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Coral Vue Hydros

First timer 5.5 with fuge' build


YankeePete

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Well this is my first post so here it goes..... I have had a fresh water tank(s) since I was around 12 yrs old, I was even involved with a commercial fish farm at one point. But I have ALWAYS longed for a saltwater tank. I don't know why I have never had one. Well I finally pulled the trigger after finding this forum. I know that for newbies most will say to stay away from the smaller tanks and start with the larger 20'ish gallon setup. I think with the collective knowledge of these forums, patients and the love for a challenge let's see what I can put together....

 

 

Setup

5.5 gallon AGA

Maxi-Jet 600

Finnex Titanium Heater

Dual Satellite Powercompact( I think )

 

Livestock

 

Cleaner shrimp or Sexy shrimp

Couple snails

Mushrooms

Zoas

Snail friendly hermits

 

 

So I picked up the tank and Maxi-Jet 600 pump. I didn't know what to about filter/refugium. I liked all of the great builds the the fuge built into the end of the tank. I felt that I would lose alot of display area so I drew up alittle drawing and had a rear wall mounted fuge made. It's made from black plastic so there is no painting needed. It's only 2 pieces, the front and the clear acrylic divider. This saves the time and trouble of having to glue a bunch of pieces together. It will use the standard chaeto in the intake chamber with LS and LR rubble across the bottom and in the pump chamber.

 

[mg]Tank55.jpg[/img]

 

What I would like to do is remove the top black tank ring and replace it with a clear acrylic ring. Something that would mount whatever I decide on for lighting and of course a lid to help control evaporation. So in a nut shell that is the start so far. I need to work on finding the rest of the parts I need, I guess I'll check the forsale forum and eBay.

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Hi and welcome.

 

First off, many of the things you are looking for can be obtained from either a home depot sort of store or a LFS. I would check a few of each first before you start buying off of ebay and online, as shipping payments are HORRIBLE (usually :P)

 

Keep it updated as to when you get the supplies and start it up with water :)

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Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I worked on the tank alittle tonight. I removed the top rim and mounted the refugium wall. I used one of my daughters crayons to mark the location I wanted to mount it from the outside of the glass and of course layed the sealant over those lines, mounted the refugium and smoothed out the extra sealant....

 

[mg]tankfront.jpg[/img]

[mg]tankback.jpg[/img]

 

Over the course of the weekend I will design up the new 1 piece rim for the tank. I will have it made from 1/2" clear acrylic next week or so.

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thats a good idea for a fuge,

 

Thanks Jonathan. I did a test run this afternoon. Filled the tank with plain water and did a pump check. I have enough slots in the overflow to keep up with the pump(Maxi-Jet 600). I think it is going to work real well. It takes up little room in the tank and thus taking away very little display area. It seemed to me that putting the fuge at the end of these little 5.5gallon tanks took away almost 1/3rd of the display area. Sure seems like plenty of flow, just hope it's not to much. Is there such a thing as to much flow for a saltwater tank?

 

I guess the next question is salt mix. What is best, mix my own or pre-mixed buckets from the LFS?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I finally have moved along a little with my first nano..heck first saltwater tank period! I picked up a 10lb bag of LS and a couple of pieces of LR from the LFS yesterday. After a little work with a hammer and large screw driver I think I like the scape'. The LFS also had some Cheato so I have a handfull of it in the fuge' along with LR rubble on the floor. While breaking the rock up I came across a couple small clams. Crazy how deep into the rock they were and were still alive. As for lighting I have a Coralife 2x9w on it now while I wait for the Current USA Dual Satelllite 2x18 that I ordered. Pump has plenty of flow. I really wonder if it's to much even! Once I get the new light I will get the new clear tank rim designed and machined.

 

I guess now it's just a waiting game while the tank cycles? How long as it taken other's tanks to cycle?

 

[mg]LR.jpg[/img]

[mg]FTS.jpg[/img]

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looks great, i like the cave in the rock! :)

 

Hey great little setup you got here, i am just starting my pico.

 

Its 15Litres.

 

Anyways i want to keep as much viewable tank space as possible, so was erming and arring about having a back part sectioned off.

 

I do have ne question..

with your Maxi Jet outlet positioned like that, do you not risk having a swirl of water and the back of the LR as a dead zone?

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Hey your tank looks great. Could you show us a shot of the back of the tank with the pump area and the fuge? Did your local plastics supply design & bend that black plastic for you? Is it ABS plastic?

 

Also, it looks nice without the black trim on top.

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looks great, i like the cave in the rock! :)

 

 

Thanks alot Ash!!! The cave goes all the way through the main piece of LR and comes out on the right side thou you can't see it in the picture.

 

Hey great little setup you got here, i am just starting my pico.

 

Its 15Litres.

 

Anyways i want to keep as much viewable tank space as possible, so was erming and arring about having a back part sectioned off.

 

I do have ne question..

with your Maxi Jet outlet positioned like that, do you not risk having a swirl of water and the back of the LR as a dead zone?

 

There is a slight swirl behind the return nozzle. But anything that gets directed that way only goes around a couple of times and then gets ejected back into the main flow.

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Hey your tank looks great. Could you show us a shot of the back of the tank with the pump area and the fuge? Did your local plastics supply design & bend that black plastic for you? Is it ABS plastic?

 

Also, it looks nice without the black trim on top.

 

 

There is a picture futher up in the thread of the fuge wall mounted in the tank. I don't have a picture of it since I added the LR, sand, water etc. I'll try to get one later today or tomorrow. Yes it is in fact made from ABS and acrylic for the chamber divider of course. Designed by me and I had a friend/co-worked do the CAD/CAM work for me(he's the man) .Then cut out on one of the 5 CNC machines I run.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well I think it's about time for a small update. It's been alomst 5 weeks since the LR, LS and water was added and the fun started. It was amazing to watch the various animals work their way out of the nooks of the live rock. I have several feather dusters with a couple different color "feathers". I have a small startfish that just split a couple of days ago so I guess it now makes two of them. The is a few small anemones, pods are really taking off over the last several days. Last week while I had the tank away from the wall I was looking in the back of the refugium and found a small (maybe the size of a 50cent piece) brittle starfish. I have no idea where it came from or how it got back there...crazy stuff.

I have bought what will be my CUC. I have 2 blue leg hermits...very cool to watch. Also added 2 Cerith snails and 2 Nassarius snails(bought as Cerith but ended up being Nassarius instead) and Crabzilla the Emerald crab...another cool guy to watch.

I also have started to add coral livestock to the tank. I am really thinking I am just going to keep zoas/palys in this tank. I would like to add a Frogspawn or a Hammer but I will need to check if my light( Current USA 2x18) will support it or not. I have 3 frags of zoas so far. I found a nice frag of a baby blue colored zoas yesterday at the LFS. I believe they are called Eye of Rah but I am going to call them "Blue Eyed Girl" instead.

I still need to finish up and get the mount for the light finished that way it doesn't look so darn getto sitting on top of the tank with a couple aluminum rods holding it up.

So...so far I have learned alot, spent alot of money and have really enjoyed the project and can't wait as the tank grows.

 

Newzoas2.jpg

 

Zoas.jpg

 

Crabzilla.jpg

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  • 3 months later...
  • 8 months later...

Well here is a much over due update to my 5.5 AIO. It is now a year old. How time flies I guess. The refugium design I made has seemed to work very well. The only thing Ifeel I need to really add is a seperate light for the Chaeto chamber. As for livestock I only have 7 different zoa/palys in the tank so far, one baby ric, 2 blue legged hermits, an emerld crab, couple of snails and a yellow tail blue damsel. Real disaster struck last Sunday afternoon. I just added a frag of nuke green and purple deaths to the tank and while setting the light back on the tank I dropped it and it bounched off the top of the glass and cracker the front of the tank in three places!!! I lost about half of the water. I quickly ran out and bought another 5.5 tank. Took out the pump and pulled all of the livestock out and stuck them into a bucket with the pump and heater. After tearing the fuge out of the old tank I siliconed it into the new one and used a hair dryer to speed up the curing process. All in all it took about 5 hours to get everything set up withthe new tank. After a week now everything seems to be ok. A couple of the zoas aren't opening all the way but I am sure I stirred up alot of things with the live sand and I am sure everything will settle out.

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When I first started the tank I was doing weekly water changes of one gallon. I started going bi weekly water changes of the same amount and found my zoas started budding alot more. I then went to doing water changes every 3 weeks and a coupel of zoa colonies started growing like weeds. The down side of the increase in nutrients resulted in a hair algae problem though. I have fragged my deepwater zoas 3 times and each frag was around 20 polyps each. I have these orangish zoas with a starburst in them that I started out with 3 polyps and have fragged them 4 times. The mother colony is at least 25 polyps and I frag off whatever starts growing off the rock onto the sandbed. I think I get around 20 polyps each time I frag it as well.

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