Aquatop 24g Tank

[josvanmeer]

Hello people!

I have never introduced myself on this forum, so here it goes.
This Aquatop 24g cube has been in my office for about 4months now, I recently added something I have always wanted, a rose bubbletip anemone to go with a clownfish.

Livestock currently:
Maroon Clownfish (Kevin)
Bicolored Dottyback (Dotty)
Green Mandarin Dragonet (The Queen)
Banggai Cardinal (The Cardinal)

I have had great success with the tank so far, the diatoms in the beginning lasted for about two weeks before they seceded and everything has been fine and dandy since then.

It has about 20lbs of Caribsea Life Rock in there, Caribsea live sand (fiji pink I believe) and I started the tank with Seachem Stability and Ocean Bacteria to kickstart the tank, it cycled really fast with this combination.

Before anyone asks, the mandarin is doing fantastic, the tank was seeded with copepods before she was put in and I occasionally add more. She has been trained to eat pellets so she stays nice and fat.

I also have a 40g breeder + 20g long sump waiting to be setup because all of these fish will outgrow this tank pretty soon and I want to be ready for that, I am actually shopping around for the upgrades.

I will probably be posting more on this forum in the future.

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome to R2R.

Great looking tank thus far. Congrats on your anemone.

 

[jcolliii]

Awesome on the dragonette. Did you buy pre-trained, or did you have to do the work yourself?

 

[josvanmeer]

Awesome on the dragonette. Did you buy pre-trained, or did you have to do the work yourself?

I trained her myself, she was hesitant to grab anything I put in front of her at first, but two weeks later she changed her mind

 

[jcolliii]

Did you use a small hang-on container in the tank, or do the training externally?

 

[josvanmeer]

She was trained in the tank actually, it had copepods in there with all the rockwork she was never gonna get bored but two times a day I would turn off all the flow and put some pellets and soaked in garlic frozen food near her, shed grab it at first and spit it out. After some persistence she would pick up the pellets and eat them. Now I turn off the flow, she actually comes out up front because she knows I'm about to feed and she will just wait for the pellets to drop and eat them right there.

 

[Kron Johnson]

Hey i have one of these as well. picked mine up for $100 without the skimmer and the stand.
I built a nice stand, added an aquamaxx 1.5 hob, kessil a160we with the spectral controller, changed out the return pump and added an ato. It runs great. love it.

 

[josvanmeer]

Here is a video of The Queen eating pellets! The pellets I feed are Hikari Marine S

 

[jcolliii]

Aww - man that's awesome! I'm going to have to try this down the road I think - but probably start in a hang on the side container of some sort until there is some success. Awesome fish and awesome video - thanks for sharing!

 

[BARNAKEWLZ]

Nice work with the mandarin, I tried those same pellets for mine with no success. Now I just keep buying pods every couple of weeks

 

[DHH]

Hello people!

I have never introduced myself on this forum, so here it goes.
This Aquatop 24g cube has been in my office for about 4months now, I recently added something I have always wanted, a rose bubbletip anemone to go with a clownfish.

Livestock currently:
Maroon Clownfish (Kevin)
Bicolored Dottyback (Dotty)
Green Mandarin Dragonet (The Queen)
Banggai Cardinal (The Cardinal)

I have had great success with the tank so far, the diatoms in the beginning lasted for about two weeks before they seceded and everything has been fine and dandy since then.

It has about 20lbs of Caribsea Life Rock in there, Caribsea live sand (fiji pink I believe) and I started the tank with Seachem Stability and Ocean Bacteria to kickstart the tank, it cycled really fast with this combination.

Before anyone asks, the mandarin is doing fantastic, the tank was seeded with copepods before she was put in and I occasionally add more. She has been trained to eat pellets so she stays nice and fat.

I also have a 40g breeder + 20g long sump waiting to be setup because all of these fish will outgrow this tank pretty soon and I want to be ready for that, I am actually shopping around for the upgrades.

I will probably be posting more on this forum in the future.

I have been running a 24 gallon Aquatop for about a year now. I am using the stock filters, skimmer, pumps and lighting. It has worked well for me. The only trouble I have had is that the skimmer pump needs to be cleaned out about 3 times per year. I take the pump out of the skimmer housing, pry the front cover off (not easy but it does come off), remove the rotor and clean the rotor chamber using a Q-tip or toothpick. Gunk develops inside the pump which slows the rotor so that it will not draw air to make bubbles.

 

[josvanmeer]

I have been running a 24 gallon Aquatop for about a year now. I am using the stock filters, skimmer, pumps and lighting. It has worked well for me. The only trouble I have had is that the skimmer pump needs to be cleaned out about 3 times per year. I take the pump out of the skimmer housing, pry the front cover off (not easy but it does come off), remove the rotor and clean the rotor chamber using a Q-tip or toothpick. Gunk develops inside the pump which slows the rotor so that it will not draw air to make bubbles.

I currently have moved everything over into the 40 gallon breeder tank since the fish needed more space.