Bay Area Lagoon 50 (Powered by Nanobox Hybrid and APEX)

[Ikikimo]

Hello everyone. I’m just rounding the 1 year mark of reefing. In that time I’ve gone from a Evo 13.5 to a Lagoon 25. There’s an old thread somewhere of my 25. In March I moved into a Lagoon 50.  I’ve currently just finished up a custom stand in preparation for a hybrid fixture that Dave is finishing up for me. Here’s a bunch of photos and an equipment list 🙂

 

Lagoon 50

Sicce 1.5 Main Return
Cobalt MJ1200 Reactor Pump
Ecotech MP-10
Icecap Gyre 1k

AquaMaxx Algae Reactor
Neotherm 200w Heater
Auto-Aqua Micro ATO

Cadlights PLS-50 Elite II
Mini-Max Pro (biopellets)

Innovative Marine Media Basket
In-Tank Floss Holder

Chemipure Blue
Marine Pure Blocks

Nanobox Hybrid (4x 3.1 Array and 2x T5, Full Spectrum Control)

Inhabitants:
Purple Fire Fish
Leopard Wrasse
Mystery Wrasse 

Yellow Clown Goby

Starry Blenny

Pair of Dragon Face Pipe Fish

Cleaner Shrimp

Pair of Peppermint Shrimp

Pair of Hermit Crabs

Pom Pom Crab

 

Standard CUC. Nassarius, Astrea, Turbo, Trocus 

LFS of choice - Diablo Corals - Concord, Ca

 

 

 

 

Just after the move. It’s a steel side table reinforced with wood. I ended up further reinforcing it but can’t seem to find anymore photos. Probably because its was ugly lol

 

 

And an FTS from 10/25/18

 

[Ikikimo]

Here are shots of the custom stand. I was inspired to build this after commissioning a Hybrid light from Nanobox Reef. I thought about everything I’ve learned in the last year and wanted all my stuff in one spot. I like organization and making maintenance easy and enjoyable. I think I hit a homerun on those fronts. 

 

So here she is, stainless steel construction DIY! Built in cable management, and mounts for Kessil AP arms. I also fab’d Extensions for them to get the hybrid smack dab in the middle. 

 

 

 

Mounts tapped and drilled for OEM fit and finish

 

 

VHT Satin Black roll cage paint from Pep Boys

 

Almost finished product 🙂

 

 

 

[Zuma]

Looking good!

[specore]

Love the stand.  Really wish I had the tools and knowledge to work with metal.

[mitten_reef]

oooh, lagoon 50, nice tank, nice stand. 

[Ikikimo]

On 10/26/2018 at 5:30 PM, specore said:

Love the stand.  Really wish I had the tools and knowledge to work with metal.

 

Thank you! 

On 10/26/2018 at 6:14 PM, micoastreefing said:

oooh, lagoon 50, nice tank, nice stand. 

 

‘Thank you! Love the Lagoon tanks, definitely not enough 50’s in the forums.

[Ikikimo]

Well this post is a few months in the making. Earlier this year I was looking at options to do a T5/LED hybrid light system. It looked like the only feasible option was the aquatic life fixture which is a great unit, but lacked the finesse I was looking for. It has power coming out of both sides and only recently released side covers (which you have to purchase separate). I was looking for an option that was both functional and aesthetically pleasing. After a few months of hunting I stumbled on a Nanobox Hybrid unit for sale locally and grabbed it. The unit had seen better days. It was the Version 1 with 4 power supplies (Led, Fans, T5 and Bluefish) and a spaghetti bowl of wires. It had 2 channel control and x2 V3 arrays. Needless to say, it went off to Dave immediately for some upgrades.  

 

 

 

Dave upgraded the arrays to V3.1 going from 2 arrays to 4 total and added the new bluefish controller. In addition the unit went from 2 channel to 5 channel control and the control box got cleaned up (the spaghetti bowl of wires was gone!) I now just have 1 power supply for the LED system and one for the T5. Lastly it got a paint job, a sweet black on black, a very clean look.

 

 

 

I couldn't wait to get it home, I designed an entire stand around this light after all. I had built custom brackets for kessil arms (seen in an earlier post) and extensions because 50$ is kinda nuts for extensions. I'm happy to say it fit like a glove. It was on the tank and adjusted in about 15 minutes. 

 

 

 

 

I'm currently running it in SPS+ with small adjustments to the blue and mint channels. For the T5's I'm running 1 Blue Plus and 1 Actinic. The color and shimmer are amazing and are beyond my initial expectations. I have it sitting about 5 inches above the water. It may come down an inch or so, but the spread is good for now. I had a ton of shadowing with the single Kessil and this light most definitely does not have this problem. I will miss my Kessil light but it was time for a change and I'm glad I made the jump to a Nanobox.  Anyways, cant wait to see the growth, Happy reefing!

 

[mitten_reef]

that's one sexy setup....

 

How sturdy are those Kessil arms with the hybrid body on it?  My setup wouldn't need the extensions - I don't think - I have IM Fusion 30L.  

 

I had an epiphany that I should have gone that route during Black Friday sales, but I wasn't sure it was gonna work.

[DaveFason]

Looks wonderful. Even better to see the Kessil arms working for a Hybrid. Those mount to the back of the stand, correct?

-Dave

[Ikikimo]

On 11/27/2018 at 8:18 AM, micoastreefing said:

that's one sexy setup....

 

How sturdy are those Kessil arms with the hybrid body on it?  My setup wouldn't need the extensions - I don't think - I have IM Fusion 30L.  

 

I had an epiphany that I should have gone that route during Black Friday sales, but I wasn't sure it was gonna work.

 

Thanks!!

 

Kessil arms are rock solid, I used extensions because I mounted the light to the stand vs the tank. I very much recommend that, while the Hybrid doesn't weight much more than an AP700, I wouldn't hang that much weight off the back of the tank. If you want to check out how I did it, its in the post towards the top of the page. 

[Ikikimo]

1 minute ago, DaveFason said:

Looks wonderful. Even better to see the Kessil arms working for a Hybrid. Those mount to the back of the stand, correct?

-Dave

Dave, thank you for building this light for me. Yes, I mounted the arms to the back of the stand. When I first bought the light I did a test fit with the brackets attached to the rim and it wasn't pretty. It made the arms sag and looked like it was putting a lot of stress on the glass and the brackets. I wish I had photos, it was pretty sad looking. 

[mitten_reef]

8 minutes ago, Ikikimo said:

 

Thanks!!

 

Kessil arms are rock solid, I used extensions because I mounted the light to the stand vs the tank. I very much recommend that, while the Hybrid doesn't way much more than an AP700, I wouldn't hang that much weight off the back of the tank. If you want to check out how I did it, its in the post towards the top of the page. 

Yeah, as soon as I asked that, I remembered you show the stand in-the-making shots.  my stand is a generic 40 breeder metal base (the ~1" L-shape metal version), so not much space to attach anything.  Good to know that the arms worked out well for you though. 👍🏼

 

 

[shaner014]

Excellent build! Rarely are open concept stands executed well, but you are an exception for sure.

 

Curious of your thoughts on the Cadlights skimmer? Didn't see any reviews of it in the thread. Thoughts?

[Ikikimo]

3 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

Yeah, as soon as I asked that, I remembered you show the stand in-the-making shots.  my stand is a generic 40 breeder metal base (the ~1" L-shape metal version), so not much space to attach anything.  Good to know that the arms worked out well for you though. 👍🏼

 

 

Thank you and you're welcome. You might be able to find a clamp to make it work ( I was looking at scope mounts for a rifle to retrofit) or you could always mount the extension kit to the wall behind the tank, which is what i was considering before I decided to build the stand. 

 

3 hours ago, shaner014 said:

Excellent build! Rarely are open concept stands executed well, but you are an exception for sure.

 

Curious of your thoughts on the Cadlights skimmer? Didn't see any reviews of it in the thread. Thoughts?

 

Wow, those are some kind words, thank you! As far as the skimmer, its bonkers. I ran a tunze 9004 that I could never get to skim right and a eshoppes nano that was way too loud / skimmed too wet. The PLS-50 was a beast from day 1. It pulls heavy, nasty, dark skimmate. Its quiet and consistent, I couldnt ask for more from a skimmer this size. I would argue that this is the best skimmer for AIO tanks, only problem is I don't think it will fit in chambers any smaller than what you'll find in the Lagoon 50.

[shaner014]

1 hour ago, Ikikimo said:

I would argue that this is the best skimmer for AIO tanks, only problem is I don't think it will fit in chambers any smaller than what you'll find in the Lagoon 50.

Well I'm sold. I recently got the WaterBox 20AIO and believe it may squeeze in there based on dimensions I've seen. But theory and practice... yea.

 

I'm a ways away from pulling the trigger just yet, as I have quite a bit of work to get done elsewhere first, but you did seal the deal for me with that review! The eshopps was the last skimmer I had considered along with the 9004, and you have used all 3 and clearly found the winner. Thanks!

 

EDIT: Upon further scrutiny of the tank dimensions... I think I will be 0.10" too narrow 

[Zuma]

Great build and a beautiful tank!

[Ikikimo]

1 hour ago, shaner014 said:

Well I'm sold. I recently got the WaterBox 20AIO and believe it may squeeze in there based on dimensions I've seen. But theory and practice... yea.

 

I'm a ways away from pulling the trigger just yet, as I have quite a bit of work to get done elsewhere first, but you did seal the deal for me with that review! The eshopps was the last skimmer I had considered along with the 9004, and you have used all 3 and clearly found the winner. Thanks!

 

EDIT: Upon further scrutiny of the tank dimensions... I think I will be 0.10" too narrow 

 

Aww man, have you looked at the icecap K1? While I have no personal experience, I have heard good things about them. 

 

27 minutes ago, Zuma said:

Great build and a beautiful tank!

Thank you!

[Ikikimo]

Came home to a happy looking tank. The Nems especially seem to be loving the new light.

 

FTS

 

 

Top Down:

 

 

Made a a last minute BF purchase, can’t wait to share! 

 

 

[DaveFason]

@Ikikimo heck yes. Now sit back and enjoy! 

[Ikikimo]

Project update. Lets start with the fact that I am a nerd. I work at an theme park running our maintenance and construction division, so I deal heavily in mechanical and controls related items on a daily basis. That being said, I was never too interested in a tank controller, I really wanted to keep it simple. However, my girlfriend the enabler, surprised me with an APEX EL as my anniversary gift. I wasn't too excited until I set it up and saw all it had to offer.

 

I started researching different ways people mounted their controllers and decided I wanted to bit more unique but still be budget friendly. I was inspired by my old computer builds. I found a thermaltake tower, this one specifically is a J23TG RGB Edition. It came with RGB fans and a tempered glass window. This baby ran 50$ on a black friday special. (There are similar towers for similar prices year round) It took a little DIY, I had to drill 4 holes to mount the Power Bar and the Brain. I used Double Sided tape to mount the other controllers. 

 

 

These newer towers have a "False Bottom" that can hide all the cables and power supplies. (This area is generally reserved for the CPU Power supply and Hard Drives) I have 4 bricks down there, there is room for probably 2 more.

 

 

Here is everything mounted up and cables routed. 

 

 

Finally, the devil is in the details. I got this case in particular because it has 3 RGB cooling fans.  Thermaltake provides its own proprietary control board and adapters. I had my soldering iron at home so I went to work. I got this module, controller and power supply from amazon, they run about 10 bucks. The amazon controller (most common LED controllers) are wired RGB+ I believe, the thermaltake was wired BRG+. I cut the connectors off the fans and made a new harness, you can see the controller sitting on the floor just behind the tower.

 

 

Here's pretty much the final project. Including the wiring, the mounting, the soldering and the programming in only took about 4 hours. I'm pretty happy for now, I believe its clean and super budget friendly for those of you looking for options. The lights can fade and strobe etc, the fans are on a 12v powersupply if I want to run them and everything is tucked away and organized inside, behind the glass. There are a ton more cool little features about this tower, but if your're interested in doing something similar, Ill let you find out on your own 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think!

 

 

 

[specore]

I definitely enjoy nerding out with my Apex.  They have come a long way with Fusion and now the Alexa control.  

[Ikikimo]

50 minutes ago, specore said:

I definitely enjoy nerding out with my Apex.  They have come a long way with Fusion and now the Alexa control.  

Oye. I did not ever really "get" what all the random things are for the apex and now I TOTALLY get it. Like everything else in the world they know they have the market cornered and their prices reflect that. I don't know how I feel about Alexa but the option seems really cool. 

[shaner014]

Hey @Ikikimo! Awesome APEX build. I'm tossing around the reef-pi idea... but the plug and play of the Apex is so much more convenient.

 

I did get he PLS skimmer modified to fit in my tank, and was wondering what water level you keep yours at? Is the line on the body for level where you have yours? seems you have it quite low, and I'm hoping to have mine as low as possible too. 

[Ikikimo]

25 minutes ago, shaner014 said:

Hey @Ikikimo! Awesome APEX build. I'm tossing around the reef-pi idea... but the plug and play of the Apex is so much more convenient.

 

I did get he PLS skimmer modified to fit in my tank, and was wondering what water level you keep yours at? Is the line on the body for level where you have yours? seems you have it quite low, and I'm hoping to have mine as low as possible too. 

Thanks man! Apex really has the weight of heritage behind it and aftermarket support to boot, you really cant beat it. 

 

Hey man that is great! I'm sure you will love it. I have my water level right at the water line on the skimmer, I set my ATO Sensor to the same line in the center chamber. I did this so that my skimmer was after the Mini-Max Reactor, so its specific to how I have my chambers set up. Mileage will vary though, if you have it in the outer chambers you will undoubtedly have yours sitting much higher in the tank.  

[shaner014]

1 minute ago, Ikikimo said:

Thanks man! Apex really has the weight of heritage behind it and aftermarket support to boot, you really cant beat it. 

 

Hey man that is great! I'm sure you will love it. I have my water level right at the water line on the skimmer, I set my ATO Sensor to the same line in the center chamber. I did this so that my skimmer was after the Mini-Max Reactor, so its specific to how I have my chambers set up. Mileage will vary though, if you have it in the outer chambers you will undoubtedly have yours sitting much higher in the tank.  

 

I haven't put water in the tank yet, and I have no idea what the chamber water levels will actually be! I assumed they would be near display water level? This is my first AIO. I guess I knew it would be slightly lower because the water has to "fall" into the overflow chamber, but I hadn't really gotten past that notion. Does the rate of return affect the water levels back there?

 

I too have a minimax desktop en route and plan to have first chamber floss and chemi-pure, then the reactor, then the skimmer, then return chamber with heater.