Natural 25 Gallon Lagoon

[sotsreef]

Hey all,
If you don’t know me my name is John and this is going to be my build thread for my Innovative Marine 25 Gallon Lagoon Tank. I am going for a more natural reef under white lights, and am going to be adding macroalgae and some other soft corals overtime. Anyways here is the specs on the tank:

Tank: IM 25 Gallon Lagoon no stand
Light: AI prime non hd black with mount
Sand: Carib Sea Aragonite
Rock: Misc dry rock
Filtration:
-IM filter caddy with filter balls, gfo, and carbon.
-Filter sock
-Reef Matrix Media
-JBJ Nano Glo 4-LED Refugium light(for chaeto) with christmas tree timer
-100w main heater and 50w backup heater
-Wavemaker return pump with duckbill nozzles
-Hydor koralia powerhead 425gph
-IM cleaning magnet
-standard aquarium thermometer

Livestock future plans:
I was hoping to get a pair of clownfish and a goby and pistol shrimp. I also am looking at getting a few hermits and snails as well.
I will likely try and update this minimum weekly with at least a FTS if nothing else. Stay tuned!

Here is some of my inspiration for the tank:

 

[sotsreef]

Update #1
02-25-21

I glued together some rocks and decided on the final aquascape. Here is how it looked outside of the tank vs inside the tank. I have realized top down it almost looks like a world map haha.

 

[EagleEye121]

Awesome scape! Big fan

 

[sotsreef]

Awesome scape! Big fan

thank you!

 

[John Bolden]

really cool build.

 

[sotsreef]

Update #2
02-27-21
Wet Day!

 

[happyhourhero]

I am starting one up too. Will follow along

 

[sotsreef]

Update #3
03-02-21
Little rescape and live rock!
So I have decided to move some rock around, after a few days I realized that the rock towards the front left was a little too large. So, I took a hammer to it and broke it into a few pieces. I then took a large chunk and placed it ontop of the large rock on the left. Then I took some smaller pieces and stuck them into the sand bed for islands to grow something like zoas or gsp in the future. The rock at the top sticks out of the water a little and I think this will be good because it adds more depth and honestly increases the overall visual appeal in my opinion. I also went ahead and stopped by my lfs to purchases a piece of live rock. I had debated this because I did not want to introduce pests into my system, but upon examination and talking with the owner I realized that it was the right choice and the rock seemed pretty safe. So now I have a small piece of liverock in place of the old piece of dry rock!

In addition to the liverock I also picked up some chaeto for my refugium which already looks packed. I will be adding pods and phyto later this week so I am hoping the chaeto will help serve as a good “home” for them, and will provide my newly established tank some more filtration. My question is, do I run the refugium 24/7 or reverse it with the display light? And I am not sure if this refugium will end up out competing my future macro algae in the display. I guess we will have to wait and see!

Also stopped by today to pick up a green hairy mushroom from a local reef club member. The little guy is already opening up and looks like he enjoys his rock. I am super excited to have a positive result from adding my first coral. Hoping this is a good sign for the things to come!

And here is a little piece that stayed attached to the (dead) acro, hoping it will grow into a baby!

 

[zukihara]

Looking pretty sexy so far.

 

[sotsreef]

Update #4
03-03-21
Adding GSP, xenia, and palys
I was able to pick up some corals today from some fellow reef club members. One guy was able to hook me up with a frag of GSP, pandora palys and some green palys. I glued the palys to a zoa/paly island I made, and placed the gsp frag on the sandbed until I figure out its final placement. Then I headed over to grab some xenia from someone else, and placed it on its own island as well.

Also spotted a baby snail on the glass that must have hitchhiked in on something recently. Hope he sticks around!

 

[BurlyWizard]

Looking good! I'm setting up a similar tank, IM25 lagoon, mostly dry rock with top piece exposed. I won't be doing corals, just some planted mangroves and other marine plants, and lots of inverts. Will be tagging along yours to see another IM25 on the same timeframe.

Is your refugium one of the AIO chambers, or a HOB?

 

[John Bolden]

Really cool tank.

 

[sotsreef]

Looking good! I'm setting up a similar tank, IM25 lagoon, mostly dry rock with top piece exposed. I won't be doing corals, just some planted mangroves and other marine plants, and lots of inverts. Will be tagging along yours to see another IM25 on the same timeframe.

Is your refugium one of the AIO chambers, or a HOB?

I converted one section of my aio filter into a refugium, seems to be working well so far!

 

[sotsreef]

Update #5
03-05-21
Conch, Hermit, and Snail
So first I picked up a conch, hermit and an astraea snail from my lfs. Put these guys in the tank, and after a quick acclimation they all seemed happy!

03-07-21
Macros and YWG
Since I am going for a more “natural lagoon” look I decided to order some Macroalgae for the tank. I ended up getting two varieties, Caulerpa Prolifera and Caulerpa Mexicana. I also went to my lfs today and picked up this little Yellow Watchman Goby, he has already settled in and found his burrow.

03-09-21
Monticap and Red Ogo
Was able to get a piece of monticap from a local reef club member, and then bought a bundle of red ogo from another person.

FTS: 03-09-21 (also added a 3d printed diffuser for the ai prime to eliminate the discoball effect that was kinda giving me a headache)

 

[BurlyWizard]

Looks great! What is your plan for ordering and maintaining the mangroves?