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

[jcolliii]

12/20/20

Just fragged my dragon soul torch. Phew - talk about nerve-wracking. The most expensive fraggable coral in my tank. It was getting too close to my bubblegum digitata on one side. Swear I saw it's tentacles touch the digi a few times and I don't see any dead spots on the digi, but taking no chances. This thing really grew - I bought it from ASD way back in march of 2020 when dragon souls were 'affordable' - and wouldn't have bought it if I didn't already have $100 credit. I think I paid $201 for a splitting double head. That same coral is $750 on their website now! Wow - now that was an investment! Anyhow, got two double head pieces now - put one back where it was before, but with a shorter stalk, and the other is on a frag plug for now until I decide what to do with it. May put it a few inches above the other one. Might sell it, dunno. No pics now, lights just went down, and they're both miffed right now.

 

[jcolliii]

Well, the possible torch - possible nem looks like indeed it is a torch. I think it's a dragon soul baby as the tips are starting to develop color. If you look really close at the terribly blurry photo (it's in such a hard place to try and photograph), you can see those small 'nubs' that torches have on their tentacles. Dunno how, dunno why, but my torch seems to have sexually reproduced. Gotta start closely examining other cracks in my rock work now...

My clearview lid has finally shipped as well, so that will be pretty cool when it gets here. Stuff continues to grow like weeds. Will try to get some updated photos when the new lid gets here on Monday.

 

[doh_nutz]

What a good read! I just read through all 9-10 pages of your tank's diary. Thank you for sharing and I'll continue along as you update.

I'm currently waiting for IM to ship our my lagoon I ordered but that's not going to be until mid-March. In the meantime, I'll live vicariously through threads like yours.

 

[TheWB]

Well, the possible torch - possible nem looks like indeed it is a torch. I think it's a dragon soul baby as the tips are starting to develop color. If you look really close at the terribly blurry photo (it's in such a hard place to try and photograph), you can see those small 'nubs' that torches have on their tentacles. Dunno how, dunno why, but my torch seems to have sexually reproduced. Gotta start closely examining other cracks in my rock work now...

My clearview lid has finally shipped as well, so that will be pretty cool when it gets here. Stuff continues to grow like weeds. Will try to get some updated photos when the new lid gets here on Monday.

That’s really cool, I wish I had a Dragon Soul torch, let alone babies. Torches of all types just seem super overpriced everywhere lately. I have a real hard time spending more than $25-$30 bucks on a frag of anything.
How long have you been waiting on the Clearview lid? Is it longer than I’ve been waiting for my new lights?

 

[jcolliii]

Thanks for the comments guys! I want to say I ordered the lid in December maybe right around stimulus II time? But, when I ordered it, his website said 45 day lead time. I was hoping that maybe he had a bunch of common sizes ready to go, but apparently that was not the case!

I wouldn't have bought such an expensive coral unless I had had a bunch of credit from the guys at ASD. I had about a hundred bucks credit, and torches were a bit less expensive then. It was still not cheap even with the credit, but made it just barely 'doable'. I've just set up the old Biocube in my office and will be gradually filling that with overflow from my main tank - the smaller torch frag is moving there next week.

 

[TheWB]

Thanks for the comments guys! I want to say I ordered the lid in December maybe right around stimulus II time? But, when I ordered it, his website said 45 day lead time. I was hoping that maybe he had a bunch of common sizes ready to go, but apparently that was not the case!

I wouldn't have bought such an expensive coral unless I had had a bunch of credit from the guys at ASD. I had about a hundred bucks credit, and torches were a bit less expensive then. It was still not cheap even with the credit, but made it just barely 'doable'. I've just set up the old Biocube in my office and will be gradually filling that with overflow from my main tank - the smaller torch frag is moving there next week.

Nice. Looking forward to the biocube. I’m a sucker for pretty much any new build. I’ve got a 20L in my garage just screaming at me to do something with it but there’s just nowhere to put it. Bummer too because I have a specific plan for it that I think would be pretty cool.

 

[jcolliii]

Okay - been awhile. My Mini Cooper projects keep me busy all winter, but hope to get this thread updated soon.

Have been getting quite a few messages about how the update on the Nuvoskim skimmer pump worked out. So if you recall, I got just over a year out of my first Nuvoskim pump, and a year and a day out of my second one. I was going to put in another of the absolute crap little DC pumps IM supplies with the Nuvoskim skimmers - and they are crap - they have to know that the failure rate of this pump is super high. Anyhow - about a year ago, I bought a Sicce Syncra Nano, and source a needle wheel impeller for it that was used in the Aquamaxx nf-1. I put the impeller into the pump and installed it in the skimmer and I was absolutely underwhelmed. Very little froth, quite low flow - I chalked it up to a failed experiment and put the parts into my parts box.

But, I had been noticing the pump in my skimmer beginning to get weak again, so I knew it was only a matter of time. I also had several pm messages asking how the Sicce pump had worked out. So, when the current pump failed, I got out those parts again for a longer term experiment.

So, the Syncra Nano is quite a bit bigger than the point of sale pump supplied with the Nuvoskim. And it really doesn't fit into the unmodified skimmer body - well, it will, but the flow through the pump will be very limited becasue the stock Nuvoskim volute (which will be reused) won't draw enough water.

So, you will need to modify your skimmer body for the volute to have an unimpeded water supply - in other words, you need to drill the intake hole in the side of the skimmer body with a pretty big drill bit so that the entire volute sticks out of the skimmer body. So, this is a pretty drastic mod. You can see in the photo below I was a little hasty... not the neatest of jobs.

The volute now has access to plenty of water. Plugged it in and checked the bubbles. Again, I was underwhelmed. But what the heck, it was going, so let's see what happened.

At the end of the day, I saw foam beginning to collect, and then skimmate began to collect in the cup by the end of the day. After about a week, this was what had collected. Not the darkest skimmate, but of at least the same quality as the skimmate the point of sale pump managed to pull out.

Have not yet tried adjusting it, but it does seem to be a viable alternative to the point of sale pumps that come with the Nuvoskim skimmers. Will update periodically with how adjustments go.

 

[TheWB]

Okay - been awhile. My Mini Cooper projects keep me busy all winter, but hope to get this thread updated soon.

Have been getting quite a few messages about how the update on the Nuvoskim skimmer pump worked out. So if you recall, I got just over a year out of my first Nuvoskim pump, and a year and a day out of my second one. I was going to put in another of the absolute crap little DC pumps IM supplies with the Nuvoskim skimmers - and they are crap - they have to know that the failure rate of this pump is super high. Anyhow - about a year ago, I bought a Sicce Syncra Nano, and source a needle wheel impeller for it that was used in the Aquamaxx nf-1. I put the impeller into the pump and installed it in the skimmer and I was absolutely underwhelmed. Very little froth, quite low flow - I chalked it up to a failed experiment and put the parts into my parts box.

But, I had been noticing the pump in my skimmer beginning to get weak again, so I knew it was only a matter of time. I also had several pm messages asking how the Sicce pump had worked out. So, when the current pump failed, I got out those parts again for a longer term experiment.

So, the Syncra Nano is quite a bit bigger than the point of sale pump supplied with the Nuvoskim. And it really doesn't fit into the unmodified skimmer body - well, it will, but the flow through the pump will be very limited becasue the stock Nuvoskim volute (which will be reused) won't draw enough water.

So, you will need to modify your skimmer body for the volute to have an unimpeded water supply - in other words, you need to drill the intake hole in the side of the skimmer body with a pretty big drill bit so that the entire volute sticks out of the skimmer body. So, this is a pretty drastic mod. You can see in the photo below I was a little hasty... not the neatest of jobs.

The volute now has access to plenty of water. Plugged it in and checked the bubbles. Again, I was underwhelmed. But what the heck, it was going, so let's see what happened.

At the end of the day, I saw foam beginning to collect, and then skimmate began to collect in the cup by the end of the day. After about a week, this was what had collected. Not the darkest skimmate, but of at least the same quality as the skimmate the point of sale pump managed to pull out.

Have not yet tried adjusting it, but it does seem to be a viable alternative to the point of sale pumps that come with the Nuvoskim skimmers. Will update periodically with how adjustments go.

That’s a good mod for that skimmer. I had the ghost skimmer and I hated it. I bet with the right pump or maybe an adjustment or two it would work well. Good to see you back, I missed the updates. Did you ever get the Biocube up and running?

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Okay - been awhile. My Mini Cooper projects keep me busy all winter, but hope to get this thread updated soon.

Have been getting quite a few messages about how the update on the Nuvoskim skimmer pump worked out. So if you recall, I got just over a year out of my first Nuvoskim pump, and a year and a day out of my second one. I was going to put in another of the absolute crap little DC pumps IM supplies with the Nuvoskim skimmers - and they are crap - they have to know that the failure rate of this pump is super high. Anyhow - about a year ago, I bought a Sicce Syncra Nano, and source a needle wheel impeller for it that was used in the Aquamaxx nf-1. I put the impeller into the pump and installed it in the skimmer and I was absolutely underwhelmed. Very little froth, quite low flow - I chalked it up to a failed experiment and put the parts into my parts box.

But, I had been noticing the pump in my skimmer beginning to get weak again, so I knew it was only a matter of time. I also had several pm messages asking how the Sicce pump had worked out. So, when the current pump failed, I got out those parts again for a longer term experiment.

So, the Syncra Nano is quite a bit bigger than the point of sale pump supplied with the Nuvoskim. And it really doesn't fit into the unmodified skimmer body - well, it will, but the flow through the pump will be very limited becasue the stock Nuvoskim volute (which will be reused) won't draw enough water.

So, you will need to modify your skimmer body for the volute to have an unimpeded water supply - in other words, you need to drill the intake hole in the side of the skimmer body with a pretty big drill bit so that the entire volute sticks out of the skimmer body. So, this is a pretty drastic mod. You can see in the photo below I was a little hasty... not the neatest of jobs.

The volute now has access to plenty of water. Plugged it in and checked the bubbles. Again, I was underwhelmed. But what the heck, it was going, so let's see what happened.

At the end of the day, I saw foam beginning to collect, and then skimmate began to collect in the cup by the end of the day. After about a week, this was what had collected. Not the darkest skimmate, but of at least the same quality as the skimmate the point of sale pump managed to pull out.

Have not yet tried adjusting it, but it does seem to be a viable alternative to the point of sale pumps that come with the Nuvoskim skimmers. Will update periodically with how adjustments go.

Impressive mod! I looked all over for a suitable replacement pump but hadn't found anything. I just had to replace the pump on my IM skimmer but for a different reason...the suction cups rotted (so if anyone still has a IM skimmer pump I'd recommend removing the useless suction cups) and then in my effort to clean up the mess I cracked the face plate of the pump. IM replaced it no questions asked but it was still annoying. Too bad I can't figure out a way to make the Tunze 9004 pump fit!

 

[jcolliii]

Here is that little torch today. Still growing well, definitely a torch, but appears it may be a hybrid between my two. It has range tips like the 'lemonhead', but has orange stripes on the arms like the dragon soul. Makes me think they may have gone sexual and that it wasn't a wayward arm that lodged in a crevice and started growing... anyhow, can't see skeleton yet, but it's maybe most of an inch wide when extended. My phone sucks at pictures in blues, so will try to get pics tomorrow.

I'm now using 12ml of AFR per day, and growth is astonishing even though it has been challenging to keep my ALK stable with the growth. I think keeping the pH up has made the biggest improvement in things - and my corals show very little stress even when ALK dipped down in the 4.5 range a couple of times - I could not tell by looking in the tank that anything was wrong. I keep that CO2 media bubbling through the skimmer and see pH in the 8.3 range every day.

I have had some problems keeping up with dosing as growth has increased. I lost track of my PO4, and as a result hair algae moved back in. Slowly started increasing PO4 (dosing once per week, 1ml of my home brew) and it's in decline again. Not using any additional chemical additives, and NO3 has been very stable around 5ppm with the Seachem matrix in one back chamber. I have had to clean it out twice now as it does clog up with mulm from time to time. PO4 would be undetectable if I didn't dose.

dang clown won't stop trying to host in the brain, so have had to put a temporary plexi breeder trap in there. The hope is, take away the brain, fish will forget about it. We'll see. FTS to come. But it's a tough year - am Faculty Senate pres this year and that's a TON f extra work.

 

[TheWB]

Here is that little torch today. Still growing well, definitely a torch, but appears it may be a hybrid between my two. It has range tips like the 'lemonhead', but has orange stripes on the arms like the dragon soul. Makes me think they may have gone sexual and that it wasn't a wayward arm that lodged in a crevice and started growing... anyhow, can't see skeleton yet, but it's maybe most of an inch wide when extended. My phone sucks at pictures in blues, so will try to get pics tomorrow.

I'm now using 12ml of AFR per day, and growth is astonishing even though it has been challenging to keep my ALK stable with the growth. I think keeping the pH up has made the biggest improvement in things - and my corals show very little stress even when ALK dipped down in the 4.5 range a couple of times - I could not tell by looking in the tank that anything was wrong. I keep that CO2 media bubbling through the skimmer and see pH in the 8.3 range every day.

I have had some problems keeping up with dosing as growth has increased. I lost track of my PO4, and as a result hair algae moved back in. Slowly started increasing PO4 (dosing once per week, 1ml of my home brew) and it's in decline again. Not using any additional chemical additives, and NO3 has been very stable around 5ppm with the Seachem matrix in one back chamber. I have had to clean it out twice now as it does clog up with mulm from time to time. PO4 would be undetectable if I didn't dose.

dang clown won't stop trying to host in the brain, so have had to put a temporary plexi breeder trap in there. The hope is, take away the brain, fish will forget about it. We'll see. FTS to come. But it's a tough year - am Faculty Senate pres this year and that's a TON f extra work.

That’s great news about the growth with the AFR, can’t wait to see the pics. Clowns are menaces, I’m strongly considering giving my pair the boot due to aggression issues. Mine also live in coral but it’s just a big patch of relatively ugly Zoas so at least they aren’t ruining something good like a brain.

 

[jcolliii]

Couple of pics from tonight. But now my browser font is weird and jagged. Ugh.. always something.

FTS 10-26-21

Left side...

 

[TheWB]

Couple of pics from tonight. But now my browser font is weird and jagged. Ugh.. always something.

FTS 10-26-21

Left side...

Looking good. I like that big island of SPS.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Couple of pics from tonight. But now my browser font is weird and jagged. Ugh.. always something.

FTS 10-26-21

Left side...

Looks great! Is that monti cap mounted on the back glass? Crazy that it's soaking up 12ml of AFR. I thought things were really cooking when I got up to 3ml on my 50g ;Hilarious

 

[jcolliii]

LOL - yep, it is really soaking it in! I think it's mostly that cap using it up - thing has been growing like a weed! It's not attached to the back, but is on top of one of the branches and is really starting to scroll. I have a big chunk I need to find a home for that popped off when I took the return head on that side off to clean. But I need to trim it a bit more first.

AFR use really noticeably took off after I did 2 things - started trying to keep the pH up as much as possible during the day (open windows and CO2 scrubbing) and after the NO3 was under control (which I credit to the Seachem Matrix in that back chamber. Yep, I think adding PO4 really does help with rapid growth, but only when the corals are already growing pretty well - it will just cause algae otherwise. The pH I think was the biggest thing. Skimming does not seem to be super important, and before yesterday I had not done a w/c in over 6 months. That AFR is amazing stuff.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

LOL - yep, it is really soaking it in! I think it's mostly that cap using it up - thing has been growing like a weed! It's not attached to the back, but is on top of one of the branches and is really starting to scroll. I have a big chunk I need to find a home for that popped off when I took the return head on that side off to clean. But I need to trim it a bit more first.

AFR use really noticeably took off after I did 2 things - started trying to keep the pH up as much as possible during the day (open windows and CO2 scrubbing) and after the NO3 was under control (which I credit to the Seachem Matrix in that back chamber. Yep, I think adding PO4 really does help with rapid growth, but only when the corals are already growing pretty well - it will just cause algae otherwise. The pH I think was the biggest thing. Skimming does not seem to be super important, and before yesterday I had not done a w/c in over 6 months. That AFR is amazing stuff.

No water changes in over 6 months...wouldn't that be nice! Funny, I was wondering about the chicken and the egg factor here. I noticed my alk started dropping after I improved my pH and that's when I started dosing AFR (still trying to dial in the dosage). Your tank is definitely a good advertisement for the stuff!

 

[jcolliii]

Lol, thanks! I would think twice about buying it if I were to start now - I'd be going through bottles rather quickly I'd think. Making up batches DIY helps to keep the cost down pretty low. Gosh, if they ever pull the DIY ingredients and only sell premade, I will be in a tough spot. To be honest, the only reason I did a w/c this time was to bump up my salinity. Not doing waterchanges means that as I use a bit of tank water for cleaning my powerheads, or when I siphon detritus and return the water after settling, the small volume loss is replaced by ATO, and the salinity gradually falls. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have even done this w/c - there is no reason to with my low nitrates and having to add PO4. I don't think the phosphate is being removed by anything other than growth. I am sure the coral growth uses some NO3, but I think that is mostly converted to nitrogen by bacteria in the Seachem Matrix media. I see gobs of bubbles when I change out the filter floss on top in the corner - has to be nitrogen being released.

In other news, as much as I like my aquascape, I am not sure it is minimal enough for me. I am contemplating a pretty radical change. A couple of things are prompting this re-think.

1) I really like negative space, and I don't think I have enough of that, and

2) I really like the idea of being able to easily move things around for cleaning.

Right now, I am stuck (like many people are) with stuff up against the back wall, and all of my rock piled on the bottom of the tank. So, if I wanted to scrape the bottom (or even the back, really), I would have to take the entire rock structure out, scrape, siphon, then return. That is a headache. I have taken this entire structure out once for some musical corals, and it was a production.

What I am thinking of is a sort of 'Jetson's' aquascape, where I would have the entire bottom of the tank covered with 6x6 (or maybe 4x4) matte, honed tiles (dark grey limestone maybe), and on each tile, I would epoxy one or two uprights made of branch type rock. The branches would be the correct height for specific coral's light requirements, and then the corals would be epoxied to the tops of the branches (and in a few cases, likely, to the sides of the uprights as well). Some of the assemblies would be very short, and others would be quite tall, and I could move them around to achieve the desired look. But the key thing here is that each and every 'unit' would be easy to remove and to clean outside of the tank and easy to put back into place afterward. The dark base tiles would additionally absorb stray light, making the whole tank darker and making the corals pop that much more. Additionally, shading could be controlled by moving the taller units around as needed. Been playing with this idea in my head for some time now, but I may end up going this direction pretty soon.

Flow would be another potential benefit - I think I would have more control over flow and placement of powerheads. I would still have significant in-tank rock with all of the uprights as well. Dunno, but kind of excited by the idea.

 

[TheWB]

Lol, thanks! I would think twice about buying it if I were to start now - I'd be going through bottles rather quickly I'd think. Making up batches DIY helps to keep the cost down pretty low. Gosh, if they ever pull the DIY ingredients and only sell premade, I will be in a tough spot. To be honest, the only reason I did a w/c this time was to bump up my salinity. Not doing waterchanges means that as I use a bit of tank water for cleaning my powerheads, or when I siphon detritus and return the water after settling, the small volume loss is replaced by ATO, and the salinity gradually falls. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have even done this w/c - there is no reason to with my low nitrates and having to add PO4. I don't think the phosphate is being removed by anything other than growth. I am sure the coral growth uses some NO3, but I think that is mostly converted to nitrogen by bacteria in the Seachem Matrix media. I see gobs of bubbles when I change out the filter floss on top in the corner - has to be nitrogen being released.

In other news, as much as I like my aquascape, I am not sure it is minimal enough for me. I am contemplating a pretty radical change. A couple of things are prompting this re-think.

1) I really like negative space, and I don't think I have enough of that, and

2) I really like the idea of being able to easily move things around for cleaning.

Right now, I am stuck (like many people are) with stuff up against the back wall, and all of my rock piled on the bottom of the tank. So, if I wanted to scrape the bottom (or even the back, really), I would have to take the entire rock structure out, scrape, siphon, then return. That is a headache. I have taken this entire structure out once for some musical corals, and it was a production.

What I am thinking of is a sort of 'Jetson's' aquascape, where I would have the entire bottom of the tank covered with 6x6 (or maybe 4x4) matte, honed tiles (dark grey limestone maybe), and on each tile, I would epoxy one or two uprights made of branch type rock. The branches would be the correct height for specific coral's light requirements, and then the corals would be epoxied to the tops of the branches (and in a few cases, likely, to the sides of the uprights as well). Some of the assemblies would be very short, and others would be quite tall, and I could move them around to achieve the desired look. But the key thing here is that each and every 'unit' would be easy to remove and to clean outside of the tank and easy to put back into place afterward. The dark base tiles would additionally absorb stray light, making the whole tank darker and making the corals pop that much more. Additionally, shading could be controlled by moving the taller units around as needed. Been playing with this idea in my head for some time now, but I may end up going this direction pretty soon.

Flow would be another potential benefit - I think I would have more control over flow and placement of powerheads. I would still have significant in-tank rock with all of the uprights as well. Dunno, but kind of excited by the idea.

That seems like a pretty cool idea to try. I was following an IM25 build a while back by somebody up north of me here in WA who had some kind of tiles instead of a bare bottom and it looked pretty good. You could easily adapt that to your modular scape idea. I’ll pm you that build thread if I can remember the guys name, it hasn’t been updated in a long time but at least you could see how it looked.

 

[jcolliii]

Thanks man - appreciated. I do think I have seen that before and a few more like it - probably where the idea in my head started from. I am thinking about something black, and ideally with a matte finish. Been kicking around marble, ceramics, or something inert - like delrin (acetal).

Delrin is nice for a plastic because it's very stable (low chance or warpage) and it's density is more than water so it won't float like HDPE will. But it may scratch when I periodically clean it. With ceramics I worry about colorant, and the geologist in me worries about the composition of both the minerals in the marble (hydro fluids responsible for metamorphism from limestone to marble often contain metal ions), and the composition of the fluid used to cool/lube the slabbing blades.

Ugh.

 

[TheWB]

Thanks man - appreciated. I do think I have seen that before and a few more like it - probably where the idea in my head started from. I am thinking about something black, and ideally with a matte finish. Been kicking around marble, ceramics, or something inert - like delrin (acetal).

Delrin is nice for a plastic because it's very stable (low chance or warpage) and it's density is more than water so it won't float like HDPE will. But it may scratch when I periodically clean it. With ceramics I worry about colorant, and the geologist in me worries about the composition of both the minerals in the marble (hydro fluids responsible for metamorphism from limestone to marble often contain metal ions), and the composition of the fluid used to cool/lube the slabbing blades.

Ugh.

Wow, ya went all science on me there
I know there are ceramic rock formations made for aquariums so I would guess you’d be safe with ceramic tiles but yeah, somewhat of a crapshoot if you don’t know exactly what they are made of. You could just go with the larger frag tiles so you’d know they were reef safe. Cover them in zoas or green star polyps and have a living bottom instead of the black? If they get close to the edge just razor blade the mat in between the tiles so they are still portable.