I posted this in the reef section and it was suggested that I post it here as well.
I have an aquapod 24 gal. The filtration section in in the back of the tank and consists of two compartments. The first, on the right, is for media, etc. It has a section that has several "grates" that are approximately 1.5" tall and each grate section is seperated by about 1/4 to 1/2". These can be opened up or blocked off entirely with the included plastic weirs.
When I set my tank up I apparently didn't have enough weirs or there is a design flaw in the pod itself. At the top of the section, the final grate system... there was nothing to block the water from flowing directly through. The result was a less than efficient skimming action. Current markets this as a "true skimming" filter system. Well, mine was not working the way I thought it should. There was about 1/2" of water that was able to flow through that grate so nothing was getting "skimmed"
Last night I decided to try and fix it. I had an old credit card (thank you credit crunch and unilateral changes in credit card agreements...) that I was not using and it was very close to the size of the weirs. I cut the card so that only about 1/16" of an inch would flow over the top and installed it. Bam. The water level dropped by a quarter in the back of the tank. Immediately the back section started to accumulate the film that was on my water surface and had more bubbles (increased oxygenation).
Within about an hour or so the water surface was much cleaner with very little of the dissolved organics. I cut off another small section to increase the water flow just a bit and by the end of the night the water surface was very clean and I was able to reposition my jet (had been using it to stir the surface to keep the dissolved organics from accumulating.
If anyone is interested in learning more about this very simple mod, let me know. I can take pictures if you think that would help (my descriptive powers leave something to be desired at times). I thought it was a pretty cool and helpful mod in the nano world... unless you pod came with the correct amount of weirs.
I have an aquapod 24 gal. The filtration section in in the back of the tank and consists of two compartments. The first, on the right, is for media, etc. It has a section that has several "grates" that are approximately 1.5" tall and each grate section is seperated by about 1/4 to 1/2". These can be opened up or blocked off entirely with the included plastic weirs.
When I set my tank up I apparently didn't have enough weirs or there is a design flaw in the pod itself. At the top of the section, the final grate system... there was nothing to block the water from flowing directly through. The result was a less than efficient skimming action. Current markets this as a "true skimming" filter system. Well, mine was not working the way I thought it should. There was about 1/2" of water that was able to flow through that grate so nothing was getting "skimmed"
Last night I decided to try and fix it. I had an old credit card (thank you credit crunch and unilateral changes in credit card agreements...) that I was not using and it was very close to the size of the weirs. I cut the card so that only about 1/16" of an inch would flow over the top and installed it. Bam. The water level dropped by a quarter in the back of the tank. Immediately the back section started to accumulate the film that was on my water surface and had more bubbles (increased oxygenation).
Within about an hour or so the water surface was much cleaner with very little of the dissolved organics. I cut off another small section to increase the water flow just a bit and by the end of the night the water surface was very clean and I was able to reposition my jet (had been using it to stir the surface to keep the dissolved organics from accumulating.
If anyone is interested in learning more about this very simple mod, let me know. I can take pictures if you think that would help (my descriptive powers leave something to be desired at times). I thought it was a pretty cool and helpful mod in the nano world... unless you pod came with the correct amount of weirs.
