Mid-century 25g IM lagoon. Appx 14 months old

[Northern Flicker]

My experience is the same as @tinyfellows but my tank also does not grow SPS quickly so it’s hard to say. No issues with sweepers, never seen one.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

My wife asked me if I would build her some floating shelves with a bunch of 100 year old white American Oak that I salvaged out of an old dresser and have been saving.

I said yes. So naturally I got outside and found a bunch of 1/4" Baltic birch ply I had forgot about. I shelved the shelf project and decided to whip out a "canopy" for my lights. Certainly I'll finish this tonight. Maybe next week I'll make her shelves.

Probably by the time she wakes up I can put some of the oak scraps out (or even pine, she won't know the difference) and a can of stain to make it look like I worked on shelves all night.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Ready for varnish/ boat amber. No idea how or why I never thought to do this from the onset. This really does square off the look and complete it. No more ugly light fixture.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Looks great. I may have missed it but what skimmer is that?

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Looks great. I may have missed it but what skimmer is that?

Hopefully dude, you think that the canopy really ties the stand together.

That black sludge inside of it has you intrigued doesn't it? It's an icecap K1 nano. Cheaply made, low grade materials, poorly hand fit pieces, and way over priced. It pulls a dry skim though.

I run 12 hours a day and a Santa Monica Filtration drop .6 up flow algae scrubber the other 12 hours when lights are out.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

All done. Maybe. I kinda want to put a couple more coats of varnish on it. But it'll do for now. EDIT: I really hate this grain and ply, It is not of high quality at all and has blotched terribly. I need to put a veneer on it now...

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

All done. Maybe. I kinda want to put a couple more coats of varnish on it. But it'll do for now.

Am I seeing grain from the end panel pieces from the front...
Sorry, my wife is on a Project Runway marathon while I am working on the tanks...
Couldn’t resist...
Looks great! Personally though I want everyone in the room to see how much money I spent on lights...

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Am I seeing grain from the end panel pieces from the front...
Sorry, my wife is on a Project Runway marathon while I am working on the tanks...
Couldn’t resist...
Looks great! Personally though I want everyone in the room to see how much money I spent on lights...

You are and it was on purpose. I live in a 1963 mid-century modern ranch. I bought it with restoration and modernization in mind. Both in function and design. If you are into cars it would be called "resto-mod". Modern amenities within the classic design. I have taken tremendous steps to make sure that everything I do is congruent with the mid 60's idea of modern. That includes my tank stand.

In mid-century furniture they used a theory called "material design" it lets the materials dictate the design of the furniture, house, or whatever.

In the lower section I left room to clean the floor underneath (also a common MCM design feature). You see edges there, as well as on the deck edges and sides of doors and drawers.

Every edge was sanded to 400 grit and had boat amber applied. Then after 3 coats all sanded at 400, I applied a final coat and polished with white Scotch Brite.

You don't have to show off lights when your $100 door pulls were an after thought to 400$ worth of imported plywood and approximately 100 hours of sanding and coating. There was a lot of jack and time spent on this little rig.

I hope that doesn't come off wrong. I'm just explaining the reasons for the choices I made. Here are a few close ups of joints and construction. I could stand in this drawer , seriously.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Oh no, it doesn’t come off wrong... Living in LA, I am very familiar with MCM. In fact as a so called sales point you would not believe how many things out here are labeled MCM.
Sorry, I was making a Sarcastic joke within a joke? if that makes sense. I knew what you were doing but to someone who didn’t they would make the comment I did. Maybe I should of used two ROFL's...
Oh, and the "I want ppl to know how much money I spent on lighting" was another
But I wasn’t joking when I said it looks great.
I really need to work on my sense of humor, or at least my delivery over the interwebs. Because I kill it with family during the holidays...

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Oh no, it doesn’t come off wrong... Living in LA, I am very familiar with MCM. In fact as a so called sales point you would not believe how many things out here are labeled MCM.
Sorry, I was making a Sarcastic joke within a joke? if that makes sense. I knew what you were doing but to someone who didn’t they would make the comment I did. Maybe I should of used two ROFL's...
Oh, and the "I want ppl to know how much money I spent on lighting" was another
But I wasn’t joking when I said it looks great.
I really need to work on my sense of humor, or at least my delivery over the interwebs. Because I kill it with family during the holidays...

Oh you are fine. I am a southern rube and typically I talk to other southern rubes. They are my people. They say the same things. But they mean it. I figured you just assumed I had nasty radiata pine edges lol. I couldn't let that stand.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Last bump of the night, I promise. I added my purple firefish on May 15. It has since lived in a cave nearly unseen.

He spent about 10 minutes out in the water. For whatever reason he wasnt bothered by the hawkfish or chalk bass. This is exciting. I really hoped he wouldn't starve hiding in that dang cave. He also was much plumper than I had expected. So he has been eating. Super blue though, I was afraid if I opened my drawer to get my filters he would go back to his cave.

That's not stuff on my fish, it's algae on my glass.

I may try another McCoskers in a month or two.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

No big update.

Still no in tank coral loss. I always lose a piece or two in my tank. This time I've lost two, but they were RTN in the bag. They don't count.

I finally put my doser on this tank tonight. Just dropping AFR, 3.6 ml a day to start.

Still kicking around the idea of a pavo damsel and a mcCoskers/flasher redo

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Left home for a few days. Come home to my favorite thing in the world.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Did your nutrients take a nose dive because your tank sitter only fed one a day?
That's what happened to me...

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Did your nutrients take a nose dive because your tank sitter only fed one a day?
That's what happened to me...

That's the crazy part, I just tested phos and nitrates. They came back .2 and 20. That should be the sweet spot I thought. Or close to it. I've even been running a 9 watt IM UV Sterilizer for a couple of months also.

But if my tests are correct, I should be on the path to corrections.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Ok, I will throw another monkey wrench in the mix. So in May when we went out of town for a week, my already low PO4 and Nitrates crashed. I have since just dumped food, NP Plus and recently NeoPos and NeoNitro. I pretty much can't get a reading on my hanna, maybe for a day or two, but basically nil. I have yet to "knock on wood" get either dino's or cyano. No UV. Today I got .04 PO4, hopefully this will last.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Ok, I will throw another monkey wrench in the mix. So in May when we went out of town for a week, my already low PO4 and Nitrates crashed. I have since just dumped food, NP Plus and recently NeoPos and NeoNitro. I pretty much can't get a reading on my hanna, maybe for a day or two, but basically nil. I have yet to "knock on wood" get either dino's or cyano. No UV. Today I got .04 PO4, hopefully this will last.

My phos was floored about a month ago. I had a brief battle with dinos, maybe 4 days. I thought them to be long gone. We will win this fight together friend.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

So here are some parameters. The dinos are so flipping bad right now.

Nitrate 20ppm
Phos .2 ppm
Ammonia ___
Trates ___
Cal 430
Alk 8.7
Mag 1300
Ph I guess I should check it.

I have green hair everywhere and the dinos are feasting on it. I also have an algae scrubber getting at it. I need to pull it and check for seed/growth. Also running a 9 watt UV Sterilizer in the over flow. I'm considering putting a pump into my display and a line from the pump into the sterilizer versus letting it just run in the overflow.

I added more pods, amphipods and copepods. The last 4 days have been spent dosing up silica. Last dose when in tonight. It's right at 2 ppm.

Can't believe I'm gonna say this. Come oooooonnn diatoms!!!

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Keep us posted, im following

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Keep us posted, in following

Will do. These updates and the folks following along are what keep me going when I'm discouraged.

I can deal with people knowing when things aren't quite right and need some attention. But I can't let people think I'm a quiter. It's not in my DNA. By posting, it keeps me in it so nobody will see a quiter. They will see a winner who doesn't flinch, puts his shoulder down and sticks it to a linebacker.