First reef tank IM 25 lagoon

[Dr 5hakalu]

November 6 2025

Growing up my parents had a fish only salt water tank (early 90s) and I remember always spending time just sitting in front of the tank watching all the fish. Fast forward to today and I have a daughter now that’s 2 1/2 and she absolutely loves going to our local zoo just for the aquarium they have, so I figured why not start small with the hopes of one day having a big boy tank one day.

What I have now is —
- IM 25 lagoon
- the two media baskets for tank
- MightJet 326 pump
- 100watt Helio PTC smart heater
- Reefbreeders ATO
- Aqua Gadget 5gal reserve
- 5 stage premium plus rodi system
- 20lb bag of special grade agra
- VCA random flow generators

Only two things I still need that I’ve been waiting on is a powerhead and a light setup. The powerhead I’ve been looking at is the Nero 3, although I was hoping to get some advice on a light system specifically for the lagoon.

I plan on having a few clown fish, maybe one other fish and some clean up crew. Plan on starting with a few soft corals after my tank is good to go after fish are added. Eventually I want to have a plethora of different corals so I’d rather invest in a light suitable for everything for my 25 gallon tank. If I do jump into a big tank in the future I’ll just buy different lights for that specific tank.

I have my dry rock sitting a bin right now for about a month and the ammonia testing color is between .02 and 0 with it looking closer to 0

 

[Dr 5hakalu]

Took these pictures of what I had my aquascape look like before I put them in the garage can to do their thing. Hoping I didn’t go overboard and it’s too much.

Disregard the junk in back of picture, built it on a spare table in my garage so my daughter didn’t keep messing with it haha.

 

[get-salty]

Howdy.

Aquascape looks fantastic !

 

[BryanM]

Aquascape: If the cardboard is the tank size, it appears you MIGHT have issues cleaning the glass in some spots... Other than that looks good.

Lights are highly budget dependent. If budget is not a concern you could go with ReefBreeder Meridians.

 

[Dr 5hakalu]

Aquascape: If the cardboard is the tank size, it appears you MIGHT have issues cleaning the glass in some spots... Other than that looks good.

Lights are highly budget dependent. If budget is not a concern you could go with ReefBreeder Meridians.

Yea there was more space in person than what the picture showed I tried to keep it at least 2 inches away. I looked at that one, the reefLed g2, kessil a360xe, or hydra either 32hd or 44hd

 

[kevgib67]

Welcome from north eastern Ohio, looks like you are off to a great start, O-H!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[TheWB]

Took these pictures of what I had my aquascape look like before I put them in the garage can to do their thing. Hoping I didn’t go overboard and it’s too much.

Disregard the junk in back of picture, built it on a spare table in my garage so my daughter didn’t keep messing with it haha.

Love the scape. If you're going to run a Nero 3 make sure you clean it frequently. They seem to do better with more regular maintenance. I have two I used in an IM Lagoon 50 so I've got some first hand experience. I did not clean mine as often as I should have and they will stop running when they get gunked up enough.
Following along, post lots of pics.

 

[Dr 5hakalu]

Ended up getting the kessil 360, which I also got the printed reef biggest cone “diffuser?”. I’ll pry buy a different one because it didn’t do much for the over spill of light in our living room, but also have 3 clownfish now along with a nice group of clean up crew.
I got a lot of nice coral for 1$ on a Black Friday sale so figured I’m gonna throw that in when it arrives and see how everything goes.
Definitely made the right choice because my daughter wakes up/ gets home and the first thing she does is run over to the tank and gets excited seeing the fish swim around

 

[bvickery1974]

Looking good!

 

[TheNative192]

Following along!

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome to the unofficial IM 25 Lagoon club. I am curious to see what the Kessil looks like over that tank.