The Champ's Lagoon 25

[champyeti]

Howdy, here is the build thread for my IM Lagoon 25 tank. This is an upgrade from my old, janky 20g High which had all equipment in the display and, as my boyfriend says, "was ugly." All contents in the 20g moved to the 25g. This is a mixed reef with an emphasis on euphyllias, RFAs, and shrooms.

Equipment

• IM Lagoon 25 AIO Tank + Stand
• AI Hydra 32 + mounting kit
• EcoTech MP10
• AquaClear 70 HOB fuge (runs chaeto and dragon's breath macros)
• IM ChaetoMax fuge light
• Tunze Nano Osmolator
• Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Skimmer
• BRS Mini Reactor (currently not running but runs carbon and GFO when it is)
• Eheim Jager Heater 100W
• Digital thermometer
• Stock filter sock
• Red Sea Coral Pro Salt

The only equipment in the display side is the MP10, otherwise, it's all sticking out of the back. My main objective in getting the Lagoon, outside of slightly more space, was to move away from such a tall tank. It was much harder to work in a tank where your gloves get flooded with water and I don't have particularly long arms. Swapping also allowed me to put in the second large background rock and create more dimension in the tank by putting the lower-light inhabitants at the front and the higher-light/flow corals on the taller rockwork.

Inhabitants

• 
  • Daisy, Black Ice Longfin Clown. Thought this was a female but may actually be a male. The tank's longest-term resident.
• 
  • Nightshade, Darwin Misbar Longfin Clown. Thought this was a male but a sudden streak of aggressiveness and tearing the fins up of Daisy (in retribution for the damage she did to him as seen above, lol) makes me wonder if this is actually a female? Definitely the brute of the tank.
• 
  • "Did You Knock That Over", Lawnmower Blenny. Currently watching me as I write this. Keeps the algae under control. Steals pellets from corals. Will rearrange frags if he doesn't like where they are. This is my only non-captive bred fish.
• 
  • Littlest One, Yellow Neon Goby. Will clean your hand for pellets. A friendly, sociable small fry. Usually calls the underside of RFA Island home. Tried to clean Daisy once and she was not interested. Respects boundaries.
• 
  • Sergeant Pepper, Red and White Trimma Goby. Also known as "when is the last time that fish moved" as he can remain motionless for hours at a time. Just sitting. Never seen him and the Neon have beef with each other but results may vary.
• 
  • As-Yet Unnamed, Yellow Watchman Goby. The newest addition, added when the tank upgrade happened. So far a bit reclusive. Lives under the Jawbreaker's small rock shard right next to my desk. Tries to eat shrimp pellets whole. Operative word being tries.
• 
  • Shramp, Blood Red Fire Shrimp. Has not cleaned my hand yet but will clean the blenny. Loved the mushroom cup (a literal plastic specimen cup) that was in the 20g high, probably suffered depression when I took the cup he lived on the side of away in the upgrade.
• 4 Scarlet Hermit Crabs, 4 Trochus (?) Snails

Corals/Anemones

• Softies
  • 5 types of Zoas
  • Jawbreaker mother + her babies
  • Assorted Discosoma
  • Assorted Rhodactis
  • Sad little Ricordea Florida
  • Red St Thomas
• LPS
  • 7 Assorted Blastos
  • Sad little turquoise Candy Cane
  • Goniporas: radioactive, ORA red, purple w/ yellow center, blue-purple, Funhouse
  • Torches: Todd's, Indo HG, Aussie Gold, Cotton Candy, Aussie Teal-Lime, 2 Dragon Soul variants, dark green
  • Hammers: Indo Gold, orange, turquoise, purple, green, bicolor
  • 3 Duncan color variants
  • LC Bizzaro Blizzard Cyphastrea
  • Elegance
  • Red Scoly & Button Scoly
• SPS
  • Green fuzzy acro (maybe a slimer?)
  • Stylo
  • ASD Neon Dragon
• Anemones
  • 17+ assorted RFA in a garden

Some of the smaller rocks from this tank came from my old 5.5g and have been wet since 2016. The larger rocks came with the old 20g replacing the 5.5g (left) and the 25g replacing the 20g (right). The fish are all from August and sooner as during an apartment move, my old clown pair and Lawnmower blenny perished Virtually all corals and anemones survived the move but I believe I made the wrong call keeping the fish in their travel bags overnight and not putting them in the bucket, which was forced by a power outage right when I moved the tank at the new building that left me unable to get the tank set up. The only fish the 25g has lost is a royal gramma who had an internal parasite I didn't realize until too late.

The Twin Tank

Well, they used to be twins when it was the 20g high and the 20g long... Next to my reef tank is my freshwater planted tank, stocked with a Longfin Albino Bristlenose Pleco, betta, 11 HiFin Albino Cories, and 8-9 Pygmy Cories. I like the distinctions between the two tanks. One has the constant buzz of shoaling fish who root around in the sand a lot more than my gobies do. They are more perchers, and I wouldn't describe cories as a perching fish in the same way. The freshwater is also much easier to care for and successfully grow the plants, lol. The two tanks are set up next to my computer desk in our living room so I can see them from where I sit the most when I'm home. I call them "my TV" and my boyfriend's TV is next to his desk

 

[Peace River]

Wow! This is a really nice start to your build thread! I am a big fan of RFAs so you got my attention right away. Have the cories or bristlenose bred in your FW tank? It is a neat experience with both of them.

 

[champyeti]

Wow! This is a really nice start to your build thread! I am a big fan of RFAs so you got my attention right away. Have the cories or bristlenose bred in your FW tank? It is a neat experience with both of them.

Hey thanks! I like how RFAs are not as prone to wandering the tank as bubble tips. If you find them a spot they like they never move.

I only have one bristle nose so I regret to say there has been no immaculate conception on that front.

The albino cories have only been here for a couple months, the pygmies for longer, so I have not seen any spawning from them though I'm sure they could be getting up to things and then someone snacks on the eggs.

Here is my pride and joy cory, with the longest fins.

I really like having both tanks. One is super easy and both have fish with different personalities and looks to each other. I can do water changes directly into/from the kitchen sink with the freshwater tank. Never been easier!

On the reef front, my watchman has been getting bolder. He has been sitting out from under his rock more and more.

 

[champyeti]

Been busy and forgot to update, lol.

The reef tank is doing very well! Though I need to get it a skimmer. There is a nasty brown film that forms at the water's surface and I've been manually skimming it with paper towels but I think in the long run I'll need to pick up a skimmer. Never had one before so not sure what the best skimmer for this tank would be. My rear chamber is pretty crowded with all the other equipment and of course it doesn't have a sump.

The freshwater tank has had a bad couple of weeks. My beloved albino cories all fell sick, I have 6 left but many of them look rough/have ich. They are receiving treatment but I don't know. It's ONLY those cories, too. If anything I think my pygmies are out more and doing great. It's been very rough for me with that tank, I did a 75%+ water change in the hopes of helping them and it stabilized for a few days and then the survivors got ich. Sucks

I think for sure now that Nightshade, my black clown, is the female now. But her tail keeps looking more nipped and I... don't really know what's up with these two. They're back to sleeping together now instead of Daisy cowering/hiding. Weird fish lol

 

[NB Reefer]

Tunze skimmers are well regarded for nano tanks.

 

[champyeti]

Tunze skimmers are well regarded for nano tanks.

I'll research them, I am ideally looking for one that could work outside the tank or as a HOB as the back chamber has limited space. But I can probably make something work.

Final member of the tank (boy I really need a skimmer now!), my long time holy grail of a fish.

He actually sleeps under the rock right next to the watchman's rock but I have never seen them interact yet. Only two days in so plenty of time

Glamor shot from the little twin tank, super proud of the red color I'm getting from my ludwigia. Think that's what this plant was anyway LOL. Ignore the bubbles on the glass pls, did a large water change to try and help the struggling cories.

Something feels wrong about a reef tank being easier and having less problems than a freshwater tank lol. But I wont argue if the reef wants to cruise along just fine. Just need to pick up a skimmer for it to deal with the sludge at the top of it now that I finally got my fussy ATO working again.

 

[champyeti]

About time for an update, eh?

Let's start with the bad to end on a good note:

• Lost my Aussie gold torch after months of it slowly receding, recovering slightly, and then just continuing to slightly recede.
• Indo gold torch has never really expanded back out and has receded as well, I lowered it in the tank in the hopes it would extend its tentacles fully again and recover
• Clowns have been charging at the firefish (never seen them make contact) and he spends most of the day hiding now was out ALL the time as long as the light was on his first week but now he's a bit more skittish. Stupid clowns
• Lost a hermit crab who molted and refused to get into a new shell. I found it stuck against the MP10 so I put it in a cup with a larger shell and it just never crawled in, eventually passed I am uncertain what to do when a hermit won't crawl into a new shell or how to help it - provide more shells??
• The answer to the question "who wins, a torch or any other coral" is "the torch that some idiot fish/CUC knocked over onto the other coral" - gonna have to buckle down one weekend and glue everything happy down.

The good:

• Nightshade has fully transitioned to being a female and since she and Daisy sleep right next to each other (and no longer fight/beat each other up that much!) I assume Daisy is actually a male who never begun turning female... much to my immense surprise.
• The watchman has become very territorial of the air space over his rock and will get huffy at any fish besides the blenny who gets too close to his turf. He can open his mouth much wider than the clowns so one time he actually completely engulfed the female's face with his mouth when she got too close... taste of her own medicine imo!
• I went with the Aquamaxx 1.5 HOB Skimmer for the tank, it fits in the rear chambers a bit snugly but fits nonetheless. Its first day on the job and it's pulled a ton of sludge out already. Will update as time goes on so other heavy-bioload Lagoon 25ers can consider it.
• Perhaps this belongs under 'the bad' lol but one of my LFS posted an extremely cute new goby they got in stock and they still had him after a week... and so... I am seeing if a circus goby will work with my other gobies. So far he's been shifting about upside down on the underside of the big rock on the right - actually right by where the shrimp's been fond of today - which is what I can expect from a newcomer often described as 'cryptic' in google results lol. He just peeked out from a cave right now actually. Such a cool looking fish when those big pectoral fins get going.
• No coral/fish/nem losses except the aforementioned Gold torch (I lament) and some corals have been growing/splitting - think my Jawbreaker is about to throw off another kiddo or two. She took a break after Baby 4, must've been busy homeschooling her brood lol.
• Also picked up Hanna Calcium and Alk checkers so I can better maintain my levels and ensure my corals are happy - I'm wondering if some unmonitored depletion was what made some of my euphylia unhappy. And a Flipper nano algae scraper which worked wonderfully to scrape off the assortment of "refuses to scrub off to a normal scrubber" algaes growing on my glass.

The fresh:

• Got some cherry shrimp! Red, blue velvet, Red Rili, and then three Amanos.
• Killed 4 of the 5 original cherry shrimp by doing my normal water change refill directly from the sink think that the temp shift was too much for them. It didn't occur to me because we did water change refills directly from the sink via hose all the time (every time, in fact) on our 60g when I was growing up and the shrimp were fine. However 20g is a third the volume of 60 and perhaps my water is colder, so the change is more dramatic. Time to get another bucket...
• Got some more pygmy cories to increase the school size and they do seem a bit more active. I have a few funny loners who I usually don't see with a shoal and my original pygmies are extremely fat.
• My bristlenose is gorgeous and her fins are beautiful.

Overall, can't complain. The tank is doing well and I will begin dosing/monitoring my Ca/Alk levels to ensure my parameters stay in check. Got a skimmer going at last to help with my generous feeding habits. It's definitely the loudest piece of tank equipment between the two tanks but it kind of just sounds like the dishwasher being on in another room lol.

LFS also posted a pic/video of a lined dartfish and wow, the one they had was STUNNING! But research indicated they got a bit too big for my 25g and might overlap with the firefish's territory too much. And now I'm awaiting the day I can get a bigger tank to fit a pair in... lol...
I'll upload some pics off my phone of the tank tomorrow.

 

[champyeti]

Photo dump!

 

[Peace River]

It looks like your FW albino bristlenose snuck into the photo dump! ;Snaphappy

Nice looking tanks and beautiful corals!

 

[champyeti]

It looks like your FW albino bristlenose snuck into the photo dump! ;Snaphappy

Nice looking tanks and beautiful corals!

Had to add a little diversity cause I'm so in love with her and her fins haha!

Thank you ;Happy feels good to have hit a place of stability and success with a reef, now to not screw it up...

 

[Peace River]

Had to add a little diversity cause I'm so in love with her and her fins haha!

Thank you ;Happy feels good to have hit a place of stability and success with a reef, now to not screw it up...

I didn't mean to slight her - my description should have been albino longfin bushynose pleco.

I have had both the albino and regular bushynose breed in my FW tanks in the past using slate caves.

 

[jcolliii]

Nice looking firefish!

 

[champyeti]

I didn't mean to slight her - my description should have been albino longfin bushynose pleco.

I have had both the albino and regular bushynose breed in my FW tanks in the past using slate caves.

Haha no slight taken - she's the pride and joy of my FW. I have considered getting her a mate but for the tank size I think I'd need to guarantee it was a male (I've had her since August so I am pretty sure she's a female at this point as she has no bristles whatsoever).

Nice looking firefish!

;Cat thanks, the pride and joy of my reef - definitely the most beautiful fish in the tank.

 

[champyeti]

So I finally got Hanna Calc and Alk checkers... and my Alk is 6.

I had thought it might be my Calcium that's low because I have so many LPS but nope, that was ~420-430 and Alk is 6, then a few days later 5.9. I thought the first one must be user error...

Well I am now dosing and monitoring much more closely because I think that's why some of my euphyllia have been losing the flesh around the head that reveals the skeleton and not extending as much. I really thought it was Calc that was the problem but I believe high nitrates can lead to low Alk and it wouldn't surprise me, especially pre-skimmer, if I had a hefty supply of nitrates.

Hopefully I can get things evened out.

Oddly some of my other corals seem to be doing just fine/great despite the problem so I wonder why some torches/hammers are very unhappy while others grow new heads? Who knows.

Gonna do a writeup on my fish and their habits/interactions when I have some time, hopefully it'll be helpful to other nano tank/goby fans.

 

[jcolliii]

What do you test NO3 with? I don't care for hanna checkers. Foo fidgety with the reagent packets - I think the Salifert kits for most things are better and quicker. I like their NO3 kit if you do not have one. Hope your euphyllia recover.