Quick update on the 25 Lagoon build.
Today I put the skimmer in. I opened both the air and water outlet valve all the way to let it and break in for a few days. It’s been running about 10 minutes since I took this picture and it’s already over flowing. I pulled the plug out of the drain line in the cup and just let it drain back into the sump. It’s not really skimming anything, it’s mostly like a giant air pump right now, constantly over flowing. On the plus sid, the pH might increase a little from all the air pumping in.
The manual says to run the skimmer between 7-8 inches of water, I split that; it’s in 7.5 inches and as I mentioned both the air and the return are wide open.
My plan is to run it through the evening wide open and just let it run. I’ll unplug after a few hours then run it wide open again tomorrow. Tomorrow evening I’ll start to adjust it and see what happens. I don’t suspect it’ll skim much since there’s nothing in the tank but rock and sand, hence pulling the drain plug on the cup. Don’t think it will hurt dumping the water back in to the sump at this point.
The other good news is the skimmer runs nearly silent. It’s a Sicce 1.5 pump driving the skimmer and it’s pretty much as quiet as the Reef Octo DC return pump. I really wanted a DC skimmer but couldn’t find small enough that I liked so I went with this Aquamaxx FC-80. So far I’m happy, at least in the few minutes since I pugged it in.
If any of you suggestions on how to best break this skimmer please post them.
The tank itself is doing pretty well. The initial part of the cycle is done. Both Ammonia and Nitrite are at zero now; Nitrate is not detectable yet. I added Ammonium Chloride to bring the Ammonia up to 1.5 ppm. I’ll test in the morning to see if the Ammonia has come down and test for Nitrite as well. I suspect they will both be back to zero, at least that’s what I hope.
I’m going to let Nitrate build to about 10 ppm, or until I see it stabilized at some value then I’ll do a few water changes to get the nitrate and phosphate in the range I want them, likely 1-3 ppm Nitrate and 0.03 -0 .05 phosphate. I’ll likely move the clown fish over from the 10 gallon tank as I start to lower the Nitrate though. My guess is about another week or two before that happens.
What do you guys suggest, frags or fish first?
Im thinking of dosing Vibrant in this tank to try and avoid some of the ugly phase after I do the first couple water changes. I used Dr. Tim’s waste Away on the 10 gallon, it worked okay. I had a small diatom bloom but not too bad. It was about 3 months before I saw any algae. It‘ll be interesting to see how Vibrant does; I got the idea from watching BRS videos. It seemed to work for them on the 160, so we’ll see.
I’ve got a fish order in, I’ve ordered a Royal Gramma (ubiquitous reef fish right?), bi-color blenny and a carpenter wrasse. They’ll join the Mocha Storm clowns and fire shrimp From the 10 gallon. The new fish should be in toward the end of the week and I’ve found someone that knows what they are doing and will QT the new fish for me. I’ve also got some snails to move over and likely will be adding more when I need to.
Tomorrow I’ll do some initial cable managemen, at least enough to get the wires hanging behind the sump out of sight They’remkinda bugging me. i still have to bring over the Tunze ATO and the AI Prime 16HD from the 10 gallon as well as decide between the GHL or Apex go a controller AND I may go with a Radion XR15 G5 Pro. Don’t know yet. I also need to put the BRS heaters in and bring over the Bayite controller for the heaters and fans. Anyway there’ll be a lot more cable management over the next few weeks. I think I can at least get a good start on it now though.
About lights and a controller. If you have suggestions or input on either, please post what you have. Especially on the GHL vs Apex because I’m really on the fence between them. Anyone that is currently using either or both or has used them in the past, please let me know your thoughts.
Thats about it for the build update. More when there’s some changes and/additions.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on the build.
