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schgr.cube's Innovative Marine 25 Lagoon


Schg

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I was waiting to post a tank thread here, as I knew a (small) upgrade was imminent! For the past two years I have been slightly neglecting an Innovative Marine 10 gallon, partially due to not loving the dimensions, and partially due to an illness I had that kept me incapacitated for about 6 months. Once I was better, I began to tend to my reef again and really feel some love for the hobby, but my tank just wasn't what I wanted it to be. I have always loved nanos, and the dimensions on the new IM 25 lagoon immediately caught my eye, so I pulled the trigger last week!

 

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I wouldn't say my 10 gallon was fully stocked by any means, but it was starting to fill in a little bit with some things I just wasn't that in love with, and a semi-fresh start like this feels like a great way to re-evaluate what I want out of my small reef. Here is the last full tank shot of my old tank:

 

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I don't really have anything else to post yet, as the tank hasn't even gotten wet, but I expect to finish the stand tonight and (hopefully) get it wet tomorrow! The plan is to just do a straight up transfer with new sand and saltwater (mixing since yesterday), throw a little Stability in, and keep a close eye on it. I don't plan on adding anything else until I am sure the transfer went well.

 

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Enjoy!

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Very nice! I like the IM tanks. That's a great footprint.

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Very nice! I like the IM tanks. That's a great footprint.

 

 

Love lagoons, looking forward to seeing how this goes.

 

 

Gorgeous tanks and cat I've always loved IM tanks.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thank you everyone! I am very in love with the dimensions and build quality of this tank, I can't wait to see how it grows.

 

Sweet, I'm upgrading from a ~2 year old IM10 to the 25 lagoon as well!

 

I'll be following along so keep us posted!

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

Are we twins? It sounds like we are twins! I'll have to follow along with yours as well!

 

 

I was able to transfer everything over this weekend, but took one last shot under natural sunlight before gutting the IM10:

36348413236_4f6bec4c44_k.jpg

 

The aquascape has actually changed a little bit since this shot, and I am much happier with it, but I didn't feel like taking another picture just yet:

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I'm going to give the tank a little time to settle in, and make sure everything moved over okay before I bring in any new additions. I do want to start looking at my fish options for this larger tank.

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Really well done, i like the rockwork and the stand is really nice.     Is all the plumbing (if any) above the stand?

 

Thank you! I have actually painted the stand since then, so it has lost a little bit of its allure, but I still like it overall. And no plumbing, since the tank is an all-in-one!

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  • 2 weeks later...

No recent FTS since I am using a crap light for the time being. I ordered a custom NanoBox Reef Hybrid, which should be absolutely stunning!

 

Had a few recent pickups, including some nice zoas and palys, but I will get pictures of those later. For now, here are the new inhabitants:

 

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The Green Clown Goby is super tiny, so I haven't really been able to get a good shot of him, but he is SUPER cute. He is probably less than 3/4" long.

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Looking good. I'm curious to see how you like your light. I'm thinking about going in that direction, apparently Dave (I think it's Dave) does some good work, however, there's a nice price tag that comes with it.

 

Tell me more about your stand, did you build it yourself? It looks pretty stellar.  

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Looking good. I'm curious to see how you like your light. I'm thinking about going in that direction, apparently Dave (I think it's Dave) does some good work, however, there's a nice price tag that comes with it.

 

Tell me more about your stand, did you build it yourself? It looks pretty stellar.  

 

I had heard only good things about his stuff, and the only deterrent was price. I was able to set up a sweet deal with him, so I am definitely looking forward to it, but once I saw one of his lights in person I knew I needed it lol. I'll try to take some accurate photos once I get it, and try to document growth and color change.

 

As for the stand, I made it with leftover 3/4" plywood, and planned on skinning it with laminate. I am too impatient for some things, and couldn't wait, so I painted it instead. The paint actually turned out terrible, and I will need to redo it soon. I can always help with stand building if anyone needs it!

 

I have one of Dave's lights. They are awesome. I love the bluefish controller too.

 

Yeah, they are definitely amazing lights. Plus, supporting American made local businesses always feels good!

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As for the stand, I made it with leftover 3/4" plywood, and planned on skinning it with laminate. I am too impatient for some things, and couldn't wait, so I painted it instead. The paint actually turned out terrible, and I will need to redo it soon. I can always help with stand building if anyone needs it!

 

So the whole thing is made with plywood? I guess the tank will be light enough that it doesn't need a huge block frame. I'm looking to build something similar, like 42-43" long, 15" or so inches deep, with a lip so I can put a ledge around it, and about 45" tall. 

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So the whole thing is made with plywood? I guess the tank will be light enough that it doesn't need a huge block frame. I'm looking to build something similar, like 42-43" long, 15" or so inches deep, with a lip so I can put a ledge around it, and about 45" tall. 

 

Yeah, I followed the ADA style stand idea, and it is made with Birch plywood leftover from an exhibit at the museum I contract at. It is sturdy as H-E-double hockey sticks, but I included 8 steel corner braces inside for extra stability. If you are going over like 30-35 gallons, I might say building a frame first and then skinning it would be more necessary, but this idea with ply would probably still do very well! Hardwood would be even better, but holy $$$

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I ran a Nanobox Duo Plus M over my 25g (24 x 15.5 x 15.5) for about 18 months. They are nice lights. I'm sure you'll love your hybrid.

 

Why did you get rid of it, just out of curiosity?

 

 

 

Decided to snap some shots of my recent pickups. I decided I am going to keep things on plugs for a bit while I determine where I want things to go, and while I wait on the light. Sorry some of these pictures aren't great.

 

Orange Rainbow:

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Not sure what these are:

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Galaxy People Eaters:

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Sopranos:

36615194382_fac84cbfba_k.jpg

 

Red Hornet:

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Midas:

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Goochster?

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Magician:

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And just a decent shot of my boring ole shrooms:

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The Blue Hornet I bought didn't make it, but they are giving me a replacement. I also have Sunny D's, Blue Agaves, Armor of Gods, Purple People Eaters, Pink Krakatoas, and Utter Chaos coming soon. I'm buying / trading locally for a lot of this, so I haven't been paying a ton.

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Why did you get rid of it, just out of curiosity?

 

I wanted to reduce shadowing.

 

It did a really nice job for both my lps and sps (a few pieces of easy stuff - monti cap, stylophora, setosa, digitata, etc.) ... and the Bluefish app is REALLY convenient.  However, as expected when I purchased it, the fact that it was only 2 LED clusters set the stage for a fair bit of shadowing. I wasn't really worried about shadowing at the time though and wanted to go with a pure LED setup. Since pretty much all the other top-end LED competition for nanos at the time - Kessils, Radion, ect. - were two clusters as well, I went with the Nanobox because its form-factor appealed to me the most.

 

Now that I have a stable tank and decent idea of what I'm doing, I decided it's time to try 1 or 2 acros ... but felt I would need a wider spread of light and less shadowing for any new acros additions to all be able to thrive (all the real estate in the central high-PAR field of the Duo M was occupied).

 

Right around the same time, I saw the new GHL Mitras LX7 series lights and became a bit mesmerized by the idea of being able to have 3 clusters of LEDs running front to back on my tank rather than just one (e.g. 3 rows of 2 clusters rather than 1 row of 2 clusters). So I decided to switch over to a Mitras.

 

Since you're going with a hybrid model, I'm sure you'll get a fantastic spread of light from the Nanobox and not have to worry about shadowing.

 

On a separate note, the idea of using the corner braces was genius. Kind of wish I thought of that when I built my plywood stand...

 

Really looking forward to the next set of pics of your aquascape too. I though your last pic looked good so am really curious to see the tweaks you made.

Edited by malacoda
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I wanted to reduce shadowing.

 

It did a really nice job for both my lps and sps (a few pieces of easy stuff - monti cap, stylophora, setosa, digitata, etc.) ... and the Bluefish app is REALLY convenient.  However, as expected when I purchased it, the fact that it was only 2 LED clusters set the stage for a fair bit of shadowing. I wasn't really worried about shadowing at the time though and wanted to go with a pure LED setup. Since pretty much all the other top-end LED competition for nanos at the time - Kessils, Radion, ect. - were two clusters as well, I went with the Nanobox because its form-factor appealed to me the most.

 

Now that I have a stable tank and decent idea of what I'm doing, I decided it's time to try 1 or 2 acros ... but felt I would need a wider spread of light and less shadowing for any new acros additions to all be able to thrive (all the real estate in the central high-PAR field of the Duo M was occupied).

 

Right around the same time, I saw the new GHL Mitras LX7 series lights and became a bit mesmerized by the idea of being able to have 3 clusters of LEDs running front to back on my tank rather than just one (e.g. 3 rows of 2 clusters rather than 1 row of 2 clusters). So I decided to switch over to a Mitras.

 

Since you're going with a hybrid model, I'm sure you'll get a fantastic spread of light from the Nanobox and not have to worry about shadowing.

 

On a separate note, the idea of using the corner braces was genius. Kind of wish I thought of that when I built my plywood stand...

 

Really looking forward to the next set of pics of your aquascape too. I though your last pic looked good so am really curious to see the tweaks you made.

 

That is pretty understandable, and the big reason why I started looking into Daves stuff in the first place. I didn't like the idea of LED only, and I started getting worried about what will happen after the Kessil started to fail (friend is going through that now). Once I had begun investigating hybrids, there was only one choice that made sense to me!

 

Those Mitras lights are badass though, how are you liking it so far? I think if I was going with a different tank layout I would probably consider other options, but I agree that I shouldn't have any shadowing issues here. Worst case scenario, I can always add another two bulbs in later.

 

And I have plenty of corner braces left over if you need any! I think I have a bag of like 15 leftover lol.

 

As for my aquascape, there were just a few spots that didn't seem like they would allow for good coral placement or grow out. I'll try to take a picture later today to show the latest iteration!

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Really looking forward to the next set of pics of your aquascape too. I though your last pic looked good so am really curious to see the tweaks you made.

 

Here you go!

 

36658954072_0da2d6166f_k.jpg

 

There is a fair amount of shadowing with the temporary light I am using, so it was hard to get a decent shot! The rock in the back middle is actually partially going away, once I manage to sell it. I like the oxide zoanthids on it, but there are way too many of them for my sized tank.

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Thanks for sharing the pic! IMHO that looks really good. And when the rock in the back middle gets partially reduced per your plan, it'll make it even more assymetric - adding the illusion of even more depth and making it look even better.  I think your tank is going to look pretty amazing as the coral starts to grow out.

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Thanks for sharing the pic! IMHO that looks really good. And when the rock in the back middle gets partially reduced per your plan, it'll make it even more assymetric - adding the illusion of even more depth and making it look even better.  I think your tank is going to look pretty amazing as the coral starts to grow out.

 

Agreed! I may just break the rock up a bit and frag some of the oxides off, as no one wants to buy the whole rock lol. I had originally hoped for a kind of upper ledge on the left side to create a nice shelf, but I couldn't make it work how I wanted.

 

And thank you, I can't wait to stock it up a bit more, then let it grow.

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Dave Fason from NanoBox Reef sent me some progress shots of my custom Hybrid fixture. I should have it next weekend, but I wanted a nice raw industrial look, and this is how the body has turned out:

 

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The top covers will be black acrylic, and I went with the 2 T5HO / 2 LED puck setup, although this fixture can support up to 4 of each if I want to expand later. For those unfamiliar with this light, find more info here:
https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/357361-nano-box-hybrid-pricing-pictures-info/

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I'm back home!!

 

We had a great time at the beach, but boy did I miss my kitties and my aquarium! It feels great to be back home.

 

I didn't get any exciting pictures at the beach, I always forget to bring my camera with me.

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The tank survived my absence, although I haven't seen my green banded goby yet, my red hornet zoa seems super pissed, and I lost one of my new palys. Oh well, should have a few new items this coming week.

 

In other news, my light shipped today! Dave Fason from NanoBox Reef messaged me saying that there was a slight problem with the acrylic for the top panels (not his fault), but he had found these metal ones for me to use temporarily while I waited for replacements. I honestly think they look pretty badass, and don't think I will even want him to send acrylic ones, but we will see!

 

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I LOVE how the raw metal turned out, and how well it contrasts with the black panels. I feel like I have a truly unique light, and can't wait to get it. I don't know if it will make it this weekend due to the storm, but that is obviously way more important than anything I have going on.

Edited by schgr.cube
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