My 9 year old 12g AquaPod

[jonbar1]

Hello everyone,

Starting to get back into reefing and thought I'd post some updates to my 12g AquaPod that I started back in 2006. Unfortunately there was a 2 week power outage in 2008 that killed most of my high end corals while I was out of state but the tank lives on.

The lighting is a 70w XM 20000K HQI bulb and I use ESV B-Ionic Seawater Mix tweaked a bit so I don't need to do any dosing. I target feed all corals every other night with Cyclop-Eeze.
Older pics can be seen here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/2135-jons-12g-aquapod.html
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/9950-some-random-tank-pics.html
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/13128-finally-got-pics-devastation.html

Jon

 

[reewik]

WOW... awesome!

 

[Akwarius]

That thing is STACKED! Nice job.

 

[revhtree]

This thread literally made me smile!

JON DUDE! Welcome back man it has been a long time! Man glad to see you.

That nano looks awesome!! I love those fatty acans in there!

 

[1Snapple]

Time for a bigger tank ;] looks great man, I would hate to see you try to add another coral in there.
How big were most of those frags when you got them?

 

[jonbar1]

Believe me, I would love a bigger tank...especially with all the crazy Chalices and LPS available now.

Most of the aussie acans were 3-4 polyps when I got them, back when Australian coral first hit the US market and the Duncan was 2 or 3 polyps. The red micro under the duncan was a single polyp and so was the orange echinata. The Cyphastrea was a 1"x1" square and never colored up until I switched to ESV salt a year or two ago. The only zoa to survive the power outage was a single polyp of Original Safecrackers and it's now up to about 20-30 polyps.

I don't run the high light or high flow to keep PEs and Armageddons anymore, but am hoping to come across a cheap frag of Purple Deaths one of these days.

 

[brazilian_guy]

sweet tank Jon. *THUMPS UP* & *HIGH FIVE* if i lived close enough id hook you up with some purple deaths. And thx to this thread i learned something new. i was gonna go w/ d&d salt. but ive heard so much good things from friends that use b-Ionic steps 1&2, but i never knew the made salt *jumps for joy* went and bought 200g from MD im trying to avoid the whole dosing thing too since my tank is only a 14g and i dont want my lvs jumping all over the place. I do weekly 1-2g water changes. what other things are you currently doing. as for my lights i still have my stock BC hood on but w/ Cree leds.

 

[tinctorus]

That tank is INCREDIBLE!!

Seriously that thing is packed to the gills and looks really fantastic!!
Plus it also looks like someone was bit HARD by the ACAN bug!! LOL

 

[mjaustin22]

sweet tank, nice work!!!!!!

 

[slapshot]

Dang nice tank...wow!

 

[jonbar1]

@brazilian_guy
You will love ESV's salt mix. I highly recommend using a digital scale to measure out the ingredients so each batch is identical and the corals don't bat an eye after a water change. As a good starting point, here's the proportions ESV gives and the proportions I use:

ESV Directions:
1 gallon water
91 grams Sodium Chloride
25 grams Magnesium Sulfate
49 grams Part A
21 grams Part B

I use:
1 gallon water
91 grams Sodium Chloride
29.5 grams Magnesium Sulfate
52 grams Part A
24 grams Part B

The only maintenance I do is feeding, top offs, and a 4 gallon water change every week or so. I use distilled water from the grocery store since I haven't spent the money to get an RO/DI system and don't see the spare money coming anytime soon.

My parameters stay a very steady 1.025, 8.3pH, 9GH, 3.2 meq/L, 450Ca, & 1360Mg at 75 degrees F.

In the rear chambers I have:
1st: Wadded up Tulle from the fabric dept of Walmart (bridal veil material). It's cheap, good at catching debris, and replaced every couple waterchanges
2nd: Live rock rubble
3rd: Heater
4th: MaxiJet 900

 

[brazilian_guy]

So I need to buy some Sodium Chloride?

 

[bige]

Wow! That thing is stacked. Well done!

 

[Molli]

Really cool to see acans as a colony instead of just a single frag on a plug!

 

[brazilian_guy]

91 grams Sodium Chloride
29.5 grams Magnesium Sulfate



So the salt is in two parts.... Then what do you use for those two extra ingredients and what are their brands

 

[jonbar1]

If you got the 200g it has all four ingredients. It comes in two boxes, the first box is just Sodium Chloride and the second is Magnesium Sulfate, 2 jugs of A and 1 of B

 

[Seagars]

how do you fit all those in there?
looks great!

 

[11f150]

Your tank is my goal. Very nice well done

 

[brazilian_guy]

jon a quick question. now i know you have a 12g. and that you do a 4g h20 change every week or soo.. but with all the coral and sand and water. how much water is actually in there.. for my tank i have a 14 and if i was to get all the water out of it id prob have 6-7 gl of water. so im assuming your is around the same area if you were to drain all your water. LONG story short. so you do a 50% water change or so? im gonna do my water change tomorrow but im only gonna do 3gl. wont it be to much of a swing in the tank to do a 50% change every week?

 

[jonbar1]

My total water volume is about 8 gallons which is why I usually do 4 gallon water changes. When I first switched to ESV I drained my tank and refilled with fresh mixed ESV(I was battling a case of neglected tank syndrome). The temperatures of the tank and new water were the same and nothing showed any stress that I remember. Since then I've always done at least 50% changes because I target feed a LOT of cyclopeeze every other day. Algae gets out of hand if I don't. As long as the new ESV water is the same temperature as my tank the corals and clownfish never show any stress at all.

You should be completely fine with 2-3g changes.

Since with the ESV I can make every batch identical to the one before with a digital scale, the only difference between new water and tank water is the nutrients removed and Ca/Mg/Alk replaced...less of a swing than if I were dosing and parameters stay at optimal levels.

Hope this helps.