Lagoony - The nano lagoon

[DrewBR]

Hi R2R!

This will be a thread for my new 25-gallon IM lagoon, from beggining to end, but first a little backstory.

For some time, I was gearing up to move from my first 32g reef to a larger 140g system. I started by gearing up during the pandemic, just getting everything I needed upfront and building what I wanted that I couldn't find a commercial solution. This was a dream tank project, top tier gear, custom sump, custom reefpi controller, alk monitor, the works. The set-up was planned to happen on late 2022 (september-november), by then all of the gear would be bought, the scape would have been curing for a couple months, the live rock refugium would be running to get a jump on the cicle and the quaratine would start getting their first inhabitants.

As you've guessed by now, something didn't go to plan. Late July, I got a job offer, for much better pay, but 600km away in São Paulo. While this is great, São Paulo is a much bigger city, with much smaller appartments (at least smaller then my house back where I'm from), so the 140g wouldn't happen.
Fast foward almost a year, here I am, sitting on an innordinate hoard of top notch reefig gear, and no reef in sight, until I found something interresting. A guy a couple blocks away from my new appartment was selling a small IM lagoon (it is rare to find these branded aquariums here, since they are imported and it's a lot cheaper to build one yourself), it was in great condition, came with a pump and some miscellaneous parts and he had built a fortress of a stant for it. This was the first I saw of it:

Now, most of my gear would be overkill, but I did plan for a small frag nursery in the 140 and the gear for that could be just right. So on I went to get myself an unplaned aquarium. There were just a couple of snags on the way. While I did have the gear, substrate, salt and everything I needed to start, everything was a state over, stored in my parents house. A quick road trip later, I got all I needed and so began the actual set-up.

I'll divide the post so I can go in depth about every part of the setup.

Hope you enjoyed the intro.

 

[DrewBR]

THE GEAR AND OTHER LEFTOVERS

As you know, the gear I got was mostly leftovers from a scraped project so not everything was exactly right for this size tank, so here is what I figured I could salvage.

Lighting:
1x Maxspect Jump mj165l 65W Regular - This was supposed to be just for the frag nursery on the big boy tank, but it will do for this lagoon.

Wave makers:
1x Koralia nano 240 - leftover from the beggining days of my first reef, probably my fist piece of equipment for reefing.
1x Generic small DC wavemaker - got it for real cheap from a friend (found it under Hygger brand on Amazon but mine is branded ZKS).
1x Ecotech MP40w - It was supposed to go on my big boy reef along with a couple gyres. Now it's an absolute overkill on a nano tank.

Return pump:
1x MightyJet - It came with the tank. Surpised me for how good of a pump it is.
1x Generic AC pump - No ideia as far as it goes for performance. I use it to mix salt mostly, but it can be a good backup.

Dosing Pump:
1x Kamoer X4 Pro

Heater:
1x 100W Roxin Heater - Another part of the salt mixing kit, except now, it goes in the tank.

Tests:
A full set of Aquaforrest tests
Nyos test for phosphate and nitrate
Hanna Checker for calcium and phosphates
Mantis electronic salinity tester
Generic refractometer
Generic Hydrometer

Salt and balling solutions:
25kg of Aquaforrest reef salt
15l of Aquaforrest balling solutions
Calcium and kH buffers

Misc:
A full set of dentistry tools for coral fraging and manipulating. Couple products as well.
General water chemestry supplies,
A hole lot of sand
A Tunze Care magnet.
An acrylic reservoir for RO/DI water. Later bought a float valve to get ir working.
RO/DI system. Could use a booster pump for eficiency but it'll do for now

 

[DrewBR]

THE ROCKWORK

It took the better part of an hour, building and moving stones at a LFS but finally I got something that I could work with. After some sculpting at home I menaged to get the 3D look I wanted with some interesting arces for the fish to swim through and plenty of flat spaces for coral with room to grow. Also left space for the care magnet to fit on all sides.

These were the final tests for the scape:

Fun but not quite there yet.

A bit weird on the verticality to the right.

Dramatic, but too unrealist for my taste.


Almost there! Some fine adjustmentes will get it all the way.

Top down view of the plan.

After the tests were done, I made the scape some little stands with coral putty, to avoid any slips and shifts. I also helped raising the scape by about 1.5cm so it did`t look too sunk on the sand.

 

[DrewBR]

FIRST ISSUES

#1 THE BAD SUBSTRATE

Well, while I thought I had everything figured out I didn`t remember that the sand I got with me was just rough, dirty (and I mean REALY dirty) aragonite, that was planned to be used as filler on the artificial rocks for the 140g project.

The whole lot was absolutely unusable as a substrate, I washed it for hours and it would let up on the filth, and even after it was clean, it was too rough and not quite as white as I would like it. I decided to use it as a filler for glueing the rocks but I got a bag of Aquaforrest Bio Sand for the substrate (I got it mainly for the live bacteria otherwise I'd probably have gone with some other brand).

#2 THE CLUMPED SALT

Somehow, I menaged to get moisture into the salt either during transport, or in storage and when I got to my place it was all clumped. After some dicussion on a thread I posted on the reef chemestry forums I decided to use it anyways and correct the parameters acordingly.

It was not as big of a deal as I expected it to be. Parameters were "ok" besides dkH at a 5.0. Some slight buffering later the aquarium was ready to cycle.

 

[DrewBR]

THE CYCLE
So with the tank filled and everything in place I began to cycle it. Filled and added the live bacteria on July 11.

Final layout was slightly different from tests but the same idea applies.

Equipment in the back, a little dusty from the sand but otherwise everything functioning well.

As with most new tanks, in the beggining there was the ugly fase.

On the 19th I introduced some 15 turbo snails and 15 hermit crabs to start populating it. It kept getting uglier for longer than I expected so I decided to run some phosphate testsa only to realize the rocks were leaching quite a bit of phosphate. The Nyos test read over the tests limits and the hanna checker read at 0.86ppm, so I introduced 50 grams of GFO to the tank.

Since everything was running "according to plan" I introduced a Rock Flower anemone and a zoa frag onte the 30th. Along with 10 more turbo snails and 2 astrea snails.

After this date things started clearing up really quickly as the cycle was stablished and the phosphates were lowered to a more menageable level.

 

[DrewBR]

THE FIRST WAVE OF CORALS

With things coming smoothly I decided to expand the coral in the tank too get started on the large colonies I want for the future.

In I went with:
1x Red Montipora Setosa
1x Chilli Pepper Montipora
1x Alveopora
1x Goniopora
1x "Gold" Hammer Coral
1x "Orange" Hammer Coral
1x Waggon Weel Plate Coral (Turned out to have 3 little ones under it's shadow so 4 in a way but they need to grow out badly)
1x Acantastrea Echinata - Ended up regreting this one, but will grow it out for a while until I can get some lordowensis and bowerbanki.

 

[DrewBR]

THE NEXT STEP

While the tank has been running fine and the corals are growing and happy, there are still a few thing to be done:

1st is making an actual stocking plan. While corals can go in "freestyle", I have not yet decided on fish for this tank. I wanted something eye catching and unique, and while I do love clowns I think I want something new.

So far I've been think of a banggai cardinalfish pair or a pair of orange spoted filefish that while not exactly reef safe would be an amazing contrast to the rest of the tank. Other fish have crossed my mind like the wetmorela wrasses but none has smitten me yet. Any suggestions would be apreciated.

2nd is preparing for an upcoming move I'll have to make. I'll be changing appartments but it shouldn't be too big of a deal since they less than a block away and the tank is pretty small.

3rd is start a dosing/testing plan and schedule.

4th is planning the next corals and how they will be placed. There is a reefing event going on on september 16 so I might get some new stuff there.

 

[DrewBR]

THE FIRST FISH AND OTHER ADITIONS
On the 16th of september I got a chance to go to Reef Day Brasil, a local reefing convention. While much smaller than the american convetions, it was great to get the chance to see fellow hobbyists in our element. A lot of great vendors with incredible products all around, some were a little underprepared and there were defenetly some tanks crashing.

While there I got some new corals, a couple frogspawn and a two Seriatopora frags that have been amazing growers in the tank. Also I got a pair of frostbyte clownfish, not exactly the original plan but a great addition as far as contrast and movement goes.

Not set on the names yet but I'm thinking Amelia and Roald. I figured if you are an explorer you might get some frostbyte,

I also got a motnipora digitata and a small Anacropora slime ball colony later that week.

 

[DrewBR]

THE BIG MOVE AND PREPARATIONS
The following month, after the fish were added, was exclusevely dedicated for the preparation for my moving apartments. A rigorous routine of larger weekly waterchanges and a deep clean of every piece of equipment over the month was the first step for my preparations.
The move was done in two parts, first everything else, on the 12th of October, second the aquarium, on the 13th, this way I could dedicate as much time as I needed for the aquarium. After I moved, I devided the aquarium move in a couple of steps:

Step 1 - Preparing the tubs

I cleaned 2 plastic tubs and braced them with 2 heavy boxes. Box number 1 with the pump only, would recieve water and the live rock. Box number 2 with the heater and a pump would be recieving the fish, shrimp and corals along with any rock that couldnt be detached from the coral

Step 2 - Animals first

Went back to the other apartment and got all the animals and as few rocks as I could. I moved them as fast as I possibly could, maybe a half hour total for the transport. Some corals got bumped by others or by the rocks and a couple pieces broke off. I dealt with them later that week once everything was back in place.

Step 3 - Everything else

After I knew the animals were safe, I went back to take the rock, sand, most of the water and tank. All together that took about another 5 hours. The sand was kept separate so to not dirty everything else, and then it was thoroughly rinsed with as much saltwater as I could spare. Late at night, exhausted and dirty, the tank was finally set up in the new home. *Don't mind the mess, it was for the tanks benefit*

Step 4 - Prevention is key

On the following day, the 14th, I went to a LFS and purchased 20 liters of saltwater and 12 liters of RO/DI water. My reasoning was that amidst everything that happened there was bound to be some moment that I messed up, so I did a 20% WC and replaced all the RO/DI water on the reservoir. I also got some filter floss and charcoal just to be sure. This was done as early as possible and the saturday was dedicated to observing the tank and correcting anything that could be going wrong.

 

[8-Bit Reefer]

Very cool tank! would love to do a lagoon one day!