Angie's 24 gallon Aquapod

So, in March, of 09, after being truly indoctrinated into the Geekiness of Reefs, my boyfriend and daughter bought me my very own tank. The tank was actually purchased, earlier, as a Christmas gift, but we didn't begin setting it up, until March. Here's a journey of that tank.

Some of this will be a cut and paste, from when we originally set up the tank, from a local forum.
So please keep in mind that some of this took place, quite awhile ago.

We ordered an Aquapod 24 with Sunpod 150MH lighting from Barbie at Aquarium Solutions. It's taken awhile for it to arrive, but the tank is finally here and in the process of getting set up. Still waiting on the light fixture, but hoping it'll be here soon. Michael's doing a few Mods to the tank before we fill it with water, so here goes. We've had live rock in a tote for a month or more, cycling, and it's really wanting to be in it's new home.

My tank will be mainly SPS and Zoanthids. So far, the mods include replacing the stock pump with a MJ1200. Another MJ1200 will also be used, with a Hydor Flo unit. Michael's drilled a hole in the plastic that separates the display from the back. The MJ1200 will be in the back and connected to the Hydor. This will keep the display nice and clean, with no pumps visible. Depending on how the flow works out, with this set up, we may add a 3rd MJ1200. It would also be in the back portion and 1/2" black hose would be routed to the front left of the display and locline with a Y would be used.

We're still "up in the air" on which skimmer to use, if any. For now, we'll go skimmerless and do larger water changes, more often, to make up for the lack of skimmer. The "slots" in the back might also be modified to make a true surface skimmer. That hasn't been finalized yet either.

So, here's some pics.
Here's Madison showing off the stand. Wow her shirt's dirty. Remind me not to let her eat Cheetos before pictures.


She helped Dad put the stand together.


I'm getting excited!!


Now a bit nervous.....:shock::shock::shock:


First step to Mod complete.....


WooHoo...we got sand!!


More updates to come.....

dam sam.....that was fast posting eh?! you really have been watching and learning haven't you?!..........first off: madison is gorgeous! cheeto mess and all! how old is she? does she share your love for reefing? and is mike letting you decided what goes in there and how to scape the rockwork? ....he better be! .............looking forward to the updates angie!

madison looks happy for that tank she must love fish

looks like that will turn out to be a nice tank!

Madison is now 5. She's a huge fish nerd, just like mom and dad. She has her own corals, she knows the names of several types of corals and fish.

Yes, Michael did 'let' me set up the tank, how I wanted it. In fact, he really didn't have a choice. lol

March 20, 2009, fully cured live rock and saltwater went into the tank.


Tank with Rock and Sand!!


Here's Michael adding water without trying to stir up the sand.


And here it is full of water!!

I like the arch rock

That is a really nice set-up Angie. I agree Ian...the arch makes it look very unique.

Looks like a great start. Madison is a little cuttie looks like a proud junior reefette in the making.

Very nice. Its fun to watch them come together so quick like this. Cant wait to see what it looks like today.

Madison is adorable. It's always good t get the kids in to the hobby too. My kids LOVE going to the LFS with me - for the first 20 minutes anyway then they gets antsy.

I love that arch rock - I've been trying to find one like that without success. Is it real or was it man made in that shape?

Thanks all! I loved the arch rock, to begin with, and it's still in the tank. However, we didn't realize, when we got it, that it's man made. It's made by a company in Hawaii, that makes the rock, and then put the rock in tide pools, to let it cure. Because of this, it's always had some unusual algae on it, that we've yet to get rid of. Also, Michael wanted to drill some holes in this rock, for mounting SPS frags. Because it's man made, it's very dense, and made drilling quite difficult. Also, we placed a clam on top of this rock, planning to move it the next day. Well, the clam quickly attached itself and we haven't moved it yet. Part of the re-aquascaping, that I want to do, will include removing the clam from that rock.

Here's the tank, with the light mounted.





Since this tank was set up, using mature and healthy rock, we started adding corals, about a week after the tank was completely set up.



I haven't Identified these zoas yet, but I like the coloration of them.


These are Pink Panthers.


These are a bit different then our other Radioactive Dragon Eyes, but there way brighter in person. Please look past that Aptasia...lol.

When the tank was a couple of months old, we added a CPR Aquafuge to it, fed with a MJ400 and a CPR light.






At this time, we also added a few more corals.







Pink Hammer Coral with Baby-Blue tips.

Here's out first fish pics!! The orange is sooo vivid!! Of course, Madison immediately named it "Cootie." No idea where she came up with that, but she specifically said that she didn't want to name it "Nemo." Good Girl!!

So, before I even got this tank, I had my heart set on a Tailspot Blenny. I absolutely loved those fish. This was the second fish added to this tank. Unfortunately, it died a few months later and we haven't replaced it yet.



The clam I spoke of, earlier.



I also insisted on having Sexy Shrimp, despite the concern of them picking on Zoanthids. We decided to try them out.



Unfortunately, they DO pick on Zoanthids, so all 5 were caught and removed, after they'd destroyed a few Zoanthid colonies.

Simply beautiful tank

Cdangel, thank you so much!

The one thing that Michael doesn't like about this tank is how difficult it is to photograph, with the curved glass. He's just as addicted to photography as we are to reef tanks. Fortunately, both of these hobbies go hand in hand.

These sexy shrimp are really difficult to get into real sharp focus...lol.











Here's Cootie, also a lil' blurry.

So, this was one of my first attempts at photography. I used Michael's top down box, for these. Some were taken with my Sony P&S, some with Michael's Canon.








This is a top down shot of picture 2.

Very nice Angie. Keep them coming

Michael and I are actually trying, right now, to figure out how to move the arch rock into our 200DD. As I said, originally, I loved that arch rock. Michael bought it, to put in the 200, but I stole it...lol. We're thinking that, in the 200, we have a couple of fish that will clean up the algae from that rock. Eventually, I want the arch rock out of my nano, but I want to keep the clam. So, we'll have to carefully cut the bysal threads, to remove the clam from that rock, so we can remove the arch rock, but return the clam to my tank.