Starting an Aquapod, YAN

[lorenk]

YAN = Yet Another Newb

Hi.

Long time lurker, first time poster

After taking some peeks at haninja's DIY nano-tank, I decided I couldn't wait any longer. I've wanted a SW aquarium for so long but never knew about nano-reefs. I've spent a lot of time reading on nano-reef.com as well and feel like it's time to take the plunge

I just ordered an Aquapod 24g w/ 150 sunpod MH from Fosters and Smith. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow or early next week. Also ordered a 100w heater, thermometer and an MJ900. I figure that should be a good start for the equipment.

When it arrives, I'll test it with fresh water for leeks...I've seen plenty of posts where a cube is damaged on receipt and definitely want to make sure I have a clean cube.

I think I'll get my LR from Petland...same for LS I guess. I just paid my ARC membership and I think they have a discount. How many pounds of each? I was thinking of 20lbs which will supposedly give me abound an inch. How much rock...20lbs?

My next nub question is whether I should mix my first batch of water or should I buy it pre-mixed? I'm thinking I should mix it, especially because 20-25g will be a bit pricey for the first run. I've measure SG for making beer and wine, not sure if it's the same hydrometer or not...but I get the premise of hitting a specific point.

Anyway, howdy and I look forward to chatting with youall.

-b

 

[tsciarini]

Hey there! Welcome to the ARC! We're glad to have you on board!!!
Glad you decided to finally take the plunge and start posting
Be sure to make it out to some of the meetings and introduce yourself...

(FYI, SaltwaterU is May 5th-6th... we will not have a standard meeting in May)

 

[frewl]

I'm got both a 24 AP and a 24NC. There is about 20 pounds in the NC and its a pretty good amount. But the AP looks a good bit bigger. Depending on the rock I would say you might be better off going with 30 pounds. But if you live near the store you can pick up a couple pieces and put it down for the base and look and see how the base turns out. Take a picture and print it out and go back and see what pieces would look good on top of that. But I would really suggest is picking out some nice bigger pieces and make a nice stable base. Some put it down on the glass and then put in sand. I get nervous about that but maybe put a thin layer of sand then your base rocks and then put the rest of the sand in. That would do for good measure.

 

[fishybusiness]

Welcome to the club! So when are you getting a bigger tank?

 

[sprayin70]

Welcome to the ARC!!!

 

[haninja]

<span style="font-family: Arial;">Welcome balagan. Hope you don’t make a balagan in your tank </span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">(sorry, couldn’t resist).</span>

 

[showtime305]

Welcome to the club and good luck with you tank.

 

[lorenk]

Thanks for the welcome.

The updated the dlvry dt for my tank to the 18th...so guess I won't get to setup till next weekend. Oh well, one week won't make much of a difference.

Frewl, any advise you have on mods for the AP are appreciated.

-b

 

[frewl]

Change out the return pump first. Maxijets 900 or 1200. Add a Hydor FLO to the return. I drilled holes through the back wall so I could add flow to the pod. I ran loc line pretty much through the pod. I ended up with nozzels on the top back top front and bottom front. I put Minijet 606's on those on a Natural Wave timer. I hope that gives you some Ideas.

 

[frewl]

sorry double post came back to the computer and thought I didn't think I sent the above reply.

 

[budsreef]

Welcome to the club!

I'm new to this as well and have had a 24G Aquapod set up for about two months. As Frewl said swapping out the stock pump with an MJ900 can make a difference with heat. The MJ900 is a little lower in gph but a lot less wattage. When I replaced my pump, I also took out the 90 degree angle where it goes through the bulkhead which made the flow a lot stronger even to the point I think it is stronger than with the higher rated stock pump .

You'll definitely want more flow than what you get standard. Also like Frewl, I drilled another hole in the right side of the bulkhead, added a second MJ900 and ran additional locline down both sides of the tank. Unfortunately I created more work since I didn't know to do all of this before having a stocked tank. Here's a couple of pictures.
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[budsreef]

Oh, yea and check the caulk at the base of the bulkhead wall on the display side. Mine came loose and I started getting sand into the back compartment which the pumps would pick up and spit back out onto the rock. If I had to turn the pumps off for any reason when I turned them back on my tank looked like one of those souvenir snow globes that you shake.

 

[lorenk]

Thanks for then notes everyone.

AP is now in hand, just arrived today. Problem is that I haven't finished my stand so it will be a week or so till I setup.

I'll go ahead and setup the other pump before I setup. Need to do some research on that.

-b

 

[chemically_balanced]

I'm glad to see you've done your research and looks like your off to a great start. Keep the post up with your progress.

 

[lorenk]

lol @ budsreef ... wouldn't you know that when I was filling it with water, the back partition shifted slightly toward the display and seperated the seal? So off to find some tank safe caulk and epoxy...not going to send it back for something as silly as that.

Anyone advise where I can buy parts to install my second pump? I need the connector that goes through the bulkhead. At this point I'd like to just cap it off instead of installing the second pump (which would be the stock one since I put the MJ900 in last night) until I figure out what it's purpose is.

Hopefully, I can get some sand and rock this weekend...and some water.

 

[flyingarmy]

PM'd you...

 

[budsreef]

That's probably how I broke mine too but didn't notice it until I figured all the sand in the back wasn't normal. Make sure you run a bead on both sides of the wall. My 48 hour wait was up last night and I began putting things back. I just finished up a little while ago getting everything back in from their temporary quarters, unfortunately I lost one damsel.

Here's a link to my bulkhead modification: