icenine's nano

[icenine]

I'll get some new pics up soon... I've made one new addition to the tank this week, a sea rod.

 

Here is the full tank shot that was on the Seacrop frontpage for a bit... since it's not there anymore I'll post it here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll get some new pics up at the end of the weekend or sometime next week. The clown has finally chosen to host in the long polyped toadstool.... which is really ####### off the toadstool. But man that clown is not going to budge. Despite the fact that the toad has not extended since the clown decided to try and host that fish is glued to it. It looks like crap at the moment and I hope the fish does not kill it.

 

Oh.... and LekicINC, what is the fish in your avitar?... it's very nice.

[icenine]

I can't say p1ssed?

[Snoop]

L33t W00t

[icenine]

New addition....Plexaura flexosa, purple sea rod. Looks super nice in the tank:

 

 

 

 

Macro of polyp extension:

 

 

 

 

There was nowhere to go but up.

I've really run out of room to plant new corals in this tank but I managed to squeeze this one in. I was able to place it without shading anything else and still keep it in enough light and flow.

[schaadrak]

How's the tunicate doing?

[icenine]

I moved the ascidian to my pico tank..... so far it looks like it's doing OK there.

[Anchovy]

Wow!

 

Super nice tank and I’ve really enjoyed reading the thread. Just starting up a 20g here in the next month or so and am completely jazzed to get it going after seeing such nice setups. Would love to see some additional full tank shots.

 

Keep up the nice work.

 

-Michael

[charliechalk]

Hi am soon to set up my 19 gallon tank. Am I righ t in thinking you only have two 18 watt compacts on your tank?

 

As that is the wattage i have for my tank and mine isnt a deep tank. Do you think I could keep some coral like yours?

 

Love your tank!!!!!

[icenine]

Thanks!

Yep, that's 36w of a PC on a tank that is 18" deep. Coral selection and placement are important when you are using that kinda lighting. The tank dimensions were a factor in the lighting I have with this tank. I'm also married to the acrylic hood (I don't care for the open top look) so MH was out of the question. The tank has been running for nine months now, that's not long enough to call it a success but it's a good start.

I'm using similar lighting over my 2.5 gallon pico tank in the contest (36w 50/50 PC). Some of the corals in this tank were fragged and put in there. It will be interesting to see what the difference in intensity has on coloration and growth rates.

[reefin300]

WOW! nice selection of corals. Especially like the purple sea rod. I need to get a couple!!

[Izzue]

EXTREMELY NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DGJ Icenine-- I saw your tank when it was on the front of Seacrops-- I showed this to several coworkers- all where in awwweeee and their jaws dropped to the floor

Keep up the great work...

 

Izzue

[peregrine3751]

That is one AWESOME tank !

[charliechalk]

My tank is a Aqua one ar 620 its about the same depth as yours but it is 24 inches wide. I also have the hood, and also like the neatness of it! Hoping my 36 watts will support a few nice corals.

 

Nice to find someone who is trying out the low light option!

 

Do you have any starter coral ideas for me? - Would be grateful for your knowledge!

 

thanks- look foward to seeing more pictures!

[icenine]

Thanks for the replies and complements!

 

 

 

As far as coral selection... softies would be the way to go. GSP, xenia and the kenya tree are growing like gangbusters in this tank. My LPS are doing good as well but the only examples here are candy cane and the hammer. Mushrooms are spreading as well. The rics are spreading but at a much slower rate. My long polyp toadstool is currently recovering from the clown's attempt at hosting in it. The clown finally gave up... and I thought I would lose the toad in the process. Xenia is now the host, and took to it much better. The gorg seems to be doing well, but time will tell if it was a good addition or not. Polyp extention on it is great so far.

 

 

 

Here are a couple of pics...

 

March of the GSP part two:

 

 

 

 

This was the 2" cpr frag of gsp from seacrop I got back in September. It's about 7" now and very lush. So far it's no threat to anything else, but I'm sure I will be cutting it back soon.

 

 

 

To go back a few pages here are some pictures I posted of the gsp and tree in the past to kinda give an idea of the growth so far:

 

 

 

 

 

Baby 'shroom.

 

I posted a pic of the first baby shroom I had few weeks back. It's doing just fine... and in fact I now have three more "babies" in addition to the first. The offspring lack the blue dots the mother has so far... which is odd, I expected only clones.

 

 

 

[Donovan]

updates? how about a new fts.

[Lord Nano]

I read up higher on the post that you only have 36w PC on that tank? that inspires me....i have a 10g with a 96w PC fixture.....cant wait to see those colors.... your tank looks amazing btw......wanna sell me some frags :-D

[icenine]

Well... there is going to be a change. I'm now the owner of a 24 gallon aquapod and stand. While I'm very happy with my current set up and if I was smart I would just sell the pod, the urge to set it up is irresistible. I'm going to break down both the 15 and the pico and place those items in the pod. New project! Lots of pics and details to come!

[Fishfreak218]

so ur out of the contest????

[icenine]

Yep... I'm gonna bail out of the pico contest.

[icenine]

So...yep, I'm ditching my 15 gallon custom acrylic for a 24 gallon aquapod. As an example of "the grass is always green on the other side" I've learned to hate acrylic as a material for a nano tank. Acrylic scratches way to easily and scratches are just too noticeable in a small display. I set up my 15 gallon just about a year ago. I really liked the all in one hooded look of the jbj nano cubes, but at least last year (when I was putting a system together) those tanks were not protein skimmer friendly (with the aquapod that has now changed, maybe... or at least I'm feeling up to the challenge of making my own skimmer now) which was a major reason I went to the acrylic custom tank instead of the cube. The whole cracking glass drama on the NC24 that unfolded just made me glad I didn't wind up with one. So... will slightly thicker glass and a different manufacturer make a difference? The system upgrade of 60% more water volume and 75% more lighting wattage is too hard to say no to. I'm going to keep posting events on this thread just to track my progress in general since I started. All my current live stock is going to be transferred.

[Haagenize]

hmm, im glad you went with what you wanted

[icenine]

Been busy with the pod.

 

Here is the original review I posted of it last week:

 

 

Here is the 24 gallon version of the Aquapod with the 64 watt PC hood. Box it came in from F&S; the packaging is rather disspointing. Just a few pieces of styrofoam protecting the outer edges of the tank and hood on two sides. Much of the tank is only protected by the cardboard walls of the box. There was another box around the "shelf" packaging, but no additional packing material.

 

 

 

The first tank that was sent to me was cracked and with this packaging it is easy to see why that happened. There was not much in the way of visible damage to the outer box, but obviously it had been knocked around during shipping. F&S got another one out to me right away... so far I am a fan of the customer service there.

 

 

Here is the crack, again the portion of the glass that was cracked only had cardboard protecting it:

 

 

 

The second tank I recived. No obvious cracks, but I'm looking over it very, very carefully.

 

 

Looks to be OK. No visible cracks, bubbles or creases in the glass. ...but does that mean anything? lol.

 

There were some complaints about the seals posted here and some other forums.... these look pretty good IMO. I also think the laminate backing on the rear of the tank looks OK, that's been an issue for some as well.

Here is the back:

 

 

The hood... no clicking when the hood is opened as some have reported with the 12 gallon. There are three rocker switches that work each dual sunpac bulb and the LED independently, even on a single outlet timer. (whew!) If just one lighting cord is plugged in the other is not carrying a current. (double whew! these were the issues some have seen with the 12 gallon version).

 

 

When the hood is down I'm not seeing the light bleed through around the edges that I've seen on the 12 gallon.

 

Lights on:

 

 

There is one fan (I'll be adding another or trying nano customs IAC chiller.

 

The plastic the hood is constructed of seems a bit thin. I would put the material on on par with the JBJ tank, but that is not saying much for it. I fear the hinges will not last long. They operate smoothly, but just seem rather fragile to me.

The rear chambers are laid out to my liking, however they could be a little wider. I'm going to try a DIY skimmer to fit back here at some point.

 

Some rough measurements:

(I would not start building any stands or modifications based on these, I'm posting them just to give you an idea of the proportions of the tank):

 

Outside length, width, height (including hood): 17L x 20W x 20H

Inside display and rear chamber measurements:

 

 

Water volume without rock or sand: (only the stock pump is present in the rear chambers, sponges were removed) Approx: 22.5 gallons. I filled the tank with one gallon jugs to make this estimate. The display volume I would estimate at around 18 gallons.

 

Overall, thumbs up for the 24 gallon aquapod (or should it be 22.5? ..lol). It's pretty much what I expected and in general a solid tank, esp at the price it's generally offered. The packaging and hood material are the only real disappointments.

There are a few changes I'm going to make. I can see that I'm going to have to "fish proof" the false wall. There is a gap at the top that will allow fish, shrimp, snails etc to wander into the overflow. The lighting could have been a little more intense. Yes, I know there are MH versions of this tank but I really want a hood on our reef (a child and a cat would be the reason). But.... it's my softie reef that is getting transferred into here, the lighting I am currently running there is pretty much equivalent. I'm going to add an extra outlet to the display for more flow and stick a hydor on the existing outlet.

Now the question is.... how will it hold up? I'm going to hold onto my old 15 gal set up for a while just in case. (and keep things plugged into a GFI)

 

 

 

 

... and now some new stuff:

 

 

I decided to add an additional pump to the tank. There are now two outlets to the display rather than the original one. I drilled a hole into the false wall for the output and put a bulkhead fitting over it.

One of the outlets has a hydor the other has a loc line outlet on it with a "Y" connector. I am running the additional outlet with the extra stock pump from the cracked 'pod I got.

 

Here are some pics of the new outlet going in, I used a 1 1/8" boring bit to make the hole:

 

 

And with the loc line "Y":

 

 

 

One other tweak I'm making: there is some space between the hood and the false wall that fish are going to be able to jump through. I've done the fetch the fish from the overflow routine in my 15 gallon, and it's no fun for me.

 

I've added an acrylic lip to cover most of that space up and hopefully cut back on the jumpers. It's made out of some cheap acrylic from HD. I cut out small sections and used some silicone to attach them to the back of the false wall. I left some space between each piece to allow for some air flow, but still make it narrow enough to prevent or at least discurage fish from jumping through. I had seen where some folks had used a foam weather striping to block a similar space up in the JBJ Nano Cube tanks. However, I'm not real comfortable using a foam material in the tank even tough that would have been far less work. As corrosive as SW is my concern would be that the foam would disintgrate and break down to some bad nasties polluting the water.

 

Here is a pic of the set up: (yes, the clamps were only there till the epoxy cured)

 

[icenine]

I'm doing a leak and pump test with the tank loaded with SW. I wanted to make sure everything is working before my livestock gets transferred. I will also get a feel what what temps will be like with the pumps running and a full photo period.

I was keeping my fingers crossed that the false wall was still water tight. There was the possibility that my new outlet would leak. Much to my surprise it looks tight. The display is filled while the overflow is mostly dry. This is going to mean that the surface skimmer is going to work as intended and the tank has a true overflow, not just a wall to hide equipment behind. Yippee! I'm letting the tank run with just water and a bit of new substrate in it for a few days to make sure there are no leaks. (that was a good idea SH).

The hydor and pumps are working too. Nice bit of turbulence without being overpowering. This is a softie reef so I'm not in need of any real crazy flow, but things are getting mixed up nicely.

 

I must say that I'm really happy with the hydor, you get a lot of effect for a ten dollar item and slip on installation.

 

Here is a pic of the surface aggitation:

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out so far, and pretty amazed that I managed to not screw it up. I'm not exactly a DIY person.

[Haagenize]

looking nice icenine! your lights are REALLY blue

[flick]

I love it!!!

 

Flick