IM Lagoon 50 Build AIO

[evo187]

Long story short I have kept reef tanks on and off for about 20 years. Some of them turned out well, others not so much. In 2018 I moved into a new home and had plans to set up a large tank but it never got any traction. January 2020 I decided I would go the nano route as a quick fix to my reefing addiction and purchased a Nuvo 20. Fast forward to February 2022 and the itch to upgrade could no longer be ignored. The Lagoon 50 seemed like the perfect upgrade as I could still use the majority of the equipment from the Nuvo 20 and save a little money. I still have plans for a large reef tank, but with kids getting older I just don't have the disposable cash I once had. Between sports, Roblox, and Fortnite skins, money for my hobbies come last in order of priorities. I'm sure many can relate.

The plan is to be a mixed tank with easy to keep SPS on top, and LPS on the bottom. I'm trying to keep the system as simple as possible relying on dosing , passive chemical filtration, and water changes.

I'm also not great at taking photos yet, but trying to get better at it.

Current Build as of 4/8/22

Equipment:
IM Fusion Pro 2 50 AIO Lagoon
(2) AI Prime 16 HD
(2) IM Custom Caddy running filter floss and Chemi Pure Blue
(1) IM Filter Sock ( only use for a few hours after water changes)
Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152
5 Gallon ATO Reservoir
(2) Jager 75Watt heater
Jebao SLW-10 Powerhead
Tunze Nanostream 6055
Stock IM return pump
(40lbs) Marco rock / Half from the Nuvo 20
(40lbs) Special Grade Arag-Alive sand (rinsed to remove everything from the bag it ships in)
(2) Jager 75Watt heater

Saltwater Mixing Station
Coming Soon!
20gal Brute hooked to BRS 4 Stage 75GPD
Still mixing saltwater in 5 gallon buckets

3/4/22 - Tank arrived nicely packaged. Nothing broken and tank was perfect. Fedex was nice enough to move it into the garage for me.

 

[blaxsun]

Good luck with the IM build! InTank makes a refugium basket if you ever want to dabble in that down the road.

 

[evo187]

Planning for the Transfer

The transfer plan was simple: drain the Nuvo 20 into 5 gallon buckets and transfer the rock, corals, and fish into them with heaters, move the old tank out, move the new tank in, fill it with new saltwater, sand, and then put everything from the buckets into the tank as quickly as possible. The Nuvo 20 was lightly stocked with only a handful of corals, a lightning maroon clown, and a yellow tailed blue damsel. Seemed like a easy task with some proper planning.

The week leading up to the tank arriving I also bought (2) 20 gallon brute trashcans to have fresh saltwater on hand for the transfer. I mixed up around 40 gallons and added heaters to get the water to 78 degrees.

I ordered 40lbs of new live sand (mistake), and 20lbs of new dry Marco rock to add to the system. I broke it up and did my best to make a nice structure for future SPS placement. I didn't realize until I had finished that the rock looks like a skull. The kids now refer to it as Skull Island. The plan was to basically place the auqascape from the Nuvo 20 on the left side of the tank, and use the new structure on the right.

The 40lbs of live sand was ordered by accident, I meant to order dry sand. I had read that live sand is not the best for tank upgrades and could lead to ammonia spikes. I opened the bags and poured out the liquid, threw away the packets, rinsed it thoroughly, and dried it. Using new sand and rock I knew I would run into some diatoms so I rinsed the rock as much as possible as well.

Everything was set up and ready.

 

[evo187]

Tank Transfer

The transfer went well, almost exactly as planned. The only casualty was a AI Prime I got wet. That was a bummer but the LFS had one and I was back in business. Expensive mistake but I found the UV LED had burned through the lens of the unit anyway. I will try and repair it myself later. I believe the wifi board may have shorted out.

Nuvo 20 right before the big transfer.

Transferring everything over

I let the tank settle in for a few days running the lights at 50% and the wave makers around 50% as well. I did 5 gallon water change after 3 days to help clear out some of the cloudiness. After 5 days the tank was clear and I put everything back. I raised the intensity of the lights by 20% over the next couple of weeks to adjust for the added tank depth. The transfer was a success.

The funny thing is the Lagoon 50 doesn't look that much bigger than the Nuvo 20 in the photos.

 

[evo187]

Current Status (4/8/22)

The tank hasn't missed a beat, but there have been a couple of changes. First was the yellow tail blue damsel was evicted. The first thing I wanted to add was a juvinile sailfin tang now that I had a little more space. The damsel was very rude and the decision was made to take him to the LFS. While trading him in I picked up a Carpenters Flasher Wrasse to take his place.

A few weeks later I also added a juvenile six line wrasse that I may end up regretting down the road. For now he is a model citizen. I have added a few more euphyllia, acans, and mushrooms over the last few weeks as well. One bing a HUGE toxic green walling hammer. It's hard to tell in the pictures but it's about 9"x5" when expanded.

I am planning on adding some tester SPS in the next couple of weeks. I have (2) green birdsnest and a green slimer ordered. I am also planning on adding a few more choice euphyllia, acans, and zoa. I don't plan on adding any more fish for now. Everyone gets along so well, I don't want to mess with a good thing.

I also plan on getting better at taking pictures of the tank, sorry they are not great

Current Livestock
Juvenile Sailfin Tang
Juvenile Six Line Wrasse
Carpenters Flasher Wrasse
Lightning Maroon Clown
(3) Blue Leg Hermits

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Absolutely beautiful hammer colony! I'd kill for one with such well developed tips!

 

[evo187]

Absolutely beautiful hammer colony! I'd kill for one with such well developed tips!

Thank you! I had been drooling over it for months in my LFS display tank and just had to have it.

 

[Maximus93101]

Hey, you did it! You got your page set up as promised. Congratulations! Your tank looks great! I think you will really enjoy the extra real-estate over the 20 gallon

 

[evo187]

Not much to report. Everything is cruising along nicely.

I moved the rocks around a little bit to help with flow, but just couldn't get it right. The Tunze 6055 was just too directional and harsh, and the SLW-10 just didn't have the power to overcome it pushing the opposite way. It was creating a dead spot in the front right corner of the tank and I just wasn't happy with that.

I really liked the gentle wide flow from the SLW-10 so ordered two SLW-20s, and so far I am loving them. The flow is much more gentle and all of the euphyllia seem puffier than ever. The SPS frags up top seem to like the more random flow as well.

At the moment I have them on opposite sides of the tank running "shift to flow" mode which alternates flow back and forth. I'm only running them at 30% and that seems to be perfect for now. I have a lot of increase when needed as I add SPS and it starts to grow.

I also removed the locline from the returns. It was causing too much shadowing.

I am hand dosing a little bit of alk and calc daily now. A dosing pump is definitely coming in the future. I'm just still deciding between going with Kalk or 2 part.

 

[evo187]

Image Dump from this afternoon. I'm still terrible at photos and getting the colors right.

And here is the new feeding hole. These got very mixed reviews but so far mine has been flawless.

And my new frag rack from PNW. Just broken bits of birdsnest I'm attempting to grow.

And my DIY nori holder made with a left over IM magnet cleaner and cut up frag plugs. No more putting my hands in the water. Just bring it up to the feeding hole and then slide it back down.

 

[Bsnow0053]

I love your rock work brother, definitely put some thought into it. Looks good man definitely will be following

 

[MaD_ReefeR]

Just bought this tank, expecting it next week. so question about the shipping. IM contacted me, gave me their breakdown on the arrival date and fedex contacting me to set up an actual delivery date. What did it take to get that crate open? Plan on opening it at the time of delivery to check it so just wondering how easy/hard thats going to be.

 

[evo187]

It's very easy, just need a small flat head screw driver. There are metal tabs that hold the crate together that you bend outward and it comes right apart. Definitely easy to do while fedex is still there. The tank is in a box inside the crate.

 

[MaD_ReefeR]

thanks. I see there's a few of you that have been posting up your builds recently on this 50g lagoon, watching all of your threads to see what equipment everyone's using, most seem to have some type of controller running, I don't think I'll have one of those anytime soon lol but hoping to get it up and running sooner than later to start that cycle going

 

[evo187]

Can't wait to see your build thread! I really love the dimensions of this tank.

I don't have a controller yet, mostly due to the price. I really want to upgrade to a 7 stage RODI system and add some T5s to supplement the two AI primes.

I am considering the ApexEL so I can monitor PH and would like to dose kalkwasser to stabilize PH. Mine runs a tad low due to the tank being in my bedroom.

 

[WirelessMike]

Great looking tank! Honestly it could be absolutely terrible and you would still get bonus points for the profile pic! Lol

 

[MaD_ReefeR]

I have a pair of AI 16HD's I had planned for the 20g peninsula but was thinking of possibly switching to a single light fixture like reefbreedeers photon. Have never looked into any of the controllers, soo much wiring and gadgets just never interested me

 

[evo187]

I have a pair of AI 16HD's I had planned for the 20g peninsula but was thinking of possibly switching to a single light fixture like reefbreedeers photon. Have never looked into any of the controllers, soo much wiring and gadgets just never interested me

I have found 2 16HDs are pretty much perfect for LPS/softies. I'm only running mine at 65% and also running lower UV than most people. I think my UV tops out at like 17%. It was cooking acans and candy cane corals on the sand bed when I tried to run them equal to my blues. I have some SPS up top that seem to be doing good. Time will tell. Still too new to see any real growth.

 

[MaD_ReefeR]

Do you still have the crate the tank came in? I'm curious about it's dimensions, wondering if it will fit in the back of my SUV, I'm going to pick it up myself. I know the tanks dimensions itself will fit just fine but not sure how much bigger that crate makes it.

 

[Olefreebe]

Planning for the Transfer

The transfer plan was simple: drain the Nuvo 20 into 5 gallon buckets and transfer the rock, corals, and fish into them with heaters, move the old tank out, move the new tank in, fill it with new saltwater, sand, and then put everything from the buckets into the tank as quickly as possible. The Nuvo 20 was lightly stocked with only a handful of corals, a lightning maroon clown, and a yellow tailed blue damsel. Seemed like a easy task with some proper planning.

The week leading up to the tank arriving I also bought (2) 20 gallon brute trashcans to have fresh saltwater on hand for the transfer. I mixed up around 40 gallons and added heaters to get the water to 78 degrees.

I ordered 40lbs of new live sand (mistake), and 20lbs of new dry Marco rock to add to the system. I broke it up and did my best to make a nice structure for future SPS placement. I didn't realize until I had finished that the rock looks like a skull. The kids now refer to it as Skull Island. The plan was to basically place the auqascape from the Nuvo 20 on the left side of the tank, and use the new structure on the right.

The 40lbs of live sand was ordered by accident, I meant to order dry sand. I had read that live sand is not the best for tank upgrades and could lead to ammonia spikes. I opened the bags and poured out the liquid, threw away the packets, rinsed it thoroughly, and dried it. Using new sand and rock I knew I would run into some diatoms so I rinsed the rock as much as possible as well.

Everything was set up and ready.

Great looking Aquascape! Loving skull island.