New to me, IM 50 Lagoon.

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Theolox

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Here is the final version of the Scape. I finished all the putty and sand work. I put it in the tank tonight and I really like it.
 

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Theolox

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Update:

I finished cleaning up the stand last night. I got some under-cabinet lighting installed and I replaced push to open door mechanisms with simple magnets and added pull handles to the doors. I also got a power strip installed in the cabinet and am setting up a controller board. I ordered the passive UV sterilizer from IM. I have the skimmer set up and the one of the overflows is set up with an in-tank basket with. The dog food container holds about 12gal and serves as a great ATO reservoir. I still have a bit to do, but I'm very close to getting it wet I think.

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It's finally ready for sand and water! I finished everything up a couple days ago. Hopefully sometime this week, I'll get the sand and water in and kick off the cycle. I am debating doing a fishless cycle, or putting in a green chromis or two to cycle it.

I went back to my scape and added a couple more shelves to it. I also took a small chisel and a large drill bit and created some swim throughs/caves in the rock that I think look pretty good.

I'm excited to finally get it going!

Setup.jpg


Scape.jpg
 

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It's finally ready for sand and water! I finished everything up a couple days ago. Hopefully sometime this week, I'll get the sand and water in and kick off the cycle. I am debating doing a fishless cycle, or putting in a green chromis or two to cycle it.

I went back to my scape and added a couple more shelves to it. I also took a small chisel and a large drill bit and created some swim throughs/caves in the rock that I think look pretty good.

I'm excited to finally get it going!

Setup.jpg


Scape.jpg
Best of luck on your tank, scape looks great!!
 
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Theolox

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To start the year off right, I did something I've never done before. I made my first Brute can of RODI water. It's a small 4-stage filter, but it took my tap water from 201 TDS down to 2 TDS.
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Hi all. I just added a half gallon of pods to my tank and I am gonna give them a week or two to set up colonies in my rocks. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out what critters I want. I'd like to have a fish that filters gravel, but I have a trachy and would like to have a scoly so I don't know if I can have any gravel movers besides conchs and snails. Currently, I have a pair of Mocha Clowns and a springeri damsel that I will be moving over to the tank. I was kicking around the idea of a Tomini tang to help with algae, but I worry that in a 30" tank, they might not have enough room and be agressive. I was thinking maybe a tailspot blenny might work too. I thought about a royal gramma, but understand they can be really aggressive as well. I had a firefish in my old tank and thought about maybe a couple of purple firefish in the new tank and/or a couple of green chromis. I'd love to have a pygmy angel, but I figure sooner or later they will go after my corals. I am also thinking about a possum wrasse or maybe a yellow coris wrasse. I am going to keep stocked up on pods so I have thought about a ruby dragonette or a mandarin as well. If there is a sand mover that won't drop sand onto corals, I'd love to hear about it. I am open to other suggestions as well. TIA.
 

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Hi all. I just added a half gallon of pods to my tank and I am gonna give them a week or two to set up colonies in my rocks. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out what critters I want. I'd like to have a fish that filters gravel, but I have a trachy and would like to have a scoly so I don't know if I can have any gravel movers besides conchs and snails. Currently, I have a pair of Mocha Clowns and a springeri damsel that I will be moving over to the tank. I was kicking around the idea of a Tomini tang to help with algae, but I worry that in a 30" tank, they might not have enough room and be agressive. I was thinking maybe a tailspot blenny might work too. I thought about a royal gramma, but understand they can be really aggressive as well. I had a firefish in my old tank and thought about maybe a couple of purple firefish in the new tank and/or a couple of green chromis. I'd love to have a pygmy angel, but I figure sooner or later they will go after my corals. I am also thinking about a possum wrasse or maybe a yellow coris wrasse. I am going to keep stocked up on pods so I have thought about a ruby dragonette or a mandarin as well. If there is a sand mover that won't drop sand onto corals, I'd love to hear about it. I am open to other suggestions as well. TIA.
I have a Tomini Tang I’m my IM50. It’s the only Tang I would consider. Mine kind of hovers and picks a lot. It’s not a big “swimmer” like some other Tangs. Got it at about 2.5 inches long. I would caution though that it adds a lot to the bioload, really it’s like 4 other smaller fish in one. Mine has been a model citizen, it only beefs with the female clown and she’s the instigator 90% of the time.
 
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I got my first fish for the new tank, and I turned on the light! I have the Sky running a 50% acclamation schedule for now. I rented a PAR meter and figured out the settings for the corals I want. I am gonna run the light at only 33% and am getting the PAR as shown in the photo below.

The fish is a Yellow Candy Hogfish. He is shy for now, but I'm happy to see him using the caves and swim-throughs that I put into the scape. I'll post a photo when I can get one.

Tank Crop PAR at 33 percent.png
 

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I got my first fish for the new tank, and I turned on the light! I have the Sky running a 50% acclamation schedule for now. I rented a PAR meter and figured out the settings for the corals I want. I am gonna run the light at only 33% and am getting the PAR as shown in the photo below.

The fish is a Yellow Candy Hogfish. He is shy for now, but I'm happy to see him using the caves and swim-throughs that I put into the scape. I'll post a photo when I can get one.

Tank Crop PAR at 33 percent.png
Thank you! I have the same light over an IM 15 and can't find a par meter for rent anywhere
 
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Update:
Fish! I bought a candy hogfish who lived all of about 60 hours. I got some store credit and decided to hold off on new fish for a bit. I moved my clowns and my springeri damsel from my Biocube 29 into the 50. I used an IceCap trap that I bought at a LFS. I was able to trap the girl clown on the very first try! She's an aggressive bulldog of an eater and she swam right into the trap. I then tried at least a dozen times over a two week period to catch either of the other fish and finally was able to catch the springeri. Meanwhile, I ordered a couple different sized nets to help me catch the boy clown since he was too timid to go into the trap. After about 15 minutes of chasing him around the tank, I had him! Contrary to what happened with the candy hogfish, all my current fish are doing great in the new tank. I started getting some algae growth and got the bug for new fish again so I bought a few red-leg hermits, some turbo snails, and a tiger conch. I also got a cleaner shrimp, a clown goby, and a carpenter's wrasse. They are all doing well. I have discovered that the wrasse and the goby will not eat flake food so I am feeding mostly frozen again. I will experiment with some small pellet food to see if they will take that. I bought some freeze dried mysis shrimp and some Selcon drops to help fortify the frozen diet. I also turned on my UV filter to help with bacteria blooms and to help with algae. So far, my fish include:

2 ocellaris clowns
1 springeri damsel
1 clown goby
1 carpenter's wrasse
1 cleaner shrimp
and various cuc.

I am considering adding a small tomini tang and maybe a royal gramma to round out the fish. I wonder if I could get a firefish or maybe a cardinal as well. hmmm

Here's some pics of the ugly stage starting to happen. I am gonna add more pods soon. My clown isn't terribly discolored, there was just some algae on the glass. :)

20230217_132655.jpg
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20230217_132709.jpg
 

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Update:
Fish! I bought a candy hogfish who lived all of about 60 hours. I got some store credit and decided to hold off on new fish for a bit. I moved my clowns and my springeri damsel from my Biocube 29 into the 50. I used an IceCap trap that I bought at a LFS. I was able to trap the girl clown on the very first try! She's an aggressive bulldog of an eater and she swam right into the trap. I then tried at least a dozen times over a two week period to catch either of the other fish and finally was able to catch the springeri. Meanwhile, I ordered a couple different sized nets to help me catch the boy clown since he was too timid to go into the trap. After about 15 minutes of chasing him around the tank, I had him! Contrary to what happened with the candy hogfish, all my current fish are doing great in the new tank. I started getting some algae growth and got the bug for new fish again so I bought a few red-leg hermits, some turbo snails, and a tiger conch. I also got a cleaner shrimp, a clown goby, and a carpenter's wrasse. They are all doing well. I have discovered that the wrasse and the goby will not eat flake food so I am feeding mostly frozen again. I will experiment with some small pellet food to see if they will take that. I bought some freeze dried mysis shrimp and some Selcon drops to help fortify the frozen diet. I also turned on my UV filter to help with bacteria blooms and to help with algae. So far, my fish include:

2 ocellaris clowns
1 springeri damsel
1 clown goby
1 carpenter's wrasse
1 cleaner shrimp
and various cuc.

I am considering adding a small tomini tang and maybe a royal gramma to round out the fish. I wonder if I could get a firefish or maybe a cardinal as well. hmmm

Here's some pics of the ugly stage starting to happen. I am gonna add more pods soon. My clown isn't terribly discolored, there was just some algae on the glass. :)

20230217_132655.jpg
20230217_132701.jpg
20230217_132709.jpg
Love the aquascape design!!!
 
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Theolox

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I realized I haven't done an update in a bit. I finished out my fish list and am starting to concentrate on my corals.

For fish, I am maxed out with:
A pair of mocha clowns
A Springeri damsel
A clown goby
A Carpenter's wrasse
An Atlantic Pygmy angel
A Tomini tang
A cleaner shrimp
Various CUC to include some jumbo nassarius snails, a tiger conch, some turbo snails, and some red leg hermits. I am going to move my blue tuxedo urchin from the old tank soon.

For corals, so far I have:
4 hammers
1 torch
2 echinata
1 zoa colony
1 duncan
1 trachy

I'll be adding more hammers, torches and some frog/octo spawn and maybe a couple of acan lords and a scoly.

I don't really have a permanent place to mount my RODI system so I have mounted it into a chub. I can turn it vertical when I want to make water and then lay it on it's side when I need to store it.

Here is the RODI set up. It's a Seahorse 4-stage by AquaFX.
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Here is the tank as it sits now:

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