whisk
Active Member
October 26, 2008
I always liked the appeal of a nano tank. Small and contained, its perfect for the condo I live in. I looked at the Aquapod 24, Biocube 14, and the Nano 24. I went with the AP because most people who had one were very happy with it, the tank was structurally reliable, it had the ability to be modded, and the price was $50 cheaper than other comparable tanks. I decided to stick with the stock hood lighting because I have cats. After about a month of deciding which Nano Aquarium I wanted, I took the plunge...
I ordered the AP 24 online from Dr FosterSmith, the price was great, it was $100 cheaper than my LFS. I was a bit worried about ordering online though as I have heard and seen many stories and pictures of the AP arriving in the mail broken. The website I ordered from has outstanding customer service so if it did arrive broken, I knew I would be taken care of. After patiently waiting for a week, it finally arrived on my doorstep.
The shipping box I thought was pretty well packaged. The Aquarium was in it's factory sealed box and put inside another brown box, and then put in another brown box with stryofoam. Tripled boxed, nice! I had high hopes it would be not shattered.
I opened the AP box and I was surprised it was not broken! (whew!) Of course I took it out and inspected it all over looking for signs of cracked glass. I was pleased to see it had survived the shipping. I tested the lights and they worked fine. The cooling fans were a little louder than I thought. The tank came with sponges, bioballs and ceramic media all which I took out of the tank (i wont be using them). It also came with a loc-line Y splitter nozzle for the return. Now with the tank secured, I decided to take the next step.
My girlfriend and I decided we wanted a nice stand that wouldnt look like an aquarium stand since the tank was going in our living room. We found a nice stand and color that we liked that actually looked like a piece of furniture and decided to order that. It was a bit more expensive than the other stands but we took the hit because why go with something we wouldnt be happy with? The stand was also made for a larger tank than my AP, so I felt a little more comfortable with the extra support.
EcoCube espresso stand $199
I also went ahead and got some additional supplies from Dr FosterSmith, Target, and Home Depot.
-Maxi-Jet 1200 $18
-Visi-therm Stealth 75w heater $15
-Refractometer $27
-Korailia 1 $28
-GFCI pigtail $20
-Two outdoor heavy duty timers with 3 prong cord $10 each
-Belkin 8 outlet surge protector $25
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I also decided that I wanted to start on the mods for my AP. This included an eggcrate media rack that would fit into the back chamber of the AP. The eggcrate I found was at Home Depot in the lighting section and it went for $10. The actual eggcrate is plastic found in lighting fixtures. In this case, it would become a nice rack for placing items such as filter floss, chaeto and bags of chemipure, carbon, etc. The sheet of eggcrate was a lot bigger than I thought.
Unfortunatley, I didnt have a dremel tool to cut with so I just went with a standard pair of scissors and a pair of pliers to break off broken ends of plastic. I took measurements inside the back chamber and started to put the rack together. My plan was to have three shelves. I kept the middle shelf off for now until I know the size of the chemipure bag I plan to put in. Using non-toxic superglue, I glue the pieces of cut out eggcrate together. After letting it cure, I found the rack was sturdy and strong.
