nanogirl314 Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 I've been doing research about nano reefs for about six months and now I've finally started up my Aquapod 12! I've gleaned so much information from this site and I wanted to share with all of you my beautiful new tank. About the tank: The tank is just three days old. I'm using RO water from WalMart with Reef Crystals salt. pH is about 1.023-1.024 according to my hydrometer. I just bought a refractometer via ebay so that should get here soon for a more accurate reading. The tank has 12 lbs nano live rock from Premium Aquatics, 3 lbs live rock rubble from PA in the back chambers , 3 lbs florida live sand from PA, and 10 lbs of Nature's Ocean BioActive Aragonite sand. I'm using a 50 watt Ebo-Jager heater. I added a second fan and wired the fans to a variable adapter so I could adjust the speed. I also popped the plastic strips out from the fan vents and the temp is holding at a steady 78 degrees. I ditched the sponges, bio-balls, and ceramics rings. I cut open the bags that the rings were in and put the rock rubble in the bags. The bags keep the rubble nice and neat and I've found that it allows for better water flow through the chambers. If there happens to be anything wrong with putting live rock in media bags, someone please let me know! Now for the pics! My camera is not the greatest but I think it shows the cool rock shapes pretty well. The rock looks pretty pale in the pictures; it has more color (nice greens and some purple) in real life. So there it is! Comments, suggestions, all are welcome. -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
Pinner Reef Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 I dig it! Sounds like your off and runnin! I like that aquascpe. Being a noob myself I get easily excited over the little things such as this. I feel for you though the cycle seems unbearably long! Oh well good things never come easily...Good Luck in this difficult yet HIGHLY rewarding hobby! -Pinner Oh yeah almost forgot To N-R.com!!! Link to comment
hendrix Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 I've been doing research about nano reefs for about six months and now I've finally started up my Aquapod 12! I've gleaned so much information from this site and I wanted to share with all of you my beautiful new tank. About the tank: The tank is just three days old. I'm using RO water from WalMart with Reef Crystals salt. pH is about 1.023-1.024 according to my hydrometer. I just bought a refractometer via ebay so that should get here soon for a more accurate reading. The tank has 12 lbs nano live rock from Premium Aquatics, 3 lbs live rock rubble from PA in the back chambers , 3 lbs florida live sand from PA, and 10 lbs of Nature's Ocean BioActive Aragonite sand. I'm using a 50 watt Ebo-Jager heater. I added a second fan and wired the fans to a variable adapter so I could adjust the speed. I also popped the plastic strips out from the fan vents and the temp is holding at a steady 78 degrees. I ditched the sponges, bio-balls, and ceramics rings. I cut open the bags that the rings were in and put the rock rubble in the bags. The bags keep the rubble nice and neat and I've found that it allows for better water flow through the chambers. If there happens to be anything wrong with putting live rock in media bags, someone please let me know! Now for the pics! My camera is not the greatest but I think it shows the cool rock shapes pretty well. The rock looks pretty pale in the pictures; it has more color (nice greens and some purple) in real life. So there it is! Comments, suggestions, all are welcome. -NanoGirl314 you mean your salinity is 1.023-1.024 not your ph. Link to comment
yardie Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 nice tank and love the aquascape, definately a girls tank. Link to comment
johnxboi Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 i love how you did the rocks. Link to comment
SaltCreep Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 PA never fails to provide bomb a$$ rock. Looks really nice. Link to comment
crrichey Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 wOOt, mas chikas del mar! Great start Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted April 9, 2006 Author Share Posted April 9, 2006 you mean your salinity is 1.023-1.024 not your ph. Oops, I missed that...thanks. I appreciate everyone's comments. Thanks a lot! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
rickjg Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Nice aquascaping, I like the cave area in the center, it adds some depth & mystery. Glad to see you ditched the sponges, bio-balls, and ceramics rings, you did some good research before setting up your cube. I don’t see any problem with using the mesh bag to hold your LR rubble. Good luck Link to comment
tkudlik Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Nice start on the tank! However, would have been better to buy the JBJ 12 gallon cube, the AQUAPOD 12 Gallons are on recall........check out threads on this site, there's an official link from the Gov. on the recall...Nice rock though, just be careful with the lighting problems/danger.... Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted April 9, 2006 Author Share Posted April 9, 2006 Nice start on the tank! However, would have been better to buy the JBJ 12 gallon cube, the AQUAPOD 12 Gallons are on recall........check out threads on this site, there's an official link from the Gov. on the recall...Nice rock though, just be careful with the lighting problems/danger.... Yeah, actually the first aquapod I got was a defective one. I had bought it through marineandreef.com and they were so awesome about the whole thing. They sent me a replacement tank within two weeks. They told me to cut the power cords from the old tank to send them (which I did) and that I could keep everything else from the old tank (which I also did). So I actually have two aquapods now. Once I have more experience under my belt I was thinking I might save up to put some metal halides over the other tank and maybe get an anemone. That would be fun. I was considering the JBJ 12 gallon but I decided on the Aquapod. I like the way it looks; and I think the Aquapod has a little more wattage doesn't it? Anyway thanks for the warning/concern. I appreciate it! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted April 20, 2006 Author Share Posted April 20, 2006 My tank is two weeks old today! I decided to redo my aquascape because I wanted more sand space. It doesn't look quite as good in the pic as in real life, but here are some pics all the same. Tank parameters are: Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: <5 pH: 7.8 salinity: 1.026 I had a very small ammonia spike in the beginning; then a small nitrite spike. The nitrates have been steadily going down. The salinity was originally 1.027. When I got my refractometer I found out that my hydrometer was a piece of junk. But I did a small water change today and the salinity went down to 1.026. pH of 7.8 is pretty low, isn't it? Would high salinity affect the pH at all or not? According to searches I've done here, low pH in new tanks is not unusual...do I just wait and hope it stabilizes? Or should I add a buffer? Also, after the water change (and re-aquascape) today I spotted several little jelly-like creatures crawling around on the glass. They're only a couple millemeters in length and they move like slugs. They're sort of transparent and they have this orange part in the middle. The round part seems to be the "head" because they move forward with the rounded part first. I tried taking a pic of one but it was too transparent and didn't show up with my digital camera. Here's a rough sketch of their shape. If anyone has any idea what they might be please let me know; I'd appreciate it. Thanks! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
darkwaterdevil Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 there flatworms the clear ones arnt bad any other flat worms are is this it?? Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted April 20, 2006 Author Share Posted April 20, 2006 there flatworms the clear ones arnt bad any other flat worms are is this it?? Yes, I think that's it. They are very clear, almost transparent. So they're no problem then? I saw several; is it a problem if there are too many? -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
darkwaterdevil Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 i think theres about 300 on my glass no havent been a problem all they eat is pods that are on the glass or rock. just dont want any other type of flatworm Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted April 20, 2006 Author Share Posted April 20, 2006 i think theres about 300 on my glass no havent been a problem all they eat is pods that are on the glass or rock. just dont want any other type of flatworm Ok, thanks a lot! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted April 28, 2006 Author Share Posted April 28, 2006 After a couple water changes my pH has stabilized to 8.2-8.3 and salinity has gone down from 1.027 to 1.024. So I'll be adding my cleanup crew any day now! I have a question about a hitchhiker I just found. I did a search but haven't been able to positively ID what it is. Here's a pic. At first I thought it was attached directly to the rock; but then I noticed, at one point, that it had moved over on the rock to get out of direct water flow. You can't see from the pic but the creature does have a tube; I wondered if maybe it was a small tube anemone but the tube is rather translucent just like the tentacles are...and don't tube anemones burry their tube in the sand? I gently poked at the tentacles with my turkey baster and the thing sort of shuddered a bit. I poked a couple more times and it slowly pulled itself in and sent out these long threadlike strings in my direction. Then after a bit it came back out again. I hope someone can tell me what this is and if it's good or bad. Thanks a lot! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
SplitSequence Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 it really looks like a pest anemone to me. Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted April 29, 2006 Author Share Posted April 29, 2006 Fortunately the aiptasia was on a rock that I could easily remove, so I took the rock out the tank and put it in a bucket with saltwater. Then I blasted the aiptasia with boiling lemon juice. It wilted up pretty much right away and was just kind of hanging out of the hole. So I sucked it up with a pipette and then put the rock in another bucket and rinsed it off with distilled water before placing it back neatly in my tank. I looked the rock over carefully and I'm pretty sure that there was only one aiptasia. Thanks Bobalouy and SplitSequence for the speedy replies! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted May 1, 2006 Author Share Posted May 1, 2006 I keep finding these 1-inch long worm looking things on the sand in my tank every morning. They're always in the same place; not there in the evening and then they're there the next morning. I had thought before that they were coming from the aiptasia because they seemed to come from rock that had the aiptasia on it. But as I have killed the original aiptasia I'm not sure if I have more aiptasia or maybe the two things are totally unconnected. Could someone tell me if aiptasia excrete visible waste? The stuff looks like fish poop to be honest...it disintigrates really easy and seems to literally "secrete" from a hole in the rock. Here's a pic, sorry it's fuzzy, my camera won't do better. Again, I know it looks like a worm or something but it squiches and disintegrates really easy. After disintigrating it looks like detritus. Maybe this is a dumb question and if so my apologies . Please bear with me as a newb; I want to be sure all is well before I add my clean-up crew in a couple days hence. Thanks! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
scottj2 Posted May 1, 2006 Share Posted May 1, 2006 It's probably from a worm in your rock. I have them all the time. Its either like them shedding their skin, or poop. I havent quite figured it out yet. Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted May 1, 2006 Author Share Posted May 1, 2006 It's probably from a worm in your rock. I have them all the time. Its either like them shedding their skin, or poop. I havent quite figured it out yet. Ok, thanks! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
nanogirl314 Posted May 6, 2006 Author Share Posted May 6, 2006 Hi everyone, My tank was 4 weeks old this past Wednesday. All parameters were good so I ordered my cleanup crew and received them on Thursday. Acclimation went well although I think I took longer then I needed to...it felt a little clumsy being my first time ever. However all the critters are doing fine and moving around great. Here's what I got: 2 scarlet reef hermits 2 blue leg hermits (I ordered one but they sent two) 2 banded trochus snails 1 margarita snail 1 nerite snail 5 nassarius snails 1 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp I ordered from MarineDepotLive.com. I was going to go with DrsFosterSmith but they were out of stock on some things I wanted. The MarineDepot order came promptly at 10:00 am. It was well packed although they didn't include an acclimation guide or anything which I was sort of surprised about; I would think that they would want to safeguard against novices thinking they can just throw stuff in the tank...but other than that I was very pleased. Everything looked alert and healthy when I got it. Here are a couple pics. I really need a better camera for those up close shots. margarita snail - I know these are supposed to be colder water species, but my tank right now is about 75-76 degrees and he's plowing through the algae like he's never tasted food before. scarlet hermit I love the shrimp! I'd thought of getting a fire shrimp but decided against it as I really wanted one that would be out and about a lot. This little guy runs over whenever I put my hand in the tank and trys to offer me a "manicure". So cute! cleaner shrimp I took some other pics but they turned out too blurry to show much. It's so cool to see all the critters cruising around! -NanoGirl314 Link to comment
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