A nano tank to replace my 140g setup

[tgunn]

:eek1: So I went to feed the electric blue damsel in the sump tonight and to my shock and surprise the purple dottyback that went missing when I emptied the 140g tank showed up!!!!!

Wow, I can't believe he was hiding in there for a month without me seeing him!

Well, looks like I now have two fish for my new Aquapod thats on the way!

:beer: :dance:

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

Well, until the Aquapod gets here and it all cycled the sump seems to be a pretty reasonable place for my little frags and 2 fish.

Here's some of my frags, coloring up nicely:

This frag on the right is not coloring up as nice, but it's getting there. Considering it was dark brown in the 140g tank...

This tricolor is showing some nice colors and AMAZING polyp extension:

The "bali aquaculture acro" is looking great. I love how the left frag is swirled with green and deep brown. I ultimately hope the brown goes away but it looks cool in the mean time:

Now THIS is cool; I had stamaccora in the 140g; it mostly died off when I lost the big tricolor I had on the same rock. A little tiny chunk was left on a rock and I had chucked it in the sump. I didn't think it would ever do anything. Well, it browned out after sitting under the 6500k sump lighting, but now that its getting proper halide lighting its starting to color up again. This would be an amazing 'turnaround coral' if it comes back:

Bad pic, but this ric is looking nice:

The purple cap piece I have left is looking primo; I LOVE the blue polyps:

The Tunze 9002 is outskimming my old massive Octo skimmer.

There are lots of cool little spots of life in the sump:

 

[tgunn]

Finally, some discolored digi that was in the back of the 140g. It'll come back and color up too.

Overall I'm feeling good; I managed to save a number of nice specimens, and they're all doing amazing now that they're in the sump with low nutrients.

The funniest thing is, there is a LOT less light in the sump than I had over the 140g and everything is doing amazing. So I think I may have been overlighting my 140g.

 

[tgunn]

I called the place I ordered the Aquapod 24g setup from. It should arrive in their store next week, and then it will be shipped out to me. So I'm guessing another 2 weeks to get to me.

I've been thinking of what I should do for flow in the Aquapod. Does anyone think a Maxijet 1200 with the Sureflow mod would be horribly overkill?

I've got 2 maxijet 400s and a maxijet 1200 kicking around, along with 2 sureflow mods. Not sure if perhaps I should just et a Koralia 1 instead.

Thanks,
Tyler

 

[token]

You can always try and see what happens.

My guess is that the Maxi-mod, which I have, is a tighter flow than the Koralia. I have the K4's, which are rated almost the same as the mod'd Maxi's, and I would feel more comfortable with the K4's rather than the Maxi-mods.

FWIW, on my 18g nano, which was tall, a pair of K2's was just about perfect. My return from the sump was down the back and up from the bottom, so I had a lot of movement but it was really gentle and variable.

Maybe the 900's, mod'd, would be the answer. I am pretty certain the kit you have fits the 900 as well as the 1200.

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14487606#post14487606 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by token
You can always try and see what happens.

My guess is that the Maxi-mod, which I have, is a tighter flow than the Koralia. I have the K4's, which are rated almost the same as the mod'd Maxi's, and I would feel more comfortable with the K4's rather than the Maxi-mods.

FWIW, on my 18g nano, which was tall, a pair of K2's was just about perfect. My return from the sump was down the back and up from the bottom, so I had a lot of movement but it was really gentle and variable.

Maybe the 900's, mod'd, would be the answer. I am pretty certain the kit you have fits the 900 as well as the 1200.

In my sump which is 16" across the maximod is definitely somewhat concentrated. I have a feeling I'll need something with a lot more dispersed flow for a 24g.

I'll have to see how the maxijet 400 works; I have one running the mod kit right now in a bucket of water. It might be gentle enough. The only downfall with the maxijet 400 running the mods is that it doesn't start up properly after a power failure; it just chatters away.

Guess I'll see once the nano gets here.

Good idea on having the return come up around the bottom of the tank; it's not like I have to worry about the sump overflowing if the power fails.

Tyler

 

[token]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14487669#post14487669 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tgunn
Good idea on having the return come up around the bottom of the tank; it's not like I have to worry about the sump overflowing if the power fails.

I didn't describe that well.

My returns could have drained my tank to within 3" of the bottom. I drilled 3 holes in the return pipe -just- below the level of my drains. I got a squirt of water when refilling but the only thing that would have prevented a catastrophe was constant inspection of those anti-siphon holes.

That's the flaw with returning water near the bottom of the tank. The benefit of better and more varied flow is worthless if one can even anticipate a period of inattention on the horizon. (A trip, for instance. I don't know that I could have explained the need to inspect those holes to someone watching my tanks.....)

 

[token]

Dang, again, my bad.

You won't have a sump. A quick return mod and you would be good. Use the rockwork to hide the return, too, as it diverts the water more randomly.

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14487826#post14487826 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by token
I didn't describe that well.

My returns could have drained my tank to within 3" of the bottom. I drilled 3 holes in the return pipe -just- below the level of my drains. I got a squirt of water when refilling but the only thing that would have prevented a catastrophe was constant inspection of those anti-siphon holes.

That's the flaw with returning water near the bottom of the tank. The benefit of better and more varied flow is worthless if one can even anticipate a period of inattention on the horizon. (A trip, for instance. I don't know that I could have explained the need to inspect those holes to someone watching my tanks.....)

Dang, again, my bad.

You won't have a sump. A quick return mod and you would be good. Use the rockwork to hide the return, too, as it diverts the water more randomly.

And then there's the time when 3 snails crawl over the holes and the power fails. I know what you mean; failsafes CAN fail. I discovered that when bubble algae grew around the rim of the "emergency drain" on my 140g, thus raising the height of the emergency drain enough that when the main drain plugged with bubble algae the tank overflowed.

Yup, I'm using the aquapod stock so I can route the return water down low if I want to without worries since it'll just equalize the water level between the tank and the back compartment if the power fails. My return "pump" will be on a UPS though but hey best safe rather than sorry.

Tylre

 

[tgunn]

Gotta love the way prices work. So I was looking at the Suregrip magnet dealy to go with my Sureflow Maxijet mod, thinking I would use one on my nano when it gets here.

Well, the suregrip is $31. Oh, that's EXACTLY the same price as a Koralia 1. I think the Koralia 1 would be the best option. Lol.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

So my bleached rock has been sitting in saltwater for a couple weeks now. I had tossed some fish food in there to start a cycle. Well, I think theres a LOT more of stuff that was living within the rocks that is dead and fueling the cycle. I just tested right now and although I have 0 ammonia, nitrites INSTANTLY read > 4ppm on my salifert kit (ie the maximum range and without waiting 3 minutes), and nitrates read > 25ppm INSTANTLY on my Elos kit (ie again without waiting 5 minutes to process).

Clearly the rock IS cycling, it just seems I'm almost going to end up "cooking" the rock in the end to get the stuff thats deep in the rocks out. I am still glad I did bleach the rock because now I can be very certain that it has no bubble algae or aptasia, but I think it'll still take a while to get it really cleaned out enough that I would be willing to use it with my nano.

However thats okay since the nano still needs to get to the store I ordered it from. It should be there this week, and then it will ship to me which will take 6-10 days.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

Yay! I just sold my 140g tank, with the stand, canopy and T5s. This is a good thing!

 

[Reefinabox]

Awesome!! I wish I could get rid of my 75.

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14538101#post14538101 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefinabox
Awesome!! I wish I could get rid of my 75.

I'm amazed I got it sold; the market for used tanks is horrible here.

KEep waiting, I'm sure you'll find someone to buy it.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

So I called about my Aquapod thats on back order. Apparently the manufacturer is severely backordered and there are none available for at least a couple of weeks.

They're going to call me back though because apparently they have JBJ nanocubes now. At this rate I may have a nano by summer time!

Tyler

 

[Reefinabox]

Now that you sold the 140, cancel and drive across the border to pick up the Solana! You won't regret it!!

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14549732#post14549732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefinabox
Now that you sold the 140, cancel and drive across the border to pick up the Solana! You won't regret it!!

I am SO tempted to do that, you have NO idea.

Tyler

 

[tgunn]

I'm waiting to hear back from the place I ordered the new heavily back ordered aquapod from; I'm going to cancel that order and just order the Solana 34g from Marine Depot and pick it up at the border.

Tyler

 

[Reefinabox]

Smart move!! LOL

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14559300#post14559300 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefinabox
Smart move!! LOL

Yeah, I think so too.

Tyler