5.5g nano

[cich1]

after seeing pics of SugarMagnolias beautiful 2.5g nano i decided i must have one of my own, i started with an AGA 5.5g tank, painted the back black. since i couldn't find a ready made light fixture that fit a 16" tank i decided to build my own canopy and while i had the tools out i went ahead and made a base for it too, you can make fun of my carpentry skills if you like, i accept the fact that i'm no Norm Abrams, for lighting i went with a 2x13w pc retro kit from AHSupply for 2 reasons the first is becuase its the only one i could find that placed the bulbs end to end rather side by side this way i could get light the whole length of the tank, the second reason was that the AHSuppy kit had remote ballasts which means i could mount them outside the canopy to help keep the heat down, for bulbs i have 50/50 10000k/actinc i orderd from Hellolights because i heard they have better color than AHSupply but i don't know if thats true or not. i have an Aqua clear 200 hob i'll use for circulation and to hide the 25 watt mini heater also to run carbon, i have a spare AC 101 ph i can add if i need extra circulation, this tank is going to house some zoas, shrooms and poylps along with a clean-up crew and possibly some sort of shrimp, i don't think i'll add any fish. heres a couple pics

[FishinInTheDark]

Nice!

Looking sweet big guy...Keep us posted on all further developments!

Sugar Magnolia really started something here huh? I have been bit by the bug myself, as if my addiction wasnt bad enough already...Now I am scrounging up stuff for yet another tank. Think I will settle for a 10 as I cant find one of the smaller tanks.

Man, about one more tank and I am going to have to get rid of some furniture or open a pet store out of my apartment :D . Good thing I am single or I would be real soon!!!

Thanks Sugar Magnolia, see what you started :lol:

[cich1]

i was going to take this to work but now i think i'll keep it at home i'm just not sure where to put it, i have 10#s of lr coming form liverocks.com and i'll seed the sandbed with some sand from my fuge so i think my cycle should go pretty quick then i'm going to put the zoas that icereefer is sending me.
i know what you mean about the furniture thing, what used to be our dining room is now the fish room, i have a 220g, 75g and the 29g plus my desk, i also have a 75g in the livingroom and a 20g in the down stairs bathroom and a 27g hex in my bedroom and i am married :D

Hey cich1, you've got the bug almost as bad as I do! You must bribe the lady of the house really good to get away with that much...

Guess thats my main motivation eventually is to take my little nano into the office. At least that way I can think about reef tanks 24 hours a day :lol: ! What a rough life that would be....huh?

[cich1]

my wifes very cool, shes not into the whole aquaria thing but she don't mind that i am, she says there are alot worse ways i could be spending my time, my friends all think i'm nuts and they call my house Cooks aquarium

Thats cool! Not all are that understanding/forgiving. I know what you mean about that last one. I have had co-workers show up with family and friends from outta town that come by and want a tour of the place. I am thinking maybe its time to start charging admission at the door!

[MikeS]

looks like a good start! :D

I've got a 10 gal cube and a 20L I'd like to turn into nanos one of these days...

Mike

[FishinInTheDark]

Do it Mike! You know you want to be as cool as we are! See, we HHs are banding together! As a Mod and merely a macroreefer, you could only hope for our level of experience. :D

(Yes, I know you've been keeping saltwater since your teens. I genuflect to the master.) :roll:

Might as well Mike...They already got me!

[MikeS]

I plan on setting up the 20L when I move the contents of my 55 to the 75...I should have enough spare parts left over fromthe upgrade, including lights, to do it....

Mike

Yeah they suckered me into joining in and jumping on the band wagon.

Dug out a spare 10 gallon today, used some of the 270 lbs of sand I got laying around, stole a few lbs of Marshal Island rock from another tank that had a few pounds to spare and wired up a light and along with a few other miscellanious items laying around and filled her up! Looks a bit ghetto at the moment but its a start. Maybe by Jan-05 it will start looking on the worthy side of things...

[Sugar Magnolia]

Thanks Sugar Magnolia, see what you started :lol:
muahahahaha! Come on, you guys know you love it!

Looking great cich1! I had painted the back of my 7 gallon minibow black and absolutely loved the way the corals stood out against the black.

[cich1]

i painted my other tanks blue just to be different but it don't stand out like the black, i should get my liverocks.com order today, i'm getting excited now. i'll post a pic of the rock when i get it in the tank, woohoo as i'm typing
DHL shows up with my LR, guess i know what i'll be doing at lunch

[gman0526]

Now you guys can understand why I have kept 10 gals. tanks for over 8yrs :D . Other than space issues, is just great to be so up close and personal with this small ecosystems.

A lot of people came to me and said that with all the $$ I spent over the yrs. on the little tanks I could have at least a decent 125 gal. with top of the line equip., but I really enjoyed the challenge of a nano to begin with. Let me tell you if you can mantain a nano you can mantain a bigger system no problem.

Now... I'm going to get me a 5 gal for the office. :D

How about we make SM our official Nano-Reef Forum Moderator,so she can get a million PM on the subject. 8) That should be fitting punishement for starting this epidemic.

[FishinInTheDark]

Hear! Hear! Anybody who creates such inspiring beauty deserves punishment! :wink:

[cich1]

i recieved my lr tuesday morning and put it the tank at 11am by 10 pm my ammonia was up to 1.0 ppm, not bad i thought, 5 pm wednesday ammonia had dropped to.50ppm cool i thought so i decided to test nitrite, 5.0ppm :shocked: and nitrate is at 100ppm, I went ahead and did a 1g water change, i have a pretty cool looking hitchhiker snail i hope makes it through the cycle. one nice thing about a nano a waterchange only takes about 3 minutes :D

[Sugar Magnolia]

you're off to a great start!

[FishinInTheDark]

Let's see that rock in there. . .

Sounds like you're just flying through the cycle. Congrats!

I'm doing a water change today. I just mixed an extra gallon with my normal 10 gallons for the display tank. I'll do 1/2 gallon on the nano today, and I'll have next week's water ready to go! It does seem much easier to change water by the cupsfull!

[cich1]

i haven't really "aquascaped" yet, the rocks just kinda piled in there but i'll post a pic when i get home, the cycles seems to be going pretty quick, i just went home for lunch and decided to test the water again
sg 1.025
ph 8.2
ammonia .25
nitrite 2.0-5.0 ppm kinda hard to tell but definetly lower than last night
nitrate 50 ppm

[FishinInTheDark]

I've been testing every day too, even though I didn't see a cycle per se. Anyway, it significantly lowers the water level to run ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH! Little tanks are just so different!

[cich1]

heres a picture of the tank up and running, i am going to add a third 13w light so i can run a 03 actinic bulb. i guess in about a year when everything has a chance to grow and spread it will look pretty good

[Sugar Magnolia]

wow, wow, wow! looks awesome cich1. don't be afraid to add some more LR in there and stack a slanted reef. looks like you have plenty of more room vertically. this will allow you more rom to cram more corals in that 5.5. ;)

[cich1]

thank Sugar, thats my Liverocks.com order i'm going to hand pick acouple more pieces at the lfs when i see something i like, un fortunatly i went over budget at the lfs last weekend, shrooms, torch, yellow polyps, fire shrimp, green clown goby, salt mix and probably something else i'm missing

[FishinInTheDark]

That looks great already! The 'shrooms are gorgeous. It'll be killer in a year, but it's really nice now!

Thanks for sharing!

[Condiman]

my wifes very cool, shes not into the whole aquaria thing but she don't mind that i am, she says there are alot worse ways i could be spending my time, my friends all think i'm nuts and they call my house Cooks aquarium

Your wife sounds alot like mine. :-D

[Condiman]

BTW cich1, are those the polyps I sent ya?

[cich1]

no condi those poylps came from a lfs the ones i got from you are in my 29g tank

[cich1]

btw i just ordered 2 more 13w ballast and endcaps and a 7 1/2"x17'' reflector and 2x actinic 03 bulbs and 2x 6500k bulbs, when i get the new lights in i'm going to try 2 actinics with 2 50/50 bulbs and then 2 actinics with the 2 6500k bulbs and see what looks best

[gman0526]

Looking great there cich1, by the time I'm done with my cycle you should be done stocking that tank.

[cich1]

TY Gman, i think i'm going to wait awhile to add anything else though, i already pushed this tank pretty quick i've been testing regularly and everythings looking good

[gman0526]

Wise words, is so easy to forget to be patient when things are going good...