Help Make My AIO Decision

JWHITESP88 · Aug 25, 2021

I am getting back into the hobby after about a 4 year hiatus. Wanting to go smaller in hopes that I can minimalize some of the maintenance involved as we have a little one now. This will be my first AIO tank as well as the smallest tank that I have built. With all of this being said, I think I have narrowed my search down to a couple different tanks. The IM Fusion 20 Pro and the Fusion Pro 25 Lagoon are the front runners at the moment. Can anyone give pros and cons to each tank in terms of dimensions, simplicity, ease of maintenance? Is one tank easier to dial in flow, light, scape, etc versus the other. I am also opened to other tank recommendations no bigger than 25 gal. Thanks for the help.

PR_nano · Aug 25, 2021

I have the IM20 but the 25 will give you more space for aquascape. Also remember you lose some display area due to the back chamber. Out of the 2 I would go with the 25.

simplety · Aug 25, 2021

Water box

kpoj9 · Aug 25, 2021

Check out my build thread under my avatar. I have the Lagoon 25 and absolutely love this tank. Highly recommend it. The best part about this tank is the wider dimension which allows for more flexibility in aquascape. I’m a big fan of IM aquariums. The fact they give you a net top and media basket is a huge plus. You really can’t go wrong with either one. The IM 20 is much narrower. But I think you’ll find that you will always want a bigger tank. I would obviously go with the lagoon 25,

JWHITESP88 · Aug 25, 2021

simplety said:
Water box

I have looked at the waterbox, for some reason I can’t fall in love with the cube shape. Care to elaborate on why you would choose this brand over IM. WB really are nice looking tanks.

JWHITESP88 · Aug 25, 2021

PR_nano said:
I have the IM20 but the 25 will give you more space for aquascape. Also remember you lose some display area due to the back chamber. Out of the 2 I would go with the 25.

Thanks, that is defiantly an important detail that I forgot to take into consideration.

AsraeaMitsane · Aug 25, 2021

I have the IM30 Fusion and I agree to keep in mind you will lose display space to the back equipment chambers, but so far I really like the tank. I've been able to fit everything I wanted to back there from my Apex probes to a skimmer and what seems like a billion other things.

;Smuggrin The flow was good with the Mighty Jet pump but I decided to add a second so each return has it's own pump. I also really enjoy the SpinStream nozzles. The Mighty Jet on pulse mode with the spinstream does a pretty decent job at randomizing current in there.

I love the mesh lid because it gives pretty close to a rimless look buuuut also lets me keep the gobies I like best without coming home to crunchy fish snacks on the floor. Aquascaping really matters in the tank though due to the limited space. I ended up using a chisel and hammer to split most of the big rocks I used into small rubble pieces to build what I wanted. It was kind of a challenge since I got all the rock online and didn't see any of it until it was at my house so I had to make the pieces into the shapes I wanted.

I would always choose a shallow tank with more floor space than a taller tank, but that's because I'ma huge fan of LPS and softies over the SPS corals so I don't really need a lot of vertical height plus it's easier to light a shallow tank IMHO. Hope it helps but I love mine and if I were you and choosing I would go with the 25 lagoon but that's because I'd wanna fill it with mushrooms and scolys and clove polyps and GSP and acans (which I know aren't really called that anymore

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coralfishreef · Aug 25, 2021

I have an IM20 and an IM30. I’d go with the IM25 if I had to choose between the 20 or 25. The IM25 is 1.4” shorter, but it has a few more inches front to back and thicker glass.

I also had a WB Cube 20. The WB cube only has a single overflow and the back chamber setup is difficult to work with in comparison to the IM tanks. The IM 20, 25, and 30 have a better AIO design than the WB Cube 20 in my opinion.

The IM20 and IM30 are great AIO tanks.