Irish's Aquapod Documentary

[ssirishpride]

****EDITED 7/9 TO SHOW CURRENT CONFIG.****

 

 

 

Aquapod 24 (false wall removed, topless)

 

SunPod Pro 250watt MH

 

CPR AquafugePS 3.5g with skimmer fed by MJ1200

 

(2) Tunze NanoStream 6025

 

40 lbs. Marshall & Fiji

 

3/4" SSB

 

 

 

PREVIOUS THREAD STARTS HERE

 

And so it begins... First off hello all! Greetings from the cold Southside of Chicago. After reading, searching, lurking, and a visit to the Shedd Aquarium I have taken the preverbial plunge. I want to be a successful reefkeeper. I finally pulled the trigger and placed my first order. I will go into that shortly. I wanted to start a thread like one that I followed a while back that included the working theory of diligent research, good decision making, a little luck, and easy to perform mods. So with that being said all are more than welcome to lend advise, give opinions and add personal experience all in the hope that someone along the way might find this thread as informative as i found steelhealr's (anyone who hasen't read it should) Without further adoo...

 

First order was from The Dr.s:

24g. aquapod W/ 150 hqi mh sunpod

mj1200

hydor FLO

 

Grand Total delivered to my door $378. All in all I am feeling that I got a good value. Upon arrival my first task is to do a through inspecton of the tank. My idea is to use a bright light and a mag. glass to inspect the glass. Then it's onto freshwater testing. I'll give an overview when I get the tank. I made a deal with the wife that allows me to use the 80 year old solid oak diningroom table her grandma gave us to perform the tests. I wanted to use this table because it's huge, heavy, level, and they just don't make furniture like that anymore. Same reasons she wanted it, so I had to get her Blue Man Group tickets to let me use it for a couple weeks. Once again, all in all a good value I think. My plan is 2 weeks with fw to learn the tanks lighting, temps, and flows. This should give me enough time to get the basics dialed in. Also set up delivery with Ice Mountain Water (a local bottled water company, like Arrowhead) to bring me 5gal. bottles of distilled water for t/o. $6 delivered to my door when I need them.

 

Well that about sums it up for now. Monday morning I will start on my list for the second order. I also need to set up a time to go and meet the locals at my local reef store. If anyone knows the people at Beyond The Reef please let me know. I figure I'll go over there Thursday or Friday. I want to compare refractometers and see the Biocube 29 stand for use with my pod. Until next time. Slainte!

[saltyd4wg]

good luck on this- sounds like you're off to a good start. the only thing I might question is the use of distilled water- think I read RO is what you want to use- you can get it at walmart (self-serve filling of your jug) and I think the cost is about 75 cents a gal. also for stands, if you go to Cadlights web site they have some that might work for the AP24 -really nice wood ones. They are a bit more expensive at around $200 but if that isn't an issue you might check it out. I almost bought an AP24 so was looking at stand options myself. happy reefing

[ssirishpride]

I will def. check out cadlights. My concern about wally water is the quality of the water I recieve. I have seen posts that mention poor maitnence to the machines poss. leading to problems inside the tank. let's face it, the sign off sheets could be signed and the workings may look great but the only way to have solid results is testing everything we are going to add to our systems, so I will. Wallmart here I come. I am going to use Catalina Water (after testing it) for the initial setup and w/c. But will probaly get an ro/di setup because I like the control it gives in regards to quality.(plus any new gadget is cool)

[ssirishpride]

So I went to the Shedd Aquarium yesterday and I have a new fondness for the scope of the place. My sister was just accepted for an internship there so I got an all access tour showing me the innerworkings of their eco-systems. If you haven't seen this place check it out online, It's a world class aquarium in Chicago. They have many, many enviroments but the highlights are a 90,000gal. carib. reef, a 400,000gal reef system, and their 3 million gallon oceanarium. I also learned that my sisters camera is pretty lame at taking pics so I will post what I can get to develop.

 

On that note I will be buying a digicam before I order my liverock. I want to document how LR is shipped from online sources seeing that is how I will get the majority of mine. The DR.'s sent me the confirmation email with tracking #'s which is good business. It says I will recieve my tank and sunpod in 2 shipments on the same day. Tommorw. Thats great turn around. Basicly telling me that if I were to order rock or other items that are time sensitive, a Monday morning order gets me delivery within 24 hours. Very cool, very quick!

[ssirishpride]

I changed the thread name to meet the guidlines in the forum.

[ssirishpride]

Well I ordered the Sony T50 so I can take good pics along the way. I want to document as many aspects as I can. I don't know if anyone is following aong yet but along the way if you want certain details just let me know and I'll snap pics of whatever I can. I really wanted to get some good photos of the rear chambers, since that was the area I was the most interested in knowing about. Maybe I will be able to light it well enough to give really specific details about some of the mods performed by people on this forum. I will also show how my liverock arrives. so along the way we can see the progression from the very start.

[ssirishpride]

UPDATE!!! FedEx brought me a broken pod. First let me say thank you to the Dr.s customer service rep. I didn't get her name but would love to reckonize her dilligent work on this one. Here's the story... The aqua pod ships in 2 boxes sun pod in one tank and stuff in others. Both boxes looked fine. (I really did check) opened up the large box first and made my way through the outer box. Found the glass top in great shape and went a little further. Upon opening the final layer you could see huge cracks in the glass. It's a total loss I explained. The woman on the other end was quick, and knew how to handle the situation. She asked me what I would like done. I was really just interested in getting my tank. She made the process of getting the replacement easy. And it only took about 5 mins. When it arrives, I'll give an update.

The lesson is obvious, just cause it looks ok it ain't always alright. I will really need to inspect the tank for even the tinest crack when it arrives.

[ssirishpride]

I went to pick up the stand, and did so after checking out a great selection of marine fish. It's a bigger stand underneith than I thought so I bought an aga 5g. to mess around with a fuge idea I want to try under the tank in the stand. All the guys were helpful, and their selection of large fish was impressive. They even have a huge shark display with 10 or so reef and bonnet sharks, all larger than any home aquarium should house i believe. But this display was really cool and a great home to what I am guessing are some one time pets that got to big for their owners. The expierence really demonstrated how large marine fish get. There were moorish idols, 12 inch puffers, big a$$ angles, Huge groupers. You name it they seemed to have them in full size. You just can't get whatever you want and "hope" for the best. All in all it was a good day. My replacement tank comes tommorw, so we'll see how that goes. (fingers crossed)

[ssirishpride]

well it's been a few busy days but here's the update... DFS brpught out an intact tank, so I yanked all the filter media that came with it, swaped out the stock pump for an mj1200 with hydorFLO. And now it has been freshwater testing for the last 4 days. So far so good. Tonite I'm gonna drill the hole for my extra return bulkhead on the oposite side of the back wall. I am thinking of getting another hydor for it and then a couple tunzi nanostreams for the side walls to add more turnover. My camera also came so when I get home tonite I'll snap a few pics of the pod on the cube stand. I am going to order my LR in the next few days and I am drawn between Ken @ sealife and PA. I have take to PA and Michelle said they have good marshall and figi now since the move. I emailed sealife today to see what he has going on. I am gonna empty the FW tonite and let the tank dry. I'll fill it on friday with catalina water, and add my heater. Sorry it took so long to update but the President's Day weekend is a busy time for the bedding industry.

[Isodore]

Well hello fellow Chicagoan. Although I,m in bartlett I do work in the city. My first questionb to you is that if you are on the south side why go all the way to Beyond the reef? (it is a terrific place btw) Seems a little far unless they opened one in the city I haven't heard about, otherwise everything sounds like its going ok. Sorry to hear the first tank was broke. I will be interested to hear and see about any mods you do and if you have any questions about other stores let me know and I will try to fill you in. Good luck and keep us updated thanks.

[ssirishpride]

Here are the pics I snapped last night after draining the freshwater. I like the look of the BC29 stand a lot better than that orig. AP24 stand. A plus is the added storage. I may put an aga 5g. down there as a quaratine and acclimation tank. Either way, it is so much stronger than the stock unit. I ordered my bulkhead and plumming pieces from marine depot yesterday along with a 2nd. MJ1200 and hydorFlo. I am betting this will give me varied enough water movment, if not enough I will add 1 or 2 nanostreams. Without any further adoo heres the first of my pics for this thread.

[icenine]

Good call on the stand. I may move my pod onto one if by chance I find I have to move the tank for any reason.

 

Looking forward to seeing how things progress.

[ssirishpride]

Thanks I found Aquatica in Tinley had 2 in stock for $129 each. The price just happened to be the best also, and no waiting for a special order. Those guys have some huge fish in that place.

[ssirishpride]

FexEx just brought my 2nd mj1200 and hydor. Along with the bulkhead I needed. So I guess I'm off to home depot to get my first dremel. I'll post pics of the mod process as I go along.

[ssirishpride]

It's been a couple days since I have posted because I got called away on business so here's the update. I modded the back wall to add a second return with a 1/2" bulkhead. Also added a HydorFlo on that return. It was as easy as seen on this forum, just drill and attach. I have both mj1200's i nthe left hand chamber. I plumbed the black tubing through the seperater to feed to new return to give it a cleaner look. Also added a Jager 150 heater to the left chamber. I'll post pics tonight I promise. I also ordered 20#'s of aragalive sand from PA and the 19" aquafuge2 w/ protein skimmer and fuge light. I'll cut some wooden legs and paint them black to mount under the fuge to add support. I am really glad I went with the bc29 stand cause it gives me the perfect room to add the fuge behind the pod. I figure the "live" sand will work to seed my "non-live" substrate in the main tank and in the fuge. I need to get some cheto, any suggestions? On the subject of liverock, Ken @ Sealife will get my order this week. Prob. 30 #'s or so. I'll put some in the aquafuge too, along with the sand. Well pics. to follow tonite.

[ssirishpride]

As promised

 

Some tighter shots of the chamber config. The left has (2) MJ1200's and the Jager heater.

 

The right chamber has the new 1/2" bulkhead plumbed in and being fed from the pump in the other chamber. You can also see the HydorFlo.

[ssirishpride]

filled up and ready to rock. have a look at the surface, the hydor seems to be doing the job well.

[ssirishpride]

I took the tanks temp. before going into work and it was at 82. The heater is set at 79, so I lowered the dial to 75 and we'll see what happens when I get home tonite. Man this light setup is not even in use yet, I gotta say temps. are gonna be a concern I see. Hopefully lowering the heater and getting it dialed in with the lighting cycle will even things out.

[ssirishpride]

Wow, let me say that I really need to get this heat thing dialed in. After a 9 hours with the mh on my temp was at 82.6 or so. Way too hot, and this damn heater isn't helping. It would seem that it is at least 4 deg. off. One of the features of the heater is that you can set the calibration ring on top. but it appears that someone "adjusted" it prior to getting to me. So that is taking some extra time to iron out. Let's face it, I can't order my liverock until I can get these temps. down to say 77 or so. I am going to buy a clip-on fan I think maybe that can take some of the heat off during the "daylight" part of the lighting cycle. On another topic, my Aquafuge PS should arive today. I'll mess around with it at work and plumb it in tonite when I get home. Pics. to follow tonight. I will prolly have to add an ato into this system somewhere to make up for evap. from the fan blowing across the surface to lower the overall temps. I know nothing about ato's so I'll have to read up on them. The other thing is if I can't get the temp down I need to add a chiller and I can't even picture in my mind how the heck those things work or are plumbed into the system. And as we all know they ain't cheap. I skimmed some foam-like substance off the top of the water in the rear chamber. Not to sure where that came from, seeing as I have nothing in the tank to create such a substance. It just gathered in a corner about 2 inches around, floating right on top.

[Ihop]

Wow, let me say that I really need to get this heat thing dialed in. After a 9 hours with the mh on my temp was at 82.6 or so. Way too hot, and this damn heater isn't helping. It would seem that it is at least 4 deg. off. One of the features of the heater is that you can set the calibration ring on top. but it appears that someone "adjusted" it prior to getting to me. So that is taking some extra time to iron out. Let's face it, I can't order my liverock until I can get these temps. down to say 77 or so. I am going to buy a clip-on fan I think maybe that can take some of the heat off during the "daylight" part of the lighting cycle. On another topic, my Aquafuge PS should arive today. I'll mess around with it at work and plumb it in tonite when I get home. Pics. to follow tonight. I will prolly have to add an ato into this system somewhere to make up for evap. from the fan blowing across the surface to lower the overall temps. I know nothing about ato's so I'll have to read up on them. The other thing is if I can't get the temp down I need to add a chiller and I can't even picture in my mind how the heck those things work or are plumbed into the system. And as we all know they ain't cheap. I skimmed some foam-like substance off the top of the water in the rear chamber. Not to sure where that came from, seeing as I have nothing in the tank to create such a substance. It just gathered in a corner about 2 inches around, floating right on top.

I have the ap 24 150hqi wiht a 100W Heater and 2 MJ900's and My semps stay between 78-79 with the heater set to 78.

[ssirishpride]

Yeah, maybe I'll drop down to the 900's and swap the heater. Or maybe I'll save up the $600+ and get a couple VorTech and take the heat from the pumps totally out of the tank. Man those are cool.

[ssirishpride]

You know the more I think of this the better I like the idea of using mj900's. 8.5 watts compared to 20 is a pretty big difference. I am also gonna bucket test the heater too just to be on the safe side.

[Ihop]

You know the more I think of this the better I like the idea of using mj900's. 8.5 watts compared to 20 is a pretty big difference. I am also gonna bucket test the heater too just to be on the safe side.

That is why I went with the 900's more flow and less wattage. 2-900 = 460gph @ 17w compared to 295gph @ 20w with 1 mj1200

[ssirishpride]

no doubt. there are a total of 3 mj1200's on this pod so I may just swap them all out for 900's. DFS has them for $15

[ssirishpride]

Ok, I got the LR from in today (pics will follow) PA was who I went with because they are so close to me. I ordered 30 pounds of mixed fiji and marshall. UPS gets it to me next day (ordered wed. at 11am recieved thursday at 2:30pm) all for less than $13 in shipping. The rock was $4.49 per pound. I put it into a bucket of catalina water to get off any loose debries and then into the main tank. It is a real good varitey of sizes, I'll take a few out and lay them onto a plastic bag maybe to show some of the diversity. Does anyone use an aquafuge ps if so is this the right consistancy for the skimmate to be? I will aquascape in a week or so, I am thinking some sort of atoll style thing. These swing arm hydros suck, I have PA sending me the blue refracto next-day air so I can get my sg in order once and for all. Any recomendations so far? The last 5 are while I was plaing around with the macro mode on my camera.