[weez1959]

Is there a difference in the Aquapod and the JBJ?
If so what are they and which do you reccommend?
I'm thinking of starting up a small cube (24 Gallon) and would like to know the pros and cons of these 2 cubes.

[Clay12340]

The Aquapod 24 with the 150 watt hqi fixture is probably the best deal out there as far as nanos go in my opinion. You can get them at premium aquatics for $300. That is easily enough light for any coral you'd want to throw at it, and the open top will make the heat more managable. I've got an aquapod 12 gallon with the 70 watt hqi and my only real complaint is that I didn't spend the $50 more and get twice the tank and lighting.

I believe current had a bad production run of 24g tanks early on and some people had issues with cracking. JBJ has had a lot of issues with their lighting systems not working or malfunctioning prematurely. In both cases the companies seem to have done a reasonable job of remedying the situations.

As far as the standard lighting systems go though, they are basically the same. Both of the tank systems are for all intents and purposes the same as well. You'll have heat and space issues in both, but nothing that can't be managed. They are both capable of making very beautiful little tanks if you keep them up and are careful to pick appropriate livestock.

[CSeaSee]

I forget... do either of these have a built-in skimmer?

[Clay12340]

They have an "overflow" with teeth and they use the term skim pretty liberally in their marketting, but no neither of them have an actual skimmer in them. The aquapods with metal halides and open tops will easily fit an AquaC Remora if you wanted to add one. The surface skimming really doesn't even work on the aquapods without a slight modification.

There are two greats on the back wall of the first chamber that let water in under the surface skimmer. Since the water is going under the divider between the first and second chamber the water just follows the path of least resistance and goes through the bottom grates.

You can cover the grates with a piece of acrylic or plastic and solve the problem, but I'm still slightly confused as to why they did this. It is possible that they did it to prevent the potential of starving the return pump, but that doesn't seem like it would be a problem as the teeth on the overflow are quite wide.

[Yankee I Am]

Weez...get a cadlight...Youll never regret it. I have 24 nano, lighting terrible so I put a sunpod on it and youll need a skimmer (sapphire) which I added.

Then I bought this: CADLIGHTS

Youll never regret it! With the JB youll need to replace the pump and lighting... Cadlight you wont replace anything!