H20's Nano-Reef AquaPod 24

[Nick's Reef]

those rics are killer!

[Gerber77]

Nice tank and those rics are sick

[c est ma]

Sweet, sweet rics! Great shots of everything as well!

 

The older rics in your tank sure look great, too. (Guess you can tell I like rics!)

 

--Diane

[clyde:)]

hi H20 and all other ap24 owners!!I just ordered an aquapod 24 with 2/32 lighting and i was wondering during the cycle if the lights needed to be on or off,and if there supposed to be off i would like to order the lighting upgrade you did.and i want the exact bulbs you got and i cant seem to find them on there site :eek:are they in the do it yourself section the nanocustoms systems section or something else????

[justaguy2]

 

Go away troll.

[clyde:)]

whats a troll scrooge????by the way i bought the refractometer and merry christmas!one more thing would that upgrade be enough for a bta and lps corals??

[DeMartini]

very nice! your tank is going to look really cool when the zoas grow all over the rock. I also love your rics! =)

 

justaguy2, I agree! Clyde the troll needs to leave!

[c est ma]

IMO, clyde is just addressing a topic H2O has mentioned in depth here. He's asked a specific question about nanotuners that H2O can probably answer. H2O has shown a penchant for helping others before in this thread.

 

(Clyde, in the future you might want to pm someone with specific questions about your own set up--would avoid setting off the name-callers...)

 

BTW, I'm pretty sure your lights can be off during your cycle.

 

--Diane

[justaguy2]

IMO, clyde is just addressing a topic H2O has mentioned in depth here. He's asked a specific question about nanotuners that H2O can probably answer. H2O has shown a penchant for helping others before in this thread.

 

(Clyde, in the future you might want to pm someone with specific questions about your own set up--would avoid setting off the name-callers...)

 

BTW, I'm pretty sure your lights can be off during your cycle.

 

--Diane

 

This will be my last distraction in this thread (my apologies H20), but Clyde fits the troll definition perfectly. He has multiple threads started asking basic questions. He also goes into multiple threads started by other people asking the exact same questions. Even after he has been answered, he asks the question again, and again.

[klarion]

IMO, clyde is just addressing a topic H2O has mentioned in depth here. He's asked a specific question about nanotuners that H2O can probably answer. H2O has shown a penchant for helping others before in this thread.

 

(Clyde, in the future you might want to pm someone with specific questions about your own set up--would avoid setting off the name-callers...)

 

BTW, I'm pretty sure your lights can be off during your cycle.

 

--Diane

 

I think clyde has a lot of questions that perhaps were not yet answered satisfactorily. He seems to be new to the hobby. This is a great thread to find in-depth answers.

 

Somehow I'm sure H20 won't mind since he's been so helpful before.

 

ED: In fact, I was about to look for some info on this thread when I saw ..what I saw.

[Maco]

A yellow ric wooooow...

 

-Mac

[donk]

H20, My wife bought me an Aquapod 12 for X-Mass and before I set it up, I was doing alot of research.

I came across this thread and it was like a good book that I just could'nt put down. It is very informative and helpful. If you dont mind, I have a couple of quick questions for you. I'm interested in going the same route as you with the egg crate. but my question is, how far down do you have the shelf. The bottom 2 sets of inlets have nothing behind them? Are'nt you getting alot of debris in there? Im just worried about clogging up the pump.

Also, where can I find one of those soap holders?

Any help would be great. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Don

[H20]

H20, My wife bought me an Aquapod 12 for X-Mass and before I set it up, I was doing alot of research.

I came across this thread and it was like a good book that I just couldn't put down. It is very informative and helpful. If you dont mind, I have a couple of quick questions for you. I'm interested in going the same route as you with the egg crate. but my question is, how far down do you have the shelf. The bottom 2 sets of inlets have nothing behind them? Aren't you getting alot of debris in there? Im just worried about clogging up the pump.

Also, where can I find one of those soap holders?

Any help would be great. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Don

 

Donk,

Have fun setting up the Aquapod. Getting the live rock in it and watching it progress is very fun. I am not sure exactly what you mean about the eggcrate and the debris. If you look at the below pic, that is exactly what my eggcrate shelf looks like. I slide it in the back chamber in front of the inlet grates. I leave only the top grate open, and the shelf that you see in the pic sits right below that open grate. On the shelf I sit my filter floss that filters everything coming into the back through that top open grate. Nothing accumulates down in the bottom, as most is getting filtered into the floss. If something does make it though, the pump in the back will probably blow it back into the tank, only to have a chance at getting filtered through the floss again. I have not had any problem with anything accumulating in the back. My pump has run fine.

Not sure if that is what you were wondering, if not, let me know and I can clarify.

As far as the soap holders, you can pick them up in WalMart in the shower heads section for about $3.

 

 

 

Water flows in the top open grate and onto the filter floss.

 

[donk]

Thanks for the info, I guess what I meant was, I read where you said that you only keep the top grate open.

Maybe I'm not understanding and maybe the 12 is different from the 24 but how did you close off the other grates?

Thanks, Don

I've had bigger reef tanks before (90 and 55 gal) nothing this small. I agree about the Live Rock, I could sit here for hours just watching this stuff.

[H20]

Thanks for the info, I guess what I meant was, I read where you said that you only keep the top grate open.

Maybe I'm not understanding and maybe the 12 is different from the 24 but how did you close off the other grates?

 

 

Ahh, I see what you are asking. The 24g may be different than the 12. The 24g has little plastic covers that slide down over the other grates in the back. One plastic cover for each grate. that way, you can leave one open, 3 open , or all of them open, depending on what you want to do. I have not seen the 12 so I am not sure how they are, but that is the setup of the 24. Good luck on yours, you are right though, I think I could get a tank and put nothing in it but a bunch of live rock and watch it for hours to see what is coming off of it as far a hitchhikers. I love to watch mine at night with a flashlight, that is where the action is....

[donk]

The 12 does not have the capability of closing the inlets. I think I might just Superglue a plastic cover over them.

Thanks again, Don

[justaguy2]

Ahh, I see what you are asking. The 24g may be different than the 12. The 24g has little plastic covers that slide down over the other grates in the back. One plastic cover for each grate. that way, you can leave one open, 3 open , or all of them open, depending on what you want to do. I have not seen the 12 so I am not sure how they are, but that is the setup of the 24.

 

The 12 is different. I have both the 12 and 24 and the 24 has the plastic pieces that can be removed or used, but the 12 has a fixed grate on top and then smaller slits in 2 places on the way down with no ready way to close them.

 

What I would suggest for the 12 is a little super glue gel (even if filled with water this will work) and any plastic piece that can go over the grates to seal them. The ability to force all the water to run through filter floss really gets a lot of gunk out of the water quickly. Glad I read this before I got the 12 set up (planted freshwater tank) or I probably would have forgotten to seal those grates off.

[donk]

The 12 is different. I have both the 12 and 24 and the 24 has the plastic pieces that can be removed or used, but the 12 has a fixed grate on top and then smaller slits in 2 places on the way down with no ready way to close them.

 

What I would suggest for the 12 is a little super glue gel (even if filled with water this will work) and any plastic piece that can go over the grates to seal them. The ability to force all the water to run through filter floss really gets a lot of gunk out of the water quickly. Glad I read this before I got the 12 set up (planted freshwater tank) or I probably would have forgotten to seal those grates off.

I have already started to cycle with the LR, using the super glue gel wont screw any of my parameters up?

[justaguy2]

I have already started to cycle with the LR, using the super glue gel wont screw any of my parameters up?

 

No, it won't. Superglue is commonly used in the hobby for coral fragging and other misc purposes. It is reef safe. What you want is the gel form as it sets better under water. Just look on the package to make sure the ingredient is cyanoacrylate and you are good to go.

[donk]

Thanks I appreciate the info.

[SacGyver]

Great thread H2O! Sounds like things are workin' really well for you.

 

I'm setting up a 12 gal AquaPod myself and I want to get this filter biz dialed in the best possible way. I really don't want to start gluing stuff closed on my talk so I've been brainstorming different options. I'd like to hear your thought on these...

 

1) Fill the first chamber from top to bottom with Filter Floss so that will cover all three returns. That stuff is ultra cheep so using a lot of it wouldn't be a big deal. Then, used the second chamber for Purigen. (How often do you use that stuff? Do you clean and reuse or just replace?)

 

2) Leave chambers 1 and 2 empty and stack Filter Floss and Purigen in the third chamber. That should have the same spill-over/skimming effect right?

 

Thanks for your advice...

-Shane-

[Giddeon]

I made a post on your pico thread but wanted to say something here. The Aquapod 24 my daughter bought for me was purchased from Fish.com. They must have learned their lesson with the shipping. When the box arrived it was huge. Didnt really know why until i opened it. Inside I found the box like you received wrapped completely in the rolled bubble plasitc. There was no way this tank could have been damaged..lol. after I unwrapped the plastic i removed the box like you received and dissasembled it. I found 1 tank, condition: new/unblemished . Needless to say i was quiet pleased and proceded to thank Fish.com in an email. The tank is now running for 3 days w/ LR(cured fiji from LFS and cycled to 0/0 and 25ppm nitrates. i had no noticeable amm spike and only a very small nitrite spike. I will be performing the first water change tonight after the lights cycle at about 8pm. Btw.. also have the brown algae(diatoms i think) starting to show fairly well on the rock and some on the gravel. Beginning parts of the CUC tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again for reminding me how much fun this is .

[oh my fraggin gosh!]

Hey H2O. I wanted to ask you about the amount of floss you use weekly. Are you using about a softball size (tightly squeezed into a softball size) filter floss? I'm still in my cycle so I'm cleaning a lot of detritus still so I'm literally replacing it every other day.

 

I noticed though when we pulled out the floss... only about 5% of the surface area is actually used up while the sides and back parts of the floss were still in good shape, even dry to some extent (assuming we tighten it for some surface skimming :-D) Anyway. I think a better way is to maybe put a block of solid or even mod the egg crates to make the filter floss a tigehter squeeze by making the compartment smaller. I find it hard to get the water level high enough to get it to actualyl flow "onto" the water. I usually just get the water to flow "into" the water. I was even considering cutting half an inch of a spare grate (since I had two aquapods shipped to me - first one arrived cracked and broken) and slide it down to increase the height of the water therefore decreasing outflow (increasing inflow) but that didn't seem to work either in regards to actually making the water flow "onto" the floss as you seem to make it happen in your picture up top

 

 

Hope it makes sense.

 

-omfg Great thread btw, Good read

[H20]

Hey H2O. I wanted to ask you about the amount of floss you use weekly. Are you using about a softball size (tightly squeezed into a softball size) filter floss? I'm still in my cycle so I'm cleaning a lot of detritus still so I'm literally replacing it every other day.

 

I noticed though when we pulled out the floss... only about 5% of the surface area is actually used up while the sides and back parts of the floss were still in good shape, even dry to some extent (assuming we tighten it for some surface skimming :-D) Anyway. I think a better way is to maybe put a block of solid or even mod the egg crates to make the filter floss a tigehter squeeze by making the compartment smaller. I find it hard to get the water level high enough to get it to actualyl flow "onto" the water. I usually just get the water to flow "into" the water. I was even considering cutting half an inch of a spare grate (since I had two aquapods shipped to me - first one arrived cracked and broken) and slide it down to increase the height of the water therefore decreasing outflow (increasing inflow) but that didn't seem to work either in regards to actually making the water flow "onto" the floss as you seem to make it happen in your picture up top

Hope it makes sense.

 

-omfg Great thread btw, Good read

 

 

I use about a baseball or softball sized piece, but not real tightly balled up. I kinda fold the edges up under itself to where it fits into the chamber nicely. I do get it tight enough to make the back chambers water level drop though. When I first put the floss into the shelf, it is kind flowing 'into' the floss and not onto the top of it. I use my finger and poke down the front of the floss that is against th grate to make that front side lower, and allow water to now flow 'down onto' the floss. Hope that makes sense. Oh, and yes, after mine has been in the chamber about 5 days, mostly just the top is brown and nasty, and the middle, sides and bottom are still clean. But I still change it out though. I change mine about every 5 days or so. I am still on my first $10 bag of floss from WalMart and it is lasting forever.

[H20]

"Everybody was kung-fu fighting"

 

Anyone remember that one-hit wonder song...

 

 

I happened to capture a hermit crab fight sequence and thought it was kinda funny, so I am posting it.

 

I starting clicking some pics as they starting walking towards each other, because I had a feeling something was about to happen.....

 

 

And, they walk away to fight another day......