It's interesting I saw your IM Fusion Pro 2 50G AIO build thread. Given the recent 40% sale IM started recently, I had the EXT 100G and currently EXT 50G tank bookmark just incase I can come up with an excuse to add another tank to the system . Luckily for me the EXT 100G is no longer 40% off .
I definitely like the IM EXT 150 Lagoon over my WB1905 not because one tank is better than the other, but because of the dimension. Having that extra width on all sides, shallower depth and euro brace around the tank are details I appreciate.
The next two months will be slow. I just completed acquiring all the wave pumps I think I will need. The next few items include:
Continue to let the rocks settle in dark mode
Slowly adding in the remaining fish while the bacteria colonize rocks and tank
Finalize the lighting setup
The goal of this tank is still slower flow and less lighting than WB1905 but will still mostly be SPS and LPS. LPS will mostly be torches, frogspawn, hammers, goni and alveopora. Currently WB190 bottom is packed with LPS and so these will be moved over to the top and bottom of this tank. I plan to add more goni and alveopora once things settle in.
These are high level plans. We will see how execution comes out .
Yesterday I placed the following Tropic Eden Morroca Cocoworm Fish Home Tube into the tank for cycling and thought it's interesting. These are hollow in the center. I got this in hope that these could serve a potential safe resting places for smaller fish like wrasse. I had noticed a few smaller fish like wrasse in the WB1905 do lay around on the bottom of the tank in a few rumble rocks in the tank and thought this might provide that sense of safe and resting place.
On a similar note, I have been using some Tropic Eden rocks for structure like caves and random rock structure. The following is a recent addon I thought was interesting. I like these because it's relative light and there are lots of holes between the structure for flow.
Other pieces I also begun to cycle are these frag hub for holding frag plugs. Since I will be moving a number of frags over, these seems like great structure without having glue the frag down. These would seems like great frag rack without looking like typical frag rack.
I believe I have the necessary wave pumps for this tank to maintain the necessary water flow and waste removal. I have gone with 6 MP40mQD. Current max settings are at 40%; will adjust accordingly once final aquascape and corals are in.
This is the plan with regards to wave pumps and lighting. T & B represent pump placement for top and bottom respectively.
Lighting will be next and will be a gradual addition. All XR15 G5 will be carried over from the WB1905 tank.
Visual view of the tank's progress. The tank runs semi-dark most of the time except for any daylight that comes from the room or the 2-3 hours of blue vho i turn on for the purpose of feeding fish. I have trash bag covering the tank facing the windows. These were raised for the purpose of taking pictures.
LEFT SIDE:
FRONT:
WAVE PUMPS:
FISH STOCK LIST:
those highlighted in yellow are currently in my Q tank for observation and holding.
These are two 20G long Q / observation tanks that are currently running.
Q1 tank current house gem tang | yellow and purple wrasse | sailfin/algae blenny
Q2 tank has two yellow pyramid butterflyfish | whitecheek tang. There's currently a acclimation container around the 2nd butterflyfish because the other butterflyfish was only introduced yesterday and I did not want to have to deal with any potential aggression from the resident butterflyfish.
The current plan is to add all remaining fish by end of August into the tank all at the same time to help with any potential aggression and territory issues associated with any new fish additions.
Hopefully after all fish are added, I can finally get this mess clean up.
Updated fish list. I lost 2 wrasse - one I now can't find just yesterday. The other I added to WB1905 tank but somehow it went surfing even though I have a lid on both tanks.
So far all guests are getting along. The concerns I had around the three tangs and the four butterflyfish looked to have been settled and all are getting along after some shuffling.
Yesterday I cleaned out the 1st partition of the new sump after it was installed just 3 months ago. It was an opportunity to swap out the ClariSea Gen 2 SK-3000 with the Red Sea Reefmat 500.
The following is not a detail comparison or review of any sort. I am just calling out a few differences that matter in my setup and thought I share incase you have similar questions.
Size Difference:
The Reefmat 500 definitely require so much more space than the ClariSea. It's a very tight fit for the space I had and I had thought for sure space was not a concern....wrong. I hard plumb the unit in as the same with the ClariSea.
Micron Difference:
It's a 10x difference in porosity as you can see below. I am used to ClariSea porosity to help maintain my tank parameters and water clarity. Will see how this may impact those things if any.
ClariSea: 20 micron
Reefmat: 200 micron
Automation & Ease of Use Difference:
Hands down Reefmat has this beat over ClariSea.
Flow Difference:
My water return flow is not fast and the flow difference between the two does not matter for me. ClariSea has a much lower limit.
Foundational clean up crew... + lost bristletooth tomini tang
Now that stuff are slowing growing on the rocks and sufficient film has been developing on the glass for me having to clean the glass once a week, it's time to introduce the foundational clean up crew - copepods and trochus snail. I am also slowing increasing the "observing / feeding" light on the tank to a longer period.
Copepods
Four jars of copepods. With a large number of wrasses in here, I hope they don't wipe them all out. Hopefully by introducing copepods after the lights went out, that gave many a greater chance to find their home.
Trochus snail
I introduced 6 blue cover trochus snail and around 15 banded trochus snail. I never had blue cover trochus before and would be interesting to see how they compare to the regular banded trochus. Visually the only difference I have noticed is by the shell.
Bristletooth tomini tang
I am not sure what happened here but I found the bristletooth tomini tang against the wave pump. I was feeding yesterday and it occurred to me I did not see the bristletooth tomini tang. I finally found it . I was initially concern with tang aggression but saw all three were getting along just fine. Don't really know if it was foul play or not. It's a shame, I have had this tang for 6 months or so if not longer.
With doubling the fish load on the system over a very short time, I have noticed an increase in nitrate and phosphate due to feeding. As this tank and WB1905 has separate drain line, I opted to use both rollermats.
The ClariSea Gen 2 SK-3000 is now plumed to this tank. Given it's smaller foot print, this has worked out. I did not have to make much change to the sump to accommodate the unit to the middle section of the sump. The soft tubing from the Reefmat 500 came in handy.
Visual of the running setup. Unit has been working good.
I took down the vho and brough xr15 up. The light bar is still a work in progress and only did the setup to support the current two xr15 temporarily. I do not want to fully installed it until I bring the huge island over. Corals on the island current are receiving 250+ par. Until I can get the lighting there, no point to fully setup the light bar as I will need the headroom anyway to move the large island over.
Lights are about 15" off the water surface. This should provide ample spread to cover the tank in low light. The plan is to have these two lights ramp up over the next two months. Additional lighting will be staggered after that.
This past weekend I thought it was about time I slowly transfer some big pieces over. I already moved several lower light corals over within the past month and all have been doing good.
This time I moved the COMPLETE right island from the IM1905 over during a water change to keep things simple. This island has several large acro colonies on it and one large space invader pectinia.
Simple in the sense the water level will be lower anyway due to the water change and would make moving a large piece like this over intact simpler. Sure enough, I removed water from both tanks like a typical water change and very slowly move the large island over and out of the WB1905 and into the IM150.
As anticipated, the very tip of the forest fire digitata slightly touch the surface of the water when placed in the IM150. M150 is 19" high. Overall, the transfer went great.
Here's the island and supporting lighting I had to temporarily put in place to support it for now (1 - xr15 G5 pro, 1 - xr15 G6 pro, 1 - A360x, 1 - A360W-E Tuna Blue)
same shot after lights are on. these are simple sps but does a statement as the center of tank. just placing this one piece has filled out the tank a great deal.
Phenomenal coral I love your setup and hopefully in the next couple years will have a larger display tank that can utilize some of the things you are doing.
Phenomenal coral I love your setup and hopefully in the next couple years will have a larger display tank that can utilize some of the things you are doing.
These easier sps definitely more stunning when large for sure. I have been regularly donating my fair share of mini colonies and frags that fall off to the lfs for store credit. lmk if you're tank is ready and/or interested in any. elkhorn and forest fire digitata can be crazy growers.
These easier sps definitely more stunning when large for sure. I have been regularly donating my fair share of mini colonies and frags that fall off to the lfs for store credit. lmk if you're tank is ready and/or interested in any. elkhorn and forest fire digitata can be crazy growers.
Thanks for the offer but I'm staying strictly softies with the 25 gallon this time but maybe in the future once I can get a larger setup that would accommodate fast growing sps.
There are 9 sps colonies and 1 relative large lps on the island. All relatively easy sps. The space invader is pretty big...expanded hand size. All loving the lighting and flow.
The two corals pieces on the right are setosa coral and red tnt i think. Setosa was growing under the island but I moved it out to give it room to expand.
. Luckily for me the EXT 100G is no longer 40% off 
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