ximmortaldeathx Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Well, Here's my story.... I moved out of my folk's house and left my Aquapod in my parents for about 2 1/2 Months. My mom would feed the fish and to RO/DI top offs. Two weeks after i moved out, the Metal Halide bulb went out. Due to the fact that I've been doing really well at work with a promotion, which also means more work and also me trying to get settled in my new apartment, I had completely ignored my tank. Finally last week i couldn't take how much i missed my tank and couldn't bare to the though of my little creatures all that time in the dark, and also how much money i put in this tank, I decided it was time to bring everything home. However when i got home i realized the Aquapod was Cracked at top and would leak water if you topped off to the black rim. So i posted a thread on the forums and someone recommended this unit. When i went to my LFS i saw it in person and fell in love with it. I also got a very good deal on the Tank+Stand. I also got an Ushio 14K 150-MH Bulb. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 This is my new tank I took all the LR from the old tank along with the lights and what was left alive on it. All fish survived (false Perc, Engineer goby, twinspod goby, emerald crab) . Heres a Pic right after i finished Aquascaping. I did also get new Live sand from CaribSea, finely crushed aragonite Oolite. I think ill need more LR later on. Here's a pic of "Esmeralda" as my wife named it. I'm, not sure whether the tank will do a soft-cycle since the LR have no algae on it, but just in case i will do a 30% weekly water change until i see live again. i must say, this tank has the best back area I've seen so far, it has a compartment for everything and theres good water flow, not like the Aquapod where things were more "disorganized". Your comments are welcomed. Link to comment
ezcompany Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 i'm glad you like the tank, you'll find the skimmer to be quite functional too. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 Haha yeah my bro doesn't have time to show off like me on the forum. Plus, i think he likes reef central more Anyways, i forgot to mention that the Skimmer pump came defective so I'll have to exchange it today. I checked today and the water is still murky, I guess it will take 3 days for the water to clear up. Link to comment
sal9012 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Haha yeah my bro doesn't have time to show off like me on the forum. Plus, i think he likes reef central more Anyways, i forgot to mention that the Skimmer pump came defective so I'll have to exchange it today. I checked today and the water is still murky, I guess it will take 3 days for the water to clear up. What are you talking about? I read all your threads (i have to watch over my little bother) I actually enjoy very much this forum but with the volume on my tanks I don't think I classify as "nano", that is until I set up your 24 aquapod, I think I'll put it on KAT's playground with some frags Love the tank, you are up to a good start. Light fits good also. This one is going to be much better than the other one I hope. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted December 11, 2007 Author Share Posted December 11, 2007 Ya! this is ur first post lol. The other tank was doing Badass, if it wasn't for me moving out . Link to comment
MiamiTank Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 really nice tank! what are you planning on keeping in there? i just got one of these myself but i went with the "disco" lighting that was being sold with the tank. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted December 12, 2007 Author Share Posted December 12, 2007 Ok, i need some help with the skimmer, I just replaced the pump and setup the skimmer in its place.I'm not sure weather the bubbles are high enough.also, i don't see how the skimmer would get waterflow where the entrance is.Here are some pics, i know they look crappy but you can basically see where the bubbles are from atop and also from the side.Here's yet another crappy pic (ISO issues). THe water looks much clearer today although it doesnt look cristal clear yet.Ok, I would appreciate some help with ppl who have the same Skimmer. really nice tank! what are you planning on keeping in there? i just got one of these myself but i went with the "disco" lighting that was being sold with the tank.Welcome to the Solana club, the light doesn't look all that bad.To answer your question, i plan to keep a bit of everything, mainly softies and fish in pairs, I love to see fish breed and make babies, Next week i plan to get 3 cleaner shrimp so that they can have tons of babies running around, that would be cool. I forgot to add that the skimmer is freaking loud, is this normal?? Link to comment
sal9012 Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Looks like your skimmer is on the breaking in stage (it depends on the skimmer, some go quick and some take a few days) . Bubbles on the neck look a little to big. I usually run my skimmers for a few hours on a tub with vinegar to eliminate all the oil residues before placing them on the tank & I get gunk the next morning . Bioload also affects the amount and density. Link to comment
MiamiTank Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Ok, i need some help with the skimmer, I just replaced the pump and setup the skimmer in its place.I'm not sure weather the bubbles are high enough.also, i don't see how the skimmer would get waterflow where the entrance is.Here are some pics, i know they look crappy but you can basically see where the bubbles are from atop and also from the side.Here's yet another crappy pic (ISO issues). THe water looks much clearer today although it doesnt look cristal clear yet.Ok, I would appreciate some help with ppl who have the same Skimmer.Welcome to the Solana club, the light doesn't look all that bad.To answer your question, i plan to keep a bit of everything, mainly softies and fish in pairs, I love to see fish breed and make babies, Next week i plan to get 3 cleaner shrimp so that they can have tons of babies running around, that would be cool. I forgot to add that the skimmer is freaking loud, is this normal?? yea the skimmer is loud on my side too, my only issue with it is it skims super wet instead of just skimmate i have a cup full od brown water but its not skimmate its more like just water in the cup and some skimmate mixed, ive tried pushing the rubber stopper on the skimmer down a bit making the cup higher so the water doesnt get in but that doesnt help... i might just buy an upgrade for the skimmer not sure what fits in that slot though. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted December 12, 2007 Author Share Posted December 12, 2007 I'll let that ####er running a couple of days and see how it turns out, mines also gets a lot of "wet" bubbles inside of the cup. but what i still don't know is how does water circulate through the skimmer, there is no input/output pump. Link to comment
SPS20 Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Not sure how water gets there, but skimmers in general don't usually start performing right away. It can take days or weeks before it really starts pumping out nastyness. Link to comment
PurpleUP Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Not sure how water gets there, but skimmers in general don't usually start performing right away. It can take days or weeks before it really starts pumping out nastyness. Wow, I like this tank. Kinda reminds me of my own. I agree with Josh here, you might want to wait at least a week before trying to adjust it. It'll only drive you madly insane in the meantime. Link to comment
rocky100370 Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Yes be patient I usually get at least 1/2 inch of dark beige to solid brown k skimmate every morning and I have no corals yet. Tank has been up forabout 3 weeks. All good things come to those who wait. Link to comment
brianjfinn Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 All fish survived (false Perc, Engineer goby, twinspod goby, emerald crab) except for my Mandarin Goby. Probably because there were no algae left in the tank due to the fact i had no lighting. Am I the only one that caught this? You kept a mandarin in an aquapod? Trust me, it didn't die from the lack of algae, which it doesn't eat. Please do some research on that fish. I'm surprised you haven't been ripped to shreds by others on this forum. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted December 13, 2007 Author Share Posted December 13, 2007 Ive seen many people with small mandarins in their tanks. the reason why i said no algae is because my tank always had algae with lots of copepods & other micro-organisms. trust me i did some reading before getting it. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted December 13, 2007 Author Share Posted December 13, 2007 UPDATE I did a water test today to see if the tank will cycle or not and i think it will definitely do some cycling. Test Results: Nitrates - 20 Nitrites - 0.1 PH - 8.0 ALK - Normal Ammonia - 1.0 I was a bit surprised by the amount of Nitrates, especially knowing that i removed all the Bioballs from the back of the tank. At any rate, I added a dosage of Seachem Buffer, hopefully by tomorrow it will be at 8.2. I will do a water change this Friday, i dont want my fish to be affected, although they're doing well. Heres what my tank looks like today. You can see my TSP and my sand sifting star in the corner. I don't like how the tubing looks, i think i'm going to make it either shorter or just point to the left and add a Koralia. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 IM BACK!!! sorry i havent posted in like FOREVER!! anyways.... My business is up and running well so i can focus on my tank again well, no surprise my tank has been shamefully reduced to nothing. However im on it again and i know this time it will be better than ever. What happened was that i got a BAD case of caulerpa algae and aptaisia, so i got SO i got frustrated and removed almost ALL my LR leaving only what had some frags and zoos. this is what my tank looked like last Friday after i removed the LR. also, my sides were FULL of coraline, my fault for not scraping. This weekend i got about 40 lbs of DRY LR, i did this on purpose so that i could see how long it would take to cure them in a real life environment and how it would affect my tank. Last night i took out about 10 gallons of the water from the tank and got me a 40 gallon thrash tank which serves as a BIG water tank, and added 25 gallons of fresh RO/DI and lefted it mixing with salt (i finally got around to getting a good RO/DI system from airwaterice so i dont have to go to LFS) Theeeen i took the tank to my sink took out all the detritus from the back, threw away all the live sand except for some which i left on a 10 gallon small tank where i put my fish and frags untill im up and running again. Are you still with me?? so now my tank is clean looking except for the coraline on the back. today i will be adding the water and the rock and new sand. ill post some pics of the aquascaping later. Link to comment
ximmortaldeathx Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 Aquascaping done. heres a front shot. and a side shot. The system is running dark right now since i sold my sunpod, but Ive got some better lights on the way, they have a 150W 14kMH also but it also brings 2 24W T5's so ill have some actinics also, which is something the sunpod lacks. I cant wait for friday to get here so i can try out my lights. Link to comment
DrCooper Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 I just got a call from the Tang Police. THEY ARE ONTO YOU hahahah Link to comment
veshman Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 wow, unique aquascape! is it ziptied in, or naturally balanced? Link to comment
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