2 years and no action. It begins again. First post updated/rewritten.

[Townes_Van_Camp]

I bought everything I needed 2 years ago to set this tank up. It sat boxed in the corner of my room. I even had the materials to build my stand. Life got in the way and here is my Re-start.

I bought every gadget in the world initially. I've since pared it back substantially.

25 IM lagoon
Reefbreeders photon v2+ 24 (the supplied legs are ugly and just a hair too wide. I am putting a double leg adjustable 2020 T-slot light hanger together now)
Santa Monica filtration drop algae scraper
RB prism ATO
RB RP-m power head
Cobalt 75 + 50 watt neo-therm on an Inkibird ITC 308 wifi


A couple hours with a table saw and dado bit left me with a cabinet carcass ready for a drawer and cabinet door. Hardware is inbound so I have stopped to check some last minute details like where I want my power station mounted, one door or two? (one)

I am trying to leave some negative space in this set up and haven't decide if i want to get rid of my pistol shrimp and go bare bottom or not. I probably will

 

[vetteguy53081]

Glad to see your return

 

[desagon]

I like it! The stand is going to be sweet. My wife and I love mid century furniture and I wanted to build a stand to be similar to our credenzas as well, but I ended up going a different route.

I have to ask, why clownfish? I haven't had them be jerks, they just isolate themselves to the top corner of the tank and do nothing. I vowed not to get them again because of how boring they were for me.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Honestly I have never found them to be pleasant in the tank. But my wife insists on having them. I currently have the one black and white ocellaris because she was being tormented by another black and white ocellaris. They were from the same batch at the pet store. That same clown beat up the goby that lives with the current clown. The current clown chased my helfeichi fire fish non-stop wouldn’t let the fire fish eat. The helfrichi eventually leaped to its death after a beating as I found It crispy in my floor after work missing a fin and a chunk from its tail. Maybe I’ve just had bad luck with them.

 

[desagon]

Honestly I have never found them to be pleasant in the tank. But my wife insists on having them. I currently have the one black and white ocellaris because she was being tormented by another black and white ocellaris. They were from the same batch at the pet store. That same clown beat up the goby that lives with the current clown. The current clown chased my helfeichi fire fish non-stop wouldn’t let the fire fish eat. The helfrichi eventually leaped to its death after a beating as I found I’d crispy in my floor after work missing a fin and a chunk from its tail. Maybe I’ve just had bad luck with them.

Holy cow, he must have some maroon clown blood in him lol. I have always gone without a lid until I started getting clowns. I had one that would chase other clowns out of the tank like clockwork. I would wake up to seeing one dried out on the ground within days of getting it. Thats when I got a lid to control my boring corner crooks.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

I wish. If he was a maroon clown I’d have given him some leeway. Sometimes a pit Bull just has to bite someone. When I lost the helfrichi I only had the clown and goby left. No sense in putting a screen on their tank. The only time they move is at 500pm when they know it’s dinner time

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Scape is done. I wish I was a better photographer. These pictures suck. I don't care about the white showing from the broken edges, that will all be covered in coral and coralline algae soon enough. Lots of swim space and caves, tunnels, and overhangs would allow me to sneak in some lower light stuff like cyphestrea. As well as get my all time favorite up high, a Mind Trick monti. Tank is 12 " tall, water line is 11". The Highest point is 8.5 the next highest 7.5. I may put a bit of black light diffuser panel under it to get it out of the gravel and help create a little more negative space under the scape overhangs and arches

Here is the front view:

from the left:

The right:

And finally a top down:

Probably looks like an orangutan with a bottle of Elmer's glue made it. Doesn't matter, it's going in the lagoon.

Originally this was going to be a LPS tank heavy on Euphyllia. Not anymore, I went to the LFS and about cried when I saw that what was one a "Green Hammer" is now an Aussie Ultra green and 1 head is $120 instead of 4 for $40... I suppose if people want to pay it the shops should charge it. SPS tank it is. But I have place that I can put some softies and lps if I want to. I am happy over all. 25 LBS of LifeRock broken to pieces with a hammer and glued back together. I probably have 10 lbs left.

On a somewhat unrelated note I need to buy another ATO. I decided to get my little clownfish 14g IM peninsula ready for acans, 'shrooms, cyphestria, and zoas. I have it all dosed up and ready to go so I stole the ATO for the Lagoon and put it on the Peninsula.

If anyone is reading along and still here, Please help with a stock list. There are for sure two fish I want; a helfrichi firefish and either a Falco Hawkfish or geometric hawkfish. I want some action in this tank, Of course gobies and blennies are welcome, but I also want some movement.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Everything is dry fit. I feel like I have packed a lot into this little tank.

IceCap K1 Nano skimmer

x2 75 Cobalt Neo-therm one on a Inkbird WiFi 308 the other is a back up straight into the wall

IM caddy

IM AquaShield UV sterilizer

Santa Monica filtration Drop .6 algae scrubber

ReefBreeders RP-M wave maker

IM DC return pump

ReefBreeders Prism ATO

Anyhow, the next step is to get the stand built. Table saw is coming out of the shed so I need to get it mounted on casters so that I can get it to the carport. That’s going to slow me down a ton. Because, I just hate dealing with that massive saw.

 

[Nommarune]

Looking great. Getting back in after 8 years out. Running the im30L so similar tanks. Love your scape. Just bought my rocks and lighting today so I feel you on money haha.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Looking great. Getting back in after 8 years out. Running the im30L so similar tanks. Love your scape. Just bought my rocks and lighting today so I feel you on money haha.

I really need to get cracking on the stand for this tank. I’ve become preoccupied with my little IM 14 peninsula (it’s kicking all sorts of tail). But once I get this stand built I can start setting up and starting to cycle. The only thing stopping me is getting inflatable casters on my table saw so that I can move it from the back yard to the carport. Once that happens I’ll get a lot more done.

 

[DeanB.reef]

Really nice plan so far, got this on watch to see how it turns out.

Can appreciate when a tank fits in with the rest of the room instead of the room fitting around the tank. Full room shots will be cool once it’s up and going as well as FTS!

 

[blaxsun]

Having run a pair of IM Lagoon 25s for close to a year, I thought I’d pass along a few tips that I learned. Apologies in-advance for the small wall of text...

First and foremost, ditch the IM UV sterilizer (or at least only use it when introducing new livestock). The black sponge it comes with is ill-suited for any serious kind of long-term filtration. If you do use the IM UV (again, in short durations), I recommend a thin layer of filter floss cut to fit over the black sponge (that way, you can just toss out the filter floss every few days and never worry about also needing to clean the black sponge). And you'll keep the UV tube relatively crap free - so it will be more effective.

While you may tempted to run two IM caddys - don't. Believe it or not, your most successful nitrate control method are those pesky filter socks. Removing them every few days when they start to overflow actually gets rid of the majority of any nitrate buildup. You will want to invest in a good half dozen desktop size filter socks as well (this way when you ask your better half to occasionally wash the filter socks, you'll have a bunch to justify the whole 'enough for a load' laundry argument). So caddy w/filter media + sock filter = your best method of keeping the tank clean.

The stock IM caddy has pros/cons. The cons are that it doesn't provide a tight seal and you will find a lot of water simply bypasses under and around the lip when it's in-place. The pro is that if it gets clogged it has a slot at the top which allows the water to bypass the caddy and not cause the tank to overflow (similar to the sock filter). I believe the IM tanks also come with a caddy. If you want an awesome upgrade I recommend the InTank caddy (but this is something you can always look at down the road). It's angled and provides a much tighter seal than the stock IM caddy. The downside is that there's no overflow option, so you need to run a sock filter to ensure your tank doesn't overflow in the display area.

With respect to filter media, stick with ChemiPure Blue (never, never ChemiPure Elite) and filter floss in the top. You'll need to remove the middle shelf to fit the whole bag in, and since it's probably rated for 35 gallons you should be good without a change for 2-3 months (depending on your bio load).

Now for a downside. The IM Lagoon 25 has (IMHO) a massive design flaw in the AIO design. Remove the pump in the center rear chamber, reach your hand in and feel along the right and left sides. Notice a gap (about 1" high) that runs front to back? The side filter chambers don't run to the bottom of the tank - they only extend down to about 1" or so from the bottom. So there's a 6-8" gap on either side of the rear pump chamber that you'll never be able to access or otherwise clean. But it holds water, and thus all sorts of detritus and a great hiding spot for anything that ever jumps or climbs into the sump (oh yeah, fun times!) I didn't realize this when I filled my tanks with water, but had I known beforehand I probably would've cut some acrylic and siliconed those gaps shut. I'm sure IM did it this way so you could have a bit more water in the pump chamber, but I'm not sure that slight benefit is worth the stagnant water that accumulates there.

I tried MarinePure bio balls (hexes) in the back sump and I just don't think the AIO design has enough of and/or proper flow to be effective. They just seemed to accumulate detritus like the plague and contributed rather than decreased the amount of cleaning in the sump areas. Some people have had good success running refugiums (InTank also makes a special refugium basket for the IM 25 Lagoon), but just keep in mind that due to the lack of water flow in the second chamber it tends to "gunk up" fairly quickly.

Upgrades. A pair of IM SpinStream nozzles was a great addition and helped eliminate dead spots in the tank. If you opt for these do note that they need to be removed and thoroughly rinsed/scrubbed out every few months as they do accumulate slime (or just throw them in a small container of Ezeclean overnight and rinse out the next day). The wavemaker will provide most of your flow anyway. You're opting for a non-IM skimmer so you're already saving yourself hours of mess from overflowing container cups and pumps that breakdown every 2-3 months. I'm not sure how effective the IM reactor is, but I never had any luck reducing nitrates or phosphates with it. In theory you could cram a ChemiPure Blue bag into it if you wanted to go that route.

You'll want to invest in some sort of auto top-off system. You will (no exaggeration) be literally topping this up daily with about 3-4 liters of RO water. It doesn't sound like a big deal at first until you decide to go away for the weekend and realize your tank is going to go dry by the time you check into the hotel... You can minimize this to some extent with a solid lid, but this also cuts back on your oxygen diffusion and adds some major salt creep to the sides and lid that will up the maintenance.

You can definitely run two heaters, and your setup will be fairly bulletproof (and give you some remote monitoring through the Inkbird). Do keep in mind though that tanks can withstand a prolonged temperature drop - it's the lack of flow and oxygen within a few hours that ultimately wrecks them. Putting your wavemaker on UPS or battery backup to get you through a short power outage is something I'd recommend as a higher priority.

What can you do with your new IM Lagoon? Virtually anything. I ran mixed reefs in both, with probably 40lbs or so of rock in each. I had a full spectrum of corals, inverts and fish - probably averaging about 8-10 sets of happy fins per tank (and yes, I do realize that's definitely on the high or extreme side in terms of fish loadouts). They not only survived - but thrived. Eventually I did upgrade to a much larger tank, both to expand their habitat but consolidate and cut down on the amount of time we spent looking after the tanks.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Having run a pair of IM Lagoon 25s for close to a year, I thought I’d pass along a few tips that I learned. Apologies in-advance for the small wall of text...

First and foremost, ditch the IM UV sterilizer (or at least only use it when introducing new livestock). The black sponge it comes with is ill-suited for any serious kind of long-term filtration. If you do use the IM UV (again, in short durations), I recommend a thin layer of filter floss cut to fit over the black sponge (that way, you can just toss out the filter floss every few days and never worry about also needing to clean the black sponge). And you'll keep the UV tube relatively crap free - so it will be more effective.

While you may tempted to run two IM caddys - don't. Believe it or not, your most successful nitrate control method are those pesky filter socks. Removing them every few days when they start to overflow actually gets rid of the majority of any nitrate buildup. You will want to invest in a good half dozen desktop size filter socks as well. So caddy w/filter media + sock filter = your best method of keeping the tank clean.

The stock IM caddy has pros/cons. The cons are that it doesn't provide a tight seal and you will find a lot of water simply bypasses under and around the lip when it's in-place. The pro is that if it gets clogged it has a slot at the top which allows the water to bypass the caddy and not cause the tank to overflow (similar to the sock filter). I believe the IM tanks also come with a caddy. If you want an awesome upgrade I recommend the InTank caddy (but this is something you can always look at down the road). It's angled and provides a much tighter seal than the stock IM caddy. The downside is that there's no overflow option, so you need to run a sock filter to ensure your tank doesn't overflow in the display area.

With respect to filter media, stick with ChemiPure Blue (never, never ChemiPure Elite) and filter floss in the top. You'll need to remove the middle shelf to fit the whole bag in, and since it's probably rated for 35 gallons you should be good without a change for 2-3 months (depending on your bio load).

Now for a downside. The IM Lagoon 25 has (IMHO) a massive design flaw in the AIO design. Remove the pump in the center rear chamber, reach your hand in and feel along the right and left sides. Notice a gap (about 1" high) that runs front to back? The side filter chambers don't run to the bottom of the tank - they only extend down to about 1" or so from the bottom. So there's a 6-8" gap on either side of the rear pump chamber that you'll never be able to access or otherwise clean. But it holds water, and thus all sorts of detritus and a great hiding spot for anything that ever jumps or climbs into the sump (oh yeah, fun times!) I didn't realize this when I filled my tanks with water, but had I known beforehand I probably would've cut some acrylic and siliconed those gaps shut. I'm sure IM did it this way so you could have a bit more water in the pump chamber, but I'm not sure that slight benefit is worth the stagnant water that accumulates there.

I tried MarinePure bio balls (hexes) in the back sump and I just don't think the AIO design has enough of and/or proper flow to be effective. They just seemed to accumulate detritus like the plague and contributed rather than decreased the amount of cleaning in the sump areas. Some people have had good success running refugiums (InTank also makes a special refugium basket for the IM 25 Lagoon), but just keep in mind that due to the lack of water flow in the second chamber it tends to "gunk up" fairly quickly.

Upgrades. A pair of IM SpinStream nozzles was a great addition and helped eliminate dead spots in the tank. If you opt for these do note that they need to be removed and thoroughly rinsed/scrubbed out every few months as they do accumulate slime (or just throw them in a small container of Ezeclean overnight and rinse out the next day). The wavemaker will provide most of your flow anyway. You're opting for a non-IM skimmer so you're already saving yourself hours of mess from overflowing container cups and pumps that breakdown every 2-3 months. I'm not sure how effective the IM reactor is, but I never had any luck reducing nitrates or phosphates with it. In theory you could cram a ChemiPure Blue bag into it if you wanted to go that route.

You'll want to invest in some sort of auto top-off system. You will (no exaggeration) be literally topping this up daily with about 3-4 liters of RO water. It doesn't sound like a big deal at first until you decide to go away for the weekend and realize your tank is going to go dry by the time you check into the hotel... You can minimize this to some extent with a solid lid, but this also cuts back on your oxygen diffusion and adds some major salt creep to the sides and lid that will up the maintenance.

You can definitely run two heaters, and your setup will be fairly bulletproof (and give you some remote monitoring through the Inkbird). Do keep in mind though that tanks can withstand a prolonged temperature drop - it's the lack of flow and oxygen within a few hours that ultimately wrecks them. Putting your wavemaker on UPS or battery backup to get you through a short power outage is something I'd recommend as a higher priority.

I’ll try and respond in order here. I tend to wander though. I do appreciate the wall of text!

The UV sterilizer will only be put in place in the event of a bacterial bloom or other necessity, until the issue is handled. I run one on my IM 14 peninsula in the same manner(the same one that will be used in the 25 lagoon). The first thing I did was throw that terrible filter sponge I. The trash and replace it with filter floss.

I agree 100% about the caddies, I use a InTank basket with just a piece of filter floss on the 14. I will do the same on this.
As far as filtration, mechanical/ biological, I will be using an ice cap Nano skimmer and a Santa Monica drop in algae turf scrubber. There is no need for biological filtration beyond my rock, gravel and ats. I’m a water change junky. I have to stop myself from doing them before I strip all the nutrients out of a tank. But with water changes only (and a fair to middling air drive skimmer on the 14) I maintain 5ppm nitrate and .1 phos on both my 14 IM and my 2 gallon pico. Definitely won’t be using chemical pure. If there is a need for that stuff I’m a old school carbon and gif use. Oh, those IM filter socks are just bad. Some of the worst I’ve ever used. But I do find them handy for tossing a small bag of carbon into!!

Flow, I think I’m going to go ahead and use two jebao slw-10’s to get that handled instead of the single reef breeders RPM(it’s a bit over powered for the application. While I love the idea of the IM spin stream, they were terrible and noisy contraptions the first time I used them. I’m not going down that path again.

I already have an ATO. A reefbreeders prism. I use one on my 14 and it’s been fantastic. I use a 2gallon reservoir and run Kalk through it.

The odd little space under the baffles on a IM tank is curious for sure. I don’t know if I am just lucky or blind. But, I don’t get any nasties in the return pump chamber. Not to say that I won’t on the 25 with dual overflows though.

In regards to a UPS, na…. I’m big boy on that, my house is on a Generac inverter generator. I live in Florida and we will most likely be without power for more than a couple hours sometime in the next month. I won’t roll the dice on that at all. However, I’m the off hand chance my general fails I have both a Honda and a Ford 2200 inverter generator. If those both fail, I can run my reef breeders wave maker on my UPS. I’m pretty set I believe.

 

[blaxsun]

I’ll try and respond in order here. I tend to wander though. I do appreciate the wall of text!

The UV sterilizer will only be put in place in the event of a bacterial bloom or other necessity, until the issue is handled. I run one on my IM 14 peninsula in the same manner(the same one that will be used in the 25 lagoon). The first thing I did was throw that terrible filter sponge I. The trash and replace it with filter floss.

I agree 100% about the caddies, I use a InTank basket with just a piece of filter floss on the 14. I will do the same on this.
As far as filtration, mechanical/ biological, I will be using an ice cap Nano skimmer and a Santa Monica drop in algae turf scrubber. There is no need for biological filtration beyond my rock, gravel and ats. I’m a water change junky. I have to stop myself from doing them before I strip all the nutrients out of a tank. But with water changes only (and a fair to middling air drive skimmer on the 14) I maintain 5ppm nitrate and .1 phos on both my 14 IM and my 2 gallon pico. Definitely won’t be using chemical pure. If there is a need for that stuff I’m a old school carbon and gif use. Oh, those IM filter socks are just bad. Some of the worst I’ve ever used. But I do find them handy for tossing a small bag of carbon into!!

Flow, I think I’m going to go ahead and use two jebao slw-10’s to get that handled instead of the single reef breeders RPM(it’s a bit over powered for the application. While I love the idea of the IM spin stream, they were terrible and noisy contraptions the first time I used them. I’m not going down that path again.

I already have an ATO. A reefbreeders prism. I use one on my 14 and it’s been fantastic. I use a 2gallon reservoir and run Kalk through it.

The odd little space under the baffles on a IM tank is curious for sure. I don’t know if I am just lucky or blind. But, I don’t get any nasties in the return pump chamber. Not to say that I won’t on the 25 with dual overflows though.

In regards to a UPS, na…. I’m big boy on that, my house is on a Generac inverter generator. I live in Florida and we will most likely be without power for more than a couple hours sometime in the next month. I won’t roll the dice on that at all. However, I’m the off hand chance my general fails I have both a Honda and a Ford 2200 inverter generator. If those both fail, I can run my reef breeders wave maker on my UPS. I’m pretty set I believe.

Wander away! ChemiPure Blue is (mostly) carbon, just FYI. The SpinStreams quiet down after a month or so and then you'll never hear them again, but they do tend to get slimy. I ran a Tunze 6015 in each and it seemed to do ok for flow. The "space" under the baffles is probably so they can say 25 gallons as opposed to 24.9... Missed the ATO in your list of equipment even thought it was staring right at me... (doh!) IM fishguards can be helpful in keeping things out of the filters (black cucumber, I'm looking at you!)

Well, if you're already setup with generator power then you're laughing!

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

A hard rule of mine: if I buy something and dislike it so much that I give it away, I will never buy it again. Enter the IM slip stream. My problem with chemipure is the cost for pre-measured bags. Like you said, it’s mostly carbon. I also have a half gallon container of Rox .8. Maybe one day I get tired of dumping a couple table spoons in a media bag and switch it up to chemipure, but I’m a fickle old man.

 

[blaxsun]

A hard rule of mine: if I buy something and dislike it so much that I give it away, I will never buy it again. Enter the IM slip stream. My problem with chemipure is the cost for pre-measured bags. Like you said, it’s mostly carbon. I also have a half gallon container of Rox .8. Maybe one day I get tired of dumping a couple table spoons in a media bag and switch it up to chemipure, but I’m a fickle old man.

A valid point to be sure! Yeah, I was at the stage where my desire to slack exceeded my desire to save a few $. I've since upgraded to a larger Red Sea and switched over to Nyos carbon and Phosi-EX which I only have to change out every month or so.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Shameless bump after first post update. Its been almost two years since I started this tank. I guess I have learned patience.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

You have any updates on your tank?

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

You have any updates on your tank?

Fist post is all new. I sat all my equipment in a corner when life got in the way.