jcolliii's IM25 Lagoon journey - MASTERTRONIC up and running!

[jcolliii]

Tunze 9001 fitment in an IM Lagoon 20, 25, and maybe others...

The Tunze 9001 skimmer came in today, and within 10 minutes of getting it out of the box, the very minor modification needed to get it into the back 2nd chamber was complete. It's already building up a great head of foam and it's mid way up the neck of the cup. I put it in maybe three hours ago now. Looks like it's supposed to be there.

The modification process is super simple. The pump comes attached at the skimmer bottom so that the long axis of the pump body is parallel with the long axis of the skimmer base. The pump is just pressure fit into the tube that feeds the skimmer body. Step 1 is just to gently twist the pump body and pull the pump off the skimmer base. When you do, you will see that there is a little cover over the pump intake...

Pop that little intake cover off of there. You'll end up with this...

Put the pump back onto the skimmer body, but reinstall with the pump turned at 90 degrees to the direction it was originally. Mine hung up a bit on the side toward the outside wall if I didn't do this. That's it. The skimmer will now fit right in. It will only go in one way though, because the lip on the side of the skimmer body interacts with one of the internal dividers. If it doesn't go in one way, it will go in the other. There is no way to adjust the height, but the water sits just about at the height that Tunze recommends.

Looks like it's going to be a great little skimmer. The pump is definitely louder than either the IM skimmer pump was or the modified Sicce pump I was experimenting with. We'll see if it quiets down after break-in. It produces WAY more foam than the IM skimmer ever did, with either pump. High hopes for this little skimmer, and just knowing that there is another option that fits the skimmer chamber of the IM 20 and 25 is nice to know without having to put it in the return pump chamber with all sorts of modification.

Will report back a couple of times this week on early impressions and ability to pull grunge.

 

[jcolliii]

Those lens filters are a lifesaver. Did you try combining the orange and the yellow lenses?

Not yet, but will give combination a try over the weekend!

 

[jcolliii]

Since none of us really know much about each other other than we all reef, a bit about the grant I mentioned a few posts up that I have been working on.

It's looking pretty good. Just finished the specific aims section. Will be looking at a local fairly large freshwater lake and examining Q's related to eutrophication, whether there are any adverse effects on lake health from agricultural additives, which can commonly have persistent ecological pollutants that bioaccumulate. Activities will include doing overflights with some of my UAV-based instruments (my UAV airframe is capable of lifting a dalmation - with doggles, of course!), doing in situ water parametric work (pH, DO, ORP, temp, hmmm...), and two geochem projects - one looking at all of the cations and anions (and metals) in solution in the water (that will allow us to determine a source based on timing - we start applying fertilizer up here in mid May - look for the corellation), and a second that will digest duckweed and look at the concentrations of heavy metals in that. Should be a fun project - I'll be playing with our ICP-AES and possibly our new microwave-coupled instrument. And I should get (hopefully) enough of a payroll budget to pay up to 4 undergrads to help out. But, man - I hate writing grants. I'm good at it, but they are just slog fests.

In happier news - the skimmer is breaking in nicely and skimming pretty well already. Not super dark, but I have to play with the air intake a bit. Apparently, if you throttle the air back a bit, it really improves the performance of this device. Super happy so far - does this thing ever foam!

24 hours worth of skimmate. Darker than green tea, pretty close to earl gray. Nowhere near coffee (at least how I like it - black, like my soul!).

 

[Sean Clark]

That is how I like my soul too. Sounds like you have your work cut out for you.

 

[TheWB]

Since none of us really know much about each other other than we all reef, a bit about the grant I mentioned a few posts up that I have been working on.

It's looking pretty good. Just finished the specific aims section. Will be looking at a local fairly large freshwater lake and examining Q's related to eutrophication, whether there are any adverse effects on lake health from agricultural additives, which can commonly have persistent ecological pollutants that bioaccumulate. Activities will include doing overflights with some of my UAV-based instruments (my UAV airframe is capable of lifting a dalmation - with doggles, of course!), doing in situ water parametric work (pH, DO, ORP, temp, hmmm...), and two geochem projects - one looking at all of the cations and anions (and metals) in solution in the water (that will allow us to determine a source based on timing - we start applying fertilizer up here in mid May - look for the corellation), and a second that will digest duckweed and look at the concentrations of heavy metals in that. Should be a fun project - I'll be playing with our ICP-AES and possibly our new microwave-coupled instrument. And I should get (hopefully) enough of a payroll budget to pay up to 4 undergrads to help out. But, man - I hate writing grants. I'm good at it, but they are just slog fests.

In happier news - the skimmer is breaking in nicely and skimming pretty well already. Not super dark, but I have to play with the air intake a bit. Apparently, if you throttle the air back a bit, it really improves the performance of this device. Super happy so far - does this thing ever foam!

24 hours worth of skimmate. Darker than green tea, pretty close to earl gray. Nowhere near coffee (at least how I like it - black, like my soul!).

Ph, orp, temp……so you’re going to hook an Apex up to a local lake lol. I like it. Hopefully you won’t have the connectivity issues you had with the ghl. Sounds like a fun project for you, your black soul and 4 unsuspecting grad students. Be sure to post plenty of pics

 

[jcolliii]

Bit of an update on my SLOW accumulation of parts for the auto waterchange system. The pump heads are in really great shape for being used. Super clean, nearly spotless. Got the heads loaded with the silicone tubing.

Cole Parmer wants $50 for four long bolts for a two-head stack. Their bolts are SS, and are probably high quality. But 50 bucks. Went to the hardware store and bought a couple pieces of 12" long #8-32 threaded rod, and four wing nuts. Cut the rod to length mounted up the heads. Pulls a really nice vacuum through the tubing.

I've listed the quick release head for sale on ebay and already have people wanting to make offers. I am fairly confident that that will sell for $150, which makes my pump $free. Spent $30 on john guest push fittings and 25 feet of 1/2" OD plastic tubing to get started. Home dumpster didn't have any 3/16" barbs in polyester though, and only had the 1/2 push fittings with male ends. That makes finding the right barbs tough. May have to just get a 3/8x3/8 adapter and add the barbs that way. I think next weekend I will have all of the parts to start getting it all tested and put togehter.

 

[jcolliii]

Picking up some more corals from ASD in the blues and purples that I am missing. Got these so far...

Nice chunk of Reef Raft Shazzam.

Couple chunks of Raven's millepora.

And, gonna try a goni.

 

[jcolliii]

 

[jcolliii]

Need under cabinet lighting for my tank - impossible to see what I am doing under there. What is everyone using for LED under cab lighting?

 

[Sean Clark]

LED strip lights work well.

 

[TheWB]

Need under cabinet lighting for my tank - impossible to see what I am doing under there. What is everyone using for LED under cab lighting?

Nothing. I need some too but honestly I’m not under there very often.

 

[jcolliii]

Going to give this a try. Bit more than I wanted to spend, but I can mount the remote on the door with velcro to turn it on an off.

Amazon LED lights

May have to make my own jumper to connect the upper two strips to the one I plan on putting under the bottom shelf.

 

[jcolliii]

I am hoping that I just did my last manual w/c for some time. Stay tuned - more later this week as parts come in.

 

[jcolliii]

Feeling fickle. Another major update coming soon. Maybe even sand again. Maybe.

 

[TheWB]

Feeling fickle. Another major update coming soon. Maybe even sand again. Maybe.

Let’s not go too crazy. Hookin’ up an Apex to a lake, adding sand back in, sawing parts off of skimmers, goin all Jetsons with your scape. You’re out of control lol.
Edit: Forgot fabricating industrial strength auto water changers.

 

[jcolliii]

You know, life is just too short to not have things exactly the way you want them. I really do like this aquascape, and it does some things really, really well. I can blast the base of the tank with flow and keep the detritus off of most of the bottom completely. But, it is turning out to be a pain to take the individual pieces out to keep clean of coraline. Because of the digitata. It is so big now that i really can't find a place to grab it without worrying about breaking something. Also, the placement options are tougher than I imagined when planning, especially with the juggling I had been doing for cross complimentary color... then never quite happy on height. So, yep, going to rescape again...

I know, I know. But, I did admit to being fickle.

Bought some of these tonight... 5 or 6 pieces, pre-cured, live and ready to go.

Going to get the scape exactly right so I can let this thing grow in for 5 or 6 years.

I love bare bottom and the utter simplicity. Super easy to keep nutrients controlled, so little maintenance, no problems with sand blowing around, no dinos. BUT... it has been a real battle to keep pH up without the buffering help of an aragonite substrate. Even with scrubbing, I was only able to get close to 8. I now have a direct line to outside the house feeding the skimmer. Some days I see 8.04. When my pH was 8.2 during the photoperiod, growth was insane. Right now, growth is okay, but I really want to bump it back up. But I don't want the headache of small sediments blowing all over the place. So I also ordered a bag of reef flakes. we'll see how it goes. Might get the rock at least by the weekend, and if so, stay tuned because that stuff comes ready to use...

 

[jcolliii]

I don't have the same amount of real estate front to back, but this has been one of my favorite scapes for quite some time now, so going to do a lagoon 25 iteration of this.

 

[TheWB]

You know, life is just too short to not have things exactly the way you want them. I really do like this aquascape, and it does some things really, really well. I can blast the base of the tank with flow and keep the detritus off of most of the bottom completely. But, it is turning out to be a pain to take the individual pieces out to keep clean of coraline. Because of the digitata. It is so big now that i really can't find a place to grab it without worrying about breaking something. Also, the placement options are tougher than I imagined when planning, especially with the juggling I had been doing for cross complimentary color... then never quite happy on height. So, yep, going to rescape again...

I know, I know. But, I did admit to being fickle.

Bought some of these tonight... 5 or 6 pieces, pre-cured, live and ready to go.

Going to get the scape exactly right so I can let this thing grow in for 5 or 6 years.

I love bare bottom and the utter simplicity. Super easy to keep nutrients controlled, so little maintenance, no problems with sand blowing around, no dinos. BUT... it has been a real battle to keep pH up without the buffering help of an aragonite substrate. Even with scrubbing, I was only able to get close to 8. I now have a direct line to outside the house feeding the skimmer. Some days I see 8.04. When my pH was 8.2 during the photoperiod, growth was insane. Right now, growth is okay, but I really want to bump it back up. But I don't want the headache of small sediments blowing all over the place. So I also ordered a bag of reef flakes. we'll see how it goes. Might get the rock at least by the weekend, and if so, stay tuned because that stuff comes ready to use...

You know what, you had a vision and the creativity and know how to pull it off. Nothing wrong with re-booting if it’s not giving you the satisfaction you were looking for. I’m a sand guy and that scape you posted looks great so if you’re emulating that I’m sure it’s gonna turn out beautifully. Can’t wait to see it.

 

[jcolliii]

Just a quickie update on the skimmer. Skimmate is definitely darkening up some. Not green tea anymore. Now we are firmly in earl gray territory. I have made no adjustments yet, it's still running wide open, but apparently breaking in. Thing makes a LOT of foam, but the water level where it sits on that little ledge seems to be just perfect. No overflows with the return off yet. I seem to be having to empty about every 5 days right now - so I have emptied once and it's now about a third full (took this photo yesterday). Does seem to be just a little bit quieter, but I would not call this a silent skimmer. You know it's running.

In other news, my corals have not shipped. Which I am not terribly upset by. We had a cold snap yesterday with temps in the -20's, so sitting in an unheated warehouse for any time would potentially have been bad. ASD called me up and asked me what I wanted them to do, so they're shipping out next Tuesday now. Which is fine, because that gives me free shipping on anything I buy this weekend now! Man, I want a piece of that ASD rainbow Milli. Had one a long time ago, and it was just an awesome looking coral. But, if I can get a couple more frags of some of the pieces I already bought so I can make them into insta-colonies, that is a fine outcome in my book too.

 

[jcolliii]

Still waiting on parts for the AWC system. Installed the light kit under the stand last night - works fantastically well and plenty of light. They include an extra wire length, so I had plenty of wire to do 2 strips under the top and one under the bottom shelf. Will get a pic later.

And, got my butt clown a nem. (this word was not butt...)