Pods for my Nano???

[RudeBoy]

Anybody got any pods out there that they could sell me for my 10g Nano.? I'm currently running a power filter on it and I'm afraid that running a carbon filter full time is causing pods not to build up in my tank. Could this be possible? I rinse the filter once a week to keep the 'bad stuff' from building up.

[dank11]

Hey! I stopped a Marine Oasis once when he was cleaning his
sumps and got a bunch
I don't remember what he charged (if anything )

[ReeferMac]

Hi Rude,

I can prolly take care of your bug problem ;-) I've got... ohh... one or two.

You're welcome to stop by some night and pick them up. Today's not looking good, and during the week I'm usually kinda busy (works been a killer lately), but if we can't work something out beofre the next meeting I can always bring them to you there.

- Mac

[ReeferMac]

Rude/Dave,

Hehe, Just got around to following the link on your signature... Didn't know Rudeboy=David Jones.

Hehe, I wish you'd have said something earlier, I could have brought them to you over at Todd's last week :-)

Chucker/Kevin T did a good job of cleaning me out last week, but it was for a good cause (Terry Siegel needed some 'pods too). I just gave a little to Brad as well (that same night at Todd's!). I've still got a decent amount in my refugium, certainly enough for a 10 Gal. Hard part's going to be finding the time to get together. Might have to have a mini-meet some night when the wife works late. My weekends are basically screwed until April.... and that's only if work slows down.

There's just one question you've got to answer, and if you get it wrong, "NO BUGS FOR YOU"...

- Mac (one of the other Kevin's)

[RudeBoy]

:D Hey man, I guess I should I.D. myself a little better. Playfair didn't know who I was either! Guess I need a pic of me on my website so everyone knows who I am. The username throws everyone off. I pick that nickname up from a buddy in college and haven't been able to shake it! (smile) I'm having one hell of a time with my nano man. But, it's my own fault. I wasn't changing water out every week like I should've been and my Nitrates went through the roof. :mad2: I converted the tank to LSB about 4 months ago and I'm running a power filter on it with carbon and about 20#'s of cured LR. I think most of my pods started hiding in the filter! I've gotten the Nitrates cut in half but I really need to throw some pods in the tank very badly. Any suggestions on what else I might do with my filtration??? Should I run carbon filters full time or not filter at all once my pods replenish? Any advice would be helpful. :D

[RudeBoy]

BTW... what's the question???? :D

[ReeferMac]

BTW... what's the question????

Music Production... what do you use, Mac or PC?

-Mac

[RudeBoy]

Well, the RIGHT answer would be MAC but I built a Intel PIII 1Ghz to run Cubase 5 VST 32 on. I'm not big on using computers at all because of the type of music I normally produce. I only use it really for mastering, automation and GREAT VST plugins. I never have issues with it as I'm running 1.5 ghz of memory. Okay, what promted the question? :D

[ReeferMac]

Well, the RIGHT answer would be MAC but I built a Intel PIII 1Ghz


D'OH!

Well, you knew the right answer, so I guess I'll have to give you some for that...
:p

I work for a printing company, and love the Mac's we use. Couple of years ago when my 6100 finally fried, my boss made me buy a Wintel because he was tired of me trying stuff out on the server's at work (and usually crashing them). So I installed all the server software from work on my new PC, and a year later we end up getting a Sun Unix box to replace the windoze POS's! So I'm stuck and still got my Dell, but have a G3 Powerbook from work I'm running X on. I don't get to play on the shiny new G4's much unless they're broken... we let the operator's who actually make the company money get the fast machines. I just figured when I saw your occupation tag on the left there, that you had a rack-mounted G4 stashed in a closet somewhere with a stack of firewire drives hanging off the side.

- Mac

[RudeBoy]

Don't I wish. I haven't used mac's that much, especially from a support end. They ARE powerful though, I'll admit that.

Maybe you can answer a question for me. Most people setup refugiums that cycle water from there main takes. Is it possible to set up a seperate refugium that's not connected to the main tank but stands alone?

[ReeferMac]

Sure, absolutely. The Idea behind a refugium is a place to offer refuge... In a populous tank, there's lots of competition. Fish eat the adults, corals and other planktonic feeders eat the fry.. very hard to get to old age in a reef tank. A Refugium on the other hand, removes all the predators, so that they can reproduce and flourish on their own. If that happens to be plumbed into your system, great. If not... oh well. The problem is, you have to transfer the bugs manually. In my case, since they're all plumbed together.. I just let the water flow where it goes.

- Mac

[RudeBoy]

Okay, let me ask you this... I've heard of people adding macroalgaes to the their existing tanks (behind LR) to influence the growth of pods and such. Is this feasible or is it a waste of time and effort? Basically want I need to do is lower the Nitrates in my tank and I've read that certain plants consume Nitrates while also stimulating pod growth. What have you heard about this? As bad as want to build a refugium, I'm busy enough taking care of my two tanks right now. I am happy to say that the hair algae is finally starting to disappear in my 10g. I did another major water change this weekend (3g) and the algae is noticably starting to die off. Still need your pods though! :D Just let me know what night is good for you and we can make it happen.

[ReeferMac]

I've heard of people adding macroalgaes to the their existing tanks (behind LR) to influence the growth of pods and such. Is this feasible or is it a waste of time and effort?


Well, behind rocks the algae isn't going to get much light, so it probably won't grow very well. Out in the light (anchored behind the rock perhaps?) it will certainly grow very well. Too well in most cases. Can take over a tank in a couple of weeks. This will probably make a lot more sense when you get the chance to see my refugium...

Basically want I need to do is lower the Nitrates in my tank and I've read that certain plants consume Nitrates while also stimulating pod growth. What have you heard about this?


Absouletly. Same reason I started growing the stuff.
That's the basic "Food" for algae. They also absorb a couple of other chemicals out of the water as well (which one's escape me at the moment, where's Dr. Todd when you need him ;-)
Halimeda is generally chastised as a bad algae because it "Sucks Calcium out of the water", is another one you've probably come across..

As bad as want to build a refugium, I'm busy enough taking care of my two tanks right now. I am happy to say that the hair algae is finally starting to disappear in my 10g.

Well, plumbed inline like I did mine, a refugium's no work at all. That's not to say you can't do things to it on a regular basis to maintain a certain appearance, but I hardly do anything to mine, not even scrape the glass (well, I will before you come over, but... you get the idea).
To be honest, the more I monkey with my refugium, the worse it is. It wasn't until I got really lazy with it, that the bug populations started to really take off. And there are a few things technically wrong with the way I'm running mine, to boot. Having it separated however, will mean one more tank to top off, one more water system to test, etc... You can do it, but you're right, what a PIA. With your beautiful wife and darling daughter, no doubt, you're pressed for time. Demose has a small tank setup on the side of his reef, with "bugs" growing in it. From time to time he transfers them over to the main tank. While this is certainly an effective method, I'm sure he'll agree.. another big PIA. The key IMO seems to be predation in their environment. If you've got a couple wrasses and Anthias and other fish in your tanks that eat "bugs", then they are not going to be too numerous. Since losing a couple fish in my move, I haven't really re-stocked the reef, and have most certainly noticed it. By keeping just a few fish in my reef (none of which are real predators), I've noticed the population inside my tank has almost gotten to the same level as in the refugium.

Still need your pods though! Just let me know what night is good for you and we can make it happen.

Will do, might end up being Tonight!
The Wife works until 7 Wed. and Thurs. nights, and those are my days to cook dinner (why I had to leave Todd's early). Tonight, Tomorrow, and Fridays however are more normal, and anytime after 7 is generally fair game.

- Mac

[ToddsReef]

Demose's refuge is pretty cool, I wonder if we can get him to post some pics...it's basically a closed system (no additives, no topoffs - it "rains").

[RudeBoy]

Okay, call me stupid but I'm gonna build a refugium and I went out today and picked up a 2.5g tank from Pet Smart. I hope this isn't too small but I thought it'd be perfect to connect to my nano. If I need to drill it for some reason, my uncle can help me out with that. He's got every frickin' tool under the sun. Anyhow, what would I need to do in order to insure proper circulation of water from the nano to the refugium? Also, will I have to have them side by side or will I be able to hide the refugium below my nano? These all sound like really dumb questions but who better to ask then folks in my club. I'd rather ask because I don't know than to assume and screw it all up. :D

[ToddsReef]

I really should leave this reply up to Kevin or someone else who actually knows about refugiums but I'll give it a shot. As far as drilling, if that tank is drillable (I'm not sure that it is) then maybe you could have it a little higher than the nano and then use a 90 of PVC in the side of the tank and go directly back to the nano, that way you don't chop up critters with a pump (in this case you could pump from the nano back to the fuge). If you put it below your nano then you need an overflow for the nano and you would be running the bugs through a pump to get them back to the nano (could use a maxijet like I do on my nano). I guess the first question is whether or not you can drill that 2.5 AllGlass. If not and you want to do it the first way then you could easily make or buy a little acrylic tank (I think the eclipse 2 is like $20 which is cheaper than an overflow for the nano. OK, I've spewed my ignorance for long enough here, now hopefully someone who actually knows something will respond. Have a good one Dave.
Todd

[RudeBoy]

Todd, thanks a lot man, I appreciate the feedback very much. I initially had planned on asking you but, I stalked you last week, this week is Kevin's week. I'll be on Playfair next week (beware Dave!) I'm not really sure if I'll be able to drill that tank or not, it's pretty thin glass. I only paid a few bucks for it so I think it might be worth a try. Any advice on that from anyone? Dare I risk it or just return it??? I would like to have the refuge below the nano but if this will cause problems then I won't. I just would like to have it out of site is all.

[Zmann]

all-glass.com
Ask them if it can be drilled. More then likely you wont be able to.

[ReeferMac]

Ditto everything Todd and Jamie said.

It's ideal to have the refugium return directly into the main tank via gravity (so the refugium has to be higher). However mine's right next to, and gets sent through a large Eheim pump before being returned into the main tank. In my original setup I had it so that I could gravity drain. You can see a picutre of it on my web page:

http://reef.myip.org

It's the same tank now, just a lot lower ;-)
I can't say for sure if it's had a major impact on the amount of bugs I'm getting out of it. Logic would dictate so, but this wouldn't be the first time logic's crossed me in this hobby. If you have to place it underneath, don't sweat it, you'll do fine. The thing I would be concerned about is at that size, is it even worth it. I can see on the one hand it's nearly 25% the volume of the nano, but at only two gallons, there ain't much room to grow. Worthy experiment if nothing else :-)

- Mac

[RudeBoy]

Man, I'm screwed. Okay, I think you guys are right. I'm wondering if it's even worth it now because of the tanks size. I mean, I can just stick to my weekly water changes and add pods as needed instead of adding the additional pressure of 'deciding what to do.' It sounded like a good idea at first but now I'm thinking twice about it. Seems like too much work.

[DanGlock23]

It is my understanding that only tanks that do not have tempered glass in them can be drilled. I read this on several of the DIY sites. You can tell if the glass is tempered or not by a little stamp on the glass - usually down in one of the corners.
However, just because I read it don't make it so! Frankly, if this is true - then how do they drill bulk-heads for the overflows in all-glass tanks when you buy them new?

As to placement of the refugium - most literature suggests placing it above the main tank so that the overflow can feed back to the this tank by gravity - and thus remove the problem of critters having to go through a blender (read: return pump) to get to the main tank. One important note about gravity feeding the refugium to the main tank - make double sure that the gravity return does not get clogged with algae or seaweed. Most folks who have had an flooding experience because of a blocked return recommend redundancy (read: a second overflow placed an inch or so higher in the refugium tank - again gravity fed into the main tank. It should colllect a lot of dust - but that's why we buy insurance...

[Zmann]

Not all all-glass tanks use the same type of glass.

[RudeBoy]

I went out today and purchased some acrylic and decided to make my own refugium to hang on the back of my nano. I'm gonna construct it identical to the one that CPR makes. I've pretty much decided that this will be a better deal for me and it shouldn't be that hard to do. I do have a question about the baffles inside the refugium. How many should I use for better efficiency of my refugium?

[Zmann]

Just some advice and a question. You did have an acryilc shop cut the pieces for you and not any place like Home Depot. When working with acrylic and Weld-on products (acrylic solvent) you want youir cuts perfectly smooth and flat. Laird plastics on Emerson does a really nice job of cutting any size you want. The cuts come out so nice you almost dont even have to sand.

[RudeBoy]

Haven't had it cut yet. I don't really trust a place that will throw a $25.00 piece of Acrylic on the saw table they just cut 3 HUGE 4x8 pieces of wood on. Didn't set right with me for some reason. :D

[RudeBoy]

Hey Mac, still wanna come off some pods/critters for my nano? I'm ready whenever you are. I have to tell you that I've been quite busy in the DYI world lately. Built myself a scaled down version of the CPR Bak Pak 2R for my nano and it's GREAT! CPR Aquatics even sold me the original inlet and outlet for it. It's a great piece and I mostly did it just to see if I could. I bought my acrylic from Laird's on Emerson (great company). When can we hook up???

[ReeferMac]

Glad to see you're back...
Whenever man, I've been asking for your phone number so I can call some night when I've got time. As it turns out, I'm making up a batch of food on Sunday, and having a couple of people over. If you want to come by then that would work. Figger some time around noon.

- Mac

[RudeBoy]

Sounds good man. My number is 288-8957, give me a call anytime. Good to be back... I've been really concentrating on my nano for the last few weeks. My 29g is self sufficient now and I merely have to clean the glass ocassionally and do water changes here and there. The nano is doing great! Got the Nitrates way down through very persistent water changes and I've even noticed a few bristle worms in my SB. Still want to populate it with pods and stuff.

What do you think about this... I currently have only 26watts of PC on my nano. I want to get rid of one of the 13watt ballasts and use it as a red 'nite light' on my 29g. I'll keep the remaining 13watter for my actinic on the nano and add a single 55watt PC for my whites. Does this sound legit to you? I really want to keep the actinic on the nano just because my percula is really adjusted to the lighting schedule. Plus, it looks great on such a small tank. I've noticed that my new problem in my nano is purple (maroon) bubble algae and I'm thinking it's because of the low lighting or bad bulbs. I might be getting the growth because of the spectrum of light being given off by the 26 watts. Any opinion on this??? Anybody??? :confused:

[ReeferMac]

13 watts is a lot for a nightlite... Thats what I've got on my 90, and I hardly use it because it's so bright.

If you want to stop by Sunday and get some bugs that would be cool with me. Already have a few folks stopping by for the food, and I'll have to scrape the glass anyway, so the tank will look nice. Stop by any time after 12 (when I'll prolly start making the food).

- Mac