IM 50 Lagoon AOI

[Gerard Viola]

Hey from CT everyone this is my first build three and upgrading from my fluval evo 13 which was my first saltwater tank. Once done and cycled I’ll move the corals and clowns over.

right know the equipment is

1 ai prime 16 had from the old tank will add a second as I add more coral
Ice cap gyre
Finnex heater
Inkbird controller
Mighty jet pump

here’s the old tank from a few months ago

 

[MNFish]

your Evo looks awesome, what is your plan for it after the upgrade?

 

[Gerard Viola]

your Evo looks awesome, what is your plan for it after the upgrade?

Thanks! And not sure yet, don’t have the room right now to keep both going but haven’t decided what I was going to do with it

 

[Zach B]

Wow, beautiful tank

 

[John Bolden]

you could take all the coral rock and sand out and make it a quarantine tank

 

[Gerard Viola]

you could take all the coral rock and sand out and make it a quarantine tank

That’s one idea I was also thinking of using it as an auto top off tank but prob will be doing that by hand for now

 

[Jaysushi]

You're going to love this tank! I just started mine up on Dec 24th, and the dimensions and overall quality of the tank and stand is awesome. Enjoy and I will be following along on your progress.

 

[BaysEndReef]

Beautiful tank! Following!

 

[John Bolden]

since it is the only up and running tank you have that is cycled I would make it a qt it would help you alot

 

[Gerard Viola]

So I thought since I started this build thread should be honest (was pretty embarrassed.) Had a brain fart when I started to cycle the tank and added 1 drop of brightwell ammonia to the tank per gallon instead of 1 per five gallons. Realized I messed up immediately lol. Had to wait a week to drain and redo because I didn’t have time but just restarted today.
I was however able to get the outlet switch bank set up.

was the first time cycling the tank myself so you live and learn

 

[Gerard Viola]

So I thought since I started this build thread should be honest (was pretty embarrassed.) Had a brain fart when I started to cycle the tank and added 1 drop of brightwell ammonia to the tank per gallon instead of 1 per five gallons. Realized I messed up immediately lol. Had to wait a week to drain and redo because I didn’t have time but just restarted today.
I was however able to get the outlet switch bank set up.

was the first time cycling the tank myself so you live and learn

well I guess my brain is all screwed up from being home all these months, I did put the right amount of ammonia in and didn’t need to do all of this but to late now.

just ran tests and got ammonia of 1.2 so we know move forward

 

[Gerard Viola]

Hey guys, so update on the cycle... it’s been going on for over 10 days after dosing brightwell’s ammonia and bacteria

ammonia has gone to zero but I’ve been stuck at 1ppm nitrite with out decreasing. I checked to off water to make sure it had no nitrites in it and it’s zero so not sure if this is normal?

thanks!

 

[Gerard Viola]

So its been too long since my last update, please excuse me. In the timeframe we had our second girl so time has been taken up. The other reason is that I was embarrassed on how the tank looked during the first year. But now after that has passed its important to let everyone know the issues.

I started the tank completely dry and new and had all kinds of dinos, diatoms cyano and super annoying brown hair algae. But now I've realized thats kinda how the first year goes sometimes and everyone should know that. My first tank I started with cycled rock from the LFS so I never had those issues.

Here is the tank now, at the 9 month mark everything started to flow nicely and we are almost at the two year mark. Taking things slowly as I am trying to make this an easy low maintenance tank. The routine is 10-15 gallon water change every other week if I can get to it, no dosing and an auto feeder.

A look into the future:

Would like to get two ecotech versas to run auto water changes, just not in the budget right now.

My 3yr old loves the spongebob decor, already added jack o lantern lepto to the pineapple and maybe doing the same with squidwards house (maybe three different varieties to see what they do, green, pink and yellow) or maybe GSP.

Thanks!

 

[Gerard Viola]

Here’s a new thing looks like the rock flower is spawning, that’s a first, to bad it’s the only one I have

 

[Gumbies R Us]

So its been too long since my last update, please excuse me. In the timeframe we had our second girl so time has been taken up. The other reason is that I was embarrassed on how the tank looked during the first year. But now after that has passed its important to let everyone know the issues.

I started the tank completely dry and new and had all kinds of dinos, diatoms cyano and super annoying brown hair algae. But now I've realized thats kinda how the first year goes sometimes and everyone should know that. My first tank I started with cycled rock from the LFS so I never had those issues.

Here is the tank now, at the 9 month mark everything started to flow nicely and we are almost at the two year mark. Taking things slowly as I am trying to make this an easy low maintenance tank. The routine is 10-15 gallon water change every other week if I can get to it, no dosing and an auto feeder.

A look into the future:

Would like to get two ecotech versas to run auto water changes, just not in the budget right now.

My 3yr old loves the spongebob decor, already added jack o lantern lepto to the pineapple and maybe doing the same with squidwards house (maybe three different varieties to see what they do, green, pink and yellow) or maybe GSP.

Thanks!

Hey, I love the SpongeBob decor too, haha. Tank is doing great