AirAngel's 24g AquaPod Adventure

[airangel]

Update: May 11th

 

Got the JBJ ATO set up and running, just need to cut holes in the 5g Home Depot buckets lid. Refractomer from eBay should be here this week. Received my Super NIMBLE mag from Jerome (thanks they're great!).

 

Got some new corals, kenya tree or kenya tree like corals (they said were not kenyas so....) a large anthelia colony on a rock, a small rock with a huge purple shroom and some red shrooms, a tiny montipora frag (microscopic, lol), a two mouthed orange ricordea, a kelly greenish shroom.

 

Stay tuned for re working of the aquascaping....fellow reefer leaving the country and has LR for sale, so will finally try to split the original rock chunk I got with the tank, and add some other LR when I make the scaping more coral friendly. Hoping to accomplish it before the months over.

 

Upcoming Sale:

Will be offering back up the Solana Skimmer I got from SBCaes, have other plans for the back of the tank.. Stay tuned....

Some pics of the new additions:

 

New purple & red mushroom rock

 

Orange 2 mouthed ricordea and kelly green shroom

Left side

FTS Pulsing xenia, mushrooms, kenya tree

FTS closer up

Mushroom, toadstool, gsp and anthelia

Goby on green shroom, purple / red shroom rock

 

Questions for the day:

Anyone know where to find good/affordable 70wMH 14K bulbs with a blueish hue?

Still looking for micro brittles and asterina stars (the coral safe ones of course)

 

More soon

[Phixion]

Ellen, check out the Astralux 14K 70w bulb groupbuy thread in the classifieds. I just got a bulb from him (I'm local though and got one in person) as well as a 70w ballast and will be doing a 70w MH retro for my new 10g tank that I setup last month.

 

Your tank is looking better and better with each new set of pics I see about it.

 

Micros and asterinas for me at least have come as hitchhikers on either L/R or in chaeto I've gotten. My tank has tons of both.

[matty0206]

I really like the tank! You are so humble the pics are not bad at all!

[TheCuban1040]

I want one of those blue shrooms when it starts to spread!

[airangel]

I want one of those blue shrooms when it starts to spread!

 

Luis

That HUGE purple one on the shroom rock? I got that from Jason, its a monster! I can't wait til it spreads. I'm going to redo the aquascaping this month so will get things better situated for growing I hope.

 

I really like the tank! You are so humble the pics are not bad at all!

 

Thanks Matt...trying two different cameras. The spendy one is what i started with and can't figure out how to use it. The Kodak makes things look a lot better. User error on my part. Tank is coming along, can't wait till you get your new baby and start a thread

 

Ellen, check out the Astralux 14K 70w bulb groupbuy thread in the classifieds. I just got a bulb from him (I'm local though and got one in person) as well as a 70w ballast and will be doing a 70w MH retro for my new 10g tank that I setup last month.

 

Your tank is looking better and better with each new set of pics I see about it.

 

Matt..thanks, will look into the bulb. Curious how diff it is from the Phoenix that I've heard a lot about. Hoping tank will still look ok after I redo the scaping. Hopefully I won't kill anything.

[airangel]

UPDATE: May 16th

 

Ok, so got a deal on a used CPR BakPak skimmer. Boy are they a LOT bigger than I thought. I see I need to get an O ring (ACE Hardware perhaps) Not sure how to run the thing. It came with a MJ1200. Model is CYHO 11

It looks reverse from the pics on CPRs site....the pump attaches to the left side (as it HOB) and the fat elbow is on the right. Do I need the elbow? It does fit into the back compartment (thankfully) but I haven't touched it yet. Am sure if I plug it in it will drain my tank as it fills!!! LOL

 

Do I need to remove any parts for it to run? Will i have any water level level issues? It didnt come with directions, any advice appreciated.

 

New Goodies:

Besides above skimmer, I've added a few more red & purple shrooms (a lot smaller than the huge one in there now), also added another piece of LR that has a small colony of GSP and something else (forgot the name) that is supposedly no longer available to get in the trade. Something flat and green is all I know. Also added a green ricordia to join the orange one.

 

Am planning to redo things so stayed tuned for pics when its all said & done.

 

UPDATE: MAY 17th

 

Ok, got the O ring at Ace (.75c) and the skimmer is up and running...I think. Bubbles in the chamber and going into collection cup, no bubbles in the tank. Quiet too, surprised as read many folks are annoyed by the sound and bubbles in the tank. Hmm, perhaps I don't have it set correctly? LOL

 

Added NEMO. Took pics but will get them off camera this weekend..Hopefully he won't jump out. Was told he's a False Perc. Am sure he's not happy being in such a small tank (previously lived in a 115H). Joining him *finally* is a Peppermint Shrimp (sure after I zapped most of the Aiptasia last nite huh)

 

I bought them from the local reefer leaving the country and also a few more rocks for the redo of the scaping coming up. I am hoping for one coral (hammer) and thats its for my little 24 gallon piece of the ocean.

 

Thanks for following along with me....

[airangel]

New clownfish and tank shot

 

Peppermint shrimp (may never see him again, lol)

[airangel]

Mini Update: May 25th

 

I redid the aquascaping. Pics tomorrow when things stop being angry at me. Seems still no place to sit coral on the rocks. Most are on sandbed for now. Am still not in love with the new do but I think its a bit more open than it was and I was able to rescue the fallen corals and the errant screw that prior owner dropped into the sandbed.

 

Huge rock finally got halved. Took nearly 45 min with 2 screwdrivers and a hammer (the tool not the beverage, but couldda used one afterwards)

 

Soapdish is back.

 

Moved new (used) HOB skimmer from rt side of back chamber to left, combating bubbles in the display now and hopefully a slow leak from the skimmer has stopped (was not leaking prior to moving it, guess bumped a fitting)

 

Located the peppermint shrimp, still alive after I smashed the huge rock he was hiding in.

 

Added a few live rocks (from long established tank) but have a bucketful that I removed and won't re use.

 

Added a huge hammer.

 

PLANS:

 

Down the road I'd like to add a clam.

 

One YCG will be rehomed.

 

I'd like to add another (smaller) false perc, hoping the one I have now won't bother it.

 

I'd like to add either clove polyp or purple pagoda.....that should be it coral wise. Running out of room.

 

Thinking about adding another Koralia Nano.

 

Stay tuned for pics. Am hoping I didn't kill anything in the process, the re do took longer than I had expected it to.

[TheCuban1040]

I'd like to add either clove polyp or purple pagoda.....that should be it coral wise. Running out of room.

 

Out of room?! Nonsense! There is ALWAYS more room!

[airangel]

Hey Luis

Cmon over, find room for more corals and while yer at it, find spots for the corals all over my sandbed to sit on the new scape. I think your tanks bigger than mine, lol.

[SlukBunWalla]

Definitely go for the purple pagoda if you can find one. There are some around that are purplish with a green sheen to it which are cool, but I love my true purple. It wasn't terribly expensive and it came in from a very common dealer (Wilson Pet Supply...a retail distributor). Most any fish place could get them I would imagine. They spooge mucus a lot when irritated but it's not too troublesome.

[airangel]

How not terribly spendy? LOL. Doubt can find here but worth asking about. I like to have different looks and colors, some tall, some short, reds, green, purple. Started out with a lot of poo browns. Just hoping things take off and multiply.

[hazmat]

Hi Angel!!

 

So I'm curious as to how the re aquascape went! We talked about it on my other thread and I'm ready to do it but is stirring up the sandbed a big concern? I do not have a deep sandbed. I have less now because I had a few bouts of cyano where I sucked out some sand. and I only have 1 frag of zoa's.

 

Now I do have a clam and the fish. Did you take everything out first and put them in buckets?? Can you give me the rundown of how you did it? I really need to take out my rock and pull off some hair algae and red bubble algae but I don't want to expose it to air and have die off. Is a little die off OK for my fish?

 

Sorry so many questions!!!

Thanks,

Heidi

[airangel]

Heidi

 

Thanks for dropping in. The scaping took longer than I wanted, and I think I hurt as much as the fish, corals and live rock did when I finished. I basically didnt touch the sandbed. I dont have a deep one but its a dirty one, I didnt want to stir up whatever was in it and have it potentially contaminate the tank (I am a long time FW aquarist and I know its nasty under the gravel).

 

What I did was this...heated up some salted water. Shut everything off in the tank. Removed probably about 10+ gallons of water (2-5g HD buckets). I got 2 of those plastic dish washing bins, filled them up from the tank. Removed almost all the rocks, as the one I was mainly after was naturally on the very bottom and a very very heavy dense rock. My intention was to remove the 2 ycg, clownfish, peppermint shrimp and place them in another small bucket with the soapdish chaeto. Chaeto ended up with some smaller frags and the fish never left the tank.

 

I moved the cpr bak pak from the intake side of the back chamber to the outgo and must have knocked the tubing creating a small leak (now fixed). Wiped down the inside of the tank as well as the salt crust on the MH, tank rim, etc. Used 2 screwdrivers and a hammer and about 40 odd minutes later ended up with 2 nice rocks (and found the peppermint shrimp alive in the bucket after all was said & done).

 

Re scaping was harder than I thought, tank was of course murky from the clownfish diving into the substrate and from removing almost all of the rockwork. Putting the rocks back in the murk was not easy and I couldnt tell how the rocks looked. I had hoped I was doing it better than it started out but wasn't sure, lol. I guess we are never really happy with it. Fiddled around with the rocks I had and some new ones I was going to add. One problem was a mushroom that attached to a pretty ugly rock, its still in the tank until I can figure out how to remove it. I ended up putting an extra rock in since I wanted the coralline on it and had hoped to be able to get the shroom rock out.

Ended up with about 7 or so rocks not going back in, 1 was a new rock I had gotten the rest were from the original display.

 

I worried about the temperature in the tank as well as the corals in the tubs, it was to me getting quite nippy (I was otoh, sweating to death, lol). I worried about putting everything back in, do I acclimate it? I didn't have anything bagged up, just sitting in the tubs. I had to add water as I was adding the rocks back in, mainly to keep whatever was alive on them alive and to also see how things stacked up. I ended up re using some of the original tank water and when the skimmer started back up, the ATO kicked in, so probably will run to the LFS for more water and do another water change at weeks end.

 

I didn't acclimate anything, basically I refilled the tank, dropped the CUC back in, then tried to figure out how to set the corals back into the new aquascaping. My rockwork wasn't all that flat, and a lot of the corals are still sitting on the sandbed. I figured the less I tinkered with them after the re do, the better. This way I can see how the tank looks, how the water flow affects the new scaping and the best spots to try to place the corals.

 

It's slowly growing on me, lol. It appears more stable than I had before, and more open. I too want a clam and wanted to make sure I had a spot up high as well as on the sandbed after the re do to place one down the road. I did shut the Nano Koralia off last nite as it appeared to be bothering the toadstool and pulsing xenia. I'd like to see if I can fit it on the back wall of the last chamber (which already has the MJ1200s for the pump and one for the skimmer). I'm eyeballing getting another Nano for the other side of the tank as well.

 

I didnt' have any algae on the rocks, Aiptasia yes and once I pulled the rocks, they went back into their holes. Not sure how large your rocks are but I doubt a bit of air is going to kill it. What I did was pull the rock out and immediately put them into the dishpan tubs. You can have one smaller tub for the rock you are going to work on, get a toothbrush or whatever to clean it up, then rinse it off in some salted water and replace back into the tub with the other rocks. I had extra bins of used tank water to put bits and pieces in, especially after I got that huge rock split, it definitely needed a rinse before going back in.

 

Don't apologize for the questions, I had them too but didn't ask. Mebbe I didnt' wanna know, lol. After all said and done, the corals all opened up, some within minutes of going back into the murky and cold tank, others by time lites went off last nite. Shrimp seemed fine, gobies are still alive and so is Nemo. Skimmer leak stopped, and temp quickly got up to speed (MH helped, lol, and I did shut fans off for a while). Hoping no one comes down with Ich or worse but its done. I wish I could have gotten the sandbed done but I didnt want to lose any bristles or pods and figured I'd done enough damage rummaging thru the tank as is.

 

I've got pics in the camera and will get on the desktop so I can upload them here. It's not the final finished product, as majority of my frags are on the sandbed, but I think the scaping is better in the long run, more stable pieces and more flow thru the nooks & crannies.

 

If i was doing it all over again, I'd make sure I had extra water heated (even though I bought extra 5g buckets I ran short), and ideally I would have liked to remove the fish and placed them in a pre heated bucket. I felt that since everything was getting cold it was better to just put everything back in and then heat things up. I'm glad it's done, it bothered me since the day I got the tank home from original owner, I dreaded doing it but am very happy its done with and I'm liking how it looks (I'll like it more once I get extra rock moved around and the corals up, lol)

 

Can't wait to see you're redo. If I would have had a clam, I would have gone with the heated bucket for it and the fish.

Ellen

[airangel]

The RE-DO: May 25th 2008

 

It's not finished, corals need to be placed once I figure out how the flow is affected by the re design. Currently the Koralia is off, I'd like to place it on the false wall but not sure with 2 MJ1200's in the chamber if the magnet part will fit. There is an extra rock or so in there for now, I wanted to wait to see how things looked, wait till the murk cleared as well as the bubbles from the bak pak.

 

Here's some pics of the new look, I think its a bit more open, for sure a lot less rock, more hidey hole spots, but unfortunately not a lot of places to stick coral frags.

 

Full tank shot:

Right side of the tank:

Left side of the tank:

Toadstool, Green shrooms, Kenya frag:

Green and orange rics:

Clownfish & Hammer:

[Laura6686]

Love the new setup....

 

I was wondering if you have a chiller? If so what one and how did you set it up? I have a new aquapod24 and my apartment has no ac.

 

On my 37 Gallon (last 3 years) I turned off my heater for the summer. I also switched the lighting method so that the lights came on at 5pm.

 

:-)

[airangel]

Hey Laura

Thanks, the center of the scaping is more open, but hard to tell due to the purple rock sitting on the left side (I like the rock but didnt have spot for it yet).

No chiller. Can't see spending a few hundred bucks on one. Since the tanks open, I have a dual AquaTek fan hooked on the back, I have it set to go on/off with my lights (currently 1-9pm). If it gets too hot before lites on, I will just run fans longer, so far its been doing ok temp wise.

I also thought to stop the heater or go less wattage (running a visi therm 100w now) if need be, that and as you say, re arrange the lighting schedule.

[Ocho Cinco]

Looks good!!!!!

[airangel]

Hey Ocho

How's your Loc Line doing? LOL. Thanks. Its a bit crowded due to all corals up front and that spare rock behind the toadstool. Today I remembered I had another frag of GSP....I left it in the rock chip bucket all nite, geez. Popped it back in the tank and hoping for the best. Also moved the Nano to the back wall....thinking have enough flow as is so doubt will get a second, stuff is leaning in the breeze right now.

E.

[hazmat]

Hey ellen!

 

Thanks for those instructions! Your tank looks really good. My plan was to get 2 5 gallon jugs of fresh saltwater from the LFS. Keep plenty of buckets and bins (and towels) around. Corals will come out first into their own bin. I'll take out the rocks and put them into fresh SW. I want to take each rock and get off the GHA and bubble algae. Thought if I get a shallow bin with fresh SW and get my tweezers and brush and clean, clean, clean. Then rinse in fresh SW then put it back in the bucket. So once I get everything clean I can rearrange them into a better scape.

 

Question: what do I do with my sandbed? It's not too bad. I have a little algae growing but nothing major. I was just going to add some sand to build up the sandbed a little. You were talking about cleaning your sandbed. How do you do that?

 

Question 2: How much flow do I need behind the rocks? Right now I seem to have quite a bit of detrius that sits behind the rocks. I need to correct that. So I know you want to be able to get to the side of the tank to clean but what about the back? It seems like most people lean their rocks against the back. I'm having a hard time figuring out how much to brace against the back yet still get flow back there. I'm wondering if I need to put another Koralia (maybe nano) facing the back to get flow back behind there.

 

As far as my corals I have a finger leather, Yuma, ric, candy cane, frogspawn, GSP, Duncans, 1 Zoa frag/rock and a neon clove. Frog, Duncans, GSP, Yuma, ric are on the bottom. candy cane and cloves are on a shelf halfway up and zoa rock on the very top. Oh yeah, I also have a clam that is on the very top rock. I have to have some rocks in my upper 1/3 of my tank for the clam. That is going to be my biggest issue cause Mr. clam is attatched to the rock its on. Hard to get him off his rock. I have so many corals on the bottom because I don't really have any good levels for my them. My finger leather is really big and I'm not sure where to put it. It sways in the current and I don't want it to touch anything else but I read that it likes high light.

 

Do you have any other suggestions on how I should proceed? How many pounds of rock do you have total? Would you say that you used more smaller rocks? I really like the way you have the peak then sloping down to the sides with the cove in the middle. Whatever I do, I need to figure out how to get good flow everywhere.

 

Current pic of tank:

 

Thanks again for all your input!

Heidi

[airangel]

Heidi,

Towels, ah yes. I made such a mess. The tubing came out of my bucket as I was refilling the tank, got salt water all over the tile and almost on the power strip. Today as I was filling up the ATO bucket under the stand, the RO container slipped, got RO all over the floor as well.

I also used a pair of dollar store yellow gloves. I have a "thing" about touching ickies and I know I have "ickies" in my rocks. I should have gotten more salted from the store but live and learn.

I didnt want to "waste" the fresh salted so kept the removed rocks in their own tank water. I'm thinking if you are gonna brush and tweeze out the furry stuff you'd want to use used water, and then rinse in used water and then place rocks in new salted or just use the new salted to fill up the tank after the redo.

I left my sand bed. I have long tweezers and tried to pick out some cheato and other gunk (and the errrant screw), but I didnt clean it or add to it. It's a bit funky colored but I figured I was causing enough havoc as is, w/o disturbing the sandbed and whatever lived in it.

The store suggested gravel vac but again, I didnt want to deal, didnt want to lose any pods or bristleworms or whatever may be living in it.

Hopefully you can remove your clam with his rock. I had a few corals stuck to the rock so they had to come out as one and also had to go back in the display as I couldnt remove the corals. I had to have a holey rock to place the large hammer into and not too close to other corals. The pulsing xenia is on its own rock and placing it low on sandbed wasn't working so it had to go up high again. The candy canes had to go into a holey rock as well. I heard rics like low flow/light so they are on the sandbed. Heard mushrooms like low as well. I figured to just leave stuff on the sand bed till I had better ideas of placement and I'm still not 100% sure on the rock placement, so figured why shift stuff before I'm sure. My xenia sways and the hammer was an issue as I needed a hole to stick the skeleton in.

I do have dead spots behind the rocks/on back wall. I can see the grey stuff there as well. I do have my rocks leaning along the back wall and am debating another Nano koralia, possible on the rt side of the glass, but am not sure yet as the current seems pretty slick in the tank right now. I did move the koralia to below the tanks return hooked onto the back wall. I did debate a small powerhead, mini jet mebbe, and place along back wall on the rt side, just a little flow to keep stuff from settling behind the rocks. Still debating.

If you place rocks say 2 or so inches from the back wall on the bottom and build up as I did, you should have space along the back for flow and also be able to stack the rock nicely with just a part of the rocks leaning along the wall. I had a lot of dead spots before as the rock was placed so densely (as your pic seems to be as well).

There is more of a cove in mine than the pic shows as there are two rocks on top of each other near the toadie that aren't supposed to be there, lol. I havent figured out where to put them and if I move them I will open the front up a bit more. Both rocks are original ones and really purple. They aren't large rocks. The huge rock I split, the reason for the redo was and still is, large. I removed a lot of smaller rocks with holes. If you look at earlier pics of my tank, they are the brownish ones, small, built high along the back wall. None of them went back in. I think the guy selling the set up said 20 or so lbs of LR. I bought a few pounds from 3 sellers, some went into tank some didn't. I have about 7 pieces in a bucket right now that aren't going back in. Enough if I wanted to do a pico I guess. (thought about it, wrote to some guy in classifieds here about his 4g but by time he wrote back, 3 or so days later, he'd already had sold it)

You arent' really going to know about the flow till you have the rocks set in the tank, the water all filled in and the power back on. That is why I have the extra rocks sitting in the cove....wasn't sure how the flow was going to work out, and if after things settled and I could see inside the tank, if I liked how the rocks were placed. I am still undecided about another nano or mini jet.

I wish my camera skills were better as the tank does look a bit different in person. Also when I snapped pics the skimmer bubbles were still in the display.

Basically its a play and play again thing. Once you get the contents out, you just have to play around with the rocks to get them set securely and stacked up. Then you back up, peer thru the haze and redo. I wish I had a larger selection of rocks to fool around with. I had decided to not use the stuff I had stacked up in the tank the first time. I wanted more flat rocks so corals could set nicely on them but that didnt really happen. I do have one small flat rock, its under the green/single red zoanthid rock frag. I may move that rock and then have the flat rock to sit stuff on. Still not sure where I would place that zoa rock.

I did want to have swim thru spaces for the fish and did get that accomplished this time. I wanted to be able to see the back and was successful there too, can't reach stuff thats behind it but can at least see it.

Sooo when are you going to get your hands and floor all wet with the re do? LOL

[TheCuban1040]

Are you kidding me? There is SO much open space in there! I see entire rocks with nothing on them! You just need to get yourself a bunch of superglue and aquamend putty and get to work.

[hazmat]

Are you kidding me? There is SO much open space in there! I see entire rocks with nothing on them! You just need to get yourself a bunch of superglue and aquamend putty and get to work.

 

Do you mean my tank??? I don't have anything secured to the rock except the candy cane. I tried to glue a piece of something and it was a total disaster!! Also, I keep getting different information on what levels to put things. Like the leather. You see it's high up but it's so big. With the flow is sways all over the place and I'm not sure if it should touch. Asked that ?? on a thread and nobody responded. All I know is keep the Frog away from everything.

 

Ellen, I have the gray stuff in the back too. I think it's just my rocks are too big so I'm limited on how they stack.

 

Hubby leaves tomorrow for a week so I'm going to try to get him to help me today. Heading off to LFS to pick up water and stuff!

 

Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes!

[matty0206]

Wow! Big difference. I like the new scape, more room for corals! I know what you mean about scaping and rescaping! It took me like three hours to get my rock the way I wanted and after all of that I still am not sure! lol

[airangel]

Do you mean my tank???

 

LOL no he means mine.

 

I did buy the putty but havent tried it yet. The toadie is wedged, the hammer is wedged, the 2 heads of candy cane are wedged and the rest are precariously perched on things. I havent done it cuz of what you wrote, I have no clue where to stick stuff, i.e light and flow and what can be close to what. My xenia sways massively. I have yet to see a sweeper from my hammer (my frog, RIP, didn't have them either).

 

I figured one cannot have perfect flow, so whats behind the rock I can't help. I have a mini sand drift in the front due to the flow, am sure its from the Nano I stuck on back wall as it faces to front of tank now, vs being on the left side facing the rt side.

 

I too am limited with the rocks I have, size, shape, some have corals stuck to them already so they have to go a specific way to see them.

If I was doing things from scratch, I would buy dead rock. Draw lines on my kitchen table and play for hours.

 

Keep me posted how yours goes, I wanna see pics.

 

 

 

 

Wow! Big difference. I like the new scape, more room for corals! I know what you mean about scaping and rescaping! It took me like three hours to get my rock the way I wanted and after all of that I still am not sure! lol

 

Matt

Thanks. If I wasn doing things from scratch, I would buy dead rock. Draw lines on my kitchen table and play for hours.