so_so_reef
Active Member
I get lots of questions about this tank on instagram from the US (I’m uk based) so thought it could be fun to post a retrospective build thread here.
This tank was set up in October 2024. I found used IM 20 gallon lagoon on FB marketplace. It needed the sump are re-wrapping and a new nozzle outlet, but was otherwise in fairly good condition. IM tanks also seem to be very well built, with very thick silicone.
I placed a cheap waterproof aquarium light behind the tank, as I’ve seen others do, to give a better sense of depth. For the return I’m using a little jecod pump.
I was transferring over livestock from another tank, so I bought live rock from my LFS, with the idea to do an “insta-tank”.
My original plans for this tank was to run it as a softie/nps set up. Most of this livestock came from a previous tank I had.
For several reasons, I ended up moving away from this idea. In reality, it’s very difficult to keep NPS coral in such a small tank, but mainly I shut down a much larger system (due to renovations) and couldn’t bear to part with my prized LPS that I’ve had since I started reefing.
Consequently, the tank transitioned to a more LPS heavy system, but I kept the gorgonians, some of the softies and NPS. I also change the light to an evergrow 60 cm to get full coverage.
I then had a disaster in early 2025 where I added a cucumber that released a bunch of holothurin toxin, wiping out most of the fish, some of the coral and the clam
This caused my to take a step back from the tank for a bit, as I was quite disheartened by my mistake, and the tank ended up with bad cyano and generally didn’t receive much attention, though the corals and remaining fish were fine.
Continued in next post…
This tank was set up in October 2024. I found used IM 20 gallon lagoon on FB marketplace. It needed the sump are re-wrapping and a new nozzle outlet, but was otherwise in fairly good condition. IM tanks also seem to be very well built, with very thick silicone.
I placed a cheap waterproof aquarium light behind the tank, as I’ve seen others do, to give a better sense of depth. For the return I’m using a little jecod pump.
I was transferring over livestock from another tank, so I bought live rock from my LFS, with the idea to do an “insta-tank”.
My original plans for this tank was to run it as a softie/nps set up. Most of this livestock came from a previous tank I had.
For several reasons, I ended up moving away from this idea. In reality, it’s very difficult to keep NPS coral in such a small tank, but mainly I shut down a much larger system (due to renovations) and couldn’t bear to part with my prized LPS that I’ve had since I started reefing.
Consequently, the tank transitioned to a more LPS heavy system, but I kept the gorgonians, some of the softies and NPS. I also change the light to an evergrow 60 cm to get full coverage.
I then had a disaster in early 2025 where I added a cucumber that released a bunch of holothurin toxin, wiping out most of the fish, some of the coral and the clam
This caused my to take a step back from the tank for a bit, as I was quite disheartened by my mistake, and the tank ended up with bad cyano and generally didn’t receive much attention, though the corals and remaining fish were fine.
Continued in next post…
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