Jump to content
Coral Vue Hydros

The Great Aquapod Adventure


seahorsejl

Recommended Posts

So I have decided to jump on the bandwagon of posting my tank information. I have been keeping saltwater (and freshwater) fish tanks on and off for over 15 years. They have ranged from a 5 gallon saltwater tank to a 46 gallon which was freshwater initially then I switched it to saltwater, with lots of 29 gallons tanks in-between. The 46 gallon had a major livestock crash a few years ago, and I dropped out of the hobby. Well, 5 months ago, I got back in with a 24 gallon Aquapod with stock PC lighting.

 

As far as the tank is concerned at 5 months old, I have only done a few modifications. I replaced the stock lighting fans with two stealth fans. I replaced the stock pump with a MaxiJet 900 to help with temperatures, which this helped a lot. This pump has a Hydor deflector on it. And finally, I decided I needed more flow in the tank. So I added a second MaxiJet 900 with a LocLine circular spray bar (I am still trying to get all the nossles pointed in directions I like). This involved drilling a new outlet hole in the false wall.

 

The tank has about 30lbs of live rock in it (24lbs were from Dr. F&S, 6lbs from a LFS). I will post seperate messages detailing the fish, inverts, and corals in the tank.

 

You will have to excuse some of the photographs... I can do great landscape photos, still working on the close-ups.

 

Here is what the tank looked like soon after it was set up:

IMG_2910.jpg

Pretty boring landscaping :)

 

And here is a semi-recent FTS:

IMG_3460.jpg

 

I can truely say I have been inspired by a lot of the beautiful tanks on this site, and hope one day mine will look like theirs ;)

 

Thanks for looking!

 

-James

Link to comment
  • Replies 128
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Meet the fish:

 

Here is the first first that was added, a Gold Stripe Maroon Clownfish (him and the Green Bubble Tip Anemone were added together and he started hosting the second day):

IMG_2953.jpg

He has grown quite bit since that photo, will post a more recent picture later.

 

The second fish added was a Yellow Clown Goby:

IMG_3114.jpg

He adds a nice splash of color to the tank.

 

Next up is a pair of Yellow Headed Jawfish:

IMG_3481.jpg

I got them from SeaLife Florida. They dug out a cave within hours of being released. They have lost a lot of their shyness and come out a lot looking for food.

 

My wife wanted something that was more active, so we now have a Six Line Wrasse:

IMG_3519.jpg

He is hard to get a good picture of since he is so active :)

 

And the most recent fish is a Tangaroa Shrimp Goby:

IMG_3576.jpg

He was added to replace a Hi-Fin Red Banded goby that went missing. I figured my pistol shrimp needed a new companion. Problem is, the Tangaroa has moved in with the Jawfish pair! Poor pistol shrimp.....

 

Like I mentioned above, I have only lost one fish, and that was a Hi-Fin Red Banded goby that shared a cave with a pistol shrimp. He just went missing a few weeks ago, not really sure what happened :(

 

That's it for the fish. Next up Inverts.

Link to comment

Meet the Inverts (non-corals):

 

After the cleaning crew, the first inverts that got added were a Green Bubble Tip Anemone (for the clowfish) and 2 peppermint shrimp to help control some Astipa anemones on the live rock.

 

About a month after adding them, the anemone split! Here is a post-split picture:

IMG_3130.jpg

The clownfish actually swims and plays in both of them.

 

I have a cool light green feather duster that I got from a LFS:

IMG_3233.jpg

 

Here is a picture of the pistol shrimp (along side the now-deceased goby):

IMG_3340.jpg

I hear him snapping almost every evening.

 

I also have a small cleaner shrimp, but he is pretty shy and I just got pictures of him last night that I need to post.

 

Also have an assortment of snails and hermit crabs for my clean-up crew.

 

I did have an emerald crab, but he went belly up a few days ago... not sure why.

 

In the hitchhiker department, I got a few things. One night I walked by the tank and saw this 18 inch worm in the tank! After invetigation on here, it looks like it is a euncid worm :( So far it has only taken some snails and helped the clean up crew as shown:

IMG_2977.jpg

 

I got a small little sand sifting cucumber that hitched with a coral from a LSF:

IMG_3059.jpg

Haven't seen him since :)

 

And lastly coming up... Corals!

 

Really Love the anemone

 

Thanks! I have always loved the symbolic relationships in the saltwater world. Thus the reason for having a clownfish/anemone and pistol shrimp/goby in the tank.

Link to comment

Lastly, meet the Corals:

 

The first coral I added to the tank was a small $10 frag of Candycane I got from a LFS:

IMG_3133.jpg

This picture is a few months old, need to get a more recent one.

 

My second coral was (unfortunately) an Avelepora... which was an impulse buy before I read up on it. Like most peoples, it wasted away over a few months.

 

Here are some Zoa's I got from Aquatic Island:

IMG_3453.jpg

IMG_3465.jpg

Both have grown a lot since getting them.

 

Xenia (which hasn't spread too much surprisingly):

IMG_3307.jpg

 

Here is a cool close-up:

IMG_3569.jpg

 

Favite (got a good deal on it at a LFS):

IMG_3392.jpg

 

Yellow polyps:

IMG_3541.jpg

 

$5 Red mushroom from a LFS:

IMG_3454.jpg

 

$5 Toadstool from a LFS:

IMG_3350.jpg

This has more than tripled it's size... need to get a recent picture of it.

 

Blue Zoanthids from SeaLife Florida:

IMG_3566.jpg

These are some of my favorites. I took this picture with a 10X magnifying lense on my camera.

 

I also have some blue-green mushrooms that I got from SeaLife Florida.

 

Last few pictures in next post....

Link to comment
You better get rid of that eunicid worm...My buddy lost hundreds of dollars in ricordia's from one of those guys...

 

Yeah, we are planning on moving houses soon, so when I break down the tank to move it I will try to get it out.

Link to comment

great set up!

i'm taking the blueberry didn't make it? :(:(

becareful of the maroon, it can be a nasty little thing. and good luck with the worm removal! 18 inch is too much!

Link to comment
great set up!

i'm taking the blueberry didn't make it? :(:(

becareful of the maroon, it can be a nasty little thing. and good luck with the worm removal! 18 inch is too much!

 

Unfortunately the blueberry gorgonian did not make it, just a barren skeleton now... my wife was sad about that too, since she liked how it looked like a tree. I think the shipping stress was just too much. I guess I should have filed an insurance claim, oh well, you live you learn. Might try another gorgonian down the road.

 

As far as the maroon, the clown goby actually bosses the clownfish around! All fish seem to hold their own. The only time the clown got agressive was when I put some corals near his territory. He literaly picked them up and moved them.

Link to comment

Well, found my second jawfish in the back sump again.... was a pain to fish the thing out. I need to put some weather stripping on the top edge of the false wall to keep the fish in the proper sections of the tank.

 

During my weekly water change last night, repositioned the spray outputs of the spray bar... one of the anemones was being blasted and the poor clownfish had trouble staying inside the anemone :lol:

 

Few more pictures.

 

More zoa's from ebin:

IMG_3596.jpg

 

Jawfish looking at its reflection:

IMG_3648.jpg

 

My little cleaner shrimp who hides until it is feeding time:

IMG_3607.jpg

 

Closeup of my toadstool:

IMG_3624.jpg

This is about 3-4" in diameter when fully expanded.

Link to comment

R.I.P to one of the jawfish... I think the stress of popping back and forth to the back sump area finally did it in. All I found was (stinky) bits of it. The other jawfish is very content staying in it's cave.

Link to comment
R.I.P to one of the jawfish... I think the stress of popping back and forth to the back sump area finally did it in. All I found was (stinky) bits of it. The other jawfish is very content staying in it's cave.

 

that sucks...might want to check your ammonia..

Link to comment
that sucks...might want to check your ammonia..

 

Yeah, a bit bummed about it. All is good in the tank though now. Did my weekly water change and all are happy.

Link to comment

New tenants added this weekend from a LFS!

 

Orange Plate:

IMG_3711.JPG

 

White with black edges feather duster:

IMG_3680.JPG

 

Not pictured is another $5 single mushroom (blue/green) and a pom-pom crab. The crab seems to like to hide during the day and only come out at night :(

 

And a new full tank shot:

IMG_3693.JPG

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Quick update. I traded in my two bubble tip anemones to a LFS this weekend. They were getting way to large and starting to sting and kill some of my other corals. They killed my candy canes, and had stung some zoas and my red mushroom. But those look to be recovering. I kept the clownfish, though he was not a happy camper when he realized the anemones were gone.

 

I also lost my latest blue/green mushroom for no particular reason about a month ago. Also, my green feather duster discharged it's feathers last week, but I saw some new ones comign back last night.

 

Everything else is doing great. Ebin's zoa's continue to grow great! Ever since I mounted some of the frags onto bigger pieces of coral, they are growing fast (especially the fire and ice). I think they are happy to no longer being dragged arround by hermit crabs.

 

That's it... no new additions until I get the tank moved in a few weeks.

Link to comment

cool tank, i set up my tank yesterday, and lr and sw is going in today. I really want a yellowhead jawfish, but i don't know if my sand bed is deep enough. how deep is yours, is your jawfish doing well?????

Link to comment
cool tank, i set up my tank yesterday, and lr and sw is going in today. I really want a yellowhead jawfish, but i don't know if my sand bed is deep enough. how deep is yours, is your jawfish doing well?????

 

My sand bed is only about 1.5 inches deep. And my jawfish is doing extremely well with that depth. He dug a cave out under a piece of live rock in the back right corner of the tank. He is always poking his head out looking for food.

 

Now I did buy the jawfish as a mated pair. But one kept on jumping into the back sump area of the tank. That one eventually died. It could have been jumping back there due to lack of sand bed depth, or (more likely) because the "mated pair" really wasn't that mated, and where fighting.

Link to comment
  • 4 months later...

It has been quite a while since I updated this ... lot of stuff has happened since the last update (mostly bad). :(

 

So the tank move went OK. I actually didn't loose much, I think maybe only my green feather duster. Over Christmas I got two Bangaii Cardinalfish and a porcelain crab.

 

So all was going fine and dandy until I started getting some hair algae. Then a diatom bloom happened. So I did a major water change, re-arranged the tank, and took out the carbon that was in there for a while (but didn't replace it as I didn't have any on hand).

 

Well, the next morning I woke up to mass devastation in the tank of the major fish/inverts. I lost the cardinal fish, jawfish, clown goby, sixline wrasse, cleaner and peppermint shrimp, and some of my bigger snails. The clown and tangarao goby where breathing really hard, and my pistol shrimp was out in the open. I think for some reason I had a massive loss of oxygen loss in the tank. It was depressing. Most of the corals seem to had made it. The feather duster popped it's top a few days later.

 

So fast forward to today (a few weeks later). I think I have the tank stabilized, though I am still battling a major hair algae and diatom bloom. I have purchased a RO-DI unit and have been doing weekly to bi-weekly water changes with that.

 

And this is why everyone on this board says not to use tap water. I was lucky at my old house in using tap water. But this new house the tap water must be a lot worse, I think that fueled this meltdown.

 

I have some new clean up crews from Sea Life Florida arriving today or tomorrow. I also have a AP24 Sapphire skimmer coming in the next few days. I also replaced my CF lights about a week ago, they were nearing their 6 month usage. And I added back in carbon, which I just changed last night with a water change.

 

So hopefully I can pull the tank out of this stupid algae/diatom problem.... all of the corals are now starting to be unhappy about it.

 

On the plus side, I saw a new crown come out on my black/white feather duster last night.

Link to comment

when u get ur new ro/di unit make sure to get a tds meter so u can test ur tds.

the skimmer shud aerate ur water quitewell, lemme know how it works out.

Link to comment
when u get ur new ro/di unit make sure to get a tds meter so u can test ur tds.

the skimmer shud aerate ur water quitewell, lemme know how it works out.

 

I have had the RO/DI unit for about 2 weeks now.... and funny you mention a TDS meter, I was kinda of looking for one today :)

Link to comment

Sapphire AP24 skimmer arrived today. Works pretty well, still fiddling with it to get the skimmate just right.

 

I also got a Hydor Koralia pump in the mail today too. I got the smallest one and it produces quite a bit of flow in the tank!

 

The combination of those two really cleared up the tank today. And the new clean up crew from Sea Life Florida, things are starting to look a bit better.

 

Edit: And yes I do have a TDS meter on the way :)

Link to comment

Quick update. The skimmer and Hydor pump are working great. The water is the clearest I have seen in over a month. Now I think it is just up to the CUC to devour the hair algae.

 

Oh, and my TDS meter came today. My water from the tap registered at 278 (!) ppm. The water from my RO/DI register in at a whopping 2 ppm (!!!). I would say it is working :)

Link to comment
very nice tank! the aquascape is awesome!

 

Thanks .. I wish my tank looked as good as it did a few months back. It got re-aquascaped after the house move, and the algae problem has made it just Ugly (with a capital U). I am slowly getting it back to presentable state.

Link to comment

that stinks with the Algea problem, but the tank still looks great I like how in your second pic your jawfish is poking out of that little cave, it was like you set that scape up perfect just for him lol

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...