My new 24 gal aquapod w/sunpod. Easy and effective setup, no DIY

[mikekman]

Alright guys, I suck at DIYs so I tried to find things that would make my Aquapod do well and stuff that is simple.

Pic of sunpod in box



Aquapod in box

[mikekman]

Next once everything out of the box and put together, I put a aquafuge in the back along with a remora skimmer behind the fuge



Overhead shot

[mikekman]

Alrighty, a full tank shot



A clearer one with flash






Very simple tank. I'm using stock pump, took out the foam and the ceramics/bioballs, using a simple aquafuge, and aqua remora skimmer. The fuge and the skimmer I got used so it didn't cost me much.

I will put probably 5-10 more lbs of live rock in the middle and have more sps. The bottom is a bunch of different zoo frags, rics, neon green candy canes, blue cloves, gsp, etc that will be left to grow bigger and look nicer.

[mikekman]

More pics

FTS with lights on



Left side of the tank



Right side of the tank

[mikekman]

Some coral pictures

Blue tort on left, teal stag in middle, and blue tenius on far right. The blue tenius browned out during shipping. It was bright blue in the other persons tank before shipping



Neon green candy cane




Blue zoo




Blue cesp

[mikekman]

Blue clove polyps. Looks light blue in person, not the tealish color the camera shows



Tubs blue zoos in the back




Small frag of bright green star polyps

[Pico1]

Nice livestock selections!

[icu2]

Looking good!

[RHagemann]

Love the Tubs Blues! I agree, nice selection of livestock. It's gonna look even better after the frags have grown out.

[Crackerballer]

Is the remora actually working, as in are you getting nice and dark skimmate without tons of microbubbles?

You know they make a CPR with built in Skimmer. I have not read anything on it though.

[chkit]

i like the refugium. where did you get it?

[Crackerballer]

Originally posted by chkit
i like the refugium. where did you get it?

Search for "Aquafuge" on Ebay. Marine Depot sells them. They are a little expensive, but I think they are my answer to alot of things, like cheato, growing pods for a mandarin, and a few other things.

[mikekman]

Thanks guys!

Icu-thanks for the corals

Pico1- thanks!

RHagemann -thanks! Definitely everything will look great once the frags start growing and getting bigger. Tubs Blues are one of my favs.

Crackerballer -yes the remora works. Here is what I found, I lift the collection cup really high so that it skims dry instead of giving me a ton of wet clearish skimmate. Its been a week and I haven't had to change the cup because its not really full but the skimmate is dark. I'm not using the MJ900 that the remora comes with, I'm using a MJ1200. I knew CPR made a fuge w/ skimmer but my store only had the aqua fuge so I had to get what they had, but they had a used remora so I jumped on it. Not sure how well the aquafuge skimmer works though.

chkit -its a CPR aquafuge. They make ones in many sizes like 3 gallon ones, 5 gals, etc.

Mike

[neverwouldof]

So your skimmer is actually pulling from the fuge? Wouldn't it be better if pulling from tank so your fuge can develop pods and other life? are you going to have fish in there? just questions for thought....

[mikekman]

neverwouldof, yes the skimmer is placed behind the fuge so its pulling from the fuge. I would place it somewhere else but there is no space.

I could put the skimmer in the front of the tank but then that would be ugly. I thought it looked nice behind and you can't really see it.

I see pods in the fuge and the caulerpa is growing well so its doing its job.

I do plan on getting fish........just want to carefully decide what I want. Every coral, invert, fish, etc that goes into this tank is carefully selected. I probably will get a midas blenny and six line wrasse. Still thinking though.

Mike

[reefman13]

good luck, nice tank

[Qckwzrd]

ship some of those blue zoas over here I need to get a that skimmer...and fuge

[mikekman]

reefman -thanks! I'm going to take more pics soon because I added more rock so the tank looks better.

qckwzrd -when those zoas grow onto another piece of rubble, I'll let you know!

[reefman13]

Yes more pics

Is this kind of like your frag grow out tank? Or another reef entirely?

[mikekman]

Alright, new pics!!!

OLD FTS



NEW FTS




As you can see I added a bit more rock in the back. An ongoing project!

[mikekman]

Coral pics taken at night

CESP





Acros



Unknown lps






Couldn't take more because other corals like zoos were closed up. Will take more later!

Thanks for looking.
Mike

[mikekman]

reefman -this will be another reef. I do have a lot of frags in there but thats because its cheaper to buy frags and let them grow out and thats what I am doing. I put pieces of rubble rock near all the frags so that they can grow and spread onto the rock. I hope that all my frags get big and spread all over.

I may put all my dendros and sun corals from my other nano into this tank and just have one tank only.

Mike

[reefman13]

Good stuff. LMK when you get multiples of the rics and frags of the tort and blue stag.

Aquascaping looks good, but you do need some more LR in there.

[mikekman]

reefman13 -don't worry, more rock will be added in. The back section were the acros are will have more rock to fill it up and hopefully some more colorful acros. I hope some of my rics will start splitting and having babies. Maybe my zoos will grow like crazy too.

Just to let you know, I really don't fiddle around with my tank that much. You know how some people always are doing something with there tank and have there hands in there tank doing this and that, etc. Well for me, once everything is in place, I let my reef start take care of itself. I provide good flow, food, and light and let them grow, etc.

Now my other nano, I try not to mess with it, but since I have to target feed my sun corals and dendros, my hands are in there about once a day target feeding them. After that, I try not to mess with the tank.

[dendro982]

I really like further developing of the possibilities of the cube tanks by using slim refugiums and skimmers.
I toyed with idea adding the sump under NC6g, but too much troubles with plumbing and switches. This way is much better.

Nice set of corals, in a half of year this tank will be full of color.
Iridescent xenia - is it the blue kind?
If the one of green mushrooms is a hairy mushroom, you will have a giant 6" across, love them.

I only wonder, how to keep red montipora from becoming brown - is it depends on the low nutrients level or a MH lighting?

Good work, mikekman!