25 gallon lagoon

[dine]

After a long hiatus I have finally started another build. I actually have 2 builds going but this one will see water much sooner then my other project. It’s been a while so I’m a little rusty. Looking forward to meeting everyone! Please don’t be shy with the feedback.

Picked this up off another member so some of you may have seen this tank already.

-Current equipment-
Innovative marine 25g lagoon (~24x20x12)
Mp10
Radion XR15
Tunze ATO
IM ghost skimmer (prob won’t even plug in)
2 INTank media baskets (2x floss, marine pure bio balls)

-Undecided-
Gfo/carbon reactor
Refugium/cheato chamber
Another mp10 if needed (I’m thinking not)



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[ZapataInc]

Here’s my current aquascape. Would love some honest feed back on this.

does this look like enough sand? It’s roughly 1-1.5in. 1 20lb bag. I have 2 more bags. Should I use part of a 2nd?




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uhhhhhh i just see Batman.

 

[dine]

yup....i cant figure out how to edit it either

 

[dine]

well while we wait for those random batman pics to get taken down here are the actual tank shots i was trying to post.

 

[ZapataInc]

That looks good.

 

[ActiveAngel]

Looks great!

Regarding the aquascape; make sure that your rocks are sitting on the glass bottom, with the sand around them. Not with the rocks sitting on top of the sand.

 

[jcook54]

Ok @dine , I removed the batman pics per your request but I sure got a kick out of them. Your setup is looking good and your batman was truly on point.

Regarding the "undecided" items. I personally wouldn't invest the money or labor in to any of those just yet. When I set up smaller tanks, I just do water changes more frequently to keep nutrients in check. All of those items are focused on removing nutrients (except the MP10 which you won't need) from the water and I use them on my larger systems so I don't always have to do big water changes for nutrient export. In your case, if your nitrates or phosphates get a little high, a 5g water change is a pretty large percent of the overall volume and I'd go that route. Plus, not having a refugium or various reactors keeps the system a lot simpler.

 

[dine]

Ok @dine , I removed the batman pics per your request but I sure got a kick out of them. Your setup is looking good and your batman was truly on point.

Regarding the "undecided" items. I personally wouldn't invest the money or labor in to any of those just yet. When I set up smaller tanks, I just do water changes more frequently to keep nutrients in check. All of those items are focused on removing nutrients (except the MP10 which you won't need) from the water and I use them on my larger systems so I don't always have to do big water changes for nutrient export. In your case, if your nitrates or phosphates get a little high, a 5g water change is a pretty large percent of the overall volume and I'd go that route. Plus, not having a refugium or various reactors keeps the system a lot simpler.

Thanks for the help. If it was me I prob would have left them but that wasn’t even me as Batman!

As for your feedback. Thank you. The gfo would only be in case my Rocks start leeching phosphate. I’ve cured this batch for about 6 months so I’m really hoping that won’t be necessary. The fuge I was thinking more for pods. Not sure how effective I can be in that small space but I’d like to have a pair of mandarins down the road.

This is my first small tank so I prob need to get used to that change. Never had a tank under 100g before.


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[dine]

Looks great!

Regarding the aquascape; make sure that your rocks are sitting on the glass bottom, with the sand around them. Not with the rocks sitting on top of the sand.

Thanks for the heads up. They are placed on the sand while I play with the layout. When I pull them out to cement everything together I’ll wiggle them down to the glass.


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[dine]

A few updates:

-Water is in the tank! currently cycling with aquavitro seed. the rocks were cooking for about 6months but i did a terrible job monitoring salinity, temp, etc during that phase so just a little piece of mind that the bacteria is there. the InTank baskets currently both have filter floss in the top and SeaChem Matrix in the section below. The 2 other compartments are currently empty and i have not made a decision on what to put in them.

-Setup a QT tank, also cycling with seed. currently the plan is to qt a small CUC but not pulling the trigger on anything until i actually see that the tank needs it. Still not 100% on the stock list so im in no hurry to get fish in here.

-Started my mixing station. 2x20g tanks. base is made of cinder blocks/2x4s (pic is just a quick setup, nothing is leveled or secured yet). I just dont have time today to start the plumping but the freshwater (fed by the RODI unit on the otherside of the wall) will be on top. gravity will feed water down to the bottom salt water tank. going to use an external pump to circulate and pump water to the tanks via a flexable hose. Thinking i might set the pump to be controlled via alexa so i can turn the pump on/off while im in the house and my hands are full/wet. Will also be putting a ball valve on the front of both tanks to fill 5g buckets if needed. prob going to widen the base just a little so that i can store a 5g bucket below as well as house the pump.

Let me know what you guys think. Feedback is always welcome!

 

[dine]

I got a little more work done on my salt water mixing station. Looking for an external pump to finish it. It’s only dry fitted right now so if you see a mistake or have a suggestion on how to improve it let me know.

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[dine]

So after struggling with my mixing station for various reasons I decided to start over with larger barrels and a new design. This is what I’ve got now.

Tank is cycled but was waiting on this mixing station to be up and running before adding any inhabitants. Prob going to wait an additional week to let the pods I added get established.


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[york1]

How big are those new tanks? Where did you get them from?

 

[dine]

How big are those new tanks? Where did you get them from?

These are 35 gallons. You can find these and the vertical kind online (tank-Depot.com for example) but I picked these up at tractor supply Co. these were the smallest they had. They go larger. Shipping is a killer on these things so I went local but they only seem to keep one on hand so I had to go to 2 different locations. I would call ahead before making the trip or let them know what you’re wanting and have them order it for you.


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[york1]

Thats a nice setup. I need to put together a proper water station in my garage thi winter

 

[dine]

Thats a nice setup. I need to put together a proper water station in my garage thi winter

Thank you! It will make maintenance so much easier and thus more likely you will do it regularly. Highly recommend


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