IM 25 lagoon build

[Llorgon]

Been pretty busy unpacking and setting various furniture up. Wife went on a furniture buying spree... So I haven't had much time for the tank.

The tank has been doing well. At least it looks to be. Fish are eating, hermits are roaming around my snail is moving around. Corals for the most part are opening up.

I had one issue with my heater where it stopped working. I haven't had the chance to remove it yet so I just added another heater in there for the time being.

Finally got the time to make some ro/di water. Went to set it up in the garage and realized I had nowhere to put the waste water! So I've rigged it up under the sink in the bathroom.

 

[Llorgon]

So was able to get a ok photo of my growing forest fire and what could be new growth on what once was a nice green Jedi mind trick?

 

[Llorgon]

Found the secret to taking better pics of the tank. Do it when the sun is in the room!

 

[Llorgon]

Tested my water last night

Tank Params are
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0.402
Alkalinity: 9.9
Calcium: 480
Magnesium: 1280

Phosphates are really high so I added some rowaphos. Haven't had any big algae outbreaks yet...

 

[Llorgon]

Here is a long overdue update. Been busy lately and haven't been doing much with the tank until tonight.

I've been sick, we've been unpacking and my wife got hit in her car so that's a write off so dealing with that as well. She's fine, just was a bit shaken up.

Anyways, the tank has been going pretty well except for my phosphates which have been steadily climbing.

Fish are doing well and eating. Corals for the most part are doing well. My forest fire digi is slowly growing and I can see a bunch of new heads starting on the frogspawn. My one acan is doing great, but the red one could be doing better. It always seems to never be fully inflated. I've tried feeding reef roids, but they sit on top of it. The other acan eats it perfectly fine. Any ideas on how I can get it to perk up?

I tested water and did a water change tonight.

Tank Params are
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Phosphate: 0.463
Alkalinity: 9.8
Calcium: 480
Magnesium: 1350

I added my last bit of rowaphos to the tank and after lots of tweaking I have finally got that ghost skimmer dialed in. Hopefully that will help get the phosphates under control.

 

[Llorgon]

Some more shots of the tank.

 

[Llorgon]

Picked up a hammer and Duncan frag.

Hopefully I have better luck with this hammer than the others I have tried. The last few I had in my 75 gallon would be ok for a few months then slowly melt away.

Also picked up some chemi pure to help bring down my phosphates.

 

[Llorgon]

I got a TDS meter from my secret santa yesterday. So I went around testing water sources. My tap water is 146 TDS and the water in my ato reservoir was 62ppm. Going to make some ro/di water today and test that. Maybe I need to change my filters already...

 

[Llorgon]

Tank seems to be doing well even with some holiday neglect. I got a new di resin cartridge so I can replace the old one and get my TDS back to 0. I still need to pick up a booster pump since I think my psi is low.

It looks like I have a bit of turf algae on one of my rocks. I will have to hit that with some boiling water to kill it off. I had a couple patches of it on the same rock a couple weeks ago, but I must have missed this section.

Fish are doing well. All happy and eating.

Still low on cuc, lost 2 hermits in the last few weeks, but I have 2 ceriths that have laid eggs on the glass twice now.

Corals for the most part are doing well. The Duncan has a new head starting! My red scan always seems deflated though and never has feeder tentacles out. The blue one beside it is big and puffy and always has its feeders out. Anything I can try to get it looking happier?

 

[Llorgon]

Water change and water testing day yesterday.

Tank and inhabitants are doing well. The kenya tree has been dropping a few branches so now I have 3 of them...

Getting patches of turf algae in the cracks of the rocks. I have been trying to kill the patches with boiling water. Seems to have mixed results. is there any CUC I can add that would eat it?

I have been struggling to keep nitrates and phosphates under control. That is probably the first thing I should tackle.

Tank Params are
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Phosphate: 0.086
Alkalinity: 9.8
Calcium: 475
Magnesium: 1350

 

[Llorgon]

Some more large tank shots. I have 4 trochus snails on order. Hopefully they can help out with the patches of algae I have been getting.

Duncan is growing. Got 2 heads now. Still not sure if I want to leave it on the sand or move it to the rocks.

Hammer is doing well. Which is surprising for my tanks. Even have another little head at the bottom!

Frogspawn is continuing to improve. For some reason the head on the bottom right has purple heads instead of the green it used to have.

Good shot of my kenya tree forest I have starting.

The red acan never looks as happy as the blue one. Any ideas on what it could be?

The two resident clowns. Always like to be front and centre in case I have food...

 

[Llorgon]

Still struggling with high nitrates and phosphates. Although the phosphates have come down some.

Algae isn't much worse, but it isn't getting better either.

I did pickup some peroxide and put some on a few patches of the turf algae before my weekly water change. I will see how they are looking tomorrow.

Other than the algae and high nitrates and phosphates everything is running well. I am hoping the trochus snails I ordered come in this week and they can make a bit of a dent in the algae.

Looking for some lps coral suggestions for filling out the rockwork on the right. The top most part of it is 2.5 from the water line.

Tank Params are

Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 25
Phosphate: 0.074
Alkalinity: 9.8
Calcium: 475
Magnesium: 1350

 

[Llorgon]

Been awhile since I did a update. Still have high nutrients, but I have been slowly lowering them.

I did my first online coral order from fragbox. I ordered a trumpet coral, pink acan, favia and cyphastrea. All arrived in good condition except the trumpet. I think they will be sending a replacement.

For the most part corals have been doing well. The Kenya tree is dropping branches like crazy. Been selling them as I can. My Duncan is showing some new heads starting. Unfortunately I lost the small surviving piece of forest fire digi.

Fish are all doing well. I've started working on my 75g so I can get the yellow Tang out of the small tank. Ran into a issue though when I noticed the 75g stand was compromised. So yay building a new stand...

 

[Llorgon]

It's been a busy few weeks, but I finally have time to update on the tank.

Fish are doing well. All eating like pigs!

Corals doing well as well. Duncan has new heads, frogspawn is getting bigger, the new acan I bought a few weeks ago has a new head. A cyphastrea I had in my 75 gallon which I thought died in the original move has come back. I see green and 3 red spots!

On the bad side. The algae has been getting worse. Due to high nutrients and a bit of neglect the last few weeks. This weekend I was able to do a bigger clean. I did a 10 gal water change, cleaned the sand, scrubbed rocks in the tank as best I could, removed rocks/old snail shells that were covered in algae and scrubbed them with peroxide to really kill the algae.

Over the last week I have been experimenting with vodka dosing in an attempt to lower nitrates and phosphates. I have yet to see a decrease, but I am hoping it comes soon!

 

[Llorgon]

I think I cut my dosage to the "maintenance level" for vodka dosing a bit to soon. When testing with salifert phosphate test kit since I ran out of reagent for my hanna it was reading 0 and my nitrate test read 0.

Testing last night after getting more reagent my phosphate is still at 0.046ppm and nitrate using the red sea test kit is at around 1.5ppm

Going to up my vodka dosing from 0.6ml/day to 0.7ml/day and see if phosphate starts to come down a bit more.

 

[Magellan]

Tank is looking good man! With that kenya tree, I would recommend running some carbon and changing it out regularly. It is all about some chemical warfare, and the bigger it gets the more of an impact it will have on your tank.

I have a similar size tank (28g) and most of the same corals if you want to check out my build thread.

 

[Llorgon]

checked out your thread. Awesome looking tank. Really like the rockscape!

Ah I never thought of that. You are probably right on the carbon. I will start doing that!

Honestly been thinking of replacing the kenya tree. It just keeps dropping branches everywhere and is taking over some prime coral spots. Question is what to replace it with....

 

[Magellan]

checked out your thread. Awesome looking tank. Really like the rockscape!

Ah I never thought of that. You are probably right on the carbon. I will start doing that!

Honestly been thinking of replacing the kenya tree. It just keeps dropping branches everywhere and is taking over some prime coral spots. Question is what to replace it with....

Thanks!! As long as you keep up with the sheds and don’t let them attach you will be fine. But for that reason, I keep mine isolated in the back right corner with my gsp, and just let them compete with each other. (Kenya tree is winning!)

 

[Llorgon]

I've been bad with the sheds. I've been trying to sell/give away the sheds as they come, but can't keep up. I should have isolated it more.

Oh well. Learning experience I guess.

 

[Magellan]

I've been bad with the sheds. I've been trying to sell/give away the sheds as they come, but can't keep up. I should have isolated it more.

Oh well. Learning experience I guess.

You can tell when they are about to happen, it will look like one of the little branches is dying and will be hanging there looking dead while the rest is happy and extended.