Mr Z's IM Lagoon 25

[ninjamyst]

Wow, very impressed and it's not even wet yet

[MrZ2u]

Getting closer to wet.  Gave up on the idea of the laser and cut some acrylic on the table saw instead.  3/16 pieces here cut to fit the first chamber on left and right side nice and snug.  At the router table I cut three 1/8 dados cut for media shelves.  I went with 1/8 acrylic shelves since I had some on hand and because I have a 1/8 end mill and not a 3/16  

Before the dados above I put a 90 deg bevel on the outside corners to clear the silicon bead in the chambers.

Cut my six shelves, double sided tape to stack them and then drilled some holes...this is matte finish vs clear cause thats what I had on hand and who cares what it looks like...

Made a clamping jig to make things nice and square and then a bead of weldon #16 to fuse things together.

 

Out of the clamping jig and into the world.  Not as pretty as laser cut but these will really never be seen so good enough is good enough.  My weldon #16 is starting to gel so its messy like silicon now and that is the ugliest part...guess I need a new tube!  

I put the solid walls on the front and back vs on the sides like I did on my other one...felt like it made more sense.

 I removed the little lip that was there from the factory...it seemed to me that it would make removing the basket for service more difficult than it needed to be.  I also cut the front wall of the basket just a little below the glass wall in the chamber and put the shelf down a bit more than what inTank appears to do on theirs.  I figure this gives me the option to put a coarse sponge type pre filter above the finer floss and still have both below the water inlet.  


 

[RotaryReef]

Wow, great craftsmanship!

[MrRBW]

looking great. A 25 lagoon is in my future (6months future) and I'm getting some great ideas from your build. Looking forward to seeing it up and running!

[MrZ2u]

Closer and closer...made a little bit of 'plumbing' for the ATO today.  I didnt like the thing I made for the other tank since it was going to be out in the open.  I cant get the stainless tube I have bent the way I want cause it is too thin so I got some 3/4in scrap acrylic, cut it to 2x2 inch and drilled a little right angle with a little siphon break at an angle that will spray towards the tank if it does at all.  It will have right angle quick lock out the back when the paint dries...black.

 

Also I got the light stand/hanger fabricated.  Made with 1/2 square 16ga steel tube.  Its three feet tall at the moment and has holes every inch from the bottom so I can adjust the height as much as 20 inches above the tank.  It extends about 1.5 inches past the center of the display area and has a cross support in what will be the middle of the lights footprint and once I insure the measurements are right I will drill the holes for the hanging wires...ran out of time to do anymore today.

[MrZ2u]

My light choice is similar to one of those Mara-Aqua.  It was a little more but I like that it has an internal timer for each channel, only one R13 plug vs two and also has a couple UV LED’s that the Mars-Aqua doesn’t.  It also has a remote which is I guess nice.  Its not needed but its kinda cool I guess.  Otherwise it’s about the same sort of unit.
 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KJHWHYK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

Channel 1:18 x Cool white(10000k-16000K), 6 x Neutral whites(6500-7500K), 2 x Green 520nm and 2 x Deep red 660nm
Channel 2:14 x Royal Blue 450nm, 9 x Blue 470nm, 2 x Violet 420nm and 2 x UV 400nm

Since I went white on the stand to match the house better I am thinking of doing that with the light hanger as well.  I really want to take the unit apart and paint the case as well but it has a warranty seal on it and I don’t wish to void that ya know.  We will see…

The hanging hardware is kind of interesting.  The larger cylinder on the drop line is a friction stopper.  You just pull the wire thru the center and it wont pull back unless you depress the smaller tube coming out of the top.  I'm thinking thru a way to mount this in the tubing of the stand. 
 

 

 

[MrZ2u]

Uggggg...now that I have hung it I dont like the lighting support.  The two bits that stick out past the crossmember really bug the crap out of me.  Gonna have to cut them off in the morning!  I think I need to find a new place for that picture as well

 

 

[MrZ2u]

Yes, I like this MUCH better!  
 

[bdare]

On 2/27/2017 at 9:00 AM, MrZ2u said:

Yes, I like this MUCH better!  
 

OMG!  MUCH BETTER! 

To be honest, I'm looking through this thread thinking, "What a nice clean build.  This guy is super handy.  WHOA!  Even built his own media baskets!  AMAZING." 

Then I saw the first light rack.  I was like... WTF?!?  

 

Nice recovery

[Nart]

Wow... what a great build. Wish I had some of that DIY skills.

[3s1k]

On 2/7/2017 at 3:18 PM, NanoSteve said:

 

 

Stand came out great! Love the side door idea.

 

I can help you out with your Cancun dilemma.. I can take your place so you can stay back and get that tank wet! Feel free to PM me!

 

That is a beautiful DIY stand. I think I have the know how but I don't have the tools to build one that nice. I'm planing building an IM 25 lagoon as well to replace my standard 29g.

[MrZ2u]

Getting to some sense of how things will be now.  Still feel like I want to add a few things but I like how it's looking finally.  Got past my algae bloom and water is really clean and clear.  Getting a little color to the rocks as well.  

I do have a film on the surface though and I don't know how to do anything about it.  Surface skimmer probably but I don't have a way to put one in unless I am missing something obvious.  I have an idea or two where it may be coming from and one of them is not something I will likely be able to remedy.  My wife puts those damn plugin things all over the house.  I am sure they put some level of suspended oil in the air and I imagine this is catching some of that.  Could be coming from the food for the fish as well.  Not sure I can do anything about that either since they aren't going anywhere. 

Any ideas...things I might be missing?

  

[Nart]

First of all, job well done. Awesome diy craftsmanship.

 

So the reason for the film on the surface is basically the overflow. If you just look at the water that enters the overflow closely, you'll quickly see it, water enters, but the surface film just sorta spins around and back out or sloshes in and out of the over flow. To combat this you have to lower your water level like.... 1.5" so it acts more of a drain and your filter floss at the overflow catches it. Another method to combat it is to increase the height of your overflow wall. Take a look at the add-on that InTank makes called Universal Skimmer. It's an attachment that clips onto the overflow that increases the height of it. Therefore, your water level can be a lot higher as well as skim the surface.

 

I purchased 2 InTank universal surface skimmers, but the clips that comes with it is kind of an eye sore and doesn't work well and the surface skimmer sort of just falls off if you bump into it. So currently, I'm not sure if I want the surface skimmer on. I just left my water level like 1.5" ish down, but I would like my water level to be a lot higher... I think about an inch of higher water level is about another gallon of water added.

 

So if you devise a way... be sure to include me

Here is my IM25 Lagoon set-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJvlwAV1ySo

 

[MrZ2u]

6 hours ago, Nart said:

First of all, job well done. Awesome diy craftsmanship.

 

So the reason for the film on the surface is basically the overflow. If you just look at the water that enters the overflow closely, you'll quickly see it, water enters, but the surface film just sorta spins around and back out or sloshes in and out of the over flow. To combat this you have to lower your water level like.... 1.5" so it acts more of a drain and your filter floss at the overflow catches it. Another method to combat it is to increase the height of your overflow wall. Take a look at the add-on that InTank makes called Universal Skimmer. It's an attachment that clips onto the overflow that increases the height of it. Therefore, your water level can be a lot higher as well as skim the surface.

 

I purchased 2 InTank universal surface skimmers, but the clips that comes with it is kind of an eye sore and doesn't work well and the surface skimmer sort of just falls off if you bump into it. So currently, I'm not sure if I want the surface skimmer on. I just left my water level like 1.5" ish down, but I would like my water level to be a lot higher... I think about an inch of higher water level is about another gallon of water added.

 

So if you devise a way... be sure to include me

Here is my IM25 Lagoon set-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJvlwAV1ySo

 

Yeah, I can solve it by lowering the water level AND pointing something up to churn the water more but not one or the other.  I dont like that lower water level so much either.  I have the Innovative marine thing and I thought about filling it with a floss pad but I havent yet.  

http://www.innovative-marine.com/auqa-gadget/fish-guard.html 

[Nart]

That might work, but check out this: http://shop.mediabaskets.com/inTank-Universal-Surface-Skimmer-M90SS.htm

 

It's really nice. Just the clips don't work well.