Coming back to reefing… IM 25 lagoon - best place to put an MP10? Thank you for your time

[Amber.]

Hello, I took a hiatus from reefing due to mental health issues and now I’m ready to dive back in. I picked up an IM 25 Lagoon + stand from a LFS and filled it up. I have some Marco rocks in it, and just dug out one of my old MP10’s. I plan on having lps and sps coral a few months down the road.

I was told to run it dark for three weeks while dosing Microbacter 7 daily. After three weeks to turn the lights on barely and then to pick up a snail in week 4 if there is algae. Then in week 8 to do a 20% water change. Wasn’t really instructed much else. I feel like I’m going to need an ammonia source.. or to be dosing ammonia? Or will this also work?

I will be adding an additional MP10 in the future if needed.


This is how I currently have it placed. If you could give me some adjustment advice, I’d appreciate it.

Another quick question if you had a moment, I currently have it running on nutrient transport mode and the dry side is making almost like a buzzing/grinding noise every time it sends out a pulse - is this normal? I have it adjusted so the inside wetside is aligned pretty well with minimal vibration.

Thank you for your time,
-Amber

 

[Jekyl]

More rock. You want to create some caves. These serve as sleeping and hiding areas for fish. Figure one for each fish or pair. As far as cycling you could att some bacteria like fritz or dr tims and speed the process up.

Also you may want to consider quarantine options and the route you take to adding fish to the tank.

As for the mp10 I can't help. I use jebao and love them.

 

[nickm]

Dr. Tims is the best imo, cycled my tank in about 8 days.

 

[Amber.]

More rock. You want to create some caves. These serve as sleeping and hiding areas for fish. Figure one for each fish or pair. As far as cycling you could att some bacteria like fritz or dr tims and speed the process up.

Also you may want to consider quarantine options and the route you take to adding fish to the tank.

As for the mp10 I can't help. I use jebao and love them.

Dr. Tims is the best imo, cycled my tank in about 8 days.

Ending up going to my local fish store and they had some awesome large pieces of old rock from someone’s broken down tank. I grabbed two and they were 11LBS! It’s full of tube worms, green growth, some specs of coraline, hair algae, calupra?, etc. I was warned about possible aptasia but I said I didn’t mind.

I’ve also seen weird red clearish flat plants? You can see them pretty well in the photos near the top of the rocks.

Wish I would have grabbed more! It’s pretty interesting to look at so far.

Is this good enough for caves? How else could I get creative in a shallow space?