TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50

[TheWB]

I was thinking of trying one of these feed doors but was admittedly waiting for someone else to be the guinea pig! lol First one I've seen in action and it looks great! Nice work.

It’s worked well. Go ahead and grab one up.

 

[TheWB]

Oh man that feed door gives me so many ideas. Would be pretty easy to make different size/shape doors for multiple purposes with the 3d printer. Might end up making little openings for mangroves to poke through or something!

I was kinda thinking of you when I mentioned earlier how someone with a 3D printer could knock that off pretty easily. It would be pretty easy to do different ones like you said. You have already hit a home run with that mangrove box for the back chamber but eventually they are going to outgrow it. Custom holes in a screen top would be the next logical step, let’s the mangroves out, keeps the fish in, except for Pinky. That little dude got lucky

 

[TheWB]

Well, it’s one week into my ultra cheap algae scrubber experiment. So far it’s too early to tell if it works or not. There is some discoloration of the knitting screen which could be the start of some hair algae. Not enough there yet to say what it is.
I’ll check on it again next Saturday.

 

[Algaewarrior]

Well, it’s one week into my ultra cheap algae scrubber experiment. So far it’s too early to tell if it works or not. There is some discoloration of the knitting screen which could be the start of some hair algae. Not enough there yet to say what it is.
I’ll check on it again next Saturday.

Looks like you have the beginnings of some green stuff. Are you running the light 24 hours a day?

 

[jcolliii]

There does seem to be something there!

 

[intricate_reefer]

Well, it’s one week into my ultra cheap algae scrubber experiment. So far it’s too early to tell if it works or not. There is some discoloration of the knitting screen which could be the start of some hair algae. Not enough there yet to say what it is.
I’ll check on it again next Saturday.

Did you ruff it up with sand paper? I have also heard of people rubbing some hair algae on it to try and seed it. Also what are you using for lighting?

 

[TheWB]

Looks like you have the beginnings of some green stuff. Are you running the light 24 hours a day?

I’m running the light from 11pm to 9:00am

 

[TheWB]

Did you ruff it up with sand paper? I have also heard of people rubbing some hair algae on it to try and seed it. Also what are you using for lighting?

I roughed it up by dragging a razor blade across the surface. I didn’t have any sand paper and I didn’t want to wait. It worked, the surface has a texture now. Could probably be better. I’m using the IM Chaetomax light which I’ve had for a while. That’s what I was using to try and grow Chaeto before. The screen is about 1 inch from the light. Something is starting to happen. Just need to see how it goes.

 

[Algaewarrior]

I’m running the light from 11pm to 9:00am

Maybe try it at 24 hours a day to stimulate growth then dial it back after you get a good crop going?

 

[TheWB]

Maybe try it at 24 hours a day to stimulate growth then dial it back after you get a good crop going?

That might be a plan.

 

[ingchr1]

Once it starts growing keep an eye on it. I kind of let mine go and ended up with some free floating algae in the chamber. I even had algae growing on the walls of the chamber where there was no screen. I think most of it was ULVA since I have that in my tank.

I imagine the potential existed for the stuff that came loose to eventually find its way to the return pumps. I caught it in time and vacuumed out the chamber.

I haven't been running mine for a while, clearing up a dino issue. I have my main lights on reduced schedule. Once I get back to a normal light schedule and stable neutrients I'll turn it back to on.

 

[TheWB]

Once it starts growing keep an eye on it. I kind of let mine go and ended up with some free floating algae in the chamber. I even had algae growing on the walls of the chamber where there was no screen. I think most of it was ULVA since I have that in my tank.

I imagine the potential existed for the stuff that came loose to eventually find its way to the return pumps. I caught it in time and vacuumed out the chamber.

I haven't been running mine for a while, clearing up a dino issue. I have my main lights on reduced schedule. Once I get back to a normal light schedule and stable neutrients I'll turn it back to on.

Thank you for the advice, I didn’t really think about any algae coming loose and the skimmer is downstream right next door. Don’t want to be clogging up that pump, it needs all of the help it can get most of the time Just to skim. My little grow screen doesn’t hold a candle to the really cool mod you made on your tank but I’m hoping it works out. Sorry to hear about the dinos, I hope they clear up ASAP. I’ll look forward to seeing your next update, I’ve always enjoyed your build.

 

[TheWB]

I’ve been wanting to do something to fill in some of the areas on each side of the tank that the Radion doesn’t reach very well. I’ve been reluctant to try anything cheap and the plan has been to either eventually find another used Radion to pair with my current one or to maybe sell the Radion and get a Reefbreeders Photon24 v2 to provide more coverage. Funds have been low so nothing has been done.
Then I saw this on Amazon.

and I figured for $55 bucks and including the tank mount why not give it a try.

So here it is up and running. It came with a very basic inline controller that lets you choose between blues, whites or both and 6 different intensity settings between 5% and 100% for each channel. So far it seems worth it for the price. I’ll live with it for a while and if I like it I’ll get another one for the other side. Two supplemental lights for $100ish dollars isn’t too bad. We’ll see how they do.

 

[Algaewarrior]

I’ve been wanting to do something to fill in some of the areas on each side of the tank that the Radion doesn’t reach very well. I’ve been reluctant to try anything cheap and the plan has been to either eventually find another used Radion to pair with my current one or to maybe sell the Radion and get a Reefbreeders Photon24 v2 to provide more coverage. Funds have been low so nothing has been done.
Then I saw this on Amazon.

and I figured for $55 bucks and including the tank mount why not give it a try.

So here it is up and running. It came with a very basic inline controller that lets you choose between blues, whites or both and 6 different intensity settings between 5% and 100% for each channel. So far it seems worth it for the price. I’ll live with it for a while and if I like it I’ll get another one for the other side. Two supplemental lights for $100ish dollars isn’t too bad. We’ll see how they do.

How about a FTS?

 

[TheWB]

How about a FTS?

Sure, here ya go
Probably shoulda turned off the tv first.

And one from the side just for the heck of it.

 

[Algaewarrior]

I think it looks good. I have always wondered about those lights. I have seen them on Amazon. Thought about putting one on the back of my new tank for supplemental lighting.

 

[TheWB]

I think it looks good. I have always wondered about those lights. I have seen them on Amazon. Thought about putting one on the back of my new tank for supplemental lighting.

It’s looks better in person than it does in the pictures. Honestly, other than that I know it’s on all blues right now I don’t even know what intensity I have it on. I need to play with it some more. So far for $55 bones for supplemental lighting I don’t hate it.

 

[TheWB]

I took a look at the algae growth screen on the makeshift scrubber today and it’s got more on there. Didn’t take any pictures but it’s about twice as much as in the last pics. Not great but I think it might actually work. I’m going to add a couple more hours of light and see if I can boost it along.

We had a pretty big wind storm last night which sometimes means power outages. That finally prompted me to hook up the icecap battery backup I bought 9 months ago to the wave pump. As a byproduct of that, the wavemaker is now working differently. It actually pulses on and off like it’s supposed to instead of just running on a constant stream. I set it to alternate through the 6 different settings and I could never really tell a difference between any of them. I thought it was because I was running the lowest setting. That didn’t really make much sense to me but no matter what I did it wasn’t working right. Now apparently it is. As usual my problem has been solved by accident. I’ll take it.

 

[TheWB]

Algae growth on the screen after 3 weeks.

It‘s coming along slowly. There was some other algae growing on the chamber walls due to the light bleeding through the screen. I might try to find some material to make a black background to hang just behind the screen and reflect the light back on it. Might help with growth and keep that chamber cleaner.

 

[TheWB]

Some updated coral pictures.

This Blasto looks really good but it doesn’t grow new heads. It’s had the same three heads since I got it. They’ve gotten much larger but no new heads.

This plain red Acan was just like the blasto for a long time and then 10 new heads popped out seemingly overnight.

The blue green Duncan has done very well. It started with 5 heads and has 3 more coming in.

The Sakura Sunrise Zoas have grown off of the plug.

The Vivid Rainbows and Rastas have been slower growing but are doing well.

The Devils Armor Zoas are indestructible. The Birdsnest just seems to be there but not doing much. Looks okish but not growing. Might not be getting enough light but it’s right under the fixture.

The Nirvanas have been the fastest growing Zoa, also growing off of the plug.
The Goblin Fire, Utter Chaos and Pink Zipper Zoas in the background all look ok but have not shown a lot of growth.

The Chalice is making a recovery and has started to grow over the older dead skeleton and is reaching for the rock. I think once it makes contact it will quickly encrust that rock. It’s got like a millimeter to go until it touches.

Some of the new smaller Duncan heads.

The Frogspawn seems to be adjusting to the flow which is probably a little heavier than it would like.

FTS