New reef IM lagoon 50 AIO

anthonyt987

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Hello all, I am new to this reefing hobby, picked it up during COVID as I was in the freshwater hobby and wanted to venture out.

Tank will mostly be lps and softies, maybe sps in the future.

just wanted to share my tank build and wanted to see if I can get any advice/feedback

IM lagoon 50 aio w/ APS stand
2 kessil a360we
2 Caddys filled w/ seachem matrix
Intank chamber for a refugium w/ innovative marine chaetomax
probably 40lbs of marco rocks
40lbs of caribsea special grade
2 jebao slw 20 wifi
also added 2 rfg

tank has been running about a month now and is cycled Ive added a yellow clown goby so far and royal gramma

124822834_1091309301340427_5098323212796968669_n.jpg
 

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Hello all, I am new to this reefing hobby, picked it up during COVID as I was in the freshwater hobby and wanted to venture out.

Tank will mostly be lps and softies, maybe sps in the future.

just wanted to share my tank build and wanted to see if I can get any advice/feedback

IM lagoon 50 aio w/ APS stand
2 kessil a360we
2 Caddys filled w/ seachem matrix
Intank chamber for a refugium w/ innovative marine chaetomax
probably 40lbs of marco rocks
40lbs of caribsea special grade
2 jebao slw 20 wifi
also added 2 rfg

tank has been running about a month now and is cycled Ive added a yellow clown goby so far and royal gramma

124822834_1091309301340427_5098323212796968669_n.jpg
Looks great. I’m always happy to see another Lagoon 50 get started. Following.
 
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anthonyt987

anthonyt987

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This is my stock plan, let me know your thoughts!


Cleaner shrimp
Fire red shrimp
Pistol shrimp
Hi fin goby
Yellow clown goby
Royal gramma
Pair of mocha storm
Red Ruby dragonet
possibly a small tang
 

TheWB

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This is my stock plan, let me know your thoughts!


Cleaner shrimp
Fire red shrimp
Pistol shrimp
Hi fin goby
Yellow clown goby
Royal gramma
Pair of mocha storm
Red Ruby dragonet
possibly a small tang
I’m not going to tell you not to get a Tang because I have one in my Lagoon 50, a Tomini Tang. I will say that it doesn’t really do what I hired it to do which was to keep algae in check. Tangs are also poop machines which is a factor for nutrients in a smaller tank. I really like my Tomini Tang and it’s been a model citizen but I wouldn’t get one again In this size tank. My 2 cents.
 
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anthonyt987

anthonyt987

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I’m not going to tell you not to get a Tang because I have one in my Lagoon 50, a Tomini Tang. I will say that it doesn’t really do what I hired it to do which was to keep algae in check. Tangs are also poop machines which is a factor for nutrients in a smaller tank. I really like my Tomini Tang and it’s been a model citizen but I wouldn’t get one again In this size tank. My 2 cents.
How long have you had it and how fast does it grow? I guess it varies right? My friend got a yellow tang and it cleaned up all his algae
 

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How long have you had it and how fast does it grow? I guess it varies right? My friend got a yellow tang and it cleaned up all his algae
How big is your friends tank? Is it a long term sustainable home for a yellow tang?
I’ve had the Tomini almost a year. It’s grown about an inch over that time so it’s 4.5-5 inches long now. I’ve considered trying to remove it but mine isn’t a big swimmer, it tends to kind of hover over rocks and occasionally pick at some algae but it’s not a super busy grazer. It also won’t touch Nori, it’s really kind of a weird fish.
I would never put a yellow tang in a tank this small. A yellow would need twice as much space once it reached full maturity. The Tomini is pushing it. A small yellow could work for a while but it will get too big and needs way more room to swim than a Tomini does. Some people will buy small ones and say they will re-home when it gets too big but do they really do it? Again, I’m not telling you what to do but for me, I wouldn’t even do a small one again, it’s just not the right thing for the fish or the tank in my opinion. It’s a recipe for an unhappy fish and a lot of extra nutrients in the water. My Tomini is fat and when it poops it looks like a bomb went off.
 

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he has the same tank, lagoon 50. he just sells it once it gets big or trades it in for a small one
Personally I wouldn’t do that for many reasons but I know some people do. If you are purely looking at the Tang as a tool to fight algae then I guess that can work. If you’re looking at it as a pet then not so much.
would you also say that a bristle tooth tang might be better?
I don’t see any difference. Any Tang except for a Tomini will likely get to large for the tank. Even though I think the Tomini is doing well in my tank I still wouldn’t add one if I had it to do over again because of the amount of nutrients it adds, the tank is too small for it. I did not take that into account when I got it and I should have. You can do whatever you want, I certainly did, but I wouldn’t do it again based on what I’ve learned from the experience. I hope that helps.
 
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anthonyt987

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Here is an updated photo of the tank, it is filled with mostly lps some zoas and like 4 sps frags.
I dose Red sea ab+ daily, feed reef roids once a week, and fauna marin lps pellets randomly but not often.
At around 2 months Im getting a good amount of coraline growth on the rocks and back of the tank, I didnt scrape any to seed the tank either, only thing that had coraline was just the frag plugs.
My RBTA were planted for weeks as well then just started moving again so its a bummer. (Might sell)



Everything has been going well besides with the live stock, had a brook outbreak some how so now tank will be fallow till early February. Also something Ive been running into is that my chaeto keeps dying, I have it in the second caddy with a INtank fuge caddy with 2 marine pure cubes in it for the pods. Im using the IM fuge light that sticks onto the back. Been growing some hair algae in the chamber as well, but the chaeto just keeps turning slightly brown and mushy so Im not sure how effective it is. Anybody know why? tips?

Im thinking if adding a skimmer such as the Cadlights PLS-50 elite ii, at the moment both of the main caddy is filled with matrix, one is the refugium and the other just has some gfo in it. Also use pinkys filter floss on the top of the caddy.

Here are my current parameters. I am using red sea blue bucket and wc weekly 10%
PH 8.1
dKH 8
Calcium 486
magnesium 1300
Phosphate 0.16
nitrates <5ppm (api test kit at the moment)
 

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Subsea

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I don’t consider that phosphate number excessively high, than again, I don’t have SPS whose calcium growth can be inhibited by high phosphate.

I do consider your nitrate number low if you want to grow macro. I suggest you add a nitrogen source potassium nitrate works well, Understand this, seaweed will consume major nutrients of nitrogen & phosphate in a fixed ratio. For most macro algae that ratio is 30:1. The Redfield Ratio of micro algae, phytoplankton. is 16:1 of N:p
 
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anthonyt987

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I don’t consider that phosphate number excessively high, than again, I don’t have SPS whose calcium growth can be inhibited by high phosphate.

I do consider your nitrate number low if you want to grow macro. I suggest you add a nitrogen source potassium nitrate works well, Understand this, seaweed will consume major nutrients of nitrogen & phosphate in a fixed ratio. For most macro algae that ratio is 30:1. The Redfield Ratio of micro algae, phytoplankton. is 16:1 of N:p
this was a long time ago,
at moments nitrates are at 15ppm and phosphates are at .35
 
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anthonyt987

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I don’t consider that phosphate number excessively high, than again, I don’t have SPS whose calcium growth can be inhibited by high phosphate.

I do consider your nitrate number low if you want to grow macro. I suggest you add a nitrogen source potassium nitrate works well, Understand this, seaweed will consume major nutrients of nitrogen & phosphate in a fixed ratio. For most macro algae that ratio is 30:1. The Redfield Ratio of micro algae, phytoplankton. is 16:1 of N:p
after checking again phosphates is at .44
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 70 37.6%
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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 15.1%
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