Ryno's Reef 2.0 - The Lagoon!

[rynosreef]

Why hello there! Welcome to my build thread/journal! I started out about 10 years ago in this incredible hobby with a 75 gallon mixed reef, and quickly caught the acro bug. I had some decent success with the tank and learned a ton through lots of mistakes. Unfortunately, we ended up having to take the tank down a few years into having it up. I changed careers and we had to move around quite a bit. Now 5 cities and another country later, we've finally settled down again, so of course I have to set up a new tank!

The tank is an Innovative Marine Lagoon 25g AIO. It's actually already got some water in it, but I'll start at the beginning and hopefully by the time I catch up I'll have some corals in there!

My overarching themes/mindsets around this tank are:
1. It needs to look nice since it's in the living room
2. Automate everything I can automate to help keep things stable and keep me from tinkering too much
3. Keep it simple and take it slow

So without further ado here's a few pics!

The 75g in it's prime:

The new tank!

Thanks for stopping by and happy reefing!

Ryan

 

[Hemmdog]

Very nice!! Welcome to reef2reef as well!

 

[rynosreef]

Here are the plans I came up with for the stand. The furthest right being the framing, the middle with the access panels removed and the far left being the overall look when it's all together.

 

[rynosreef]

Very nice!! Welcome to reef2reef as well!

Thanks Hemmdog! Been a longtime lurker here... It feels good to finally come out of the shadows

 

[rynosreef]

Here's a few pics of the stand being put together. I mostly used 2x3's for the frame. The goal is to have space for a decent ATO reservoir, dosing pumps, ect. as well as some shelf storage, so I can keep as much of my tank stuff as close to the tank as possible.

Looking back on it, I'm not sure I needed to make the frame quite so bulky. I've seen others get away with using cabinet stands from Ikea that granted have less support, but lots more room.

Who knows... After the recent earthquakes here in California, maybe going bulky was a good idea

 

[rynosreef]

Primed with the shelves installed!

 

[TheGreatWave]

Welcome to R2R.

 

[rynosreef]

Working on my rock structure... I want to have 2 main structures with some passageways underneath and a bit of a channel between. Trying my best not to overdo it and make it too big overall.

 

[rynosreef]

For mixing up new saltwater and water for the ATO I decided to convert the master bath that we’ve never used into my saltwater mixing station. My wife wasn’t pleased but I think a pretty shower curtain to hide it all might help

 

[rynosreef]

Very nice!! Welcome to reef2reef as well!

Thanks!

 

[rynosreef]

So it's been forever since I posted, so I thought I'd do an update!

Throughout the cycle and actually for quite a while after I had a pretty nasty bacterial bloom. My parameters were good though so after fighting it for weeks and weeks I decided to add my fish regardless and bam, it was gone. Could be coincidental but somehow the addition of the fish cleared up the bacterial bloom.

A male Bartlett Anthias

And a Davinci Clownfish

 

[rynosreef]

Soon after I started adding a few corals and looking into upgrading my lighting.

Season's Greetings Monti

Superman Monti

Reef Raft Marvin the Martian

 

[rynosreef]

For lighting I decided to go with an XR15 with a diffuser hung from the ceiling. Personally I found the mounting arm to be too bulky, and it would take up too much space in the already tight rear chamber. I also like that I can adjust the height with the hanging kit.

I did a little mock up of how most of the light offerings out there would look size-wise with my tank

 

[rynosreef]

In terms of issues during this time, there were 2 major ones.

The first was turf algae. I believe it was introduced when the green star polyp was put in. And for months, no amount of water changes, GFO, or hand pulling, scrubbing rock etc. would touch the stuff. In the end I used Vibrant and within a few weeks it was mostly gone.

The second issue I ran into was just me being careless. I have media baskets in the back return chambers on either side. At the top of them is some filter floss that I should have been changing out more regularly. One morning I woke up to find the tank had nearly overfilled with freshwater from the ATO. The filter floss had clogged enough to cause the water level in the middle return chamber to drop below the Tunze Osmolator level sensor, and no matter how much water it pumped in, the clogged filter floss kept the water below the sensor.

Fortunately nothing died, and to fix the issue I started changing out the floss more regularly and installed a level sensor from Auto Aqua in the rear chamber. The Tunze Osmolator is plugged into to the Auto Aqua level sensor so if it ever trips from the water level being too high the power to the Osmolator will be turned off. Hopefully full proof!

The rear chambers:

The Auto Aqua level sensor

 

[rynosreef]

Other little upgrades have happened as well. Mostly just quality of life type things.

I absolutely love this thing. Makes maintenance so much easier

A little box to house the ATO reservoir

Some cable management:

And organizing the look of the 2 part dosing using some Murlok fittings. Don't worry I kept the electrical away from the liquid lines

I decided to make my own net top with the mesh from local hobby shop and a screen kit from Lowe's. The tighter mesh definitely lowers PAR, but I've had fish in the past jump through the net top only to land on top under the metal halides and fry. So hopefully the lighting will be able to manage.

 

[rynosreef]

Speaking of lighting that has been the most recent change. As much as I like the form factor of the XR15, I did some PAR tests that left me wanting something better. I think the puck design, the diffuser, and that mesh top of mine definitely affects the PAR output and spread in not so good ways. I could turn it way up to compensate but it only maximized the spotlight effect.

So I decided to go with an Orphek Atlantik v4 Compact, and so far I'm loving it. Great PAR output, fantastic spread, and a really full spectrum. There's nowhere near the same level of shadowing, and now the tank almost glows from the light coming from the tank. It's the closest I've seen LED's come to T5. My one gripe though is the color separation. It's not terrible and not unexpected given the light's design but still, it is there. My corals are finally coloring up nicely though and I'm almost certain the Atlantik is the reason for it.

 

[rynosreef]

Some recent coral additions!
1. OG Oregon Tort
2. Fireworks Clove Polyps
3. Utter Chaos Palythoa
4. Weeping Willow Toadstool

 

[rynosreef]

Hoping the pancake encrusted plug will have better growth than a typical frag

 

[rynosreef]

In no particular order

1. ORA Pearlberry (still needing to color up)
2. OG Oregon Tort
3. UC Strawberry Shortcake mid coloring up
4. WWC Chargeback Acro
5. WWC Bikini Navini
6. ASD Rainbow Milli
7. RR Marvin the Martian
8. ASD Baby Blue Highlighter
9. Seasons Greetings Monti Cap

 

[rynosreef]

Weeping Willow Toadstool