IM 25 lagoon build

Llorgon

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Welcome to my build thread! I am pretty new to reefing, little under a year. This will be my second tank. I currently have my first reef tank running which is a 75 gallon with 20 gallon sump.

The 75 gallon has been rough... Hasn't gone well at all. The list of things that went wrong is large! Luckily I am moving at the begining of October hence the IM 25.

My plan is to shut down the 75 gallon and move fish, coral and inverts to the 25 while I change some things in the 75 I wasn't quite happy with. So this will be both a build thread and tank moving thread.

Anyways onto the new tank! I picked up the IM 25 lagoon all in one with stand, radion, return pump, skimmer, heater and filter socks.

I still need to pickup a screen top and some sort of powerhead. I might be able to use one from the 75 gallon? Open to recommendations on that one.

Here's what I got.
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Looking for good suggestions on settings and lighting schedule with the radios.

Also started to play around with rockwork.
Aquascape 1
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Aquascape 2, wife's design
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Aquascape 3, I think I like this one the best so far
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What does everyone use for glueing the rocks together? I tried some cement type stuff I got at my lfs on my aquascape in the 75 gallon and it didn't hold at all.

Since I won't be moving until the begining of oct this might be a slow build at the start. After I get my scape done and glued I will put it in a Rubbermaid to start the cycle so it's ready for the move.
 
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Llorgon

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The stock that I am moving out of the 75 is 2 clown fish, royal gramma and a yellow tang. I am a little concerned about the how well the yellow tang will do in the small tank, but hopefully if it's temporary it won't be too unhappy.

The corals are all frags except for a bigger frogspawn that I have the rest are a couple montis, 3 acans and a couple unknown SPS. I have a few that are glued to the rocks, what is the best way to remove them since I don't want the algae covered rocks in the 25. Just a sharp knife and cut them off?
 
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Llorgon

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Picked up some milliput from my lfs. It worked much better than the last epoxy I tried. I tried it out on one half of my aquascape and it holds great! I can pick up the whole structure with the top rock. Tonight I finished glueing the rest of the aquascape and now letting it dry. Tomorrow the rocks will go in a Rubbermaid to start to build up some bacteria so they are ready when I move.

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Crossfire

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that's a nice setup!! You might find the smaller tank easier to manage than your old 75. Best of luck!
 
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Llorgon

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that's a nice setup!! You might find the smaller tank easier to manage than your old 75. Best of luck!
Thanks. I hope it goes better on my second tank. It was the dinos and the following gha outbreak that really killed the 75. Hoping I can avoid that with this one!
 

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why not cycle it all in the tank? The bacteria grows on every surface in the tank, so it's good to cycle the whole tank rather than just the rocks. That dry rock doesn't need to "cure" because there is nothing on it that will decay. Just put it in the tank and cycle the whole thing for a month or 2.

Edit- Nevermind, I just read your original post. Smart move to get a jump on the cycle before moving.

I'm following this build because I love that tank and IM lagoons! You have a killer setup. I'm jealous of it!! Don't rush and all will be well.
 
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Llorgon

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why not cycle it all in the tank? The bacteria grows on every surface in the tank, so it's good to cycle the whole tank rather than just the rocks. That dry rock doesn't need to "cure" because there is nothing on it that will decay. Just put it in the tank and cycle the whole thing for a month or 2.

Edit- Nevermind, I just read your original post. Smart move to get a jump on the cycle before moving.

I'm following this build because I love that tank and IM lagoons! You have a killer setup. I'm jealous of it!! Don't rush and all will be well.

Ya just not cycling in the tank due to the move. Actually I now have no room to setup the tank due to all the boxes.

Now for the boring part of looking at rocks in a bucket of water in the bathroom.

I will test the water in a few days to see if any ammonia has built up.
 
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Llorgon

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Cycle is coming along. Ammonia and nitrites now. The plan is to keep feeding the rocks until the move.

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We now know where we will be moving to so I can finally start to plan the logistics of getting everything there alive.

I am thinking corals in one bucket and fish, snails and urchin in another. Would it be a good idea to bag the corals separately instead of having them all in one bucket moving around?

Would the coral bucket need an airstone or just a heater?

As for things that I need for the tank, I still need a good ato reservoir and a new ro/di unit. Anyone have any recommendations for a good ro/di unit that would be good with hard water? The current unit I have I got for free and the cartridges are $250 each to replace. So it's cheaper to buy a new unit.
 
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Llorgon

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So I've started playing around with my radio xr30pro. Man that is a learning curve on how to program that thing. I am thinking of using one of the coral lab presets and adding a blue light period in the morning and at night. Anyone know the difference between brightness and intensity?

Finally figuring out my plan for moving everything. I think I will setup this tank at my grandparents house next weekend. Then the weekend after bring the coral and the fish. Then we move to our new place on the 5th. And finally go pickup the tank and move everything to the new place. Hopefully everything makes it alive through a few moves. My grandparents place is only 30 ish mins away from our new place. So the second move shouldn't be too bad... I hope.
 

Crossfire

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I'd wait until you move to set it up man. Moving livestock twice in a month isn't worth it. One move alone is tough to keep all the coral alive.
 
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Llorgon

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I'd wait until you move to set it up man. Moving livestock twice in a month isn't worth it. One move alone is tough to keep all the coral alive.

I agree moving everything twice in a month is not a great idea, but the timeline of our move limits my options.

My options are, move tank next weekend and fish/coral the following and then move them again after we move into our new place.

Move and setup new tank with fish and coral on the day we move, but the drive is 4-5 hours depending on traffic add in loading and unloading of the moving truck and that's a long busy day.

Other option is potentially getting my dad to setup the 25 gallon at our new place for me and getting him to take the fish and corals back before we do the big move. Actually reading this, this might be the better option. I grew up with him having freshwater tanks so I'm sure it isn't anything he couldn't handle with good instructions.
 
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Llorgon

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So, changed my moving plans once again. Getting my dad to help out. So far he's excited about it so that's a good thing.

Sept 28th I will take the tank, water and rocks to my grandparents house
Oct 1st my dad will pick up the tank and set it up at the new place.
Oct 3rd or 4th Dad will take the fish and coral from our place to our new place. 4-5 hour trip.

The good part about this plan is I don't have to move things twice. The bad part is I won't be around until later on the 5th if something goes wrong.

My questions are what's the best way of transporting and keeping the cycled rock until the new tank is setup? Just keep it damp while transporting and then setup a rubbermaid again until the tank is setup?

On the weekend I picked up a batter powered air pump and some heating pads the LFS had. They are called uni heat. Anyone used anything like that before? I'm hoping I can tape one to the side of each 5 gallon bucket and it will keep the water warm enough for the fish and coral.

The cycle of the rocks is coming along. Have nitrites and nitrates now!

Played around with programming the radions. This is what I am thinking of going with. It's the SPS PHX14 schedule.
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Llorgon

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Picked up some more supplies for the move the other day. Got the stability and amguard. I also have some aquaforest life bio fill that came with the tank. Anyone used that? Does it actually help with the cycle?

Also picked up two bags of sand. I'm trying two different types of sand as something new!

What I do need to figure out is a game plan for my dad when he is taking the fish and coral to Kelowna for me. So far the plan is that the tank will be setup at the new place on the 1st and my dad will take fish and coral up on the 4th.

What's the best process acclimation wise? Test the tank water to make sure there is no ammonia, nitrites, too high nitrates, do water change if nessasary then start acclimating the fish and coral? Or since they will already be in a bucket for 4 hours is it better to just get them into the tank?

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Llorgon

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So moving day was Friday all fish and snails survived! Corals on the other hand are still really unhappy. I think I am going to have some losses there.

The weekend and today have been unpacking so I haven't done much with the tank. I gave the fish some food yesterday and have been adding stability and amguard.

Going to test the water tonight.
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Llorgon

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Water testing done! Forgot to calibrate my refractometer before making water for the new tank before the move. As a result salinity is low!

Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.023
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.074
Alkalinity: 8.4
Calcium: 410
Magnesium: 1350

Currently working on slowly raising salinity over the next few days. What's the best way to raise pH?
 

Daniel@R2R

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Water testing done! Forgot to calibrate my refractometer before making water for the new tank before the move. As a result salinity is low!

Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.023
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.074
Alkalinity: 8.4
Calcium: 410
Magnesium: 1350

Currently working on slowly raising salinity over the next few days. What's the best way to raise pH?
Levels all look good. Ph of 7.8 is ok.
 
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Llorgon

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Over the last few days I have been bringing my salinity up from 1.023 to 1.026. I also found my ammonia badge and a few other miscellaneous tank things I was having trouble finding!

I added the ammonia badge and it's been saying no ammonia. I tested the water Wednesday and ammonia and nitrites were 0. Yesterday ammonia and nitrites were both at 0.25. weird that it wasn't being picked up by the ammonia badge. I have cleaned out the cover over the mp10 and switched out the filter socks. I went to go do a water change with the 5 gallons of water I had left over from the move and unfortunately my dad had combined water from the bucket with the rocks with the leftover fresh saltwater... So water change had to be pushed back to today while I made new water. That was my fault I should have checked before hand! I did add some amguard and hooked up the airstone and have kept that running. Also had some windows open yesterday to try and add at least a bit of fresh air to the house.

Params yesterday were
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 5

Fish are looking good. I didn't feed them yesterday and will do a light feeding tonight.

Some corals are looking better, some worse and a few haven't changed.

I have been having some issues with my tunze ato. I have to unplug it for feeding(I take some tank water to thaw mysis shrimp in) and then plug it back in when I have fed the fish. It seems like Everytime I unplug and plug the ato back in it fills. And does this if it needs to or not. Is this normal? It has over filled a couple times now doing this.

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