Luna's Lil' Lagoon - IM 25 Lagoon - Canada

[Luna Lagoona]

Check out https://drreefsquarantinedfish.com. Does fully quarantined so as long as your patient its a great option. Tons of extremely positive feedback on here and other places online. I'm still waiting on my order from him but appreciate some great advice he gave me and the thoroughness of his process.

Right on. Do you know if he ships to Eastern Canada? Generally, our options are pretty limited otherwise. Cross-border livestock is doubly so.

Most forms of pet keeping are, in some ways, unethical. I was not referring to the ethics of keeping a tang in a nano reef. If it doesn’t go well, you can always rehome a tang in good health if you act fast. However, 18 gallons of display volume is too small for active swimmers.

I had a pair of pink smith damsels in the tank, active and pretty. They were fine for a while, but one day something happened, and they got mean towards each other. I had to rehome them within 2 hours of becoming mean (I am not sure if one survived even after that).

Yep, I get what you are saying. I think I am considering the footprint more than the strict volume. I have basically 2 feet by nearly two feet of space for a fish to cruise through minus rock work which is all open caverns for the most part so hoping that will help create a good ecosystem.

PS: mind sharing your math on how the display is only 18 gallons display volume? (Maybe educational for other folks)

My guess would be you are saying the AIO chambers are ~4-5 gallons, and the display would be ~20 then minus displacement of rock and waterline?

I wish I could go bigger but this is the size limit for this apartment at the moment, which I part of why I went with this specific tank to maximize footprint/swim space etc.

We will see what comes up.

To keep the train rolling here are some bonus pictures of my little algae/jeweled blenny with a very plump belly. It jammed itself between my ammonia alert the other day which was kinda funny.

Technically even this guy could grow to 5-6 inches but he dissapears in my tank and has lots of room. Today he is maybe 2-3 inches head to tail. (use the amonia alert for scale)

 

[Acros]

The display dimensions are 23.6" x 16.3" x 11.8", assuming that we fill the tank to a height of 10.8" the water volume would be 17.99 gallons.

It is about a 2ft x 1.5ft x 1ft space.

 

[Acros]

Here are the actual dimensions of the tank. https://www.innovative-marine.com/specs-nuvo-fusion-pro-25-lagoon

 

[OldRed1]

Thanks!

Also just to comment on tank progress I continue to see growth in most things! My bonasi acro I am still watching like a hawk but I don't think I am seeing much growth yet.

My big focus has been trying to get my ALK to be stable in the 8+'s but it's been a struggle. Anyone else just find that some tanks/areas can never hit certain levels?

Or with comments haha

The other thing is that evaporation is INSANE for me which I think is part of why I can't keep it up. Like 2-3 L almost a day at times! So the buffers might not be able to counter how much new RODI is getting added? (The chemistry might not work this way tbh)

Getting an ATO is still very much a priority as I am using my gravity-fed smart water bottle RODI hack right now.

Open to suggestions!

Do you have an automated system that handles your testing? Or are you testing by hand?

 

[Luna Lagoona]

Do you have an automated system that handles your testing? Or are you testing by hand?

Testing by hand and my main red sea master kit is technically expired and came with the tank.

I use a Hanna checker for ALK.

Here's a little goofy picture for today. There was actually a hermit in the dog pile as well but by the time I got my phone it had fallen off.

 

[ghurlag]

@Luna Lagoona I'm finally stopping by your thread to see what you have going on. I'm jelly! Following along - glad you're having such good luck with your tank so far!

 

[Luna Lagoona]

@Luna Lagoona I'm finally stopping by your thread to see what you have going on. I'm jelly! Following along - glad you're having such good luck with your tank so far!

Thanks for stopping in! I have more stories to tell but have been so lazy.

I plan to post a bit more focused on coral growth later today as well! I added a bunch of cool frags from a special local order from Reef Raft which I am excited to share!

I just posted this thread and video with the awaited comparison review of the prime vs 360x

Kessil a360x vs Ai Prime 16HD Side by Side Comparison Video

Hey folks! So I am finally learning how to do video editing... I would do this soooo differently now. I mention the 35-degree reflector in the video but it's actually the 55-degree reflector You can watch in 4k and you can skip to 5:34 for both running together, or 8:17 if you want to jump...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[blaxsun]

Tank is looking good. Best of luck with your lawnmower blenny!

 

[Luna Lagoona]

Soooo I might end up doing video product reviews for a LFS and am pretty excited about that. I don't want to say too much just yet until I have things fully sorted out.


The tank has been ticking along and I have actually been keeping my hands out of it for the most part. Here are a few photos doe to keep you going!

 

[ghurlag]

Maybe I missed it in the thread somewhere, but what photog equipment are you using to get those great macro shots? I, too, have been keeping hands out of my tank (all I can really do it water changes at this point anyway while I wait on it to mature a bit).

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Soooo I might end up doing video product reviews for a LFS and am pretty excited about that. I don't want to say too much just yet until I have things fully sorted out.


The tank has been ticking along and I have actually been keeping my hands out of it for the most part. Here are a few photos doe to keep you going!

Beautiful photos!!

 

[Luna Lagoona]

Lots been going on! This little booger (nudibranch) was trying to eat my zoas and my keen eye just plucked em!

With a larger tank/system you could never catch something like this I feel!

if you look at that last picture of the vampire in drag the nudi was on that same clump of zoas and look how many heads it has now! My zoas overall have been EXPLODING! I need to do some before and after growth pics from the last few months haha!


I actually did add the berghai nudibranch but they don't seem to actually be doing their job at all and aptasia are having a moment sadly....

They can be pretty in their own way... but they hurt the other corals soo they gotsa go!

Maybe I missed it in the thread somewhere, but what photog equipment are you using to get those great macro shots? I, too, have been keeping hands out of my tank (all I can really do it water changes at this point anyway while I wait on it to mature a bit).

Also I have been just using my old (now very cheap) Canon T5i and the basic Canon 60mm Macro.

I sometimes use extension tubes too.


Anyway I need to post lots more!

I also got a PAR meter finally and took loads of photos and video with that I need to do something with.

 

[Luna Lagoona]

Tank hasn't been doing too hot!

I have lost most of my fancy Acros and been experiencing a Cyano bloom and aptasia seem to be popping up everywhere. I was trying to kill them with lemon juice and thought it was knocking them out but it was actually just making them hide and reproduce sadly :<

I had added berghai nudi but the single one I added vanished long ago.

Most of my smaller hermit crabs croaked or have vanished. I took out the bag of Chemipure-elite and didn't replace it with a new one because it was older and felt like it was likely not doing anything but maybe that was the issue. I am going to get a new one tomorrow.

I am also out of salt so before I ran out I was doing once every two week water changes vs weekly and those two combined seemed to have caused an issue.

I also added a chromis and small melanarus Wrasse but amped up my feeding (especially of frozen) and wonder if that isn't the problem and why things are out of wack.

Most of the soft coral seems to still be happy when I can keep the Cyano off it, but it's a struggle.

Will peppermint shrimp eat aptaisa? I might try and add one of those and more hermits again too.

I am also wondering if the summer weather isn't being a factor too.



I am especially sad about the Pink Floyd and Wolverine. My myagi tort is on it's way out too.

Somehow the acros I didn't care about and bird's nest/stylo is totally fine haha.

 

[Acros]

Peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia, however they wont touch it as long as you feed plenty of frozen food.

 

[Luna Lagoona]

Peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia, however they wont touch it as long as you feed plenty of frozen food.

Thanks for the tip!


Alternating a day on and a day off with frozen help?

The main issue is my dart fish who still has yet to leave it's nook will only eat frozen and only if I squirt it at its face.... So I end up having to do it daily anyway or near and it's still getting thin on me :<

 

[Acros]

I had to go 100% pellet food before the peppermints touched any aiptasia.

I am not an expert on this topic.

 

[Acros]

A melanurus wrasse could eat shrimp and berghia nudibranch. They might become expensive snacks.

 

[MartinM]

How’s your water motion? Cyano tends to grow where there’s low water motion. Low water motion will also not be good for the acros.

Thought about some clams? I have a 200 liter system with three large maximas and they keep the water very clean and the nutrients down.

I think there’s no problem with feeding heavily, especially seeing as you have live rock. I feed very heavily (Frozen + lots of various foods from Reef Nutrition several times a day).

 

[Luna Lagoona]

How’s your water motion? Cyano tends to grow where there’s low water motion. Low water motion will also not be good for the acros.

Thought about some clams? I have a 200 liter system with three large maximas and they keep the water very clean and the nutrients down.

I think there’s no problem with feeding heavily, especially seeing as you have live rock. I feed very heavily (Frozen + lots of various foods from Reef Nutrition several times a day).

Lots of water motion that's no issue. After a single day of chemiclean the tank bounced back.

Today my green birds nest bleached out though just when I thought I was on the mend. Not sure why but it happened overnight. I knew it wasn't happy from the cyano times but yikes.

That last front tank shot was a day ago and you can see it was still very green. Also the tank is looking more full than it is which you can see in the top down.

I do still need to thin out some of the zoas though and take some more macro photos.

 

[MarcosTacos]

Hey! Sorry to hear about the issues you had. Is the tank doing better now? Loved reading through this thread.