High Tide Aquatics

Innovative Marine 25 Nuvo Fusion Lagoon

metareefer

metareefer

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Hey everyone — I recently finished setting up my Innovative Marine 25 Lagoon! The idea behind this build is to draw my kids’ eyes away from the TV and toward the reef tank — hopefully sparking their imagination and curiosity in new ways.

Space was a big limitation since the tank sits on a countertop with low headroom, so the shorter lagoon height worked perfectly and made me pivot from the IM 20 Long. I picked up a nice dry rock arch from the meetup that I’m hoping will eventually become home to a few anemones. I added a mix of live and dry rock to finish the aquascape — not totally sure how I feel about it yet, but it’ll evolve over time.

The tank is now wet and cycling. I started with a fishless cycle using a 4 oz bottle of FritzZyme TurboStart 900 and ammonium chloride. Once the ammonia source ran out, I added two clownfish to continue providing ammonia naturally. I decided to go bare-bottom for this build and lined the bottom with starboard sheets to protect the glass under the rockwork. Hopefully the amount of rock and biomedia in the sump will balance things out biologically.

The plan is to eventually grow a green star polyp (GSP) carpet across the bottom, with the rockwork hosting anemones, zoanthid colonies, and various soft corals.

For lighting, I had to work within my height constraints and chose the AI Hydra Edge 44 HD. It’s probably overpowered for a 25-gallon, but I like the spread at this height and can always dial back the intensity. I’ll borrow the club’s PAR meter at some point to fine-tune things.

Special thanks to @dangalang for the IM caddy donation and @Woeday for the fish and dry rock.

Let me know your thoughts, feedback, or critiques — nice to meet everyone!

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I'm interested in your progress now, diatoms, algae, whatever phase the tank is in now. I always resist staring a new tank because of its difficulties but it sounds like from the beginning you have a good plan. Also if I ever start an new tank, the IM's look like the way to go. I like your light idea of good coverage and just dial back intensity.
 
Happy to share an update. Apologies for the poor photos, will need to look into lenses at some point, but yes the tank is in the diatom phase. I added a clean up crew to help clean it up and they seem to be enjoying the task so far. Once the silicates drop, I should move into the green algae stage but I think I'm a week or so away from that. I've been trying to control my nutrients by target feeding my clowns and letting maybe <5 pellets disperse through the tank daily. I measured this weekend and nitrites and nitrates are very low and ammonia is undetectable. I've been doing 5g weekly water changes since the tank cycled.

In terms of lifestock, I've added some zoanthids and some LPS that I picked up from Neptune Aquatics. I bought the candy cane as a canary or an early indicator of things going wrong but so far it and everything else seems very happy. And on my last trip I couldn't resist adding a Duncan since it's a sentimental favorite of mine.

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If it were me, I’d dedicate a single rock just for zoas, since they tend to spread quickly and can take over your entire rock structure—unless that’s the look you’re going for.
 
Ayman said:
If it were me, I’d dedicate a single rock just for zoas, since they tend to spread quickly and can take over your entire rock structure—unless that’s the look you’re going for.
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That's the look I'm intending, just waiting for everything to grow out now. Plan was to create a low maintenance clownfish anemone tank with miscellaneous softies. Definitely feeling the itch for more now but I want to setup a larger tank for that. Didn't see any tank sales over Black Friday that were that great. Was looking at the Maxspect 48 gallon that was 55% off at BRS but it was a little smaller than what I wanted.
 
@metareefer
I’m very curious about your rock. The large central piece appears to me, from very far away, to be “bowl” or “lace” rock which is a volcanic rock that I would highly discourage from use in a reef aquarium. Unless it came from the reef, I would refrain from using it in my tanks.
 
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Do you mean this rock? It was an arch that someone put in the free area at the meetup a month or so ago. Maybe the person who donated it can ID it?
 
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MichaelB said:
I think I saw that at the swap and remembered saying to myself it's only suitable for freshwater. It could be leaching metals/ undesirables into system if volcanic. I would recommend swapping it out.
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I agree, I remember seeing a mix of saltwater and freshwater equipment on the giveaway table. Take it out if you can't be 100% sure what it's actually made of.
 
Kensington Reefer said:
yes!
I would NOT use this type of rock...ever in a marine environment
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When I worked at Advanced Tidal Systems, the owner was big into using that despite me crying otherwise. Every tank became a swamp in terms of algae after time. No skimmers didn't help either, but surge tanks are harder to deal with in the sense. Most were space limited on the surge tank since they lived in the attic of those places.
 
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