Schg

I like the second overall, and I like the third from the right but not the left. The stand looks absolutely stunning so far!! I know Dave has his last and only (for at least the time being) NanoBox Hybrid available. It’s his personal unit and he isn’t listing it, but I know he was potentially going to be selling it. Might be more than you want to spend, but they are pretty amazing!

I’ll donate a frag to the prize pool. I can determine what later, I’ll see what I have that’s nice at the time.

Thanks again Brian, I appreciate everything! Speaking of which, he gave me a few more nano-sized inverts at the meeting on Saturday: Also ended up getting a few frags from Wil and Graham. Was able to get pictures of some, as well as some more recent shots of older acquisitions. Purple people eaters: Not fully open, but still very nice punk rockers: Golden rainbow yuma: Utter chaos: I've had these blue hornets for a little, but I don't think I ever posted a shot: A better picture of my walt disney acro from Brian: Wobbegongs: More recent picture of my plate coral, getting bigger! A shot of my porcelain crab hanging out under my armor of gods: Not the best shots, but I just figured I would show my haul! I also picked up a polyp of pink Krakatoa, but it isn't open yet.

Those are all good ideas, I might cut a small head off my current duncan for it. I haven't really had any toadstools since I first started almost a decade ago, I always remember having huge ones. I'll have to investigate them again.

Woo! I'm super excited to be a part of this one, I love fancy zoas. Latest (not fully up to date) FTS: Setup: Tank: Innovative Marine Fusion 25 Lagoon Lighting: NanoBox Reef Hybrid with ATI Coral+ and ATI Blue+ Heater: 75w Cobalt Neo Therm x2 Flow: Stock pump, Hydor Koralia Nano Filtration: inTank fliter floss holder x2, inTank Fuge basket Live rock: 12.5lbs of mixed fiji and real reef live rock Live sand: 30lbs of aragonite sand Filtration and maintenance: Filter floss in both holders, changed twice a week. Fuge basket has chaeto, with a LED grow light 2 gallon water change once a month with Reef Crystals Acropower once a week Build thread on WAMAS: http://wamas.org/forums/topic/82894-schgrcubes-innovative-marine-25-lagoon/ Can't wait to see what zoas we get to vote on!

I have a temporary glass lid on it from another jar, but I want something that I can run my cables under without it sitting funny. I don't think light penetration will be much of an issue, as my light is pretty over-powered for this tank. It's a fine balance between slowing evaporation and allowing gas exchange properly. Thanks! I'm mostly going to fill it with soft corals, but may do some acans or favia. I don't really want anything too demanding, and would prefer to not have to feed anything. Tube anemones are cool, but I don't think this would be a great environment for one.

This is a sweet little pico! I love it.

PS: Finished my light mounting setup, excuse the messy wiring. I am waiting on my buddy to give me his old ReefKeeper Lite for this tank, so I can actually have a heater without cooking it. I should just buy a temp controller, as it would be nice to have the RKL on my main tank!

I think you're both right, and I do plan on at least adding some pulsing Xenia since I refuse to put it in my actual tank. I will see what else I can add that would be easy and give some movement.

Hahah, this is the best response ever! I hope I win too, and I will try not to dissappoint. I just have to somehow manage stocking my display tank and this at the same time without pissing my wife off.

Received my light today! ABI 12W Tuna Blue PAR38 Pretty good job on my part with the fixture, considering I didn't have a bulb to actually go off of in person. I had to use the measurements online while building. AND the tank is filled!! I'm probably going to remove a little live rock, but you can at least see the clarity issue here: Definitely worse on the face:

Was able to get some more done on the light fixture, just waiting on the bulb to come on now: I will have to figure out how to hang it still, but I am sure I can come up with something.

I already ordered the ABI Tuna Blue off Amazon, but that light looks sweet! Trying to keep this low budget, so I may have passed anyway, as I have only spent $25 on this build so far. Hah, that is the title of the build! I don't know if I will be doing much LPS in here though, to be honest. We will see!

I should have made the stand look like a hat! Got part of my light done, need to hang it and mount the actual socket. Also filled the stand with sand. I'm not filling the container yet as I still need to work on the clarity a little bit, although I have made some progress with it. Going to buy one of the ABI par bulbs off Amazon tomorrow, just not sure which one yet...

Well, I took the easy way out: At least this makes some things easier, and opens up a few different opportunities. I also built this little stand / holder real quick, which will be filled with sand. I am going to be making a matching light fixture as well.

So I originally didn't want to do the head upside down because it looked weird to me, although it is clearly the easiest solution. This was when I had the head facing directly toward me. Now that I have more or less decided to view the head from the side, this option seems more appealing. I also received the cork in, and it is just too tight to fit properly without modifying, which I feel could be a waste of time. I think I may just give in and change the orientation.

Thanks! Thanks! I have a few ideas regarding this, and I am actually waiting on clarification of the rules for one of my ideas to work. The one thing I know I will be doing no matter what, just because I have to seal the head somehow, is drain the tank before opening and fill after closing. I will have tubing running into the head that I can use to siphon water out prior to opening, complete my maintenance, and then fill it back up after I seal it up again. I am hoping I can just leave the cork alone and drill a small hole at the top of the neck to run everything in, and silicone around the cables / tubing. I still have to worry about water leaking, but a small hole int he neck is likely easier to deal with than anything in the cork. Any ideas you all have would be great to hear!

I'm not sure there are many people who have nano tanks on WAMAS, but for those who do you may also frequent Nano-Reef. There is a pico reef contest on there where you specifically have to use a container that is not normally considered an aquarium, and I decided to think a little outside of the box with this one. Welcome to my 1/2 gallon pico head reef! There are a few challenges I will have to overcome, beyond the difficulties of maintaining such a small aquarium. The first is that I cannot modify the container itself, so drilling the top for a lid and then sealing off the bottom wasn't an option, although I would have loved to have been able to do that. I do have a plan that I am hoping will work, which requires me to lay the head on its side and seal it up. I purchased a 3.5" cork online (should be here today), which I will hopefully be able to use to seal up the head and everything inside. In order to fill and drain the tank to work on it, I will be cutting a small hole into the cork to allow for airline tubing and the cable for a small powerhead. I am hoping to keep this hole as flush as possible to prevent leaks, but I may have to silicone everything in place instead. This may end up failing entirely, but I will do everything I can to make it work. *&#@ty drawing of my idea: The other issue I will have to deal with is the clarity of the glass itself. The inside is smooth as can be, but the outside has that kind of "recycled" glass texture to it. I have already tried hand buffing it with emory, with some success, but I ended up getting a small packet of Cerium Oxide. I am going to use this to try to buff it out further, and see if I can just increase the clarity of the glass a tiny bit. Having the head on its side facing up helps, as the side is the most clear part of it. For equipment, I am just going to be using a small powerhead, a cheapo ABI Tuna Blue par30, and possibly an Aqueon mini heater on an Inkbird controller. Enjoy for now, and wish me luck! The prizes are pretty phenomenal.

Wow Graham, to both systems. Really amazing job!

Lots of new SPS, current FTS: I am going to do a little test run of taking out a rock to drill for frag plugs tonight, so my tank should get cleaned up a little bit. Here are a few of todays pickups from gmerek2: Walt Disney Acro: Forest Fire Digi: Hawkins Echinata: Bad picture with a birdsnest in front, but Sunset Milli: Bonsai: Another bad picture, Meteor Shower Cyphastrea that was attached to the Bonsai plug: He also had a bunch of nano conches, but only two that he was able to find to give me. Not sure where the other is, but one immediately got to work. I'll definitely have to get more soon! Enjoy!

Looks perfect so far! Great job. And yeah, drilling tanks is never easy on my stress levels.

A few pickups last night: Godspawn and Jawbreaker mushrooms: Grafted monti cap: Free little broken birdsnest: I forgot I had taken a picture of the Jack-O-Lantern lepto, but this one is better anyway:

Innovative Marine Nuvo APS Stand review part 2: Setup with aquarium I was going to do this part a little more in depth, but I don't really have the equipment that I really want in order to set up the inside properly. I think I have a few upgrades to make before I am going to start laying this out fully. There is likely an Innovative Marine ATO reservoir in my future (not free, unfortunately!) that will be going inside, and I am still debating between a few power management / battery backup options. Either way, here is the tank on the stand: My cats are never far away, they are always wanting to see what I am doing. Although I mentioned in the first part of my review that white would be a nice option, I do love how the black of the stand blends into the black on the tank for a nice clean transition. If I were to ever remove the AIO portion of the tank (which is certainly a possibility in the future), I think I would likely prefer white again. Either way, the stand looks super slick, and has a nice blend of modern / classic feel to it with the combination of design and materials. I don't love that I can see through the gap around the doors with my light on, but I don't quite know what I would do to solve that. Cable management? What is that? A few people have asked if the inside has any sort of shelf or anything. The short answer is no, and I do find that somewhat disappointing. While I wish it was at least an option, I am also partially glad that it does not include one. Unless it was height adjustable, and not spanning from front to back, having a built in shelf would certainly limit certain configurations and equipment options. If I were to ever sump this tank, a shelf would only get in the way. I have a few equipment changes coming soon, so I will really wait to figure out how I will mount / route everything after I have made those purchases. I'll try to get updated pictures once that has happened. Now that the transition to this stand is complete, I can definitely say I am happy with it, and would highly recommend it to anyone with an IM tank. The price tag is probably going to scare a lot of people off, but I would certainly see it as a better investment than any of the particle board stands you will find out there, and it doesn't cost a whole lot more than those.

Thanks Isaac! I liked my old stand, but it didn't turn out anywhere close to how I originally envisioned it. Hopefully I can find someone who needs a stand for an IM 25 or 40! Thanks! The inside is just a big empty cabinet, but I have mixed feelings on that. On one hand, I do wish it had something to aid with storage and organization, on the other I don't want something that may be in my way and can't move later. I'll go into a little more detail below in the second part of my review.

Innovative Marine Nuvo APS Stand review part 1: Assembly and first impressions The APS stand for the 25 Lagoon also fits the Nuvo 40. Sorry for the little teaser last night, but I was too excited not to post something. Last week Innovative Marine reached out to me, and offered one of their new APS stands. Although this isn't necessarily a sponsorship or affiliation yet, the basic idea is that I would be given the stand in exchange for an honest review, some decent photos, and of course a little exposure. Completed stand, just a little dirty from the construction experience. I was a little worried at first, as the huge outer box was somewhat rough looking, but it did the job in protecting the packaging inside. Everything inside the box was wrapped up well, and covered in protective plastic. Also included was the instruction manual, a hex wrench, 4 pre cut feet, and 4 screws to affix the top panel to the frame. The only thing you will need to provide yourself is a phillips head screwdriver. The lock on one of the profiles in the locked position. Assembly was easy enough with the instructions provided, although IM does have a video on their YouTube channel if you need further assistance. The biggest issue I faced throughout building the stand came when I went to install the cross braces that run along the top and bottom. They appeared to be a lot bigger than the space they were supposed to fit, so I assumed I would have to spread the "profiles" apart in order to fit them in. The amount of effort it took to spread them far enough made me really nervous, as I thought I might break something, and I stopped two or three times to see if maybe I was sent the wrong parts. I eventually built up the courage to work them in properly, and once I got them in I knew it was fine. Still very nerve wracking. This picture doesn't really do my struggles any justice, as there is a brace below that is already spreading the profiles apart. There was about a 1" difference prior to this. All in all, I would say it probably took me 20-25 minutes to put together, with a large portion of that time spent trying to figure out if I was going to break the profiles. I did not need any assistance throughout the process, and the whole stand is light enough to lift very easily. The overall construction is very nice, and the finish is pretty unique looking with the anodized aluminum and gloss black acrylic. The magnetic pop out doors are also a nice touch. There are certainly a few cons with this stand, with one of my biggest gripes being in the protective plastic. The whole thing was absolutely covered in various types, and I felt that keeping most of it on throughout building would help things stay scratch free. This came back to haunt me later, as both of the large acrylic pieces in the pre-built sides had plastic running all the under the profiles holding them together. I wouldn't have necessarily thought to take the side pieces apart before building, since they came pre-built, so I ended up having to cut them out after the fact. There are still remnants along the edges that I am just going to ignore. Torn pieces of plastic covering that I eventually had to cut out. I will have to post some pictures of it later, as I didn't take any, but there are also some poor cuts on pieces of aluminum that ended up being visible on the final build. The doors also look a bit off, as the corner pieces look like painted plastic, and have a slightly different finish from the aluminum that really makes them stand out. The back of the stand could also use a few small touches, just to increase usability and bring this stand to a whole other level. A 3/4 or 1/2 back panel would be great to mount some electronics to, as right now there are only really the sides and you may not want to do that depending on your situation. I would also love for IM to create some sort of light mounting bar attachment, or even their own light hanging system that you could adapt to whatever light you have. I debating drilling into mine for some piping to run up the back of each side, but will stick to leaving mine mounted to the wall instead. Switching these out is going to be a huge PITA, but the APS stand definitely looks better than my unfinished DIY stand. Ignore my droopy door. I am very happy with the stand overall, and any opportunities it has are really mostly quality of life improvements. I am very glad they sent me the black version, as I would had to have a pretty interesting room to pull off their faux wood option. A white version would be great, and somehow finding a way to do a raw aluminum with clear anodization would be prefect for me with my raw metal NanoBox Hybrid! I'll have to post more pictures once I make the switch, and see how I will manage the interior and my cable management. Let me know if you have any questions about anything! Thanks for reading.