Irish's Aquapod Documentary

[shao-lin nano]

Tank looks good so far. Nice choice of equipment too.

[captianchunk]

Hey thanks a bunch for the info on the pieces.

What would i need teflon tape for?

[ssirishpride]

just wrap a bit around the threads of the elbow.

[yankeereefer]

Hey irish!

 

First time I got to read your thread - Your tank has progressed very well.

 

Did you make to out to DLC? They're supposed to having a tremendous sale this weekend. LMK if you go out there tomorrow (Sat) - Maybe we can meet up and I can give you some chaeto (it's time to trim again)

 

YR

[ssirishpride]

ok, the nanostream is in and looking good. here's some pics. pardon the fact that everything is pi55ed off at me for having my arm in the tank. also added some corals this week. here's pics of those also. the small polyps are closed so i will have to get the pic of them later.

 

and finally

[ssirishpride]

so after a few days everything is looking well. the exception is the elegance. i am really worried that because of the enviroment of my system it just won't work. i'll give it a few more days and if it doesn't come around one of my local guys has a system that will be perfect for it. he is already cool with the idea, so we'll just take it slow and see what happens. the tunze 6025 is a better head. hands down period. the flow is really very dispersed, and quite strong. the use of the hydor return gives the tank a real random pattern of flow. i am considering running the hydor on a 30/30 on/off pattern to see the results. i would just use a simple timer until the reefkeep2 shows up. did i forget to mention that. lol. it is my next project. i like the idea of real time monitering while i am at work via the www. and the overall automation of the main systems can't be beat either. i am going by a local reefers house to pick up some nass. vibex snails tonight as part of a group buy. a dozen for $10 and free shipping is a deal that is second to none. i love those snails. the stay burried and pop up as soon as any food is put into the tank. it;s really cool how fast the response is. any-hoo just ask if anyone has questions.

[quy_nquyen]

wow looking at your elegance coral makes me want to get one too. awesome tank

[ssirishpride]

yeah, i am really gonna be bummed if this one is not gonna be happy in my system. there is way too much discussion on the www between deseses and enviromental situation to really make heads or tails of what is up. i read for over 5 hours so far on them and it is just not working for a lot of really good, dedicated people. it makes me sad to have been envolved in a bad situation. but that being said, it is an awesome animal. and my girl got it because of that (well that... and it was marked as a "neon brain") thanks for the complement, it's much appreciated.

[G-Force]

sweet new additions! question for ya..got my aquafuge up and running. I noticed even the bubble reducer in place, I still get tons of micro bubbles in the display..any tips on reducing that? also do you get the annoying gurggling sound on the return? thanks again!

[ssirishpride]

at first both. but over the weeks they have both gone away. i found that my mj12 return was sucking in the bubbles and shooting them into the return. look at yours and see if that is causint the problem. i just repositioned the mj to a space not directly under the outlet.

[G-Force]

yea I had an idea of movin the return pump to the other chamber where the stock over flow is on the right (facing the pod). just need to get some tubing.

[ssirishpride]

that might just work. it took a while to get the right combo. mine is below the overflow on the bottom of the tank.

[ssirishpride]

OK here's some FTS along with a new small addition. only $9 at a local. finally a good deal close to home.

[G-Force]

I just noticed you've got 3 pumps in the display? why so much flow? planning to get some SPS?

 

also I've solved my microbubbles issue..the stock return pump was sucking water from the bottom..what I didn't realize was that the 2 chambers had a opening at the bottom..I just took out the 2 blue sponges and blocked off all the weirs except the top one for surface skimming. that caused a waterfall effect (even with floss to filter the debris and reduce noise) with bubbles. that also reduce the amount of water in the back 2 chambers causing the aquafuge to guggle and cause even more bubbles since the level of the water was lower than the return. SOLUTION? remove another top weir and that level the water causing less waterfalls/bubbles/flow problems and now the AF's return is underwater. NO MORE BUBBLES IN THE DISPLAY! WOOT!

 

btw..I think those are cloves coral? correct?

[ssirishpride]

i have only 2 now in the display. i removed the mj on the stock return and capped the hole. thats where i hooked up the nanostream. sps yes! i got the frag of clove polyps and they are a nice little piece. opened right up and a few new polyps have popped up over the last few days. the zoos in the tank have grown too. both in size and number. i had a loose couple of polyps from the shipment so i glued them to a piece of rock and they have multiplied too. i ran a battery of tests tonight and saw a higher than usual nitrate reading, so i am mixing up a batch of water for a med. sized water change. the reading was <10 so it's not huge but just different than normal which is usually <5. so i'll be keeping an eye on that.

[ssirishpride]

Ok here's the big update. Mvite & Eric both got their frags to me is perfect condition. here's the proof. i only had time to snap a few pics. so here they are.

[mvite]

Looing good SS! You can probably place mine as close as you want to the light.

 

I don't know if it's the pic but the teal stag looks light on the tips. There was more, right?

[ssirishpride]

oh yeah, there was a lot more. i am gonna have to snap a few more pics after i take the wife out to lunch. the 250w lands wed or thurs. so the lighting will be just right for everyone. the "sps" thread has some more shots.

[ssirishpride]

here's some more. i think it's the pic. the teal looks pretty good. i'll watch it over the next couple days.

[ssirishpride]

well i did it. i bought the sunpod 250. it lands on thursday. i think my fan setup will keep temps in line. it currently runs 78-80. i think i'll move the heaters up to 80 and increase the time on for the fan. evap is gonna be a pain. but i will just top off morning and nite and get an ato this comming week or so. all the frags that came in yesterday are gonna be puttied into their places tonite. i am gonna do a 5g. w/c and remove some of the sand. it's over 3" in some places and is a bit rediciouls with the 6025 moving it all over. plus i think that the sand is trapping schmutz, that could lead to rising nitrates. i'll post up pics when the frags are in place.

[BSimm]

Hey there... nice tank. Reading along with interest!

 

Got a question for you... I'm interested in adding a 6025 to my Nano Cube 24... I actually have three pumps in there now- 1 mj 1200 running a hydor, 1 1200 running to a chiller, and the third, a mj900 running the stock nozzle.

 

I'm considering bringing in a 6025 and taking the return from the chiller and piping that into the stock nozzle... thus reducing the need of a pump (still a net of 3 pumps)...

 

How do you like your 6025, does it blow too much sand around? How does it look in the tanks?? clutter it up at all or what?

 

Keep going with the updates!

 

Brad

fellow chicagoian... northsider!

[ssirishpride]

i really like the 6025. it doesn't shoot water like my mj's do. it kinda blows it across the tank. the pattern is much wider. i like that one of my mj12's returns through a hydor, it kinda adds randomness to the flow in the display. the sand doesn't really move and i am only using arag-alive's special grade sand. i have a 1" bed or so. i added these 2 huge turbo snails that marine depot sent me and they are knocking over everything. so tonight i am gonna move some rock and coral around and glue/putty everything down into place. i would really like to get a piece of softball sized rock that is cured to add and do away with the smaller pieces i have. in hind site i should have used bigger pieces. but oh well. i'll deal with it until i find a bigger piece locally.

[ssirishpride]

so it has been done as of last nite. i hooked up the 250w sunpod, which was really quite easy after EZcompany confirmed that i had the timer setup correct. the dif. is noticable in that i can see the colors of the corals and everything for that matter clearer and of course brighter. it does run hot. not the tank temp so much but the fixture it self. i am not kidding about this... you could cook an egg rather quickly on it. i reset my fan to blow directly across the fixture and water at the same time and that seems to be keeping temps in check. i am comfortable with temps up to 83 seeing as i keep the tank steady at 80. and after about 3 hours it is at 81 and the fan just went on so i think this will work out well. i have been working on a list of the current setup and species and have it almost ready to post. my big a$$ turbo is a bulldozer and needs to go to a lfs like his brother did. it's just too destructive. i am always picking up my acro vidalia colony that he knocks on its side. so here's the list so far

 

Equipment:

 

aquapod24

cpr aquafuge/ps 19" model with pro. skimmer and cpr 24w fixture

250w hqi sunpod

tunze 6025

mj1200 on drilled bulkhead return

about 32#'s of marshal and fiji liverock

1" aragalive special grade livesand

boyd's chemipure

filter floss

jager 100w heater

 

livestock:

 

true perc

strawberry basslet

red serpant star

harliquin star

many snails

porclien crab

emerald crab (kicked my valonia's a$$ in 2 days woo-hoo!)

3 pep. shrimp

some lazy reef hermits

 

sps:

 

teal & blue stag

rasberry mille

cali blue tort

sage acro

mvites "my monster" purple acro

christmas granulosa

(2) tricolor acro

acro vadalia colony

 

zoos:

 

radioactive dragon eyes

kedd redds

silver paly

 

i think that is about it. good grief i want a 40b already.

[ssirishpride]

so i know it's been forever since an update but here it is. i took out the fales wall like i wanted to. it was easy. since i am using a 6025 and a koraila2 the false wall wasn't really acting as anything, or more over hiding anything. so now i have more room in the display. the aquafuge really takes care of the skimming/refuge duties as planned. all of my frags are doing well and coloring well under the 250 sunpod. temps are no worry. the same fan i had mounted behind the tank does a fine job still. i am currently battling an algea outbreak, but it's par for the course i guess. my tds got up to 5 before i caught the problem. but since changing the resin and doing 2 larger w/c it seems to be turning around. i tried chemi-clean but it didn't seem to effect the cyano so i will just stick with close monitering and a couple more w/c. all the critters are doing well, haven't seen my emerald in a few days so i hope he is ok, but he may have been freaked cause of the recent construction in the tank. i have cut back the 250 to 7 hours and switched to formula 2 pellets in small amounts for feeding everyother day. i was using rod's which everything loved but i think the fingernail size chunk i was using each time was putting extra nutrients into the system that wern't getting eatten. seeing as i have plenty of flow and am covering the tother bases, i hope to out perform the algea/cyano.

 

i want to swap out some of the smaller pieces of rock for a few larger pieces. i added a couple bigger ones a month or so ago, but without the wall, i have more room and the smaller pieces are just not as stable as i would like. the koriala is huge, i don't care what anyone says. but man it does move a lot of water. i might add another 6025 just for the fact that it is smaller, but i kinda am attached to the koriala. i like how it swivles. and the amount of water it moves.

 

i guess thats all for now. thanks for reading along.

[BigByrd]

hey man i know i said somethin about gettin you a frag of my red zoas but ive been busy...i can get you a frag if you want and i have some more that i need to get rid of too...lemme know if you want them you can come by and pick em up

 

any sps you'd be willing to trade?

 

edit: i think it was you i talked to about the red zoas...