IM 25 Lagoon. Digitata and staghorn are growing... Time for stuff. Update in last post

[Blondie Fragz]

Two years ago I fell in love with the IM 25 lagoon. I bought every piece of equipment imaginable. Then it all sat in the corner for the next 23 months. Last weekend I finally started.

I intend on being SPS heavy. The only known stock for now is a mean as hell black and white clown and CUC. The equipment list is simple, now. I think it's down to essential equipment.

25 gal IM
Reefbreeders Photon V2 24
*Factory mounting legs are ugly as sin. I have aluminum 2020 T-Slot on the way for the mount.
Santa Monica Filtration drop-in algae scrubber.
RB RP-m wave maker
RB prism ATO (I have been running one for 3 years and no malfunctions yet)
Cobalt 75 and 50 watt stealth heaters on an Inkbird ITC-308 wifi.
Sticking with the stock DC return pump for now.

After about 2 hours in the carport with the table saw, a sheet of 3/4 baltic birch plywood, a 6" dado bit set, and a little Titebond II later I ended up with a cabinet carcass. This shot is pre-glue while I was deciding How wide I wanted this cabinet to be. Good thing I waited to glue up. The final assembly is 2.75 inches narrower than pictured here.
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I brought it in to figure out some of the design ideas. Drawer size and placement, power management, as well as placement in the room.
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Design settled, it's time to mount the door and drawer face. I settled on a narrow kerf all cut from a single sheet so that I can match the grains on the drawer and door faces.
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With some spacing shims between the faces.
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The rough assembly is completed. I will now disassemble anything not glued for final sanding, finishing with boiled Linseed oil then after 2 week cure I will give it a couple coats of general finishes oil based satin poly, then fine tuning fit. The plan for all of that is Friday Saturday and Sunday this coming weekend.
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Since I I had a little time before bed I decided to play with my scape a bit.
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Nice tank build!! Love the setup.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Some updates.



Added a fire shrimp, 5 astreas, two star astreas, and a small piece of acro chosen at LFS because it was nicely healed up. No idea what it's called. It was $20 so I'm sure it doesn't get a fancy name...



Things are happy. I'm seeing the begining of growth on my mind trick, digitata and staghorn. Cyphestrea is in a bit too much light and I may have to move it back to the other tank. I just can't find that right 70-100 par for it in this tank.

I asked my pistol shrimp to come out. He said he's busy being a blue collar bad butt and thinking about getting a tattoo of his lifted F-250. He's stripping his area of shell and rock rubble. So I gave him some shells and rubble from another area, as well as some dry rubble and hermit shells I had in a box. That's his cave. You can't see it. But he stole a 3"x2" piece of monti spongodes that I had just barely glued to a rock, so I could move it later. It's now a cave wall

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

The test SPS pieces I have sre doing great. I'm getting growth from a staghorn, I put in a big piece of bubblegum digitata, it's laying on its back in the rocks getting a tan. The whole thing has turned lime green with pink polyps. I'll try to photograph it tomorrow night when the lights are on.

All of the fish are doing great.

Pods, rotifers, and phyto should be here from Dinkins this week. I'm expecting a flame hawk and fighting conch relatively soon.

I went ahead and ordered some acro. I've never ordered from eBay but a buddy at work uses this dude exclusively so I gave it a try.

I ordered pieces off of these colonies. When I get my pieces in I'll post some pics and compare them.

I'm gonna take one for the team and see if this guy is a good guy.
He ships fast. I ordered at 330am. I've already been contacted and given a shipping date.

 

[Kevinmj70]

Once it's frozen each cube is a days worth of food. These are the trays, perfect size for small tank folks

Do you use a commercial thawing chamber or DIY? I like your solution and happen to have some of those tiny silicone trays at the bar.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Do you use a commercial thawing chamber or DIY? I like your solution and happen to have some of those tiny silicone trays at the bar.

I do it in a thin glass bowl sitting in a larger glass bowl filled with ice. Then I put a lid on it. Occasionally I stir it.