IM 25 Lagoon Build

[Rottinggore]

I'm starting a build thread for my new IM 25g lagoon

Equipment:
1 Aquagadget media basket running rox .08 carbon and gfo
1 filter sock
Reef octopus ns-80 skimmer
Upgraded the pump to a sicce 1.5
1 spin stream nozzle
1 100 watt Neotherm heater
1 micro ato
2 t5 24" bulbs 1 coral plus and 1 blue plus with an ai prime in a fixture
20lbs cured brs pukani dry rock probably won't use it all.
10lbs caribsea special grade reef sand on top of 10lb caribsea pink Fiji sand.
Will be using Red Sea reef mature pro kit to cycle and will dose Red Sea products like nopox ect.

Livestock currently in 10g that will be slowly transferred are:
1 Ocellaris clownfish
1 Dusky jawfish
1 mini maxi
3 hermits
2 nassarius snails
3 astraea snails
1 emerald crab

Today I will mix water and hopefully get it wet. Any advice or suggestions are greatly aprrciated. I'm not 100% on what I'm gonna run in the back chambers. I wanna add a IM reactor but not sure if I'll have enough room after everything is in the back.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Let me know how you like the spin stream... mine sounds like a tracked bulldozer. Clack clack clack clack...

 

[Rottinggore]

Unfortunately I opened my brute can of brs pukani dry rock and the water was a really dark rust color and kind of milky not sure what happened I had a 100watt heater and two power heads in it and a bag of gfo and carbon. I have no idea what happened, but now I'll have to clean the rock really well in rodi.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Organic die off. Dump all that water out and fill it with new RODI. Might have to do that a few tikmes until you get all that dead organic matter out of there. Any thing for flow in the brute? Might want to stick your power heads in there to keep things flowing.

 

[Rottinggore]

The first picture is the equipment that was in it. You can kind of see the color I'm talking about.

 

[Rottinggore]

I had over 600gph in pumps and I have been dosing phosbuster pro and doing weekly water changes of saltwater for two months while using a Hana checker to get phosphates to zero. It was fine when I checked it three days ago I added a bag of gfo and carbon because I finally ran out of phosbuster. Maybe the gfo got loose and chopped up in the powerhead?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Looks like brown algae diatoms. Dead rock has a lot of dead stuff and sometimes it takes a while to cure. I prefer live rock, but it's expensive. One LFS near me charges $6/lb for the cheap stuff and I think $9 for stuff that's got nice coraline on it. I did that for my 14g Fusion, I only bought 5lbs and couldn't fit more than about 2-3... When I set up a 120 I'm going with dead Tonga rock from BRS and I'll be doing it exactly how you are.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Maybe the gfo got loose and chopped up in the powerhead?

That would perfectly explain the rust colored water. GFO, granular ferric oxide, iron oxide, rust...

 

[Rottinggore]

That would perfectly explain the rust colored water. GFO, granular ferric oxide, iron oxide, rust...

Ya it's definitely not organic matter I've been scrubbing every rock and every little hole with brushes and pulling stuff out with tweezers. I'm really starting to think it was the gfo. I'm going to fill a couple 5g buckets with rodi and scrub them really well in each bucket till the water is clear.

 

[Rottinggore]

Looks like brown algae diatoms. Dead rock has a lot of dead stuff and sometimes it takes a while to cure. I prefer live rock, but it's expensive. One LFS near me charges $6/lb for the cheap stuff and I think $9 for stuff that's got nice coraline on it. I did that for my 14g Fusion, I only bought 5lbs and couldn't fit more than about 2-3... When I set up a 120 I'm going with dead Tonga rock from BRS and I'll be doing it exactly how you are.

I basically just dosed lanthanum chloride in saltwater then would do a water change see how high the phosphates got and would dose again to zero phosphates and just repeated till it stopped climbing and stayed at .02 without dosing.

 

[Rottinggore]

Scrubbed the rock all day and I am gonna leave it in rodi water overnight with a powerhead for flow. Should be good for tomorrow.

 

[Shark.Bait]

How do you like the spin stream nozzle?

 

[Gsreef]

Can u take a pic of your light setup

 

[Rottinggore]

Can u take a pic of your light setup

Still gotta add the ai prime hd after it cycles. I haven't got water in it yet, so I'm not sure on the spinstream yet.

 

[Rottinggore]

Can u take a pic of your light setup

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/t5-ho-miro-4-retrofit-kit-let-lighting.html This is the retrofit kit I used was really easy to wire and make a simple fixture for it to screw into and hang.

 

[Gsreef]

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/t5-ho-miro-4-retrofit-kit-let-lighting.html This is the retrofit kit I used was really easy to wire and make a simple fixture for it to screw into and hang.

Nice i defiantly will look at this i been looking for a a setup like this

 

[Rottinggore]

Should have the rock scaped and water in today. I will post pictures after I'm done.

 

[Rottinggore]

So I guess I didn't clean my mixing powerhead good enough. The saltwater I mixed had brown stuff floating in it when I opened it the next day. So I have to fill it back up and try it again.

 

[Rottinggore]

Aquascape I think I might go with.
Any suggestions?

 

[Rottinggore]

Added sand and water. Tomorrow I will start the Red Sea mature pro kit.