Media... which ones and why?

OK I just got an aio 24g tank, similar to a bio cube but I believe its called an aquapod. When I got it the back compartment had nothing in it. Im wondering what else I should run back there besides carbon. I have a cheap sponge against the over flow now, but im gonna change that one for a better one. What does gfo do? Would I be better off filling it with live rock rubble? I know I need carbon, but besides that im unsure. Ill probably end up with 3 fish, a shrimp, and a cuc. My plans are to start folwr, but that will only last till I see some zoas I like.

 

In the back compartments I run Chemipure Elite has gfo ( which absorbs phosphates) and Purigen, which basically just polishes the water.

Seachem. Purigen

Both when in the tank for any length of time as develop beneficial bacteria and become part of the biological filter. I try not to remove or replace both at the same time to preserve some of their filtering capacity.

I would not put rubble in the back compartments.

I would however put chaeto in a portion of the chambers if you can isolate it and provide sufficient lighting for it.

 

I dont think ill be able to put cheato back there, no way to put a light on it.

 

Also in mine its just 2 big compartments, one of which contains the return pump...

 

I modified a media basket to contain the chaeto. You can get a number of small lighting fixtures designed to clamp on they now have some very nice LED ones, but I do not have first hand experience with how well LED grow chaeto. Just a thought, oh and I had it in the second chamber.

Rubble is too hard to remove, and too hard to keep from becoming a detritus trap. I tried the rubble and saw a slow increase in nitrates levels and small algae blooms, went with the chaeto instead and if fixed the problem.

I will see if I have an image of the back chambers of the aquapod.

 

Here is an image of the Aquapod. Theme was obviously things that are orange. You can see that it had a large growth of turf algae, but I liked it. Four anemones, lps and softies. Four fish, 2 clowns, one fire fish, one cherub angel and some sexy shrimp.

 

Dang looks great. The guy I got it from built a stand out of egg crate so a sponge can sit behind the over flow. I wonder if I can modify that to hold media bags. Do you know where I could find the small light fixtures? The back of mine is solid, theres no clear section to allow for light. So it'll have to fit under the lid...

 

Check out some of these, I used the clamp on one. Clamped it on the back and had it directed on the second compartment. There are a lot of different types of these fixtures now.

Initially to hold the chaeto I used a strawberry basket the kind you get from the grocery store. I cut and glued the sides together to fit and then placed the Chemipure under the chaeto.

Refugium & Sump Lighting

The lighting on the display part was the PC lighting that is standard with that tank. You can see I was growing some montipora as well. Ricordia did really well under that lighting.

 

I guess I dont understand how you got light to the back compartment, my top covers all of it. Those lights fit under the lid?

 

Now see I have never seen an aquapod with a lid, no I can only think that maybe you can notch the top and run a submersible light or something. Let me think about it. Mine was totally open, it came with a glass lid, but it got so much condensation on it that it diminished the light intensity so I never used it. Oh and I had a DSB in the display running on that tank as well, around 4 inches. No skimmer.