25g IM lagoon mid century build. 11 mo's. Should I put my clown in here?.

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Should I try my clown? With update picture


11 month update


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.

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.

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.

With some spacing shims between the faces.

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.

Since I I had a little time before bed I decided to play with my scape a bit.

 

[Chris4reef]

Looking great! IDK how you can wait 2 years. When I get a tank im like a kid in a candy store

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Looking great! IDK how you can wait 2 years. When I get a tank im like a kid in a candy store

Life got in the way. My dog died a week after I bought everything. The next day my wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She whipped that. Then we decided to have the terrazzo floors restored. Contractor did a terrible job so I decided to put hardwood laminate down. The next thing I knew I had forgot what equipment I even had.

 

[19Mateo83]

Life got in the way. My dog died a week after I bought everything. The next day my wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She whipped that. Then we decided to have the terrazzo floors restored. Contractor did a terrible job so I decided to put hardwood laminate down. The next thing I knew I had forgot what equipment I even had.

I felt that, I had intended on setting up a 47 gallon cube after I shut down my 75. I bought the tank and drilled it, and set it aside. Life got in the way and 12 years later it’s still brand new in the closet. I don’t have room for it yet but I have made a return to salt in a much smaller 5gal pico..

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Update:

Got it outside, sanded everything 150, 220, 400. I applied a Total Boat product. Rugged Amber Gloss Varnish. This stuff is awesome.
1 hr dry time between coat, brought out the natural grain in birch without blotching. It's left the classic mid-centry school desk finish after 6 coats.

Just waiting to bring it in and set the light up once my 2020 t-slot arrives. Some pictures to hold me over since I'm the only person following along.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Oh, no fasteners, the carcass is assembled with dados and glue only. Drawer pan and face are rabbet jointed 1/2 Baltic birch ply.

Except on my hinges and drawer slides. I'm sure there is a way, I don't know it and don't wanna.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Back in the house set up, sorta. But we are getting close to the day I order some Tampa Bay sand. I still have the light mount to build and am waiting on parts from two different sources. Still no water. But I'm excited because my stand hit the mark. So I'm gonna post anyway.

Oh, and I bought some new old stock vintage mid-century drawer/door pulls. But I am not sure if I want to put them on it now.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

I'm still waiting on handles. But I finally got most of my T-slot. I built out the suspension arms and hand cut two square mortises on the back of the stand to accept the 2020. Tomorrow I'll cut the bracket and install some clamping knobs to accommodate height adjustments of the light in case I ever have to put something new on the set up.

I was hoping to finish this all tonight. But I forgot to buy M6 slot nuts to hang the light and I ran out of polite table saw time to build the mounts for the clamping knobs on back.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

After I cut the mortises in the post above. I removed the drawer and installed 2 stainless button head M5 x 25 through the 3/4 back panel inside the drawer cavity for each leg of the light mount. When paired up with the slot nuts in the 2020 t-slot this gives me about 16 inches of vertical adjustment.

I also put the power strip in and installed a cabinet light. This thing is ready for water. Putting in my sand order tonight.

Ignore the dog bed, please.

Edit: still have to put the drawer and door pulls on but they haven't arrived.

 

[DDenny]

Looks good so far

 

[knecht]

Nice cabinetry skills! Looks great!

 

[d2mini]

Looks great! Nice job on that cabinet. Digging it so far.
Fantastic plan on getting the TBS sand.
Glad your wife is doing better too!

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Looks great! Nice job on that cabinet. Digging it so far.
Fantastic plan on getting the TBS sand.
Glad your wife is doing better too!

Thank you and I appreciate it. I'm also pleased she's doing great. I felt like if I was starting a new tank, the best way to get rolling if I wanted to use fake rock and epoxy it together in my preferred shapes was going to get things started with TBS vs bagged sand and bottled bacteria, and bottles pods, etc etc.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Now I wait... This is the part I hate.

Equipment is all installed and running. Water is 78° and 1.026sg. The only thing left is my sand delivery from TBSaltwater on May 9th.

Let me know if you think I made the right choice adding the handles. It was a hair too modern I thought and felt like the handles would help pull it back into a looking like a mid-century modern piece of furniture.

Final equipment list:
1. IM 25 lagoon on a homemade 3/4" Baltic Birch stand.
2. Cobalt aquatics 50w and 75 w Neo-therm on Inkbird ITC 308 wifi with 120 mm case fan (not installed yet, meh)
3. Santa Monica filtration Drop .6 algae scrubber.
4. Reefbreeders Prism ATO.
5. Reefbreeders Photon V2. The mount is all 2020 t-slot. Don't cheap out and buy Chinese hardware if you go this way for a mount. Most of it doesn't fit the slots.
6. Stock IM return pump. It's surprisingly quiet for a stock pump.
7. Reefbreeders R-PM wave pump...


That's it. I have a uv sterilizer and an ice cap skimmer in the cabinet in case I ever want to use them.

 

[DDenny]

how do you like the R-PM wave maker? I am looking at the coral box QP-5 plus for mine.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

how do you like the R-PM wave maker? I am looking at the coral box QP-5 plus for mine.

I'm not sure yet. I have owned this pump for 4 years and never used it until now. It seems ok. It maybe over kill for a 25 even on a low power pulse. I also don't see that I can adjust the intensity of the random/reef modes.

I suspect I'm going to be switching to two small jebaos slw's If for no other reason than too much flow.

 

[DDenny]

The QP-5 seems to be controllable but not sure more research is needed that is for sure. I have time to research and think about it.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

The QP-5 seems to be controllable but not sure more research is needed that is for sure. I have time to research and think about it.

The RPM is as well. But there are some holes I think in its functionality. More than anything I still just think it's too big for my little tank.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

No new real updates. I went ahead and bought an Ocellaris clown, Flame Hawk, and a orange stripe prawn goby to go with my Randall's pistol shrimp who is currently in a different nano but will be moving into this one.

Bought from Dr. Reef. no real reason for posting other than a time line.
Although I do suppose a stock list just happened.
2 ocellaris clowns
Flame hawk
Orange stripe prawn goby
Maybe a helfrichi fire fish. but probably not with that crew.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

So my sand was delayed for weather. No big deal. Tampa Bay saltwater did their part and hopefully did it safely.

But today is the new delivery day, 730pm and UPS is still tooting around town with it in their truck.