IM 25 lagoon advice — first timer

[shento]

Hello all,
Just set up my tank. I’m curious on if I should put my rocks on the back wall or keep a buffer. Also, can anyone explain why my tank is still cloudy? I put clowns in early as my starter bacteria said to put livestock in within 24 hours. I’m unsure I’m doing this right. Advice is appreciated !

 

[Tahoe61]

To facilitate flow and the cleaning if the panels I deliberately avoid putting the rock structures close to the sides.

The cloudiness could be from the sand not rinsed throughly or a bacterial bloom.
I would have waited to add fish, and rather have done a fishless cycle.

Some information is a little dated.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/the-supreme-guide-to-setting-up-a-saltwater-reef-aquarium.84/
BRS is also a good resource with excellent tutorials.

IM 25 lagoons are an extremely popular tank right now. Try using the search engine to see other member's systems.

Welcome to R2R.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I would never suggest to use live fish to cycle a tank, a pinch of fish food would have supplied that.

Do you have test kits? You need to be able to test ammonia and nitrate until you get through the cycle. Be very careful not to overfeed at this time as your tank can't handle so much input at one time. Testing the water will be important.

I've put rocks up against the glass and also have not, I find that leaving an inch of two can be helpful, but putting rocks against the glass offers more stability if using loose stacked rocks. I think its personal choice.

 

[shento]

Personally I would never suggest to use live fish to cycle a tank, a pinch of fish food would have supplied that.

Do you have test kits? You need to be able to test ammonia and nitrate until you get through the cycle. Be very careful not to overfeed at this time as your tank can't handle so much input at one time. Testing the water will be important.

I've put rocks up against the glass and also have not, I find that leaving an inch of two can be helpful, but putting rocks against the glass offers more stability if using loose stacked rocks. I think its personal choice.

Yeah quickly realized that after making a reef2reef account. The employee at the fish store told me to do what the bottle said & I wasn’t arguing with that… he seemed like he knew what he was talking about lol. I’ll make the best of it and check my water daily with the Hanna kits.

Anyways, thanks guys! Will update you all! I’ll include how it’s looking now, much better.