JR's IM 25 Fusion Lagoon Build

[JeepinReefer]

Well the LFS made the decision for me as far as amino acid nutrition supplements go. They didn't have Acropower, so I went with a small combo pack of Red Sea Reef Energy A&B. I've dosed 1.5 ml of each, three out of the last four days, and the acro frags seem to be doing great. Nice polyp extension, and more importantly as a potential health indicator, no noticeable change in coloration. I'm practicing with my cell phone photography methods and I think I'm getting the pictures a bit closer to reality. I cranked the AP700 towards full spectrum for the photo and I like the representation of the resulting picture much more than before. The picture makes the colors a bit paler than they appear to me, but much closer to actuality than the previous picture.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looks like a happy acro!

 

[Natedogg559]

Where did you get each cabinet?

 

[JeepinReefer]

Where did you get each cabinet?

They are Ikea Sektion kitchen cabinets.

Looks like a happy acro!

Thanks! I'm still a bit nervous and hope the acros are going to make it. I was picking up a couple of snails at my LFS this weekend and they had huge chunky frags for $20 so I ended up with a third acro. The one pictured above seems to be holding its color, but the polyp extension is very slowly decreasing, although the decrease might just be when the lights are on because it still has extension in the morning when the lights are off, and I keep telling myself that extension isn't a reliable indicator of health. I'm upping the almost daily dosage of reef energy A & B and watching for any algae blooms. Today I tested phosphates at 0.04 ppm with the Hanna phosphorus ULR checker (13 ppb phosphorus). Alk is steady in the 7.6-8.0 range. I just fed the fish, so I'll test nitrates later tonight, or tomorrow when I get home from work before I feed. Enough chatter, here are some pictures from today (should have cleaned my glass first).

Skimmer is rocking. Skimming wet to be on the safe side, and that is 2 days of collection.

Bad FTS in closing.

Thanks for checking out my build thread!

 

[JeepinReefer]

Starting to see a bit of encrusting from the acros. Been testing a lot and I setup automated dosing for alk and calcium so far. Waiting for a 1link for the second Dos. I'm not set on what I'll run on the second Dos though. Some combination of ato water, magnesium, or liquid food supplement like maybe Acropower. I'm still dosing Reef Energy A&B but I'm looking for an easier alternative. I'm still not detecting nitrates or phosphates. Also thinking about running the skimmer only part time.

If anyone has a recommended nutritional supplement that does not require refrigeration and is preferably not a two part system, I'm all ears. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[JeepinReefer]

FYI: Long, potentially rambling, and boring update coming about dosers, flow, test kits, feeding, etc. I do have some info to share about the refugium and Chaetomax lights below. Feel free to skip down to that if the rest gets a bit dull for you.

So having added the dosers, I've gotten into the habit of testing a lot. Testing alkalinity daily and peppering other tests in throughout the week with usually a full-ish panel of tests on the weekend. My three SPS frags are doing ok. Polyp extension on all is dramatically reduced, except for the millepora which still shows good, if not ideal polyp extension. One frag with the least polyp extension is starting to brown a bit, but it is also the one that is encrusting the fastest, so maybe it is just going through the young frag stages. Lighting and flow are still a bit of an experiment. I really want to get a Seneye for the PAR meter, but that will need to wait, at least for a little bit.

My gyre is connected up to the Apex to control the variable speed, and I wondered maybe if I could be blasting the aquarium with too much flow, and I also figured that reducing flow would be a fairly easy way to rule that out. I think if high flow is a problem for polyp extension that reducing flow might show a difference fairly quickly. My sand had really been blasting out of the left side, and there is an obvious gyre moving in the tank, with periods of increasing intensity, periods of decreasing intensity, and periods of pulsing intensity. Maybe the acros need more flow and not less. I just don't know, but figured reducing flow could be rule out too much flow being a potential cause relatively quickly.

I'm fine tuning my 2 part dosing to try to establish rock steady alk levels. I use a Hanna Checker (dKH) and just opened my second bottle of reagent. On my first test with the new reagent, my dKH was almost 1 dKH higher, but that was also coincidentally immediately following a day that I had doubled the daily dose of two part because my daily dKH testing had been slowly creeping down while I was slowly increasing the dose trying to find the sweet spot. It seemed like my small increases in the dose rate just weren't making a difference, so I went from about 5-10 ml per day when I increased it. The day I upped the dose I didn't realize it was my last millimeter of reagent, so unfortunately my big dosage increase (percentage wise) completely coincided with the need to open new reagent the next day, which means I don't know if I went from 7.5 to 8.5 dKH due to the dosage increase or because of the new reagent, probably a bit of both. I should estimate the impact the increased dose would have on dKH using a calculator to help determine likelihood if it being cause by the increased dose or likely to be related to the reagents, but I just haven't done that yet. My old reagent had been chunky, I had been storing the reagent bottle on its side in the case, and hadn't been rinsing the syringe. I'm a bit shocked that chunks in the reagent is supposedly ok, and that it shouldn't be stored on its side as the case is designed that way. Good news is I'm babying the new bottle of reagent by storing it up right and cleaning the syringe with RO water after each use, and I'm curious to see how this bottle holds up compared to the previous. No chunks in it so far!

I'm also watching my nitrates and phosphates closely. I'm using the Hanna ULR Phorphorus checker, and Red Sea Nitrate Pro kit. Nitrates have never been detectable. Phosphates have fluctuated between 0.0 to 0.04 ppm. I'm dosing 3 ml of each Reef Energy A & B every day, each day I feed 1/3 cube of two different frozen foods for a total of about 2/3 cube, alternating between hikari mysis, brine, spirulina bine, krill, and blood worms. My fish load consists of a longnose hawk, two percula clowns, a six line, and a lawnmower blenny. The lawnmower blenny isn't eatting well. I had some very short but thick stalked brown hair algae stuff for a bit when I got him. Unfortunately he didn't touch it, but a turbo and astrea destroyed it. There is virtually no algae in the tank now (turbo even ate one small patch of bubble algae) aside from light brown glass algae that I clean 1-2 times a week. I've been putting in some nori for him rubber banded to a piece of rubble, and he nibbles it, but not aggressively and not as much as I would like him to. Not sure if he's going to make it... I've also been feeding reef roids occasionally, but only a couple times a week due to what it involves. I like to mix it up very thick in a dental irrigation syringe and target feed some paste like drops onto the favia and acans which love it. The I shower the acros and blast the small remnants into the tank broadcast style. I could probably do this more often.

I seem to be feeding this aquarium a lot given its size. I'm considering getting an auto feeder to give the fish some pellets while I'm at work during the week. I also want to get them trained to recognize and eat the food from an auto feeder to help facilitate my vacationing. Changing out my mechanical filter pads is so easy now with the filter socks gone, and I'm really good about changing the floss. My chaeto filled refugium is doing as great, if not better than I had ever hoped, and the little skimmer is doing good too. It does send some microbubbles to the tank though, and I've wondered if those could impact acro happiness. So as far as nutrients go, I seem to be fairly firmly stuck in the ULNS area with lots of nutrients going in and lots of nutrients going out. Due to undetectable nitrates and consistently low to undetectable phosphates, I'm still trying to find that sweet spot like I am with the two part dosing. My nutrient export might actually be overkill.

I'm using three IM Chaetomax lights (yeah...what?!?!), and I've never had chaeto growth like this before, so I think they work! The chaeto fuge fills two out of five chambers in the back of my lagoon, approximately a third of the total back area space. The bottom of both chambers have an inch or two of Seachem pond matrix (or maybe it is just Seachem matrix...I forgot which I bought) as well. The chaeto is growing quickly and completely fills the chambers and forms into healthy and fairly dense bricks. I'm alternating the pruning by only pruning one chamber at a time. I pruned the first chamber where water flows in from the tank today, which is the smaller of the two refugium chambers. Take a look at this chaeto!

Chaeto removed for pruning:

Cut in half lengthwise and then cut one half again. I used the piece by the scissors to reseed. It's probably about 2/5ths the mass.

One of two big chunks I discarded.

I'm a bit amazed that this export is coming from one of two small chambers. I might need to reduce my nutrient export game or continue to increase my import game...

I hope this was somehow interesting or even helpful for some of you. I'm really hoping to find a great balance with this nano and see these corals take off. Time will tell. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Adam sahut]

How do you have the light setup to grow the chaeto in the chambers? I just got a 25 and want chaeto also but want the light to be clean looking

 

[JeepinReefer]

How do you have the light setup to grow the chaeto in the chambers? I just got a 25 and want chaeto also but want the light to be clean looking

I peeled some of the black plastic off of the back and then stuck them on the back glass with the adhesive velcro strips that the lights came with. Super clean and practically invisible. The only thing noticeable is some light bleed that comes out of the overflow grates on the far right side. But that is mostly at night when I'm not looking at the aquarium and would be significantly less if you don't use the overflow chamber for the refugium. It really isn't a big deal to me though.

 

[ReefPress]

I peeled some of the black plastic off of the back and then stuck them on the back glass with the adhesive velcro strips that the lights came with. Super clean and practically invisible. The only thing noticeable is some light bleed that comes out of the overflow grates on the far right side. But that is mostly at night when I'm not looking at the aquarium and would be significantly less if you don't use the overflow chamber for the refugium. It really isn't a big deal to me though.

What light schedule are you using for you cheatomax light? Thanks!

 

[JeepinReefer]

What light schedule are you using for you cheatomax light? Thanks!

The fuge lights are on for 15 hours every night. Mostly opposite the display lights with 30 minutes of overlap in the morning and again at night when the fuge and display lights are all on.

Thanks for stopping by!

ps. Low flow didn't seem to work. In fact the millepora reduced its polyp extension. I cranked the flow way up and am watching for improvements. Other things I'm considering include taking the skimmer offline to allow nutrients to come up and purchasing the Seneye sooner rather than later.

 

[JeepinReefer]

Could I be starving my corals?

I tested for nitrates five times in the past month using the Red Sea Pro kit and never had any detectable nitrates. I tested for phosphorus six times in the past month using the Hanna ULR checker and the highest reading was 14 or 0.043, the low was 0 (twice), and the average was 5.5 or 0.017. Potentially starving them was a thought that crossed my mind a month ago and was why I bought the Reef Energy A&B. The daily dose should be anywhere between 2 - 6 ml per day, depending on if my aquarium should be classified as SPS frags (2 ml/day), SPS dominant (4 ml/day), or ULNS (6 ml/day). Based on my livestock, I'd definitely say I'm SPS frags, and few of them at that; however, based on my nitrate and phosphate chemistry, I'd definitely say I'm ULNS. I started the dose at 1.5 ml/day for about 2 weeks and watched for algae to show up in the display. No algae showed up, so I increased it to 3 ml/day and have been at that rate for about 2 weeks again. Still no algae in the display.

I'm wondering if I should increase the dose or decrease my export. I never thought the filtration I put on this nano could cause a hurdle with too much nutrient export. I had high hopes that the equipment would perform well, but I never anticipated these types of results. I haven't done a water change in over a month and today it tested at 0 nitrates, 2 or 0.006 phosphorus/phosphates. I feed my fish more food than they can eat when I'm home in the evenings by giving them several feedings across four hours or so, generally more on the weekends. I haven't fed reef roids in a while, but honestly, super-plump feeding for four carnivorous fish and daily Reef Energy A&B seems like it should be sufficient import.

Could I have too much export and that be the cause of coral starvation?

The fuge is clearly rocking and kyleinpdx was definitely right regarding the eshopps nano skimmer. It is by far the best nano skimmer I've ever used, so good that I just decided to shut it down to see if my nitrates and phosphates will rise. Here is 9 days of skimmate:

Chemistry seems good aside from low N&P. The aquarium seems to use about 3 ml of alk/day, so the excess dose of 7 ml the day before I got new alk checker reagents should have only increased dKH by 0.5. Going from 8.0 to 8.5 in a day doesn't seem like that big of a swing, but let me know if you think otherwise. Alk has otherwise been stable, so I don't think that is a likely cause at the moment.

The other most likely causes, other than nutrient starvation, of what I think is slowly deteriorating SPS health seem to be flow or lighting. I'm going to keep the flow high while I try to raise the nitrates and phosphates over the next weeks, and good news, a Seneye should be here in about a week! I'm really eager to get some PAR readings for this light and get some real data to drive my decisions for any lighting changes.

I hope you enjoyed my build thread. I'm open to anyone's input on the issues my aquarium is experiencing.

 

[Thewatchmangoby]

I started a Im 25g lagoon a couple months ago. Media reactor, gfo,carbon,zeomix,skimmer, autowaterchanger.

When I first put my acan in with other corals(no sps) my acan loved my tank. At that time my nitrates were 5ppm.
3 weeks ago my skimmer got worked in and after a few days I noticed my acan wasnt happy along with some zoas and shroom. It stayed liked this for several days and I thought well what the heck changed, tested, my nitrates were undetectable. I made the decision to take my media reactor and skimmer off line and zeomix out. 72 hours later and my acan is big and plump, shroom more plump and zoas still kinda the same(might be lighting issue). Tested my nitrates and still undetectable but maybe nutrients are getting consumed before getting stripped. We'll see.

 

[JeepinReefer]

I started a Im 25g lagoon a couple months ago. Media reactor, gfo,carbon,zeomix,skimmer, autowaterchanger.

When I first put my acan in with other corals(no sps) my acan loved my tank. At that time my nitrates were 5ppm.
3 weeks ago my skimmer got worked in and after a few days I noticed my acan wasnt happy along with some zoas and shroom. It stayed liked this for several days and I thought well what the heck changed, tested, my nitrates were undetectable. I made the decision to take my media reactor and skimmer off line and zeomix out. 72 hours later and my acan is big and plump, shroom more plump and zoas still kinda the same(might be lighting issue). Tested my nitrates and still undetectable but maybe nutrients are getting consumed before getting stripped. We'll see.

That's interesting. Thanks for responding. It seems like potential low nutrient issues could affect more than just a small percentage of reef aquariums. Good luck!

 

[JeepinReefer]

Skimmer has been off for four days. I upped the reef energy to the ULNS recommended dosage of 6 ml per day (3 ml morning and evening). Still I have what appears to be starving SPS and undetectable nitrates and phosphates.

I'm about to go a bit mad scientist on this aquarium. I do not plan to chase numbers. I am just planning to chase detect-ability. Nevertheless, I have a feeling that this will either be glorious or crash and burn...Wish me luck!

Not pictured: Hanna ULR Phosphorus Checker, and Red Sea Nitrate Pro Test Kit.

 

[JeepinReefer]

The piece on the scissors is the one I reused a 7 days ago and it has more than doubled in size. The brick today is 6x3x3 inches. Not quite as dense as the brick a week ago.

August 25 (on the scissors)

September 1

I didn't prune it today because I want to see how the initial dose of nitrates and phosphates plays out for a couple of days without pruning impacting consumption.

 

[JeepinReefer]

Nearly a month since the last FTS!

Obvious new additions. I've had the clam for just shy of four weeks and it seems to be doing great. The incurrent siphon is gaping less, and it has increased pigmentation and vibrancy across the entire mantle, most notably the area right around the base of the excurrent siphon which was very pale and has completely colored up in. Bangghai are new as well. Other good news is that the Lawnmower Blenny may have ended the hunger strike and has started eating some frozen foods. Other livestock news is not so great. The SPS are still slowly deteriorating. All three frags. Only the millepora has any polyp extension at all, and that is reducing slowly as well. There is still coral tissue on all three frags. In fact, the white looking one on the left still has living tissue across all of the skeleton. It is just losing pigment slowly day after day. I'm hoping that I can at least correct the issues affecting the SPS before I lose all three.

I detected nitrates today for the first time since I started testing them in July. In the past four days, I've dosed 140 ml of the Spectracide potassium nitrate solution which cumulatively would raise the nitrate concentration in the aquarium by 2.8 ppm. The Red Sea Nitrate Pro kit showed 0.25 ppm today. Over the past four days, I've dosed 30 ml of a diluted Seachem Flourish Phosphorus solution which cumulatively would raise the phosphate concentration in the aquarium by 0.2 ppm. Today the Hanna Phosphorus ULR checker showed 6 ppb (0.018 ppm phosphate). I've ramped the dose up over the 4 days, and the Dos spread the doses out over the whole 24 hours each day. After testing today, I cut the dose in half for the next 24 hours until I test again to help ensure I don't over do it. For the moment I'm just happy I was able to dose these products and achieve barely detectable levels of both.

The Seneye got here and I was definitely overdoing the light intensity. I started out with low light intensity and as the corals started to wither away I thought they could be starving from lack of nutrients and/or lack of light (or lack of flow, but I think I ruled that out). Lack of nutrients was definitely a possibility that I'm still experimenting with, but lack of light was definitely not an issue, probably the opposite. I suspect that the coral started to starve due to a significant lack of nutrients, or the SPS were completely out competed by the chaeto. Feeding heavy and amino acids simply weren't overcoming the nutrient demand either. Meanwhile I increased the light intensity which was probably the opposite of what they needed. After taking readings with the Seneye, I reduced the intensity way down to 35% on the AP700 and am still reading 200-ish par all the way down at the clam. It was definitely up around 500 par or more before.

I'm hoping that low, but detectable, nitrates and phosphates, along with an appropriate amount of light will help turn the SPS around.

Final note, the chaeto is still growing like crazy. It is getting 500+ par in the fuge right at the glass against the lights.

 

[ranchhand02]

Nice looking set up.

 

[JeepinReefer]

Nice looking set up.

Thanks very much. It seems to be coming together bit by bit. I hope that I can make it successful for SPS. Everything else seems to be doing well.

I found lots of air bubbles in my phosphate dosing line. I think air was leaking in at the compression fitting going into the Dos. Now to wait and see how that effects the phosphate level since the leak is fixed.

 

[Jd_bamd2k]

Awesome tank and scape!

 

[xiaoxiy]

Sweet setup! I know it’s frustrating to see acropora slowly die off, but I think you’re doing a great job overall. Acropora can even be hard to keep in a mature system, and even harder in a newer system. I wouldn’t sweat it too much.

For nutritional supplementation, have you considered trying phytoplankton? I use the easybooster phytoplankton hooked up to an automatic doser that doses every hour. It’s phytoplankton suspended in a gel and doesn’t require refrigeration.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/easybooster-marine-phytoplankton-easy-reefs.html