Lagoon 25 College Dorm Build Thread

[Mark Waltermire]

Hello everyone,

After having my 72 gallon tank for 1.5 years now and all of the changes that I have had take place over the course of that time, I wish that I had completed a build thread. Now that I am beginning to set up my next tank, I decided that I should complete a build thread for this tank.

I will start it off by saying that I bought this tank off of Facebook Marketplace seeing these pictures. I am at college and don't currently have a car so I even had the person deliver the tank to me. The basis of the tank was a Kessil A360WE, Ecotech MP10, Lagoon 25, Stand, and more was included.

 

[Dr. Reef]

excited to see how it all puts together for you, keep posting pics as you go along.
Good luck and happy reefing.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

I set up the tank real quick before it was off to college. The tank was looking like this.



I essentially only got the tank in place, and then stuck the mp10 on the right side. Most of the stuff is still sitting in boxes at this point, as well as shoved into the stand itself. More to come.

 

[Captain Quint]

Glad you can have one while away in college.

Looking forward to it see what you do with it.

 

[VSVP bet]

I had one all 4 years at school, graduated May 2018. Girls love reef tanks... I will just leave it at that.

The tank was an IM 8 and an IM 20

 

[NY_Caveman]

I had one all 4 years at school, graduated May 2018. Girls love reef tanks... I will just leave it at that.

The tank was an IM 8 and an IM 20

LOL! When I was in college in the 90s my reef tank was not a chick magnet. Maybe it was the Red Tailed Boa in the tank next to it.

 

[VSVP bet]

LOL! When I was in college in the 90s my reef tank was not a chick magnet. Maybe it was the Red Tailed Boa in the tank next to it.

Hahaha. Times change i guess. No better line when leaving a party than " I forgot to turn my fish tank light off". Instant next question.. "can i see your fish?"

 

[spartanman22]

I had one all 4 years at school, graduated May 2018. Girls love reef tanks... I will just leave it at that.

The tank was an IM 8 and an IM 20

Couldn’t agree more. I had one all four years in college as well. Graduated 5 years ago. Although not sure if it was the tank itself or the fact that we had the party house at a very small campus with no Greek life... I like to think it was the tank.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

A little bit more of an update. Today, I worked on the wiring for everything and trying to get everything set in the cabinets. I placed all of the wires along the back and used the Ecotech wiring guides as a way to hold all of the cords together. I know that the mounts are designed to be used to hold the Vortechs to the pump, but I figured out that these are a great use for them too. I have the return pump, heater, UV sterilizer, moonlight, media reactor, and ATO set up, ready to rock and roll. The only issue I'm having currently is that the return pump needs either 3/4" or 5/8" tubing, while the Lagoon 25 needs 1/2" tubing for the return. This means that I can put 5/8"ID diameter tubing into 1/2"ID (5/8" OD) tubing, but the Lowes in my area no longer carries tubing by the foot. I only need 3 inches and don't feel it's necessary to spend the money for 10 or 20 feet. I guess I might just have to bite the bullet on that, but I feel like it's a waste of money a little bit.


All of the wires running across the back of the tank





Being OCD about wiring meant that this all cleaned up relatively nicely.


This is what the wiring section of the cabinet look like. I still need to pick up another power strip to allow all of the large plugs to be plugged in. I think I would be able to make it with the 6+1 outlets available, but some of the large outlet heads are going to cause me to need more space.





I went ahead and shoved some rock into the tank for now just to have it look a little bit better. The sand is going to be Special Grade Aragonite dry sand from BRS. It's currently being shipped to the campus, then all I'll need to do is add water to the tank.

I'm thinking about picking up another kessil arm or just using 2 goosenecks to mount my 6 bulb ATI T5 light fixture that I plan on using to light the tank. I took the Kessil A360 home and put it on top of my 72 gallon tank to add to the 3 A360's that were already lighting that tank.

 

[spartanman22]

The extra tubing will come in handy for water changes. It’s always good to have spare tubing laying around.

 

[Geebs19]

Good looking tank! Can’t wait to see it up and running.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

The extra tubing will come in handy for water changes. It’s always good to have spare tubing laying around.

Thank you, but I do already have 1/2" tubing laying around. I will go ahead and pick up some at Home Depot perhaps next time I'm over that way because Lowes didn't even have the non-braided variety in stock.

 

[James Mikell]

You can fit 1/2" tubing over a 5/8 port. You will need to boil some water snd dip the hose in for 30 seconds to soften it up and then just push real hard. Dont expect it to come back off though

 

[Mark Waltermire]

You can fit 1/2" tubing over a 5/8 port. You will need to boil some water snd dip the hose in for 30 seconds to soften it up and then just push real hard. Dont expect it to come back off though

I had tried expanding the hosing already, but didn’t try boiling water. I’ll give that a shot tomorrow and see if I can get that to work. Thank you!

 

[JBKReef]

Loving my 25 lagoon. Hope it progresses well for you

 

[Mark Waltermire]

In my happiness to get the sand in, I apparently forgot to take pictures along the way. Here is what the tank looked like after I added the sand into it. I chose to use special grade aragonite for this tank, which is a size that I’ve used before, but forgot what it was called. I will never use another type of sand than this just due to the amount of current you can push in the tank.





Then in my excitement to add the sand I failed to rinse the sand, and since it was dry sand that meant that there was a lot of silt and I had to do that inside of the tank. Even if I had thought to do it beforehand, it still would have been difficult because I don’t have access to a hose on campus that I could use to rinse the sand with. Here are some pictures of it along the way of rinsing.







Even after rinsing about 5 times, the water was still looking like this. I got inpatient and decided to fill up the tank all the way with tap water and run it overnight to see whether the filter sock would be able to grab anything out of the water. Here’s what the tank looked like last night and I haven’t been back today to check on it. Will post more updates soon

 

[dantimdad]

I always use special grade aragonite. I never rinse it. Just sift and check for foreign matter then slowly fill.

Nice looking setup!

 

[Mark Waltermire]

I always use special grade aragonite. I never rinse it. Just sift and check for foreign matter then slowly fill.

Nice looking setup!

Well I have tap water in the tank right now so I’ll at least need to drain it one more time then I’ll fill it with RODI water.

 

[mmw64]

Well I have tap water in the tank right now so I’ll at least need to drain it one more time then I’ll fill it with RODI water.

following

 

[Mark Waltermire]

Well this afternoon the water was still cloudy. I decided to go ahead and stir up the sand bed some more, and then drain the tank. I'm waiting for all of my rodi system parts to come in before I do a rodi rinse and then fill it up with salt water.