Nano Tank #2: IM Lagoon 25 Build

[MaxTremors]

Tank is looking great so far.

Another skimmer question...do you know if you have the original one or the redesign? I was getting really close to ordering it but now I'm reading that they redesigned it at some point last year and it doesn't fit in the IM25 equipment chamber anymore. I'm having a lot of trouble finding a reliable answer. The redesigned footprint looks like its 4.5"x3" and the equipment chamber is only 4 inches wide.

Thanks.

I would look into the Aquamaxx NF-1. It’s the best nano-skimmer I’ve ever used (and I’ve used my fair share). It’s silent, no microbubbles, easy to adjust, and is a beast. Only negative really is that the cup is really small. Pretty sure it would fit those dimensions.

 

[cconnolly]

I borrowed a PAR meter from a local reefer and boy did I find out I had my lights set way too low. Turned it up and mapped out the PAR levels in the tank.

I also ended up adjusting the placement of the island a bit to take better advantage of how the light levels are in the tank. I also shifted the main rock piece a slight bit as I realized it was shadowing a couple spots I wanted to have available down the road for corals requiring moderate PAR and flow.

Couple pictures of the adjustments I made.

 

[cconnolly]

Picked up some more corals yesterday and today so a lot of action going on in the tank. Plan was to pick up a couple more ricordeas for the island garden up front and some more cyphastrea for the back wall. My son ended up talking me into an acro frag and chalice frag as well. So ended up with more than I was planning so hopefully they do ok.

This evening was my first attempt at gluing coral in place in a tank. Tomorrow will show how successful I was and how many I’ll have to revisit tomorrow evening to secure back in place.

Here are a couple pics cause we all know that’s the part people care most about. I’ll try to get some better ones tomorrow that aren’t so whitewashed.

 

[cconnolly]

Today our Tiger conch has decided to climb the rear wall of the tank. Didn’t think they left the sandbed but guess ours didn’t get that message

 

[cconnolly]

Couple quick pics of our new corals settling in. Amazingly none have fallen off since I glued them down earlier this week!

 

[cconnolly]

Picked up a staghorn hermit crab yesterday at the LFS.

Interesting looking critter with a unique care requirement of the “shell” being alive. It’s actually a hydroid needing live plankton and other filter foods not unlike SPS coral. I’m going to try target feeding it phyto as well as see how it does from the broadcast phyto feeding I already do. They also can’t right themselves so I’ll keep an eye out and other than our torch it shouldn’t be able to bump any of our other corals which is bad the “shell”. I might move the torch up off the sandbed to help avoid this.

 

[jcolliii]

Looking good man! And nice new corals! Glad you got the light dialed in. One of the things that has always wigged me out a bit about LED is how bright it looks even when turned way down. It is tough to find the right output and color when you have so much adjustability!

How are you liking that skimmer so far? The IM one is not bad - it skims, but I have had to replace the pump twice and finally bought the smallest sicce micra and modified that to work in this skimmer. The volute is not quite right though, so it doesn't pull as much as it should and I see another skimmer in my future. The thing I *really* like about the IM one is how low profile it is. You almost can't even see it. It is also fairly quiet. How is yours noise-wise?

 

[cconnolly]

Looking good man! And nice new corals! Glad you got the light dialed in. One of the things that has always wigged me out a bit about LED is how bright it looks even when turned way down. It is tough to find the right output and color when you have so much adjustability!

How are you liking that skimmer so far? The IM one is not bad - it skims, but I have had to replace the pump twice and finally bought the smallest sicce micra and modified that to work in this skimmer. The volute is not quite right though, so it doesn't pull as much as it should and I see another skimmer in my future. The thing I *really* like about the IM one is how low profile it is. You almost can't even see it. It is also fairly quiet. How is yours noise-wise?

The skimmer has been working really well since I realized mounting it higher on the waterline got the best skimmate. It pulls pretty dark stuff considering I don’t have much bio load. It is not what I would call nice looking in any way but it gets the job done

 

[cconnolly]

Last week I had a failure that I wasn’t sure how I wanted to document but here we go.

I’ve really wanted to get a pink streaked wrasse for this tank but have had issues finding one. I saw one pop up on a website that had good reviews but I had never worked with and I pulled the trigger. It had no shipping issues and arrived alive. I drip acclimated it for 2 hours and at the end it looked dead. I couldn’t see any mouth or gill movement and it had no reaction to anything I did. I was super frustrated but accepted it could happen and took the loss. Then later I read they can play possum and can appear to be dead. So I can’t decide if the fish actually died during acclimation or if I screwed up and tossed it while it was playing possum. Ugh so frustrating but I guess a hard learning moment for me.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Pink streaked wrasse are fragile and i wouldnt be surprised if it was dead on arrival.
I have tried that fish many many times. Last batch i had, i got 40 of them and only 6 are live in clients tanks. I lost most of them in shippig and while qtying rest most died on the way to clients. Only 5-6 were alive as far as i know, this was last year and i never tried them again. It wasnt my first round, similar happened 3 times over.

 

[cconnolly]

Pink streaked wrasse are fragile and i wouldnt be surprised if it was dead on arrival.
I have tried that fish many many times. Last batch i had, i got 40 of them and only 6 are live in clients tanks. I lost most of them in shippig and while qtying rest most died on the way to clients. Only 5-6 were alive as far as i know, this was last year and i never tried them again. It wasnt my first round, similar happened 3 times over.

I know you and others warned they are difficult to ship and acclimate so I shouldn't be surprised and should have listened. Some things just aren't meant to be I suppose.

 

[cconnolly]

Finally got around to mounting the MP10, return pump and ATO controllers as well as the InkBird on the sides of the stand. Used some 3M strips so nice and easy.

Next up is mounting the power bar and cleaning up all the cables.

 

[jcolliii]

I hear that! Man do I hate cable management. Back in the day, good size cable chases were pretty cheap. Now, not so much. I need to find a good 2" chase in black to reorganize my cables. I would pretty much do anything else other than cable management...

 

[cconnolly]

My order from @WWC from their holiday sale arrived. So I have all the cyphastrea I wanted now to try encrust the back wall. Once they look settled I’ll glue them probably tomorrow night. Exciting stuff and really looking forward to how it shapes up months from now when it’s had time to grow out.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Nice tank! I'm considering something similar for my office.

 

[cconnolly]

Nice tank! I'm considering something similar for my office.

Thanks I'm really liking the form factor and build quality. I was originally going to put it in my office but my wife rightly pointed out my children would constantly be trying to get in the office to see it. So its downstairs with our other tank. At some point though Im putting a tank in my office

 

[cconnolly]

Today is a huge milestone day. We have added our first fish!

Our LFS got a blue assessor and it’s acclimating now. Pictures to come

 

[cconnolly]

Haven’t been able to get a picture as it’s been staying in a cave with our blood shrimp. It’s hanging out in the cave both upside down and completely vertical which is pretty interesting when you can get a peek. It did poke its head out a few times to eat when I fed the tank so once it gets settled hopefully it’ll spend more time in view

 

[cconnolly]

Today has brought fish #2 to the tank. The ever elusive pink streaked wrasse is our new resident.

One of the LFS in our area put their show tank stock up for sale due to what sounds like an upcoming ownership change and let us grab their pink streaked wrasse. Very exciting stuff as we wanted this fish but its so hard to come by and our other attempt to get one didn't go well so we had decided to give up on it as an option. Haven't posted pics in awhile so will try to grab some soon and show how things are progressing. Overall things are going well except a couple little patches of GHA popped up which Ive just picked out by hand so far.

 

[cconnolly]

Ordered a Clearview Lid for the tank so that I wouldn’t have to keep taking off the IM provided lid when I needed to feed every day. Between the dripping and me having to put it somewhere each time it was annoying me. It’s great quality and I’m loving it so far.