Jesse's 12g AP w/70 watt Sunpod

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reefman23

New Member
I was fortunate enough to get in on the sweet deal at Marine Depot. As some of you know they recently received a few shipments of 12g AP with the 70 watt Sunpod that they were selling for $149... that is half off the normal price of around $279-$300+. I ordered mine on the last day (without knowing it!) and just picked it up today.

You also may be aware that I have been pretty much tankless for a couple of months. My 20L is still up, but all that is left is the sand and some straggling frags. That tank will be gone this weekend hopefully.

So thanks to the awesome deal I got on the AP along with some bribing/coaxing from Edgray (Eddy) and a visit to Cris' house to see his amazing tank, I am official back into the hobby... although technically i guess I never left.

I immediately opened the box at Marine Depot just to check for cracks and stuff before driving off. But once I opened one box, and then another, just to see a third box that was protected with styrofoam, I came to the assumption that the tank was probably fine.. and it was!


Anyways, I know this is probably corny, but I have to post these pictures!




















Anyways, the tank is sweet, the build quality is great, the shape of the tank is awesome... I am once again impressed with Current USA.

I am currently working on a 12g nanocube stand. I strengthened it with a few screws and added some supports. The top had some water damage so I removed it and will be replacing it with some 3/4" plywood cut to match the shape of the AP and also widening the base a bit. Hopefully that will be nearing completion by the end of the weekend. From there I will be taking rather slow, first adding sand and water, then some LR, and after the tank has cycled I will be raiding Eddy's tank!

Stay tuned... I'll keep you all updated.

Jesse
 
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KidNano

New Member
That looks Awesome Jesse. Can't wait to see what you do with it. And you know I'll give you frags of what ever you want that I might have. After all you basically gave me half of what's in my tank. The clam is mine though.... :lol:

See you tomorrow bud.
 
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johnanddawn

New Member
cool - get some water in that thing and run the light cycle - i've always been curious about temp flux - maybe put a fan on the light timer. also you know what would be cool - get an NO strip light and put a 15W actinic coralife bulb (they are the best NO bulbs) and set it behind that MH fixture for a little bit of dusk/dawn zoanthid glow
 
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Trogdor

New Member
looks good jesse. Gotta love an item that is packaged well. Goes to show how much they care that their tank gets to their customer in one piece. Can't wait to see it set up
 
K

KidNano

New Member
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reefman23

New Member
johnanddawn said:
cool - get some water in that thing and run the light cycle - i've always been curious about temp flux - maybe put a fan on the light timer. also you know what would be cool - get an NO strip light and put a 15W actinic coralife bulb (they are the best NO bulbs) and set it behind that MH fixture for a little bit of dusk/dawn zoanthid glow
Click to expand...
You know John the Sunpod is only 70 watts and it has a nice built-in fan and I ran it for about 3 hours yesterday and put my hand on top of the fixture directly above the lamp and there was NO heat.. it was as if it wasnt running at all. I will also be running this tank without the included glass lid most likely so that should help too. Whats cool is they included a nice plastic lid that covers the back chambers... I liked that.



Thank you all for the comments. You know Ill be hitting you up for frags Cris. I love those greens that you have ;)

Jesse
 
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reefman23

New Member
johnanddawn said:
also you know what would be cool - get an NO strip light and put a 15W actinic coralife bulb (they are the best NO bulbs) and set it behind that MH fixture for a little bit of dusk/dawn zoanthid glow
Click to expand...
I forgot about the LEDs... they are sweet. you can control the 4 white and 4 blue LEDs separately and they really appear to have a nice effect. I like your idea about the strip light though... and the list of mods official begins!

Jesse
 
EDGRAY

EDGRAY

New Member
LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE IS ABOARD AGAIN.... LITTLE BIT EXCITED JESSSSS.... LOL :D :mrgreen: CANT WAIT FOR IT TO BE ABLE TO HOST FRAGS... NEED TO GET RID OF ALOT OF EXTRA STUFF IN MY TANK HURRY JESSSS...

ED
 
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KidNano

New Member
edgray said:
NEED TO GET RID OF ALOT OF EXTRA STUFF IN MY TANK HURRY JESSSS...
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I still have plenty of room in my tank if you need to get rid of stuff. let me know. I wouldn't mind helping you out. :langle
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Wow,

Hang on to your seats everyone because Jesse is going to take us on an awesome adventure under the sea again....

Nice....

MG

P.S
Never apologize about taking pictures of boxes, that just builds the excitement... :)
 
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reefman23

New Member
mikeguerrero said:
Wow,

Hang on to your seats everyone because Jesse is going to take us on an awesome adventure under the sea again....

Nice....

MG

P.S
Never apologize about taking pictures of boxes, that just builds the excitement... :)
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Thanks Mike... wow, some big expectations!


So I am just about finished with the stand. I took my old stand from my 16g bowfront and added a 3/4" thick plywood platform for the 12g AP to rest on. I applied 3 coats of primer 4 light coats of paint and 4 coats of Varathane outdoor urethane.... just want to make sure it is protected and sealed! ;)

Anyways, the AP hangs over a bit on the front and back but I think it should work great. The stand is designed to hold a tank that weighs about 40-50 lbs heavier and a few inches taller.







That's about it for now. Hopefully I will be able to pick up my live sand and fill it with saltwater this weekend.

Stay tuned!

Jesse
 
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reefman23

New Member
KidNano said:
Looks good Jesse. Let me know if you want any of my LR rubble.
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Thanks Cris. Ill check out the rubble next time I'm over.

I forgot some things that I still have to do before I fill it. I need to block off the openings in the overflow that are below the surface, and add an additional powerhead. THEN I can add sand and fill it.

Jesse
 
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KidNano

New Member
Where are you going to put another powerhead? how are you going to block off the lower openings? If you add the second power head behind the wall do you think that the overflow will be able to keep up with both pumps? After blocking off the two lower intake areas? I'm really interested to see how you set this thing up.

get to it man...... you've already had the tank for a whole week now. :monk:
 
EDGRAY

EDGRAY

New Member
YEAH........ WHY IS THIS TANK TAKING LIKE FOREEEEEEEEEEVVVVVEEEEEERRRR!!

BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....

JESSE YOU'RE BOORING... :razz:

MY FRAGS ARE GETTING IMPATIENT TO WAIT FOR YOU HURRY!!! :mrgreen:

ED
 
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reefman23

New Member
EDGRAY said:
YEAH........ WHY IS THIS TANK TAKING LIKE FOREEEEEEEEEEVVVVVEEEEEERRRR!!
BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....
JESSE YOU'RE BOORING... :razz:
MY FRAGS ARE GETTING IMPATIENT TO WAIT FOR YOU HURRY!!! :mrgreen:

ED
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Sorry to bore you Eddy! LOL. Slow and steady... slow and steady... unless you are paying! :p

So I bolted to shelf or whatever to the stand today. I also picked up a Koralia nano. It does 240 gph and is about 2" long and uses only 3.5 watts! Not bad considering the size of the comparable MJ900 that uses 8 watts and is larger. The Koralia doesnt FEEL like 240 GPH but it is deceiving because of its large dispersion... very gentle. Plus it is held in place with a very stong magnetic/suction cup system so you can put it wherever you want and the adjust the aim with the swivel arm thing.









Jesse
 
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KidNano

New Member
I just picked up a Koralia 3. I know what your talking about with the deceptive thing. I put it in the 20L you gave me and it was creating waves. Gentle waves. I think the 3 is about 850 GPH. I'm pretty stoked on it. I bet it's pretty hard on you to go so slowly with this thing huh?
 
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reefman23

New Member
KidNano said:
I just picked up a Koralia 3. I know what your talking about with the deceptive thing. I put it in the 20L you gave me and it was creating waves. Gentle waves. I think the 3 is about 850 GPH. I'm pretty stoked on it. I bet it's pretty hard on you to go so slowly with this thing huh?
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Oh sweet! Yeah I would have like to have spent an entire $1 more and get the Koralia 1 which is 400GPH but it is a bit too big. I think with the stock pump (for now) and the nano I should be good. I love the way the magnets/suction cups work together... it really is a quality product.

And yes, it is very tough to go slowly with this. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the wife happy too! I just cant be buying things left and right again... promised her I wouldn't do that this time around.

Jesse
 
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reefman23

New Member
So my project today was to block off the openings that can be seen below the Koralia. There is one at the bottom-left and one about 2/3 of the way up on the left. Blocking these off should help with only skimming the water from the surface. It seems to be a success but I will not know for sure until later tonight when the cement is dry and I can fill it with water.

Jesse
 
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reefman23

New Member
Well it seems that I successfully blocked off the lower openings in the overflow... except for a very small leak in the bottom one (about a drop every couple of seconds, big deal ;))

I filled it up with tap water today and got it all up and running with the Koralia and all. So far I like it very much. The flow is perfect and it is all VERY quiet... pretty much silent except for a very faint waterfall noise from the 3rd chamber.






I have one concern though and that is the very small gaps between the stand and the front corners of the tank. I am 90% sure that it is not the stand and is actually the tank itself. I put the tank on my dining room table and the same gaps appeared. I also used a straight edge to test how flat the stand's surface is and it is dead-on. I think I am going to place the edges of the tank on some sort of foam or neoprene or something just to be sure.



Jesse
 
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