My 24gal "Pod"

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Update again...Still tossing around a few ideas with flow. Seems like it may be the nano streams for sure if I stay bare bottom, but have been thinking about adding a ssb lately :shock: Tank seems too small and limited on what I can keep without it so i have some major thinking to do...

Also, It seems like I still haven't gotten rid of all of the lobophora yet so I may have to do more chopping again this weekend :doubt: This thing has been a pain since it started growing in my 75gal. I may speed up the process of turning some of my old rock into base rock (making sure nothing left in/on it is alive) by tossing it into a boiling pot and removing the one troublesome rock I have left and replacing it with the base rock. We'll see...

Also, maybe a few more idea like a small fuge or something...Anyways, I have a lot of decisions to make. We'll see what I come up with:)

Here'sa pic from tonight!


 
LOL! Haven't decided yet Gabby...Slow down:p I've never been nitrate free until I went bb with tons of flow so it's just up in the air:D
 
I read something once about someone who wanted the look of sand, but had too much flow.
If I remember right, they glued sand down on some starboard or something like that.
I don't remember where I read about it or how it turned out. ????
 
Yeah, I think someone poured sand in their tank and created the mounds and all. After that they poured some epoxy or something over it. It looked like a sand bed without the negatives.

That defeats the purpose of a sandbed except for looks.
 
LOL! I'd never glue down sand. It may give my fish a complex:p I wanted sand so I can get a few different species of fish that I am limited to now (which are on the smaller scale) but still deciding:)
 
Well, I found a burner I can use outside to boil some rock so as I type, the pot is heating up. Hopefully it will get hot enough to reach boiling. Once the rock is completely "dead" of all life, I will do a swap with the one rock I've never been able to get all the lobophora off and hope I don't experience any cylces or anything. I guess I will have to stay on top of testing just incase I may need to remove the corals and fish. I'm hoping though that my other 2 rocks will be able to handle the biological filtration so we'll see. I'm prepared for the worse, but no sense on delaying things anymore fighting the lobophora. I've been dealing with it from the time of my 75gal and have chopped up a lot of rock to try get rid of it without any success so I'm doing what I have to now at all costs. I'm thinking I will be fine and the tank won't experience any issues, but like I said, I'm prepared just incase:)
 
Just another small update...I have finally decided to add a sandbed because the tank really is too small to be without one and not be so noticeable. I went to get some yesterday, but couldn't find the grain I wanted so I will look around again tomorrow. Once my rock's ready to go in and have gotten rid of all of the lobophora, I'll set the corals how they will stay and get rid of the ones I won't be using anymore. I'm going to cut down a few of them as well (height wise) because they are almost out of the water. I was hoping when I set up this tank, I wouldn't have to mess with things, but seeing that nuicance lobophora popped back up I have to again so keep your fingers crossed that this will be the last and boiling does the trick:)
 
Krish, your tank is looking good, why the sandbed?

And by the way, any tank you set up you will end up messing with things. It will NEVER be the way you want it :) Always something to change.
 
I agree with chuck! Tank looks great!

But I do like the sand. I guess im just the sand loving outcast here on RF.
 
Krish, your tank is looking good, why the sandbed?
Click to expand...

Thanks Chuck...:)

Here's why I've been debating a sand bed.

Why I should

- The tank is so small, it makes it look kinda odd without one

- Seeing I can only have small fish like goby's etc, I'm limited on what all I can keep in there without one even some critters like brittle stars etc.
.

Why I shouldn't

- Never had any detectable nitrates once my tank balanced out (since the 75gal) and going bare bottom and have never seen any since.

- I'm a flow freak and if I put a sand bed in I'd only create a sand storm

I thought about it long and hard again last again after logging off and seeing I have those Tunze nano streams on hold with Rob at PA as soon as they get them in, I'm going to leave the bottom bare because the sand won't be able to stay put with them. Also, the fact that the tank is so small (and therefore easily influenced by so many differerent factors) I think it would be better "bare" to help keeing waste, nitrates etc to a minimum. I guess it just looks extra odd to me now because I didn't put down a white pvc board bottom this time, but I'll live. I'd rather a clear bottom eventually covered by coraline than a hair algae problem like I had before from a dirty sand bed:)

And by the way, any tank you set up you will end up messing with things. It will NEVER be the way you want it Always something to change.
Click to expand...

Definately and I love the look now (which upsets me) and honestly didn't plan on messing with the tank, but I have no choice right now. Lobophora isn't like regular hair algae that you can just starve out or reduce the excess nutrients in your tank to get rid of like you would hair algae. From what I understand, it uses the same stuff stuff as corals do to grow (calcium etc) which means if I starve the lobophora, my corals die. The stuff has to be physically removed. I've tried it many times the easy way by chipping it off with a hammer and a chisel, which upset me because I lost a lot of good rock and it just kept coming back so I'm going to have to boil some rock I have out back to re-use those pieces to get rid of it once and for all. I've been fighting with this problem since the beginning of the year and I'm tired of it. So with that being said, I'm going to remove 2 rocks that have the lobophora on it that I could never seem to get it off of and re-glue my coral frags to the new rocks and hope that is the end of it.:)

I agree with chuck! Tank looks great!

But I do like the sand. I guess im just the sand loving outcast here on RF.
Click to expand...

Thanks Larry :)
 
Why would you put that in your tank Krish?? jk I hope you end up getting rid of it all.
Click to expand...

LOL!:p I had it on one rock and thought it was a cool sponge...I was wrong(LOL) Now it's everywhere! I should have it beat after I swap the rocks so we'll see. :)
 
Well, the rocks are out! I had them in the pot for 3 hours, but they only boiled for about 2 hours. I guess the pot was too big :oops: I'll let them cool over night and then give them a good scrubbing tomorrow after work and see how it goes:)
 
Now that I see your pics, I had the very same thing, I had to peel it off the rocks, was nasty stuff! Still not as bad as RAZOR! NOPE not that bad trust me!
 
Update

I did the swap finally tonight and I'm fearing the worse, but hoping for the best. I'm hoping the one big rock I left in the tank will be able to perform all of the biological functions on it's own and re-seed the new rock. I lost ALOT of filter feeders in my old rock (tube worms etc) and will take forever to get back to where it was. My biggest fear is a spike in ammonia or whatever so I'm going to have to watch it closely. I cut down a few corals and re-glued some on the new rock. Out of all that I went through with the boiling, I only used one rock. I'll post a pic tomorrow when I get home from work and the water had a chance to clear up.:)
 
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