JTerrell 50 gallon lagoon aio build

[Jterrell]

Starting a build thread for my 50 lagoon. Tank should arrive at LFS on Tuesday. Custom stand should be done Wednesday. I currently have a 53 gallon setup with sump. I will be adding new Marco rock and seeding it with some rock from the 53 gallon. Sand and livestock will transfer over to new tank.

Equipment list:
2 intank media baskets
XP aqua duetto dual sensor ATO
Cad Lights PLS 50 elite protein skimmer
Cobalt heater
IM midsize media reactor
Sicce silent 1.5 return pump
2 AI prime 16HD lights
2 hydor circulating pumps-waiting for red sea gyre


Current stock:
2 clowns
1 yellow watchman with pistol shrimp
1 midas blenny
2 bangaii cardinals
1 lawnmower blenny
1 purple firefish
1 diamond goby that is getting rehomed
1 yellow coris wrasse
1 cleaner shrimp
8 sexy shrimp
1 brittle starfish
35 misc snails
10 scarlet hermits
20 blue legged hermits
5 ultra rock flower anemones
Green star polyps

The plans for the tank are to rehome a couple fish and have a rock flower garden. I will be setting up the new tank next weekend. Please jump in with any ideas or changes you might have. I will attach pics as soon as things get setup.

 

[TheWB]

Starting a build thread for my 50 lagoon. Tank should arrive at LFS on Tuesday. Custom stand should be done Wednesday. I currently have a 53 gallon setup with sump. I will be adding new Marco rock and seeding it with some rock from the 53 gallon. Sand and livestock will transfer over to new tank.

Equipment list:
2 intank media baskets
XP aqua duetto dual sensor ATO
Cad Lights PLS 50 elite protein skimmer
Cobalt heater
IM midsize media reactor
Sicce silent 1.5 return pump
2 AI prime 16HD lights
2 hydor circulating pumps-waiting for red sea gyre


Current stock:
2 clowns
1 yellow watchman with pistol shrimp
1 midas blenny
2 bangaii cardinals
1 lawnmower blenny
1 purple firefish
1 diamond goby that is getting rehomed
1 yellow coris wrasse
1 cleaner shrimp
8 sexy shrimp
1 brittle starfish
35 misc snails
10 scarlet hermits
20 blue legged hermits
5 ultra rock flower anemones
Green star polyps

The plans for the tank are to rehome a couple fish and have a rock flower garden. I will be setting up the new tank next weekend. Please jump in with any ideas or changes you might have. I will attach pics as soon as things get setup.

Welcome to the Lagoon 50 club And to R2R. I have the same tank so I’m looking forward to following your progress. Keep us in the loop on how you like that Cadlights skimmer. The IM skimmers sometimes leave something to be desired so it’s always good to hear how different ones are doing in these tanks. Post lots of pics.

 

[Jterrell]

Welcome to the Lagoon 50 club And to R2R. I have the same tank so I’m looking forward to following your progress. Keep us in the loop on how you like that Cadlights skimmer. The IM skimmers sometimes leave something to be desired so it’s always good to hear how different ones are doing in these tanks. Post lots of pics.

I have heard good things about the skimmer. I'm sure it doesn't compare to my current skimmer with the sump setup. I've been running a reef octopus 110 in the sump. I'm hoping to lower the bioload and get the cad lights tuned in. I will definitely keep you updated. I love the footprint of this tank. I've stalled buying it for so long because I couldn't decided between the aio or the ext. Hopefully I made the right choice.

 

[TheWB]

I have heard good things about the skimmer. I'm sure it doesn't compare to my current skimmer with the sump setup. I've been running a reef octopus 110 in the sump. I'm hoping to lower the bioload and get the cad lights tuned in. I will definitely keep you updated. I love the footprint of this tank. I've stalled buying it for so long because I couldn't decided between the aio or the ext. Hopefully I made the right choice.

The ext wasn’t an available option when I bought mine. I really like the tank but the areas in the return chamber that go under the overflows are a pain to keep clean and free of detritus, at least for me. Others don’t seem to have had as much of an issue as I’ve had. I have those areas filled with some matrix and marine pure gems now. If I had it to do over I would have gone with the ext and a sump for the easier maintenance. Other than that one issue everything else about the tank is great. IM builds quality tanks. I have the original ghost skimmer which is ok but could be much better. Replacing it is on my to do list at some point in the next 6 months or so and I’ve heard good things about the Cadlights. Looking forward to seeing your scape and hearing about the skimmer performance.

 

[Jterrell]

The ext wasn’t an available option when I bought mine. I really like the tank but the areas in the return chamber that go under the overflows are a pain to keep clean and free of detritus, at least for me. Others don’t seem to have had as much of an issue as I’ve had. I have those areas filled with some matrix and marine pure gems now. If I had it to do over I would have gone with the ext and a sump for the easier maintenance. Other than that one issue everything else about the tank is great. IM builds quality tanks. I have the original ghost skimmer which is ok but could be much better. Replacing it is on my to do list at some point in the next 6 months or so and I’ve heard good things about the Cadlights. Looking forward to seeing your scape and hearing about the skimmer performance.

I've heard the back chamber can be problematic. I plan on using a turkey baster to stir things up and then suck everything out with a transfer pump. Refill the back chamber and then suck it out again. I also plan on putting matrix in any dead space back there. I love that product. I have a lot of it currently in my sump.

 

[Pauliex77x]

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Ill be following. My 25 is about a month old. I had a hard time cleaning under the first and second chamber. i bought the tank second hand so it was a bit of a mess. Easier to clean it empty with some barkeepers helper, not gonna be so easy when you cant manipulate the tank orientation. But the in-tank filter floss with their media baskets do a really good job of catching everything. Helping my cousin with a build of his own and im kind of jealous that he'll have a sump. Just wasnt feasable for me at the moment. Anyways looking forward to seeing some pics.

 

[Jterrell]

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Ill be following. My 25 is about a month old. I had a hard time cleaning under the first and second chamber. i bought the tank second hand so it was a bit of a mess. Easier to clean it empty with some barkeepers helper, not gonna be so easy when you cant manipulate the tank orientation. But the in-tank filter floss with their media baskets do a really good job of catching everything. Helping my cousin with a build of his own and im kind of jealous that he'll have a sump. Just wasnt feasable for me at the moment. Anyways looking forward to seeing some pics.

I'm gonna try a few different methods for maintenance of the back chambers. The intank media baskets will be my primary filtration but I also bought 4 of the filter socks so I can use those after cleaning rocks and stirring up sand and other debris. I like having a sump but my tank isn't drilled so I have a noisy overflow box. I decided on the aio lagoon vs the ext for simplicity. I figured with me lowering bioload and it mainly being a tank for rock flower anemones that it should be fairly easy to keep all the parameters within acceptable ranges. Everything has been ordered and should arrive this week. Everything has shipped except the cad lights skimmer. Shipping is slow from them I guess.

 

[TheWB]

I've heard the back chamber can be problematic. I plan on using a turkey baster to stir things up and then suck everything out with a transfer pump. Refill the back chamber and then suck it out again. I also plan on putting matrix in any dead space back there. I love that product. I have a lot of it currently in my sump.

I do a similar thing with my water change pump to stir up the detritus and then empty out the chamber. So far the matrix is working well.

 

[Jterrell]

I do a similar thing with my water change pump to stir up the detritus and then empty out the chamber. So far the matrix is working well.

Good to hear. I'm hoping it'll be a successful tank.

 

[Jterrell]

I've got all the equipment in. Hoping to start setup in the next day or two. My stand is 2 inches taller than I requested so I'm not happy with that but think I'll manage. Stand came out to 40 inches tall. I opened the box to check out the aquarium and everything looks good.

 

[Jterrell]

Opened the box of my cadlights skimmer to find broken pieces. I have reached out to them via email. Delaying tank setup until parts arrive. I don't want to transfer livestock over without a skimmer running.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Looking good!

 

[Jterrell]

Looking good!

Thank you!

 

[Jterrell]

Got the rock in.

 

[Jterrell]

Started to fill the tank today. After I added about 6 inches of water I noticed that the back chamber started to fill.. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the only passage for water was through the top overflows.. Thinking there might be a bad spot in the silicone towards the bottom. No sand is making it into the back chamber, just water. Should I proceed with filling or call Innovative Marine?

 

[Pauliex77x]

Started to fill the tank today. After I added about 6 inches of water I noticed that the back chamber started to fill.. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the only passage for water was through the top overflows.. Thinking there might be a bad spot in the silicone towards the bottom. No sand is making it into the back chamber, just water. Should I proceed with filling or call Innovative Marine?

New tank? Thats a manufacturer defect. Give them a call

 

[Jterrell]

Brand new. Been sitting for a week with no water.

 

[Pauliex77x]

Yeah call IM. Its only supposed to fill the rear chambers through the overflows

 

[Jterrell]

That's what I thought but wanted to make sure. Always has to be at least one setback.

 

[TheWB]

That’s a bummer about the leak in the filter wall. Hopefully it can be swapped out quickly.