5gal. Nano Reef Construction

[Igor The Cat]

Her before you lies proof of my joining of the darkside....I am in the process of setting up a 5gal nano reef, right now there is a 5gal. tank with ~3" deep sand bed of arag. and some cloudy FW (im picking up a hydrometer tomorrow and already have the salt) but as for now i have a Red Sea mini filter with some floss in it (to filter out dust from the sand) that will soon become a micro fug. and an AC 3000 (~270GPH I believe) as my lone powerhead.

Right now I am using an IKEA desk lamp as the sole lighting, until I can get my 40W SF DIY together (right now im waiting one the 50/50 blubs from big als), but I think the IKEA light will provide enough for me to get just a little bit of LR plus some macro for the fug. and start cycling it (this will most likely happen tomorrow or the next day).

As for stocking; I plan on this being a 100 percent invert tank, with 3 sexy shrimp, 1-2 Astrea snails, 3 ceriths, and mabye a bumble bee snail, and some corals most likely all softies unless I find a way to put in an LPS that I like, im thinking of a central piece of ricordia.

Let me know what y'all think!

cheers

-Java

And beacuse build up threads suck without piks, hers the tank as of now

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

welcome java... you will like the dark side.

 

[Igor The Cat]

hey, I never said I would be getting rid of the brightest of whites, the planted aquarium. Im just trying this on for size lol

cheers

-Java

 

[James From Cali]

Thanks for doing this, now I could follow up and try to get my own tank situated

 

[Panther28]

I have a question Igor. Do you have to rinse the sand or you can just add the sand.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

once you come to the darkside... you are never innocent again. you will belong to us!

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

I have a question Igor. Do you have to rinse the sand or you can just add the sand.

it depends... if you get live sand, no rinsing. but if its regular arag, if you rinse it it cutsdown on dust.

 

[Igor The Cat]

lol, i just have regular arag and didnt rinse, just one of my habits, i NEVEr rinse subs....but i have the HOB with filter floss thats filtering out most of the dust.

cheers

-Java

 

[Panther28]

Ok. thanks for the reply. Have to rinse about 30 lbs of arag sand. I will be getting regular 30 lbs of arag sand on wednesday.

 

[Igor The Cat]

Well there is now SOME salt in the tank, but it is still dissolving and I know that I will need to add more, I have found a time frame on weds. that I can run down to the local LFS (it is only 2 blocks away, but I really do have NO free time during the week) so that gives me today and tomorrow to get the salinity stable.

Also I have privatly asked some of our residant reefers...about when is a good time to add the basic clean up crew, but I have gotten confilicting anwsers so I am now asking all of you.

cheers

-Java

 

[Mushroomman]

I admit I added inverts 2 weeks into the startup of my old tank(hermits, snails, hardy as hell), but Id wait till the initial cycle completes, like usually 3 weeks to be safe.

 

[Perfectblue]

Yeah I agree. Wait until the cycle is finished before adding your cleanup crew. You might want to think about adding a couple Nassarius snails to help stir up the sandbed.

 

[Igor The Cat]

Alright, thanks guys...i thought i should wait until the cycle was done but Ryan over there made me want a few more opinions. now for an equipment update; GHETTO LIGHTING! lol, as i am LOW on funds i am going to trade the IKEA light for a 20W hood i picked up from a neighbor for free that has one 10W 10k bulb and one 10W 420nm bulb in conjunction with a 20W daylight SF until i can afford $20 to spend on a couple of specialty SF 50/50 bulbs from big als. Also the heater should be here by monday, thought the tank is staying at a constant 83 degrees in the day and bottoming out at 81 at night!

other nano news....i am planning on modifing the HOB until a micro fug. tomorrow......and the powerhead is completely redesigning on corner of the tank (note to self: place piece of LR in that corner to breakup circular flow pattern.

and thats all for today.

cheers

-Java

 

[Igor The Cat]

Considering this is such a POPULAR thread lol, ive decided to put up yeat another update....the big news for today is....FRIST LIVE ROCK! lol, i picked up a pound today and its a pretty nice rock, good coraline growth...some small tubeworms...some nice bits of macro (that will soon go into the fug.). also i should be picking up some more this firday or saturday....

a question first, would it be possible to add a few hardy corals to the tank this weekend? i know i shouldnt, and i dont really want to BUT i am poor and my grandparents are coming to town and i would be able to get some LR and corals from them....now i really wish they would come in a month or so...but i am thinking of just common hardy species like some shrooms, possibly star polyps...etc, im thinking it could work due to the fact that of the 3 SW LFSes around me the one that really gives out accurate information (and no im not lieing, but i still check everything here first!) sell LR with shrooms, star polyps, even sometimes a small colony of frogspawn or even common colour variations of ricordia and i have personally seen them use it for cycling a new tank (they always seem to be getting new SW tanks...i wonder if there will be enough room for customers a year from now lol) and the corals have survived the cycle and then perked in following weeks. iono though, id rather not but this is the only time for about 2 years when i can get some free stuff so tell me what you think. also if this above paragraph makes absolutly NO sense to you, ill try to explain it tomorrow when im not wicked tired lol.

anyway heres the newest pik.

cheers

-Java

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

pretty cool... needs more LR though. (haha)

 

[saltwater4life]

bad idea getting corol well thats what i'd think if i was you i'd wait for cycle to be sure but i mean if you really wanted to it'd probbly die...
but dont take my word i'm new to corals and stuff

 

[aresgod]

With the light on there and cycling conditions I would not add any corals, maybe have them give money to your parents in a trust or something for when the tank is cycled, some stuff might make it but some will not.

 

[Igor The Cat]

thats what i thought, ill just get 6 or 7 pounds of live rock then.

cheers

-Java

 

[Igor The Cat]

maybe have them give money to your parents in a trust or something for when the tank is cycled

lol, i wish, thats not gonna happen anytime soon.

cheers

-Java

 

[Igor The Cat]

Well its a boring update tonight, not much going on but i found a couple cool hitchhikers....an itty bitty emrald crab cant be more than 1mm long, and a small chiton.

ill be getting some more LR tomorrow night.

cheers

-Java