squiddly
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Posts posted by squiddly
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Hiya everyone. Today I put the first inhabitants in the Aquapod 24. It's been happily cycled, with about 15 ls of live rock, 2 false perculas (aquacultured) and 10 crabs. It's running on an aquacontroller jr. (or will be as soon as I get a new temperature sensor). My plan is to stock it with aquacultured fish, some corals that won't be too much trouble for a busy person to deal with, and an anemone once the tank is fully established.
If anyone has any special ideas re: the best way to deal with filtration, or any other special tips for dealing with the Aquapod, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
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Thanks, guys. I'm hoping it's the probe and have ordered a new one after reseating and restarting didn't solve the problem. The self test was fine. I'll be using manual temp control (oh the horror) until then :-)
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Kudas are a tough one to keep as much of the livestock out there comes from Asian mass brooding tanks that are open to the ocean... so they are technically tank raised, but are worse off than most wild caughts (due to crowding issues + all the normal wild caught issues). There are a few good breeders for kudas out there though. If you have a reliable means of keeping your tank less than 74, I recommend you try again if you are interested. Matt and a few others on the boards are pretty experienced and can offer good advice to you
Thanks, Chad. I'm trying to find a reliable method now, starting by reprograming my Aquacontroller Jr. And thanks for the info on the Kudas. I learned about the mass brooding tanks only I had my first ones. I won't be doing Kudas again for a long time.
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Hi guys. This is probably operator error, but after re-setting up my Aquapod I think I'm having a problem either with the Aquacontroller Jr. itself or the temp probe. The temp reads 119 in the tank, which is nowhere near accurate as the tank is 75. Temp calibration won't fix the problem, as I can only bring it down to 107 before it resets to 135. Any ideas?
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As one who failed at seahorses (cudas) I can only be amazed at what you have done. I was very sad at losing my babies, so I don't know if I'm ready to try again but I'll be following your adventures, and when I do decide to get back into the gorgeous critters, I'll be sure to ask you for advice, starting with a heartier species of seahorse than I had.
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You're in great falls? Thats turrible... I hope your generator gets you through! At least its not out everywhere, so you can get more if you need to. No power loss in Arlington so far as my roommates can say....
Has anyone else lost power?
Yeah, Great Falls, VA. We'd have to get someone who could bring a truck for the propane though cuz it's one of those underground tanks. I'm hopeful.
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so is anyone experiencing any tank issues yet from this storm?I was just over at AQUACO and Sean told me a lot of his service clients are already having problems..
Our power has been out since this afternoon and our friends at Dominion say it won't be back until perhaps tomorrow night around 6pm. I am hoping that the propane for the generator lasts that long. Please cross your fingers for us.
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One thing about yashia gobis...I had two in a 40, and one continually attacked the other. I rescued the poor little guy and put him in my aquapod 24, where he is currently the sole occupant with a couple of pieces of PVC to hide in and feel secure.
He's doing really well in there, with his fins grown back and eating well. I missed fragfest today (silly me), and was planning to go and use frags to begin stocking the 24 but it was not to be. I'll be slowly setting up the 24 as time goes on, so I'll be watching this thread to see what others are doing.
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FYI re: Deer Park water, and I'm sure many other waters out there, the smaller bottles have ADDED sulfites in them. Of course, that is not listed on the label or anywhere else. How do I know? I'm allergic to them, and was feeling quite poorly and decided to try to flush it out by drinking more water. I got worse and worse, and tried to figure out what the issue was, finally calling Deer Park and finding out that they indeed add sulfites.
I still have no idea how they get away without listing it on the label.
They do NOT add sulfites to the large bottles they use in coolers, however.
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While sometimes I wish that technology would allow us NOT to fidget, seems that current tech means we still have to do both. Although I do much appreciate a system that will sense when stuff is too hot and shut down the lights in the middle of the day when I'm out rather than cooking the tank.
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Yet another dive site to be explored..
Hopefully not, actually. We ought to leave some of these things alone. Overdiving can be a serious problem as not all divers are as careful as they could be.
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That is GREAT news. Let's hope they leave it alone now :-)
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There's no way i could ignore a sale right up the road from me. So after double checking my water parameters and finding them happy, it was off to Aquaco to get me a wrasse and some corals that were relatively easy care. I don't have a picture of the wrasse yet, as he's a bit elusive still, but here's my new frogspawn and zoa rock.
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1)use nothing but RO/DI for top off
2)good skimming,
3) macro algea in a fuge growing 24/7
4)top off water goes through a kalk reactor of some type to keep PH up
5)and of couse calcium and alkalinity balanced in appropriate range
6) DSB(6inches or more) is more of a preference and IMHO should be relegated to the refuge if desired. 2-3 inches seems the mixed reef standard for most peoples viewing tank. It and works well a a buffer, bio diversity area, and nessecity for many wrasses and gobies.
These will keep the nitrates in check in order of priority that I would install them- I am talking the 0-3 PPM range. If you are running any bio balls I would list slowly removing them at the top of the list.
I have not come across a mixed reef tank that will not balance out in the 0-3 range doing the above. Water changes will move the tank in the right direction if made with RO/DI.
Thank you for the specific and concrete (and quick) answers.
Right now I use only RO/DI filtering for top off, I have a skimmer that kicks serious butt :-), macro algae in the fuge, but it's not 24/7. I can change that. I don't know a kalk reactor from a nuclear one, and I haven't worried about calcium since I don't have anything but spaghetti finger leathers, and a few star corals and a shroom or two in there. I'll be happy to change that idea if I should do that despite not having the hard corals in there.
I'm going to put some more sand in the refugium because it sure can't hurt.
I really appreciate you guys and the I'm sure tedious nature of repeating this stuff over and over again. Thanks!
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When I first started my nitrates were at 80. It took me 6 months to get my nitrates under control. Nitrates have always been a problem in reefing & some people just don't worry about them. But it can be conquered. I think Bob Lanman has become an expert with his large system now.
DSB = 4" - 6". One could plumb a 5 gallon bucket filled with the sand except for the top 2-4" into their system or simply add sand on top of the existing. Any kind of stirring of DSB's is not recommended because of the possible sudden release of some toxicants in it, like your Sulfides. A DSB may take 6 months to really kick-in depending on the size of the system.
Think it would help if I put it in the fuge? Or would I lose some of the benefits of the fuge?
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DSB = Deep Sand Bed.
bob
Oh duh...thank you.
I have 2 inches in there now. I suppose I could add more and re-aquascape.....
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Once your nitrates drop, then their growth should slow way down. The nitrates are like fertilizer to them & xenia. Water changes, installing a DSB and/or a refugium with macro algae & cutting back on your feeding schedule should work.
If only :-)
Seriously, I've got a refugium, I've got macro algae everywhere, I cut way back on feeding already, and I do as many water changes as I can. It's a 180 so it's a big tough to manage but I'm doing my best. What is a DSB?
I would love to get the nitrates down.... Then I could grow "real" corals :-). I do think you're spot on, however, as my 40 has 2 of the boogers and that's it. No more. Its nitrates are under 10.
Thanks!
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Just curious, what are your nitrate readings?
About 30. I'm having troubles with that.
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I'd rather not just rip them out and kill them, but these guys are everywhere. My tank is covered with em. Not sure how to get them off the rocks even, but if you know how and would like to have some, just let me know, although I have the feeling they might be in the "pest" category.
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Nicely done. Impressive for a non SLR camera.
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I doubt your gonna find a local breeder, you'll probably have to get your LFS to get them shipped in, or "do the whole shipping thing"
Plus dwarfs need live food. So you basically have to set up a system just for mysis or other shrimp (not brine unless you're going to gut feed them).
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One might have thought that a 40 gallon tank would be big enough for two yashia gobis, but it was not the case. One was brought up playing video games and watching those horribly violent cartoons :-). He ripped most of the tail off the other poor guy and beat him up and stressed him out so much that I had to rescue him and put him in another tank. I had to set up my 24 Aquapod for one little fishie.
Perhaps this will spur me on to reset up the tank for seahorses.... or maybe something else. Maybe even CORALS! W00t :-)
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Not to shabby, it looks great, what keeps the door open?
The doors aren't open...the second shot was from behind. I'd like to set something up to keep the doors open, however, in case of overheating or to make it easier when cleaning. I don't think I'll bother him with that yet though :-). He's too busy preening :-)
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Hubby has created a magnificent matching canopy for my Oceanic 180 and I am ever so proud :-).
Squiddly's Aquapod 24
in Dedicated Tank (Build) Forum
Hi Sean. Yes, I have the water filters and all, and the salt. I'm going to pick up a tester to make sure the water is ok. I'm using a sponge in the aquapod for base filtration. I'm not sure if I'm going to have need for a skimmer if I don't stock it too much, but will definitely consider it. I may still have an old one floating around. I was planning 1/3 water changes weekly. It's a really small tank so it wouldn't be too hard to swap out that much. Thoughts?