New Pics - Aquapod Cleanup / Charity case

sfoister

sfoister

Member
I'll make the story short and get straight to the pics. I met a guy that had a 24 gallon aquapod sitting on his desk at work and he was letting it go to hell. Neglecting it and letting the aiptasia take over because he thought they were corals. The tank was way overstocked and killing corals left and right. No water changes were done in like 6 months. So I told the guy to let me have the tank and he agreed. I picked up the tank from the guy and thus started my charity project to save as many of the critters as possible. Now on to the pics!
April 6 2007
This pic is the day I picked it up and just dropped all the rock in the tank. You can see the aiptasia is insane at this point and the stock list consisted of:
1 Yellow Wrasse
1 Maroon Clown
1 Blue Damsel
1 Yellow Damsel
1 Domino Damsel
1 Serpent star
1 Horse shoe crab
Various inverts, but NO SNAILS and/or CRABS
Domino didn't make it, he was in bad shape before transit and I didn't think he would make it. He didn't.. poor thing, he was way oversized for the tank too.

April 10 2007
Stock list now down to
1 Yellow Wrasse
1 Maroon Clown
1 Serpent star
Various inverts

July 19 2007
Added some soft corals and a florida condi

November 21 2007
Condi is gone, he would not stay still and almost took out my xenia colony single handedly. Everything is going nuts in the tank now. I have made over $150 on xenia frags alone and nearly $100 on kenya tree frags.




I am very proud of what I have accomplished with this tank. And may I also add that this is my very first tank, ever. Before this tank I was thinking about getting into the hobby and doing my research. I've had no deaths in this tank, had some scares but no losses. :)
What do you think?
 
sfoister

sfoister

Member
I just want to add also that the small rock of star polyps were scraped out of a friends tank, it was taking over a small portion of his tank that he did not want it to, so I snagged some of them and they are doing nicely.
The lone mushroom right next to the star polyps, sitting there all by itself was an orphaned mushroom that was laying on the sand at an LFS so they gave it to me for nothing and he's starting to split now.
The yellow polyps on the sand are attached to a small shell and they also started as single polyp orphans on the sand of my LFS.
The green candy cane toward the top of the tank I just bought 3 weeks ago for $10 at a blowout sale.
 
mach03infront

mach03infront

Member
i'm curious of how you doing your water changes??? what are you using in your back compartments (filters)
tank looks awesome good save!
 
sfoister

sfoister

Member
Originally Posted by Mach03InFront
i'm curious of how you doing your water changes??? what are you using in your back compartments (filters)
tank looks awesome good save!

For my water changes I do 5 gallons once a week. I siphon 5 gallons using a piece of garden hose from the tank to a 5 gallon bucket on the floor. Then I put another 5 gallon bucket of heated water up on the shelf next to the tank and siphon it from there into the back compartments of the pod.
What to run in the back compartments of these things is always an issue of much debate. When I first got it I removed the filter pad and the bioballs and replaced it with LR rubble. I could not get my nitrates below 20, which didn't seem to be causing an issue, but the problem was that if I got any spike at all it was unaccaptable. So I removed the LR rubble and replaced it with the filter pad again but did not add the bioballs back. Now my trates are sitting at 0 and if it spikes at all it's only about 5ppm or less before I get around to the water changes.
Oh, and I also run a bag of carbon in the back. I'll probably start to run phosguard pretty soon too, because I'm starting to see trace amounts of phosphates that I was not seeing before.
 
aloysiusii

aloysiusii

Member
The tank looks great. I noticed you still have some aptasia's in your tank. I had the same issue trying everything from chemicals to suringes filled with lemon juice. Nothing worked. But I did some research and discovered a small shrimp could help in cleanup the outbreak of aptasia I had. Does anyone know of the Shrimp that cleaned up all of the outbreak in 2 days?
 
waterworld

waterworld

Member
Awesome results on the tank. Must feel good!
Question, I have had FOWLR tanks for years and am approacing the point of upgrading lighting and filteration etc to introduce some corals. You have mentioned a number of the variaties in this tank and I am not sure I am connecting the names with the actual item in the tank. Would it be possible to take the existing pictures and add some text and arrows leading to the item in the tank? That way I / everyone can identify the items?
Not sure I know how this would be done but would appreciate the help.
Thanks
WW
 
sfoister

sfoister

Member
As far as the aiptasia, I actually used peppermint shrimp to clean it up. But I am now getting small outbreaks on the same rock. Yesterday I killed a lot of them so it's a lot cleaner. I find it's frustrating wen they are small, but if you let them grow a bit then try to inject them with your drug of choice it's easier.
To the last poster, yes I can do the arrows and text and stuff if you'd like. I'm super stressed right now because we're buying our first home and it is far more stressful than I anticipated so I'm not going to bother with it tonight. :)
Thanks for the comments, and yes it is a great feeling to have turned a dire situation into a comfortable one. My clown has so much personality, I think if he could talk he would thank me.
 
nacl+h2o fish

nacl+h2o fish

Member
Originally Posted by sfoister
As far as the aiptasia, I actually used peppermint shrimp to clean it up. But I am now getting small outbreaks on the same rock. Yesterday I killed a lot of them so it's a lot cleaner. I find it's frustrating wen they are small, but if you let them grow a bit then try to inject them with your drug of choice it's easier.
To the last poster, yes I can do the arrows and text and stuff if you'd like. I'm super stressed right now because we're buying our first home and it is far more stressful than I anticipated so I'm not going to bother with it tonight. :)
Thanks for the comments, and yes it is a great feeling to have turned a dire situation into a comfortable one. My clown has so much personality, I think if he could talk he would thank me.

Bravo! I sent you a message earlier..... and now I am even more impressed w/ your rescue of this tank! Congrats on your efforts and especially the great results! I'm sure everything 'appreciated' regular water changes! Love the Maroon Clown.
Kudos
 
reef diver

reef diver

Active Member
wow, nice job!!! And thats not insane for aiptasia thats one days reproduction, lol. Also, thats shrimp is the peppermint shrimp, which from my research into solving my aiptasia problem, will certainly eat the aptasia, then it my eat your feather dusters, then any polyps like zoos, Star polyps etc, berghia nudibranchs are far better. Not to mention in my case the peppermint shrimp try to eat my dinnerplate sized RBTA but they only succeed in being a meal themselves, oh, i hope to god that thing splits soon. oops sorry, I rambled, nice job on that tank and good luck!!!
 
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