New 24g Aquapod Starting Up

[rjwilson37]

I am setting up a good sized Nano for my Eel, who I traded in and got back. I traded him in because the Bio-Load in my 90g with him and all my fish was just to high, the nitrates were rising slowly even with frequent water changes. He was very unhappy at the LFS and no one seemed interested in a large Snowflake Eel. He is very tame, I have had him since he was around 7" and he doesn't bother a soul.

Here is the first pic, it was setup with fully cured LR, Argonite LS and the salt mix at 1.025. I am only making two modifications to it, and those are, using a 100w heater and adding a MJ900 for some more water movement. I have the Daylight and Actinic lighting on timers so they come on and off the same time every day, and these are all on a surge protector.

 

[rjwilson37]

I have taken out the Bioballs as well as the bag of cermic circle things, so I just have the blue sponges in there.

Should I be taking those Blue Sponges out and replace them with some LR rubble?

I also took out the top two platic pieces for the overflow. Should I put one back in and lot the water only flow over the top, to get surface skimming, or take them all out, or can I just leave the two out I have now. Any suggestions on my setup would be great.

Remember, I can not do any modifications that will remove the hood, the hood has to remain on which keeps the Eel inside the tank.

 

[AEALOVESHERGIRLS]

RJ, I took out everything the tank came with. In the back left chamber I have the chamber filled 3/4 way with live rock rubble, then the last 1/4 is all chaeto algae. The middle chamber is my skimmer(they make a nano skimmer now if you are interested... http://nanotuners.nanocustoms.com/nanotuners/product_info.php?products_id=150 It actually will fit under your hood RJ) and the right chamber is my return, which I bought a bigger pump and put in there.


Amanda

 

[rjwilson37]

I don't have a center chamber, just a smaller left where the return pump resides and the bigger right. My pump pushes 290gph, and the MJ900 when I get it in there will push 230gph which between the two will give me 17 times my water volume for movement.

 

[aquaman67]

I'm proud you got your eel back! I know you really liked it.

Seeing the pics of yours made me want one too!

I recently found a small one. I have mine in a FO tank.

Here's a pic

What to you feed yours and how often?

I've been feeding mine 2 or three krill or some squid almost everyday.

TIA.

 

[rjwilson37]

That is a good looking Eel aquaman67!

I was feeding mine like 7 to 10 krill every other day, I wanted to keep him from being hungry and looking elsewhere for food. I will only feed him 5 krill every other day in the small tank, since he will pretty much be the only one there. I am thinking on trying some different things in his diet except krill, but that is all he has eaten in the 2 years I have had him. He is probably ready for a change I am sure. I am going to put 2 small Damsels and a Purple Pseudochromis in there with him, they are to fast for him to get and will keep him company.

This tank is going to be pretty cool, I will have tons of small frags from my 90g to put in here, so it should be pretty sweet.

 

[AEALOVESHERGIRLS]

Hey Tia, that's a great looking snowflake.



RJ, what am I to do with you???????


Love, Tia.

 

[rjwilson37]

Yes... I see now, Thanks In Advance!

 

[AEALOVESHERGIRLS]

LOL, RJ, You crack me up!

 

[rjwilson37]

I am not a big chatter box on the net at all. I see something like that at the bottom and if it sounds like a name... Heck... I just call it like I see it, I mean we had a cat named Tia.

What do you think of my fish choices, some nice hardy specimens to keep him company. All aggresive, so they should all just do fine together.

 

[AEALOVESHERGIRLS]

I'm not a big fan of damsels, however, they are cheap if he decides to munch them. What about like a small lion or puffer?

 

[rjwilson37]

I had a puffer with him before in the Nano, and I read some scary stuff about people who have been zapped by there Lion Fish.

I am getting a Blue Velvet Damsel, and a 3 Spot Domino. I think Damsels are cool and have some great color as well as being Reef Safe. I can't do many Damsels in my big tank, because they are mean little buggers, but in here they will do just fine and be reef safe. No damn fish is going to eat my Zoanthid's in this tank.

 

[MaryBebo]

Well.... It's all ya'lls fault. I couldn't Waite to get a nano going again, so I bit the bullet and made my order for the Nano cube 24 2006 and also ordered the nano skimmer and surface skimmer and upgraded the pump like Amanda did. I hope you guys don't think I am a copy cat...but I really want to get this put back in my salon. The kids miss the other one that I had and so did I. The other one was the system 12. I know I will like this one MUCH better. My big tank is so tall that I have rock falls ALOT and I am going to just use the rock from it and lower it down some.
Do you think using the water from it will be OK? I still have the sand from the other tank in a bucket. It should be OK too don't you think?

Sorry... RJ don't mean to go on and on and mess up your thread. I am so excited for you that it just rubbed off..lol

 

[AEALOVESHERGIRLS]

YAAAAAAA MARY!!!!!! How exciting!!!!!!!! I can't wait for you to get it!!!! You should start a new thread and post pics! When do you get it? Rock and water from an existing tank is perfect, no cycle!!!! As for sand, just rinse it out really good.

Amanda

 

[MaryBebo]

I ordered it last night from nanotuners.com. I think they said it would ship out in 4 days. So I am thinking maybe since this is a weekend, it will be the last of the next week or the fist of the next. I hope the little nano skimmer will work good. After I get it set up I will start a thread.

Yours looks really great and so does RJ's I know he is so happy to have the eel back and it sounds like the kids are too

 

[aquaman67]

I think the fish choices are fine.

In the tank I have the eel in I also have a Picasso Trigger.

I added a four stripe damsel and the trigger comes out more. He used to hide a lot but now I see the trigger all the time.

I don't think the eel will care, as they don't see to well. But at least he'll have someone to smell.

 

[rjwilson37]

You can post in here if you want Mary, just direct people here and they can see all of our tanks as they progress. I think it would be good to have 2/3/or 4 24g nano cubes going in one thread, then people could see the differences and get a glimpse of what they can do and not have to go to 2/3/or 4 different threads.

Mary, are you getting the standard 72w PC lighting, or going with the 70w Metal Halide?

 

[rjwilson37]

This thread is just getting started, and would be good to add a few more cubes here.

I moved some of my zoa's from my 90g to the Aquapod Nano, these are just a few of the surviving misc zoa rocks that Dori was munching on which I figured I should get out of there before they are all eaten. I hope she leaves the hot pinks alone in the 90g, they have been fine for a few months now, so I am pretty sure she is not interested in those. I have two rocks of the hot pink zoa's, a large and a medium, so the medium will be coming over to the Nano sometime soon I am thinking. I hope they look hot pink under the PC lighting, because I have 14k MH in the 90g.

My LFS has had the Nanocubes, and the Aquapods and he swears the Aquapods are a better running setup. I am thinking he probably just makes a bigger margin on them, there is probably a personal preference as well, but I think the money he makes is a bigger decision on which he likes.

 

[rjwilson37]

I figure I should mention this here, and that is that I purchased the Oceanic 30g Cube and was going to do it up pretty cool with a 175w MH, a sump and a skimmer with a couple PH's. My wife thought the Oceanic Cube was ugly and liked the Aquapod a lot better, plus it is already setup and since this was going in the living room it should be small and nice.

I do have to say that the Aquapod runs silent, I don't hear a thing from it and wonder if the pump is running sometimes which is a good thing being in the living room.

I would have liked to do the Oceanic with 14k MH and think it would have been a nicer setup for the inhabitants as well as the look and health of the corals. I just hope this Aquapod runs well and keeps things happy, being it is pretty much a self contained setup.

 

[tonym10]

Nice Rj
What is your plans for water quality? How much and frequent water changes? I do 2.5 gallon on my 15g nano/week, but I only have 3 tiny fish in there.