My 24g aquapod soon to be coral

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I love the black sand and the rock work off to one side. Its looking great. Do you have your MH's set up yet?
 
i did get the MH issue figured out and its been up for quite some time now. I built a canopy out of wood to have it hang over the top of the tank. i also rearranged the rock work because one it didn't have enough hiding spots for the fish and two i didn't like it that way.




 
so I was at my lfs today and i was going to get some copepods, but I was already getting new fish:becky: and I was wondering should I get a couple of pouches of phytoplankton and let it swim around and reproduce. Than should I buy copepods and let them eat the phyto or get them all at once?
 
i got a cleaner shrimp, i acclimated him very slowly because i know they're very sensitive. i had let him free after awhile and i came back to my tank in about 30 minutes and he had passed away:cry: i flushed him than checked my levels, the only thing the wasn't perfect was my ammonia and it was nearly perfect. What went wrong?
 
After doing some research and talking to a staff member we FINALLY:party: figured out why i was killing inverts and melting corals... Its a little element called iodine... when I received a box of chemicals I decided I should add all of them... well everything but one was good. i had dumped about 1mL of iodine into my tank.
Solution: get some sort of water treatment and treat 10g or so. than do a 30% wait about a couple days than add new carbon to the system and do another 30%.

Any suggestions on what I should do for a water treatment? and certain type I should buy?
thanks
Davin
 
Do you have a refeactometer to check the salinity before doing your water change? You should not just assume the salinity is correct by just adding 1/2 cup of salt per gallon of water. Ours almost always needs some more salt added. Just a thought.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
 
Hey when ever you want to trade that halide out for an LED let me know. We could save you some money, and heat for that little tank. Tank looks good though.
 
UPDATE: this morning I did another 30%. About 5 days ago I had added roughly 12oz. of brand new carbon. Does anyone have any home tests or actual test kits to test the amount of iodine?

tat2z_21 said:
Hey when ever you want to trade that halide out for an LED let me know. We could save you some money, and heat for that little tank. Tank looks good though.
Click to expand...
well who is we? and what is it going to cost me?
eww said:
Do you have a refeactometer to check the salinity before doing your water change? You should not just assume the salinity is correct by just adding 1/2 cup of salt per gallon of water. Ours almost always needs some more salt added. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
i have a cheap thermometer and salanity gauge... ive never seen the gauge move lol so thats a no
 
Last edited:
noobaquariumust said:
UPDATE: this morning I did another 30%. About 5 days ago I had added roughly 12oz. of brand new carbon. Does anyone have any home tests or actual test kits to test the amount of iodine?

well who is we? and what is it going to cost me?

i have a cheap thermometer and salanity gauge... ive never seen the gauge move lol so thats a no
Click to expand...

I dont know if there is a test kit for iodine or not. There must be. I'll check around, unless someone else knows.

tat2z_21 is the person that built the fabulous LED light for my pico tank

You should at least get a Hydrometer for checking your salinity. It would be better to have a refractometer, but I know your on a tight budget.
 
noobaquariumust said:
After doing some research and talking to a staff member we FINALLY:party: figured out why i was killing inverts and melting corals... Its a little element called iodine... when I received a box of chemicals I decided I should add all of them... well everything but one was good. i had dumped about 1mL of iodine into my tank.
Solution: get some sort of water treatment and treat 10g or so. than do a 30% wait about a couple days than add new carbon to the system and do another 30%.

Any suggestions on what I should do for a water treatment? and certain type I should buy?
thanks
Davin
Click to expand...

mkay....
trying to wrap my head around the scenario...
so you received a box of chemicals with the system and added them to the water,
i assume by following the dosing directions on the containers...

maybe a list of everything you received and used would be good.

second, if u kno whats good for u, you'll take up tat2z_21's offer to build you an inexpensive LED fixture for your nano... :)

now... first off, you should really not use tap water... surely there is a safeway by your house and you could fill up your containers there with ro filtered water... you've prolly seen customers filling their water jugs there. this might not be the best water but waaaay better than tap for sure! and no clorine!! or addition of water conditioners/declorinators.
second, run GAC(grannular activated carbon) in your system 24/7 and change it out at least once a week!

I kno your planning on getting a decent HOB skimmer for the tank, so thats great...
just for the record, here is what i have pm'ed you with for my opinion of good skimmers for that tank;
http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMaxx...ein_Skimmers-AquaMaxx-UJ1151-FIPSHONW-vi.html
http://www.marinedepot.com/CPR_Aero...Protein_Skimmers-CPR-CR02075-FIPSHONW-vi.html

for flow,.... i have a 20g tank, and have a total of 1600 gph of flow from tunze and koralia powerheads, i would suggest you get one larger koralia or tunze powerhead and hide it behind the rockwork. you will have to modify your rockwork so that the outlet of the powerhead is not obstructed, and that the flow will go all the way around the aquarium, if you do it properly, one sigle powerhead that is hidden will provide you with all the flow you will need.
here are a couple links to the exact models of koralia /tunze and sicce pumps that would be singularly perfect for your system.

HY-P19601 Premium Aquatics - HY-P19601 Aquarium Supplies
SIC-117 Premium Aquatics - SIC-117 Aquarium Supplies
T6065 Premium Aquatics - T6065 Aquarium Supplies

now, i would emplore you to probably dump all the chemicals you received with your system, and purchase
brand new high quality additives for your system, as well as a couple brand new test kits as well.
and yes, if you dont own one already, pick yourself up a $10 hydrometer to measure salinity...
then when you can afford, get a $40-50 refractometer for very accurate salinity readings.

here is a combination of 4 products that will provide you with everything you need to start with,
and wont break the bank.

BW-RCA250 Premium Aquatics - BW-RCA250 Aquarium Supplies
BW-RCB250 Premium Aquatics - BW-RCB250 Aquarium Supplies
BW-REP250 Premium Aquatics - BW-REP250 Aquarium Supplies
BW-LUG30 Premium Aquatics - BW-LUG30 Aquarium Supplies
with the lugol's iodine, just add ONE DROP A WEEK to your 24g aquapod, the rest, just follow the directions.

I would also suggest you add amino acids and vitamins to the regime as soon as you can afford as well:
BW-COA60 Premium Aquatics - BW-COA60 Aquarium Supplies
BW-VTM250 Premium Aquatics - BW-VTM250 Aquarium Supplies

now, test kits...
just get ELOS brand test kits,
I would suggest you need the following test kits to start;
magnesium
calcium
alkalinity
nitrate
phosphate

Elos Premium Aquatics - Elos Aquarium Supplies
in the mean time you can probably take your water to a reef shop and have them test the parameters for you for free until you have the appropriate test kits.

also, i will suggest that you get a digital ph meter instead of a ph test kit so you can have all-day ph monitoring;
MIL-MW101 Premium Aquatics - MIL-MW101 Aquarium Supplies
with a meter like this, the probe will sit in the filter section of your ap24 and you can read the ph display 24/7.

now, until you can afford a nice LED fixture, i feel compelled to mention that there are nice light fixtures that are easy on the eyes but still cheap,
http://www.aquatraders.com/18-inch-Metal-Halide-System-p/54242.htm

and also, a decent cheap skimmer body($40) that just requires you to buy a $25 pump:
http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-ProPack-Protein-Skimmer-p/43014.htm
and the pump you would want to use:
http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-supplies/CPR-ASP1-1000.html
This isnt as good as the other skimmers i recommended, but it is a good, cheap alternative.
if you do get this skimmer, DONT buy the POS pump aquatraders sells for the skimmer!!!
the acclea pump that CPR uses is much much better!!
 
Last edited:
I added an extreme amount of Iodine to the water...
I think I'm going to be buying the cheaper skimmer
and also, a decent cheap skimmer body($40) that just requires you to buy a $25 pump:
http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-P...er-p/43014.htm
and the pump you would want to use:
http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-s...ASP1-1000.html
This isnt as good as the other skimmers i recommended, but it is a good, cheap alternative.
if you do get this skimmer, DONT buy the POS pump aquatraders sells for the skimmer!!!
the acclea pump that CPR uses is much much better!!
For flow i have a koralia 2 and i upgraded to a maxijet 1200 so I have plenty.
I would love the LED fixture if its going to cost me little to none for the swap of my MH.
Right now I have a kit that tests
Nitrate
Nitrite
Ammonia
pH
and Alkalinity
I need to get one that tests phosphate, magnesium, and calcium
For a refractometer, is there any certain brand or type i should get?

For
 
noobaquariumust said:
For flow i have a koralia 2 and i upgraded to a maxijet 1200 so I have plenty.
I would love the LED fixture if its going to cost me little to none for the swap of my MH.
For a refractometer, is there any certain brand or type i should get?
Click to expand...

thats really not nearly enough flow in the display area,
and if anything too much flow through the filter with a maxi-jet 1200 connected to the filter return.
check the gph of the powerheads i recommended (1600gph) compared to your koralia 2 (600gph).

now with flow through a filter, most people prefer slower flow so that the filter actually has a chance to absorb more of the nutrients.
when water is traveling fast through the filter less of the water molecules actually get cleaned. mechanical filtration(polester pads or socks)
are the only ones that truely benifit from high flow through the filter, and should really only be employed temporarily during cleaning,
or changed/cleaned out every 4-5 days so as not to promote excess nitrate build-up.
but it's also better for corals to not filter out the fine particles with mechanical filtration so they have more to eat.

and you would have to pay any person to build you a LED fixture, he was just offering to build it for you
if you were thinking of switching out your current lighting.
here are a couple led fixtures that arent too expensive:
Evolution LED Light 100w 3G [14K] : REEFKOI CORALS, SPS, LPS, Zoanthids
150w LED Fixture
SWC Xtreme Cree LED60 watt Light [SWC Xtreme 60 watt CREE led] - $399.99 : SWC - Salt Water Connection, Protein Skimmers, Calcium Reactors, Filters & Lights

and a decent but not too spendy refractometer:
REFRACT-HD Premium Aquatics - REFRACT-HD Aquarium Supplies
from there they go up to $100
 
UPDATE!! i did a 20% today with tap water, but i treated it with prime. I had 2 types of algae growing. Brown stringy algae that came off really easy and green algae on the glass that i had to scrub off. I am going to go into walmart and buy some jugs of pure distilled water, and than im going to buy a snail. If the snail survives we're in buisness. What do you guys think i should do inverts wise? Water wise?
 
From what I learned last time I looked into iodine test kits....

You can get them, but it seemed the general opinion was that the tests weren't very accurate. It is the only thing I dose and do not test for. I dose conservatively because of that. Maybe 2 drops of Lugol's into my sump every month or so (if I remember that often. Started every other week, but it has been a while since I've added any now)
 
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