to death. Thing is, I think he might also be one of the last lines holding against Mango Coolers on the third island. I definitely can't move the teal, it's fully encrusted, but I'm still not sure if it's wise to move the Alien Eye. I'll have to get them to close up so I can have a good look at what's going on underneath.

Finally, I have an impending war between Pocillopora and Digitata. Last time I had a poci touch a monti we had full on monti melting. This digi has struggled enough, I don't think it needs to make contact with the poci. So, in addition to possibly moving the Alien Eye, I might need to move this pocillopora since the digi is fully encrusted.

I have some small monti cap frags I can bring in and a chip pavona that isn't glued down but I'm not sure any of those are aggressive enough growers to hold back the tide of zoas. As I've said before, thank goodness the Mango Coolers are good looking zoas. It helps a bit! Maybe?

It's going to take a lot of glue!

 

[TheWB]

I have some reservations about water quality following the floods. The TDS meter coming out of the RO membrane was showing in the 80s on Tuesday and it's normally around 4. It was back in the 6-8 range yesterday. I just replaced the RO membrane and I'd hate to burn through it right away due to unusually crappy water. As soon as things look satisfactory, though, I'm going to do up a couple buckets because the tank needs surgery!

We've already talked about the Mango Cooler zoas. They've killed the Purple Hearted Emeralds and are chasing the King Midas out of town. They're trying to overrun my montis and duncan. Nothing seems to bother these guys!

Next is my Alien Eye Candy Cane. He's becoming a bit of an aggressor and is slowly stinging my teal candy cane to death. Thing is, I think he might also be one of the last lines holding against Mango Coolers on the third island. I definitely can't move the teal, it's fully encrusted, but I'm still not sure if it's wise to move the Alien Eye. I'll have to get them to close up so I can have a good look at what's going on underneath.

Finally, I have an impending war between Pocillopora and Digitata. Last time I had a poci touch a monti we had full on monti melting. This digi has struggled enough, I don't think it needs to make contact with the poci. So, in addition to possibly moving the Alien Eye, I might need to move this pocillopora since the digi is fully encrusted.

I have some small monti cap frags I can bring in and a chip pavona that isn't glued down but I'm not sure any of those are aggressive enough growers to hold back the tide of zoas. As I've said before, thank goodness the Mango Coolers are good looking zoas. It helps a bit! Maybe?

It's going to take a lot of glue!

You’ve got total warfare going on there. I’m having some of the same problems with certain Zoas. They’ve gotten a little out of control as I’ve somewhat neglected my tank over the last few weeks while we prepped to move. They need their own islands.

 

[H2Orchard]

Love your tank. I'm looking at doing a lagoon tank as well so I appreciate you posting about your experience!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Love your tank. I'm looking at doing a lagoon tank as well so I appreciate you posting about your experience!

Thank you! I love the lagoon shape. I sometimes wish I'd gone with the EXT version of the tank and I keep getting the itch to move up to the 100g or even the dream of the 200g but this size really is great. Big enough to be fun but small enough that maintenance is still easy.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Yesterday was the tank's 2nd birthday! Hard to believe. I'm really not typically a patient person but in this case, patience might be finally paying off. Water parameters are finally settling into a more typical range, corals are growing, clowns are spawning. What a journey!

And what was that about patience?

Operation Mango Cooler annihilation happened yesterday!

Missed a couple that are smiling at me mischievously this afternoon and I still have a couple corals I'd like to add to the newly opened real-estate. Possibly a piece of setosa and a digi branch to bring some of the orange color back without the zoa invasiveness. The zoas did a bit of a number on Fruity Pebbles so I might migrate another chunk in from the nano to help him out. Hopefully we don't have to deal with too much zoa regrowth. I brought Leng Sy back in after some grow out time in the nano and Starburst finally made a long-awaited return. Let's hope they have more success than they did last time!

Edit: Thought I should add a before picture

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Not much to report but I thought I might be due for an update!

I've counted about 10 Mango Coolers poking out from the rock I cleaned them from. Some are really down in there so I will probably have to wait for them to grow out a bit before I can tweezer them out of there. Still pretty pleased with the results.

Numbers are looking good in the 50. I've switched from TM Elimi-NP to TM NP-Bacto-Balance for my carbon dosing and 0.4ml first thing in the morning seems to be doing the trick. We're up to 20ml of AFR daily.

I've had a weird problem in the 10. Moths keep suiciding into the back chamber and getting shot out through the return pump. I had to finally build a screen guard over the chamber! I might finally invest in one of the inTank covers.

My Apex had a big AOS update last night. And it nuked my wireless connection to it! I've tried every suggestion to get it going again but finally had to snake a long ethernet cable through the house to get it online again (so it's not bricked thank goodness, just no Wi-Fi). I put in a ticket this afternoon so just I'm waiting to see what Neptune says. I might try resetting my router but that sounds like a massive headache that probably won't work.

 

[TheWB]

Not much to report but I thought I might be due for an update!

I've counted about 10 Mango Coolers poking out from the rock I cleaned them from. Some are really down in there so I will probably have to wait for them to grow out a bit before I can tweezer them out of there. Still pretty pleased with the results.

Numbers are looking good in the 50. I've switched from TM Elimi-NP to TM NP-Bacto-Balance for my carbon dosing and 0.4ml first thing in the morning seems to be doing the trick. We're up to 20ml of AFR daily.

I've had a weird problem in the 10. Moths keep suiciding into the back chamber and getting shot out through the return pump. I had to finally build a screen guard over the chamber! I might finally invest in one of the inTank covers.

My Apex had a big AOS update last night. And it nuked my wireless connection to it! I've tried every suggestion to get it going again but finally had to snake a long ethernet cable through the house to get it online again (so it's not bricked thank goodness, just no Wi-Fi). I put in a ticket this afternoon so just I'm waiting to see what Neptune says. I might try resetting my router but that sounds like a massive headache that probably won't work.

Glad to hear things are going well. Those moths are free food. What you need is a predetor for those intruding moths. I'm afraid to update my Apex. It works fine and I'm not super wifi savvy when it comes to dealing with the routers and different bandwidths so I'm taking the "If it aint broke dont fix it" stance.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Glad to hear things are going well. Those moths are free food. What you need is a predetor for those intruding moths. I'm afraid to update my Apex. It works fine and I'm not super wifi savvy when it comes to dealing with the routers and different bandwidths so I'm taking the "If it aint broke dont fix it" stance.

I'm terrible for jumping on unnecessary updates! I've paid the price so many times but never learn.

Thinking of getting a new fish for the 10 that might enjoy those moths. Stay tuned!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Apex update! Neptune got back to me within hours of putting my ticket in which is pretty cool considering the fact that your tank may depend on it! They were able to connect to my Apex and the conclusion?

My Wi-Fi sucks. Strong signal but poor quality.

Why this was suddenly a problem is a bit of a mystery. Evidence would certainly point to it being at least partially the new AOS, but all the same, back to me to figure out why my signal was degrading.

I started with finally getting on some of that cable management I'd been meaning to do. Didn't solve the problem but the wire monster looks much better! Still a bit to do but at least it doesn't feel so hazardous under there now. So not a complete waste of time.

The Apex did connect for a bit yesterday and I kept monitoring my Wi-Fi signal. Frankly it was all over the place, and sure enough, it would go to crap and the Apex would disconnect again.

This morning I decided I'd had enough and before resorting to drilling a hole in my floor to pass an ethernet cable I hit the factory reset on the router. Knock on wood, but the Apex has been connected for the last 7 1/2 hours. For the third time in the last two days, I've taken the chance and put the ethernet cable away.

For anyone who happens across this post and is having trouble with their Apex connection, I'm thinking it could be tied to the "Roaming Assistant" setting in my router, or possibly something else on the "Professional" tab. I'd fiddled with some of those settings when we were having issues following the floods here. I thought I'd set it all back the way it was but maybe not!

Anyway, fingers crossed, I'll be watching carefully for the next couple days.

In other news, just to add to the fun with the Apex, the ATO overfilled again last night. I'm pretty sure it's a snail thing now. The trochus snails in particular can block a good part of the overflow and timed just right it makes the ATO kick on, the snail moves, and here we are with an alarm going off at midnight. Makes sense, too, that it's always been late at night since my snails tend to be very inactive during the day. Not sure what the solution is other than to perhaps be very diligent about keeping the area clean and giving the snails no reason to be up there!

Who knew snails could be such troublemakers?

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Top down Thursday? Close enough!

Cable management project phase one:

 

[Theolox]

I am in the process of setting up an IM 50 lagoon to replace my Biocube 29. Im so glad I found this thread. I have most of the Marco rock and am waiting for the rest of my scaping supplies to come in. I have a lid on order. I am adding VCA random flow nozzles. I am still deciding on my return pump. I got a ghost skimmer with the tank and will have to see how it does. I am still reviewing other equipment, but I'll make my own thread to ask the many many questions I have.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I am in the process of setting up an IM 50 lagoon to replace my Biocube 29. Im so glad I found this thread. I have most of the Marco rock and am waiting for the rest of my scaping supplies to come in. I have a lid on order. I am adding VCA random flow nozzles. I am still deciding on my return pump. I got a ghost skimmer with the tank and will have to see how it does. I am still reviewing other equipment, but I'll make my own thread to ask the many many questions I have.

Welcome to the IM 50 Lagoon club! Can't wait to see what you do with it. Definitely check out two of my favorite 50 Lagoon threads: Griev's 50 Gallon Lagoon AIO and TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50. Lots there to be inspired by!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Big crazy day yesterday, we added 6 fish to the family! Oh, and a scarlet cleaner shrimp, a few snails and a tuxedo urchin. The acclimation assembly line was in full swing!

In the 50 Lagoon we added:

1 x Blue Tuxedo Urchin (hope he puts a dent in the coralline)
1 x Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp
2 x Pajama Cardinals (was supposed to be 3 but one was DOA)
1 x Rainford Goby
1 x Wheeler Goby
12 x assorted snails

In the 10 gallon we added:

3 x assorted snails
1 x Rainford Goby
1 x Hi-fin Goby

More picture to come after I clean the glass!

So far most of the fish seem to be settling in ok. I was worried the clowns might be a problem, particularly since they just laid eggs a couple days ago but so far so good! The Wheeler paired up with Doozer just as I was getting ready to feed this morning which was really cool to watch. The Rainfords are disturbingly tiny. The one in the 50 isn't afraid of anything, though, and is busy picking away at invisible things. The one in the 10 has found a den under the GSP. The Hi-fin is MIA as of this morning but there are so many good hiding spots in the 10 that I'm not giving up on him.

Acclimation was a bear! Everything was different, ranging from 1.018 to 1.025. Fortunately, I planned ahead and had a lot of buckets and plenty of fresh saltwater.

I'd like to get a replacement for the one cardinal but the vendor says there aren't any in stock quarantined so it will be a while. I found another vendor with them ready to go but then I'd be on the hook for the full shipping price which is ouch. Really wanted a trio.

 

[TheWB]

Big crazy day yesterday, we added 6 fish to the family! Oh, and a scarlet cleaner shrimp, a few snails and a tuxedo urchin. The acclimation assembly line was in full swing!

In the 50 Lagoon we added:

1 x Blue Tuxedo Urchin (hope he puts a dent in the coralline)
1 x Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp
2 x Pajama Cardinals (was supposed to be 3 but one was DOA)
1 x Rainford Goby
1 x Wheeler Goby
12 x assorted snails

In the 10 gallon we added:

3 x assorted snails
1 x Rainford Goby
1 x Hi-fin Goby

More picture to come after I clean the glass!

So far most of the fish seem to be settling in ok. I was worried the clowns might be a problem, particularly since they just laid eggs a couple days ago but so far so good! The Wheeler paired up with Doozer just as I was getting ready to feed this morning which was really cool to watch. The Rainfords are disturbingly tiny. The one in the 50 isn't afraid of anything, though, and is busy picking away at invisible things. The one in the 10 has found a den under the GSP. The Hi-fin is MIA as of this morning but there are so many good hiding spots in the 10 that I'm not giving up on him.

Acclimation was a bear! Everything was different, ranging from 1.018 to 1.025. Fortunately, I planned ahead and had a lot of buckets and plenty of fresh saltwater.

I'd like to get a replacement for the one cardinal but the vendor says there aren't any in stock quarantined so it will be a while. I found another vendor with them ready to go but then I'd be on the hook for the full shipping price which is ouch. Really wanted a trio.

Sounds like you had a good time shipping for new inhabitants.
Sorry to hear about he DOA Cardinal, it happens.
I really enjoyed my Rainfords Goby but it didn’t last very long. One day it was there and then it was just gone. No signs of a problem, just gone.
About time for a new FTS, don’t you think. It’s been a while.