Aquapod 24 150w HQI

[MiMiC]

Hello everyone, I am new to these forums and I am glad to say that I finally decided to take up this great (but expensive) hobby.

I went down to my local salt water store ( Tropical Fish Haven ) and purchased a 24gal Aquapod with the 150w Metal Halide, they had a unit in the front and I couldnt beilive how nice it looked I kept on dreaming about how nice mine would be if I could get one, so I went out and finally bought it.

I bought

1. 24g Aquapod w/ 150w HQI $400
2. 20lbs of Live Arganite sand $38
3. 24g Pre-mixed salt water $12
4. 24lbs Fiji rock (Pre-Cured) 7.50 a lb

I am going to let my setup sit for about two weeks, possibly shorter depending on my readings, then I am going to purchase a clean up crew.

I'll take pics of my set up ASAP.

Thanks!

[VWD]

Welcome to the Reef Tank!!!!


Sounds good, Take your time,

[dobejazz]

Welcome to TRT !!

[vitamin sea]

Nice setup can't wait two see some pic's

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT! hope it doesn't get to warm?

[MiMiC]

Thanks for the salutations, I set up my rock and I tried to make as many crevices and cave looking wholes, it looks pretty neat and I can't wait till it is full with life.

I am thinking of removing my blue sponges and bio balls, and add LR rubble and maybe some other addative to my right sump? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

I am going to place a heater and a thermometer in my left sump, also going to upgrade to the MAXIJET 1200 for more flow.

What do you all think I should add to the sump? any type of algae? I am going to add some LR rubble to the back to help filtration at eliminate the sponges I read they elivate nitrite levels through time.

[MiMiC]

After putting the rock in there, I havent removed my sponges or bio-balls yet I am not going to do that till the tank cycles.

I noticed a smell coming from the tank, its probably completely normal but it kind of smells like a turtle tank, you know that stinky wet smell.

Also its still cloudy in there, when I bought the rock it looks like it was just cut from a reef it still has all sorts of stuff hanging from the rock so I left it on there and threw it in the tank, they said at the shop because it hasnt been cured yet that it would take a little longer to cycle, but my tank is still couldy and hopefully it will dicipate in a few days.

[Jflip2002]

I remember the feeling I had when I first got started with saltwater. It was such a cool feeling. I would go to the LFS 4 times a week just to stare.. Too bad that feeling wore off and now I worry about algae lol.

Welcome.

[MiMiC]

Haha nice, so you would say this is perfectly normal?

[MiMiC]

For those who are expeirnced with the Aquapod 24g, the black blocks that run vertical in the right chamber with the sponges, do you want to keep those in or leave them out, I noticed by taking them all out I get a heck of alot of more flow, but is this what you want or is it bad for the filtering?

[MiMiC]

The rock I put in my tank wasnt cleaned or anything so I put it in my tank and it got super murky, i took the rock out and scrubbed it real good, also took my sponge and cleaned it, it was pretty dirty I siphoned half the water out and took out the bio balls, I then put the rock back into the tank and put the sponge back in, I am going to leave it like this until the water gets clearer, washing my filter and siphoning the tank as much as possible and I am gradually going to add new premixed salt water to it, hopefully it will clear up, also it smells pretty bad I read it would because its all the dead stuff on the rock so when I took it out I made sure I scrubbed it real good.

[MiMiC]

It seems that this uncured rock is making the cloudy like water, I read it is 100% normal since its uncured, pretty much all the stuff on the rock is dying and its making a foul smell, I read that I want to change water out daily, scrub rock as much as possible and syphon out all dead material on sand bed, tommorrow I am going to go buy a test kit so I can test for Ammonia. Hopefully in about 2-3 weeks my water paremeter's will be good enough to to get my cleanup crew.

[MiMiC]

Things to buy,

1. Filtering Media (Seachem MatrixCarbon, Seachem de*nitrate™,Seachem SeaGel
2. Hydrometer
3. Thermometer

[MiMiC]

I purchased my Hydrometer, Ammonia test kit and Nitrite Test kit, my rock is still making my water cloudy so I move the peices around daily and scrub off what dead material is on them, the man at the store said by tuesday it should clear up so I guess we will see then, till then I have the lights on 8hrs a day and do regular siphoning of all dead material on the sand bed.

[kwjones]

I would leave the lights off. You don't really need them for anything yet.