acbaldwin's Macro Lagoon

[acbaldwin]

I keep changing direction on this build, but I think it's time for a fresh thread. It's changed a bit

Got this from a nice guy up in Anaheim over the weekend.



48" x 24" x 14"
70 gallons
1.5" drain

The stand is open, but I'll probably add doors one day. And I think I'll paint this one white as well, I really like having a white stand.

Sump will be moved from my 60 to hopefully minimize any system shock.

I built a corner overflow yesterday and need to silicone it in today. Didn't want to drill another hole, so I'll use the single 2.5" drain with a durso or something similar. I love herbie setups, but am going the lazy route this time!

And how's this for cheap... ordered a couple of these $9 powerheads for circulation. The $10 JVP-101 (Koralia knockoff) has been doing my tank really well lately so we'll see if I can keep up the cheapness.

I'm going to treat for ich at the same time as my tank transfer (and will finally start QT'ing!!), so the plan is to slowly over a week or so transfer everything but the fish, and then medicate the fish and leave them in the 55, and run the new lagoon fallow for 8-9 weeks.

I'm going to add a bunch of rock, and scape so that rocks have a sandbed in between them so I can prevent macros growing into each other.

I really, really want to do a bed of C. Brachypus, but I'm not sure if it will become difficult to keep under control in the DT. Right now I grow it like chaeto and it does well, but it can shoot runners really quick and I don't want that to be a problem.

Oh, definitely adding a bunch more mangroves too!

Wall of text over. I promise more pictures than words from here on

Current collection: (I'll try to keep this up to date!)
All pictures are mine.

Blue Scroll (Padina sp.)
Gracilaria Hayi
Gracilaria Mammillaris
Gracilaria (Unidentified)
Gracilaria Parvispora (?)
Dragon's Tongue
Dragons' Breath
Mermaid's Wine Glass/Tea Cup (Acetabularia sp.)
Cladophora sp.
Palm Tree Caulerpa (Caulerpa Paspaloides)
Caulerpa Serrulata
Caulerpa Brachypus
Caulerpa Prolifera
Tufted Joint Algae (Cystoseria Barbata)
Eucheuma Spinosum
Codium sp.
Galaxaura sp.
Nemastoma sp.
Red Fern (Haliptilon sp. or Gelidium Serrulatum)
Rhodopeltis
Rose Petal (Halymenia Porphyraeformis or Dilitata?)
Scinaia Forcellata or Tsinglanensis
Bryothamnion sp.
Neomeris sp. (Annulata?)
Enteromorpha sp.
Halimeda sp (Opuntia?)
Shaving Brush (Pencillus sp.)
Red Mangroves



Acanthophora Spicifera
Red Grape (Bortyrocladia sp.)
Sargassum sp.
[s]Codium sp.
[s]Dictyota sp.

[spidernano]

This tank is better looking than I expected excited for this man

What lights are going over this?

[acbaldwin]

This tank is better looking than I expected excited for this man

What lights are going over this?

I can't wait!! I really want to try going for the natural color and SHIMMER of MH again, so I'm going to try repairing a couple of 250w pendants I have. Think I'm gonna run 10000k lights only, no blues. Not sure. Also not sure on the MH. I may have forgotten how bad the heat/power is.

I really like the shimmer of the 10k Kessils that AW has over their shallow plant tank, but those are 360s and no way I'm paying that much. I don't think 150s would be enough though.

Really on the fence, I'll just have to see once everything's together. Might just pull the lenses off my 36" LEDs and use those on their own.

Or maybe I gut the MH pendants and build a couple of high power COB LED fixtures myself???...like I need another project

[pirate2876]

Is this ndrwater's tank? I was the other guy who was suppose to buy it. My loss for sure. That is a solid frag tang for sure.

[acbaldwin]

Is this ndrwater's tank? I was the other guy who was suppose to buy it. My loss for sure. That is a solid frag tang for sure.

Yep! Sorry (not sorry!) I beat ya

I don't know what happened - there were a ton of big shallow tanks for sale on here and SCR right after the last show. Nobody wanted them, and then bam they all sold and I couldn't find a single one for weeks.

[pirate2876]

Yep! Sorry (not sorry!) I beat ya

I don't know what happened - there were a ton of big shallow tanks for sale on here and SCR right after the last show. Nobody wanted them, and then bam they all sold and I couldn't find a single one for weeks.

This hobby is like a wave. Everything happens at once, then disappears only to come back later.

Throw some halides on that bad boy. I run a 10k bulb if you want to see what color it looks like. Not bad IMO.

[acbaldwin]

This hobby is like a wave. Everything happens at once, then disappears only to come back later.

Throw some halides on that bad boy. I run a 10k bulb if you want to see what color it looks like. Not bad IMO.

Totally agree.

Now that I've done five seconds of research on DIY COB LEDs, I'm really thinking about trying it. Low effort, low cost, high result...

(For later reference)

[acbaldwin]

So I was playing video games with my brother Friday night. New tank is next to me, just put water in to heat up before switching tanks.
Cat... jumps from my chair to the upper part of my desk. Falls off the desk, lands in tank. Douses me, my computer, my couch, my laptop, everything.









So that was fun.

Halfway through transferring livestock over. Picked up a QT cube from Dieu last night too. Gonna medicate with cupramine and maybe paraguard, and I'm gonna put some of the plants through it too just to see what happens.

My RBTA that moves every day seems to have finally found the perfect solution to his wanderlust... attached to a piece of macro that was floating around the tank!


Cleaner in his new home:


And just about all of my macros all in the new tank (no scape done yet!)


Got a new macro! Haven't ID'd it yet.


And the brown Graciliaria has been taking off:

[acbaldwin]

Got my little $9 pumps in, they work nicely! Start up in the right direction every time (so far), good flow (~500gph is about right), easy to position, quiet, moderately-wide flow (between an MJ and a K2). Bought four, using three in the lagoon to get a nice slow but even flow.


So... freaking... psyched... to have some actual depth to the DT again.


QT is running. It's around a 12g cube, hopefully all my fish will be okay for a while in this. Keeping a close eye on them for sure. Started first dose of Cupramine yesterday. Cat hasn't learned her lesson.


I sure hope I'm not asking for trouble... it's sitting on top of my server cabinet.



Spent yesterday doing the scape, thought I would need more LR (about 80 lbs here) but turns out I don't! I tried to give each macro its own rock to take over without worrying about things growing over each other. I plan on having about 60% of the sand taken up by rooted macros. Pretty happy with the scape. Marco Rock rules. Although I'd love to get my hands on some of the cerameco stuff.









The RBTA looked kinda cool since I half-pissed it off.




Got a bunch of red mangroves in on Wednesday. Still not sure where I want to put them. They're too short for my display, and I didn't want to do a planter box if I could help it. Maybe in the rocks, but I wanted a better substrate for them. :/


No pics, but added a bunch of new macros, a small royal gramma, a porcelain crab, a little green lettuce sea slug, and a bunch more clean up crew. Still need to add some margarita snails and a few pep shrimp.

Added a tiny little Diamond Goby too. When the guy at PK tried catching him, he disappeared. We found him three tanks over!


Today I'm adding rinsing and adding sand, and putting all my macros back in the DT. They're crammed in the sump right now.

[acbaldwin]

Oh, I'm going to try to keep my QT up and running at all times as a fishless-invertless planted tank, just to have it ready to go when I get the fish-buying itch. Figure I'll be better about QTing if I actually have one ready to go.
Ordered an Eheim Compact 300 to run return for the rear chambers on the QT, and a cheapie 10w COB LED floodlight to retrofit into the hood to replace the old PCs.

[inurmind]

Diggin the progress, looks good!

[dc2sd]

looks awesome man! great aquascaping. and i see you already put that nano tank to use. i'm working on my macro tank too and we'll have to do some trading in the future. oh, is that brown garcilaria under bright lights? if it's what i think it is, you should put it under brighter lights and it should turn more of a purple/blue macro. also, where did you get the small powerheads? i might get one or two as well.

[acbaldwin]

Diggin the progress, looks good!

Thanks Dan. Came home to my pittie looking guilty yesterday... she got into the stand and ate an entire new bottle of Selcon and a new bottle of Reef Chili... goddammit. All she left of the reef chili was the cap, ate the rest of the bottle. Well there goes thirty bucks.

looks awesome man! great aquascaping. and i see you already put that nano tank to use. i'm working on my macro tank too and we'll have to do some trading in the future. oh, is that brown garcilaria under bright lights? if it's what i think it is, you should put it under brighter lights and it should turn more of a purple/blue macro. also, where did you get the small powerheads? i might get one or two as well.

Thanks Dieu! The nano is perfect! Looked good enough that my wife said 'why don't we put that in the living room?' THERE'S a first.

I'm pretty sure it's brown gracilaria. hitchhiked in and just grew out one day. I'll try puttiing it under high lights and see what happens!
Here's the link to the cheapie powerheads. The ones pictured are the 530gph, but I also have one of the 800gph and it works well.

[Sancho]

So I was playing video games with my brother Friday night. New tank is next to me, just put water in to heat up before switching tanks.
Cat... jumps from my chair to the upper part of my desk. Falls off the desk, lands in tank. Douses me, my computer, my couch, my laptop, everything.

That sucks. I will add that to the giant list as to why my daughter cant get a cat.Tank looks awesome!

[acbaldwin]

That sucks. I will add that to the giant list as to why my daughter cant get a cat.Tank looks awesome!

haha thanks! Completely surprised the only casualty was my second monitor. Keyboard was my main worry, they don't make those any more and I've had it for a long time. Threw it in the sink and scrubbed it down and it survived!!! This was a big deal to me hahaha!