Paul's AquaPod 24G Specs and Build Thread

[paneubert]

AquaPod 24 Gallon.

150 Watts of Lighting consisting of Sunpod 150W.

Filtration:
Live Rock for biological filter.
290 gph pump with Hydor FLO attached to vary the flow pattern.
Maxi-Jet 600 (160 gph).

Rock/Sand/Stuff:
Tonga Branch Live Rock - 24 lbs.
CaribSea Aragonite - 1-2mm diameter - 15 lbs.
Seachem Tidal Marine Substrates: Silver Shores Aragonite - 22 lbs.
Larger diameter material as compared to the CaribSea. I even found part of a shark tooth in the bag! Total depth is about 4 inches combined.

Visi-Therm Stealth Heater (100 watts)

Clean Up Crew:
6 Astrea Snails
2 Pepermint Shrimp
Handfull of Dwarf Red Leg Hermits

Fish:
1-Yellow Clown Goby
1-Clown-Not sure if it is Ocellaris or Percula

Coral:
Various Zoanthids
Standard Pulsing Xenia.
Coraline Algae.....I know, I know, that should not count.

 

[paneubert]

Pics of my substrate.

 

[paneubert]

Pictures of my Live Rock. I was VERY VERY happy with my rock when it arrived. It was "un-cured" and it looked like it had pretty much come right from the ocean and into the box to be delivered to my door. The colors were way better than I expected. Smelled a little bad, but thats to be expected. Anyway... 24 pounds of tonga branch in a 24 tank was an interesting arrangement assignment. I will post pictures again when it starts to die off and look like crap. Then hopefully I can post more when it starts to regrow.

 

[paneubert]

Pictures of the tank....tried to do some arching rock with a view to the back of the tank. It has lots of caves and pathways. Not a huge chunk of rock even though it may look that way.

 

[fras]

I like the rock, it makes for an unusual aquascape, I bet the fish will love all the nooks and crannies.

Taking into account rocks introduced from frags though there's too much in there for my taste, also for clean looks I'd want to leave a gap big enough for a mag float all the way around.

Great start though, some of the nicest looking uncured rock i've seen.

 

[paneubert]

Yeah, using only branch rock was not the best idea I have ever had. It took up a lot more room than if I had used big chunks of solid Fiji Or Solomon. I will wait till it cures than then see if I can get rid of a couple chunks that didnt do so well in "rebounding".

 

[paneubert]

Decided to pull all the rock out and re-arrange. Ended up trying to slope it from high in the back down to a low front. Used a lot of my branch rock to create tons of caves and tunnels under a fairly flat sloping "roof" of rock for my frags. There is a powerhead low in the tank behind all that rock that blows towards the front right corner of the tank. Left some vertical tunnels for the fish to swim through. Tried to leave clearance on all three sides for glass cleaning as needed. Still cycling, so it looks like crap. Still don't know if I like the style that I used. It looks a lot like a pile of sticks to me.

 

[paneubert]

View from the top with a pretty bad reflection from my bulbs.

 

[bleedingthought]

I like the rock, and it seems to have a lot of potential but I do think that you have too much of it in there. When you get the chance, try and create something really roomy all around, with maybe a peak or two instead of an arch. Focus on doing something that you like, is stable, and flexible instead of focusing on using all of the rock. Then see how much you have left and what you can do with it. You might end up leaving some of it out. But keep us posted!

 

[paneubert]

Just re-arranged the rock again. I justify all the moving by telling myself that every time I re-arrange, I shake off some of the dead crap that has been rotting all over the place. Tried to open it up a little since I am now planning to just have fish. Ended up taking a hammer to some of the ugly pieces of rock and then throwing them in the rear right compartment in about 1 inch chunks. They will get high flow back there and maybe grow some bacteria for me. So I still have 24 pounds in the tank, but only about 21 that is visible. Rock is still really smelly, so I know I am nowhere near done cycling. Tests tell me I am still over 8 PPM Amonia, but at close to zero for Nitrites and Nitrates. So I have some waiting time on my hands.

STILL don't know if I like the way it looks. But I think I will leave it as it is.

Will post pictures when the water clears up some.

 

[bleedingthought]

Will post pictures when the water clears up some.

Will be waiting. :wink:

 

[paneubert]

Nitrate: Between 5 and 10
Nitrite: Between 0 and .25
Amonia: Somewhere over 8
PH: Around 8
Using an "Aquarium Pharmaceuticals/Dr. WellFish" test kit. It doesnt seem that easy to read the colors. I am also wondering how my water additives are affecting my measurements. I use SeaChem "Prime" to dechlorinate my water when I mix it (I don't have any money for R/O yet) and I know that it also binds up Amonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite somehow. So I wonder if some of the measurements I get are actually the "bound" form of Nitrate and Nitrite after "Prime" gets hold of it. I also had some SeaChem "Stability" laying around so I have been tossing some of that in each day to boost the bacteria count and maybe help it along in the replication process. I know that using chemicals to control your tank is a sign of bad reefkeeping, but I figure if I have it laying around the house then why not use it now when I don't have any fish or corals to harm.

Been thinking about what kind of fish I want. I think I will end up with a few Pepermint Shrimp, some snails and crabs, a few Gobies, and maybe a pair of Clowns. Don't want to overload the tank, so I would take it slow. Anybody out there think 4 fish is overloading a well cycled 24 gallon?

Rock slopes from top back to low front really quickly. Wanted to leave exposed sand in front but also allow for space to place frags if i ever decide to go that route.

 

[bleedingthought]

There's no reason to use prime if you're cycling, since the chlorine will evaporate in a couple of days after the salt is in and there's constant motion.

You should get your water from the glacier stations that are usually at grocery stores or walmart. Here in GA, they're usually 39 cents a gallon. I forgot if NC has kroger or not, but that's my pick. You can also purchase 7 gallon jugs from walmart that are used for camping and it'll really help you with the water. For a tank this small, it would serve you well! You'd probably be looking at about 10 gallons of evaporation a month and 10 gallons of water changes as well - so less than 10 bucks, including the gas, for water monthly.

Your test kit should be fine for now. As long as the ammonia is dropping (even if it's slow) and the trites are rising and then the trates, you should be fine. If nothing changes on your charts for a while (weeks) then I'd second guess the test kits. After everything is reading 0, you shouldn't be reading any ammonia and nitrite again, so no reason to have expensive test kits (I feel). But for the other tests, nitrates, alk, calcium, you might consider salifert.

The aquascaping looks better, but you still have no way of getting your hand, or a magnet, on the back part of the sides. I would try to take some of the rocks from the sides and make a mound on the sand, off to one side (but still away from the glass) that is not as tall as the mound in the back. It seems like that would look cool. And I agree with your idea to leave room on the sand, especially if you like LPS!

It's looking good. And keep the pictures coming!

 

[SnowManSnow]

good start.. you MIGHT consider buying some fiji or somthing and using the branch rock to create gaps between the big solid parts.

keep up the good work!!!!!
b

 

[paneubert]

Yeah, only having branch rock is good for flow, but it is getting really annoying trying to aquascape it.

 

[paneubert]

A log of how freaking quick my cycle seems to have gone wacky.

I had a giant amonia spike for about a week and a half with next to nothing reading for nitrate and nitrite the whole time. Then starting on the 23rd, things went crazy realy fast, and I am down to almost no Amonia.
I have not been able to determine nitrite for a few days because my test kit gives me a weird color that does not look anything like the colors I have to chose from on my scale. My results used to looked like the colors when I first started testing the first week or so, but now it doesn't want to co-operate. I think I will bring in a sample to be tested at the LFS.

Nitrate seems to have exploded and then imploded in a 5 day period.
I have done no water changes, and the temp and lighting have been the same the whole time. Does this sound normal for a cycling tank? I figured there would be more of a gradual rise and fall from amonia to nitrites, to nitrates. It seems like instead of gaining more nitrate, I am losing it. Almost like a reverse cycle.

23-Sep- Amonia=over 8 Nitrate=5 to 10 Nitrite=0-.25 PH=8

24-Sep- Amonia=over 8 Nitrate=40 Nitrite=.25-.5 PH=8

9/25/2006- Amonia=around 8 Nitrate=80 Nitrite=2-5 PH=7.8

9/26/2006- Diatom explosion!!!
Amonia=1 to 2 Nitrate=80 Nitrite=no clue PH=7.8

9/27/2006- Amonia=0 to .5 Nitrate=5 to 10 Nitrite=no clue PH=7.8

 

[paneubert]

Feel free to tell me where on the color scale this lies.

 

[paneubert]

Well the LFS had a 20% off sale and my levels seemed to be back in line. So I thought it was time for a clean up crew. Picked up 3 Nassarius Snails, 3 Astraea/Turbo Snails, 6 dwarf red tip hermits, 3 Peppermint Shrimp, and a conch. They went to work on my diatom explosion as soon as they were let out of the bag. Those shrimp really attacked like they hadn't been fed in weeks (which may be true). Now I'm just waiting for fish time.

 

[bleedingthought]

Cool! Post pics when you can!

 

[paneubert]

The LFS had another 20% off for "members only" sale. So I decided to ignore all of the people on here who don't like hermits and bought another 5 dwarf red tips to bring the tank total to 11. They are tiny, and I figure if they start to cause trouble then I can pull them out when they are chilling on the sand. Not only were they reduced to 99 cents, the guy also said he would throw in a ton of empty shells so they hopefully wouldn't fight each other when they feel like moving homes. Much to my surprise, when I got home and looked in the bag, the guy had apparently just randomly grabbed a handful of crabs/shells and I have ended up with more like 10 crabs and 10 shells instead of the 5 I paid for. So that was a good deal I suppose.

Bought my first fish. He is a yellow Clown Goby and looks like he is having a good time exploring my rock-work. My levels have been good for a while now and I did a 20% water change this morning. But I never really believe my test kit. I figure I will let this goby tell me if my tank is really cycled and ready for another fish.

Also bought my first zoo/zoa/zoanthid/whatever-the-cool-kids call-them-these-days. Nice big rock with 2 colors of Zoas all over it. I will take pictures when the slime goes away and it opens up.

Finally, I bought 2 more astrea snails to keep up the work on my algae.

My Zoa was listed as 40 dollars on it's own but somehow my total after discount with tax including the Zoa, the crabs, the astreas, and the clown goby was only 41. I was blown away by that but didn't complain since I am a poor Grad Student.

Pictures to come later today.