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5.5 Gallon (reborn) SPS Tank


echopiece

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Well here it is. The new rimless 5.5 gallon tank has cycled and is in place. I love this new manado live rock from premium aquatics! Added my first SPS pieces this weekend. I'm living on the edge, using a 150W hamilton pendant fixture with 20K radium bulb. The color and light output far exceeds my old FNI 70w HQI. No worries about heat, as my RKL and fan take care of that. Temps don't swing past 0.3 degrees! Photo period is only 4 hrs at the moment. My two stunner 12.5" strips (1x453nm and 1x12k/445nm) stay on for for roughly 12hrs. Sorry about the iPhone pics, thats all I have at the moment.

 

Current Fish:

 

1 - yellow tail damsel

 

Current Coral:

 

1 - red planet acropora

1 - green tipped birdsnest

1 - purple millepora

1- orange montipora cap

1 - small pink zoa colony

 

If anybody has any specific questions about this setup, feel free to ask.

 

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Video:

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all SPS look good!

MH is really good for them especially to keep those colors.

tell us how they grow and if they change color in the next few months.

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Tank looks good, lots of potential!

In my opinion though, with that awesome light, you could probably do with way less rock. The SPS are going to grow like mad for you, and if placed closer to the bottom they will fill the pelagic space well. And then you wouldnt have to deal with so much empty rock space due to shading.

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Tank looks good, lots of potential!

In my opinion though, with that awesome light, you could probably do with way less rock. The SPS are going to grow like mad for you, and if placed closer to the bottom they will fill the pelagic space well. And then you wouldnt have to deal with so much empty rock space due to shading.

I kind of feel the same way! I am thinking of removing that piece in the upper right side. It is kind of bland anyway. Thanks for the input.

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So i woke up this morning to find my birdsnest wedged in a rock, which I dont think it liked it very much! I dont think that part will grow back?

 

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nice peninsula 5.5g

 

what return pump are you using

Thanks! Its an Eheim compact 600 - 160gph, return pump and Via Aqua 80 - 74gph, for additional flow.

 

 

Did you build that or have it custom built. N E way wr can get a better pic of how the rear chambers are set up.

I bought a deep blue 5.5 and de-rimmed it. Then I put a plexiglass divider for the side chamber. I'll try and post a pic of that tomorrow.

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  • 2 months later...

Took a couple of pics today. I'm a little frustrated at this tank right now. Not a single spot of coralline algae after three months, and any coralline that was on the beautifully encrusted LR has turned white or very pale. I cant seem to keep any corals too happy right now. I'm trying some mangroves at the moment just for fun. I know it takes up a lot of space in the tank, but it can be temporary. The only SPS piece I left in this tank was the red planet. As you can see, it has lost all of its color and does not have any polyp extension. I even put some GSP in there and they barley want to come out. I'm guessing I still have too much light! The screens have been on for a month but havent seemed to help. The light is currently 10" from the water surface and is maxed out at its highest point. I need to pull the dresser out and raise the bracket another 6" higher, at least. Any other thoughts or comments as to the height of this MH? Current photoperiod is 7hrs.

 

PH drops to about 7.85 at night and never really gets passed 8.05 during the day. DKh is around 10 so I am not looking to raise that any more! I moved the birdsnest, millepora and monti into my 34g red sea max (as shown in the last pic). Their color is slowly coming back, and have grown a bit as well.

 

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Wow awesome! Very similar to the build I just started.

That powerhead I think is the same one I use as my ato. How do you find the flow in yours is? I have a slightly more powerful return, but can't really tell what the flow is like without some floppy xenia or a fish to blow around in the currents.

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Wow awesome! Very similar to the build I just started.

That powerhead I think is the same one I use as my ato. How do you find the flow in yours is? I have a slightly more powerful return, but can't really tell what the flow is like without some floppy xenia or a fish to blow around in the currents.

Thanks! With both pumps, I'm around 44x turnover for the tank. The flow is good, especially for the fine sand. Occasionally it will push a pile up in the corner, but I just move it back. I would love an mp10 for random flow, but I think it still takes up too much space.

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Thanks! With both pumps, I'm around 44x turnover for the tank. The flow is good, especially for the fine sand. Occasionally it will push a pile up in the corner, but I just move it back. I would love an mp10 for random flow, but I think it still takes up too much space.

Yeah I'm about at that turnover and don't want to have to add a power head to the display.

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You are still about 27watts/gallon. That is a lot of light. I know most people don't use watts per gallon any more but for reference it is good. On my tank I'm at 10 watts per gallon and everyone thinks that is a lot. you are almost triple that. If you can measure your par values in the tank somehow. i think you'll see that it is very high. Just a thought.

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You are still about 27watts/gallon. That is a lot of light. I know most people don't use watts per gallon any more but for reference it is good. On my tank I'm at 10 watts per gallon and everyone thinks that is a lot. you are almost triple that. If you can measure your par values in the tank somehow. i think you'll see that it is very high. Just a thought.

Thanks joeygo, yeah I want to get that Seneye unit as it seems to be a fairly cheap way of testing PAR. Plus it does a few other things as well. My next mission is to raise the light at least another 6" and see the result of that.

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Ok, just raised my MH up to 17" above the water surface. I can lower it a few inches here and there as need be. The light in the tank seems much less intense and and is very well diffused. Although, the light spill in the room is a lot more lol.

 

Also, my mangroves have grown 2" already!

 

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What is the specific gravity of the tank? Is the salinity in ppm? It should be at 35 ppm. If it's over 50, that's a pretty serious problem!

 

I really like the tank though. I hope you get everything fixed up quickly!

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What is the specific gravity of the tank? Is the salinity in ppm? It should be at 35 ppm. If it's over 50, that's a pretty serious problem!

 

I really like the tank though. I hope you get everything fixed up quickly!

At that point it was just below 1.025. The salinity is read in mS, 51.3 = 1.025. See chart below from pinpoint.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Just picked up on your thread here. I like what you are trying to do. I recently turned a 5G into a all in one. I am wondering what you have in place for nutrient export besides mangroves. Mangroves look cool but they are not very efficient at nutrient export. I see you also have a Damsil in there. I was sad to see your SPS decline, but wonder if your PHOSPHATE and NITRATE are too high for them. Light is important but without "zero" nutrients in the tank you will have problems keeping SPS. What I have done is create a mini reactor that I run GFO in, in addition I dose MB7 once and a while. I also have a 20G SPS/LPS tank, so what I am doing, since my params are good in it, is take water from the 20g for WC in my Pico. This keeps the params in the Pico much the same as my 20G. I never have to dose the pico this way (other than MB7). I don't plan on keeping much SPS in my Pico, but have a birds nest in there now and would like to keep a digitata branching. Without knowing exactly what you are doing I would have to guess nutrients have contributed to your decline in SPS and lack of coralline algae. Oh, and I am keeping my Pico fish free, just some sexy shrimp and maybe anemone shrimp in the near future, trying to keep the bio-load as low as possible. My Pico is only 30 days old so I'm not suggesting I have it all going on, just wanted to share what I'm doing in my 3G space.

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possible to get a shot of what you did with the halide light? im having an issue with light bleeding into the rest of the room and i can kinda see that you made something to direct the light more downwards

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echopiece
Just picked up on your thread here. I like what you are trying to do. I recently turned a 5G into a all in one. I am wondering what you have in place for nutrient export besides mangroves. Mangroves look cool but they are not very efficient at nutrient export. I see you also have a Damsil in there. I was sad to see your SPS decline, but wonder if your PHOSPHATE and NITRATE are too high for them. Light is important but without "zero" nutrients in the tank you will have problems keeping SPS. What I have done is create a mini reactor that I run GFO in, in addition I dose MB7 once and a while. I also have a 20G SPS/LPS tank, so what I am doing, since my params are good in it, is take water from the 20g for WC in my Pico. This keeps the params in the Pico much the same as my 20G. I never have to dose the pico this way (other than MB7). I don't plan on keeping much SPS in my Pico, but have a birds nest in there now and would like to keep a digitata branching. Without knowing exactly what you are doing I would have to guess nutrients have contributed to your decline in SPS and lack of coralline algae. Oh, and I am keeping my Pico fish free, just some sexy shrimp and maybe anemone shrimp in the near future, trying to keep the bio-load as low as possible. My Pico is only 30 days old so I'm not suggesting I have it all going on, just wanted to share what I'm doing in my 3G space.

Hi NanoTopia, I am using BRS rox .8 carbon and BRS GFO, along with an occasional filter pad. I was also using a 100ml bag of purigen, but i took that out recently as I didnt feel I needed it. Unfortunately, I lost my damsel a few weeks ago. He was fine the night before, and looked healthy and normal. The next day I noticed my pom-pom crab had the damsel in his grasp and was tearing the fish apart!? I couldnt believe it, did he grab the fish? Was the fish sick? Very strange to say the least. I have zero nitrate and phosphate taken from my Hana meters. I have almost zero algae to speak of anywhere in the tank. I perform close to a 50% water change each week. I dont think its a nutrient problem lol. I did the mangroves as an impulse buy and because I like to constantly tinker with my tanks. Either way, it is neat to watch the mangroves grow! I think the coralline wont grow due to the intense lighting? I have been focusing on my newest tank build, so I havent added a single coral to this tank. I would be interested to see how some new SPS additions will react. When I transfer my other tank over, I will have some new frag additions for this 5.5.

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