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Coral Vue Hydros

Simplicity... llj's Fluval Spec


lljdma06

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I'm singing in an opera on Saturday, Barber of Seville (I'm Rosina), and my mom got me a "I'm so proud you're going to be in an opera" present. A Fluval Spec. omgomgomg She liked the tiny tank at PetsMart and it was on sale. I don't blame her, it's very cute & looks very well made for the price. I think she paid like $44 for it. On sale? I've decided to go reef with this tank and see what I can accomplish with as little modding as possible.

 

I know, I'm not tricking out this one. No boost PAR LEDs, no wacky filter jobs, no complicated media racks, nothing... Just simplicity.

 

Stats

 

-Fluval Spec with back chamber emptied out to serve as a giant refugium, well giant for a Spec.

-refugium light is a swivel neck LED light. Very weird.

-stock pump plus a small 40gph pump refugium side

-stock lighting replaced with an innovative Marine 4W LED

~2lbs of cured LR (I have beautiful spare LR from other systems, will employ hammer & chisel, glue & putty)

~2lbs of fji pink livesand

 

awful, awful fts as of Late March! I promise when gsp open more, I'll do better by Nano-reef. This is embarrassing. LOL

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Here is a current stock list...

 

Livestock

-Green clown goby (original planned stock)

-yellow coral banded shrimp (had a pair, but they divorced, violently, added as original CUC)

-pompom crab (added as original planned stock, lost during my mom's stroke)

-randall's pistol shrimp (seems just fine without a goby) (added as original planned stock).

-two scarlet hermit crabs,(added as original CUC) lost one after my mother's stroke, then the other soon after.

-one astrea snail (a teeny one) added as CUC, scarlets ate it.

-one cowrie (added as original CUC)

-one banded trochus (added March, 2013 as CUC)

-one tiny emerald crab for algae work grew too big, was moved to fiance's tank

-one emerald crab (added Jan, 2013 as CUC)

-assorted tiny dwarf ceriths, stomatellas, little bristleworms, brittle stars, copepods, amphipods, feather dusters, and other wee creatures of the sea...

 

Corals

-Dendros, (Aug, 2012)

-Branching orange sun corals (Oct. 2012)

-one polyp of a yellow sun coral (Sept. 2012)

-gsp; two species (Sept, 2012 & Dec, 2012)

-Xenia moved to fiance's tank

-R. florida & mushrooms moved to fiance's tank

-R. yuma (Sept, 2012)

-blue mushroom, and it's baby (Aug, 2012)

-green rhodactis or whatever - (Jan, 2013)

-two heads of an awesome blasto that I got for free. :D (Oct, 2012)

-acans moved to fiance's tank

-small duncan frag (but it fell off, so I gave it to my fiance)

-teeny tiny frag of blue sympodium (Dec, 2012)

-teeny frag of green sympodium

-my red hornet zoanthids (Jan, 2013)

-feeling peachy (March, 2013)

-eagle eyes (March 2013)

-weirdo green palys I have no idea what they are (March 2013)

-two, now three small branches of yellow diodogorgia nudifloria,(Dec, 2012)

-remnants of my God of Wars colony A (March 2013, not sure they'll survive, but giving them a shot)

-green branching favia (March, 2013)

 

Algae

-lovely purple and red coraline algae

-red macro algae (slowly being destroyed by the emerald crab...)

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And just to satisfy my forum followers...

 

Tank in situ... Water test for now. Pump is surprisingly strong.

 

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And since this is all about elegance and simplicity, I ordered this from intank.

 

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I've got one in my Biocube and it grows chaeto pretty well. Should also serve as a nice little heater for this tank. I'm excited. If there's no leaking, LR & sand go in tomorrow.

 

L

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Boyfriend and I had fun setting it up today. Used putty to get the rocks where I wanted them. No chisel was needed though. :lol: I have a lovely spot for a dendro and various sun frags & good areas for a small zoa frag and some mushies. I may try some Ricordea near the top too.

 

Boy friend wants sexies, so I'll oblige when the tank is cycled. Now is the time to leave it alone and let it cycle. A stomatella and a cerith snuck in with the rock. Probably bristle worms as well. The rock came from the 5.5g. Perfect pieces for the Spec.

 

Peechurs of ma sandstorm!

 

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Stomatella playing in the sand.

 

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Another tank view

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Thanks for looking. I'll snap more photos when the water clears up.

 

L

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looks cool, can't wait to see it once clear... also filled with coralz...

 

 

Can't wait to see it cleared and the rock layout :D

 

Haha, ok, sandstorm cleared up a bit. You get the general idea. The tank will feature dendros so I've left crevices and gaps to put them. There's also room for an extra rock or two.

 

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L

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I like that scape from what I can see of it!!

 

And an even clearer picture.

 

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I'm pretty impressed with the power of the stock pump, of course, once I got the sponge out. Halogen fuge light is on its way soon, but I don't need it for this stage in the game.

 

You obviously know what you are doing. The new tank looks great. Good luck with it and with your opera career.

 

Nah, I don't know what I'm doing at all. I only look like I do. ;) I'm still learning like everybody else and make stupid mistakes, like forget to turn back on power heads after target-feeding. If I manage to not screw up with this one until it's at least a year old. I'm happy.

 

Thanks, the show is this Saturday. Me, from my last production. Play Suzuki in Madama Butterfly...

 

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More peeeechurs.

 

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close ups...

 

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What is this macro? It's bright red. I'm guessing Halymenia floridana? Yoshii, confirm?

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Thanks, I'm seeing a lot of animals. Not surprised, the rock was pulled from my nps 5.5g and it has a crazy amount of pods and stuff.

 

I'll do some tests tomorrow to see where I am in the cycle, though I imagine I won't have much of one.

 

L

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Time for videos. :D As you can see we have some pretty live live rock here. I saw pods this afternoon too. No diatoms yet.

 

 

 

Have fun.

 

L

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philaquatics

That is fantastic live rock! BTW just a heads up you probably saw it already I think you may have an aiptasia on that top rock in the middle of the close up tank video. It my now be but IMO get rid of it asap! Can't wait to get more updates

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HI :D il be starting my own fluval spec and i have 2 questions 1 would you mind if I snatched some ideas off you cos the current build i was going for possibly needed a chiller and well i want to avoid that for this tank.

second is putty really needed when placing live rock? and 3 oops ya 3 will you add an auto top off system if yes what would you suggest because i decided to place this tank in the dining room and I cant have a huge DIY thing next to it xD it

 

Thank you :)

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That is fantastic live rock! BTW just a heads up you probably saw it already I think you may have an aiptasia on that top rock in the middle of the close up tank video. It my now be but IMO get rid of it asap! Can't wait to get more updates

 

Thank you. It is lovely rock, isn't it. That deep red coralline is something else. I got very lucky. When I first got the live rock about a year ago, it only had a tiny little patch. and now look at it.

 

Oh, I knew he was there from the get go. He lives until tomorrow and then, because he picked a hole to dwell in, I cover him up, Cask of Amontillado style... :owned:

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I added some components to this tank. First, the refugium is now complete as my Halogen arrived in the mail.

 

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It'll run on an opposite photo period.

 

Second, here's some critters from my other tanks as my stats looked great. .

 

2 scarlet hermits & and assortment of snails. No banded trochus. I want one and have one grazing away in my quarantine tank, but I don't have the algae to justify it yet. The ceriths and stomatellas eat other things besides algae. I couldn't pry any limpets from my tanks. Bummer.

 

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I'm doing a drip acclimation only because of the pH of this tank is lower than my other tanks. Otherwise, all my params are the same in all my tanks, so it makes acclimating easy. I really need to consider upping the surface agitation. The opposite photo period may stabilize things, though.

 

What is the little pump that you guys get to upgrade the Spec stock pump? Is it the maxi jet 404?

 

L

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I used a maxijet 404 and the flow was a bit more than the stock pump but surprisingly not as much as I would have hoped for. I'm in the process of setting up my spec right now and am going totally cheapo with it. Going to try to use what I have on hand which is not much since I'm mostly a FW planted tank kind of guy.

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I used a maxijet 404 and the flow was a bit more than the stock pump but surprisingly not as much as I would have hoped for. I'm in the process of setting up my spec right now and am going totally cheapo with it. Going to try to use what I have on hand which is not much since I'm mostly a FW planted tank kind of guy.

 

Well, if it isn't that much more, I don't see the point. I'm gonna see if I can squeeze my Rio 50 in there. I also have a spare Hydor pico evolution, that I may just stick in the refugium for circulation.

 

L

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Well, if it isn't that much more, I don't see the point. I'm gonna see if I can squeeze my Rio 50 in there. I also have a spare Hydor pico evolution, that I may just stick in the refugium for circulation.

 

L

im making a spec too and an other member of the forum told me that a 606 fits in this tank! I ordered one so I can get back with my personal experience but according to amazon this pump does 79-153 gph :)

im sure your tank will be amazing!

 

and may I ask what refugium light you are using?:o

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im making a spec too and an other member of the forum told me that a 606 fits in this tank! I ordered one so I can get back with my personal experience but according to amazon this pump does 79-153 gph :)

im sure your tank will be amazing!

 

and may I ask what refugium light you are using?:o

 

Ooooo, good to know! I will look into the 606 then, cause I wants the flow. I really think it makes a huge difference in a reef to have good flow. That's what's in my Biocube right now. Hmmmmm, I may upgrade my Biocube stock pump and then move that mini jet to the Spec.

 

As for lighting, it's a 10W submersible halogen light. I use it on my Biocube. Grows chaeto decently enough.

 

L

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I was told by the guy in our other LPS that the 606 and 404 are the same pump, the 606 just has a larger impeller. We don't sell them ourselves and they only had one 606 in stock with no 404 to compare against. I'm thinking of grabbing one as well. I think I'm also going to use your idea of putting chaeto in the back and ditching the stock filter media.

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I was told by the guy in our other LPS that the 606 and 404 are the same pump, the 606 just has a larger impeller. We don't sell them ourselves and they only had one 606 in stock with no 404 to compare against. I'm thinking of grabbing one as well. I think I'm also going to use your idea of putting chaeto in the back and ditching the stock filter media.

 

The stock pump will do for now. Now that I know that about the 606, I think I'll invest in that one rather than the 404 to increase flow though.

 

I'm currently using a 10w submersible halogen to light the fuge. I see some growth already. If you remove the filter, it's actually a really good-sized refugium for the tank size.

 

@Islandoftiki - I like the scape too.

 

Oh and a picture. Happy scarlet hermit...

 

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Yes, those are gsp. I had a teeny spare frag and was using it to test out lighting. They opened at the top of the tank and also at the bottom. Well, gsp did pretty well for me in the last lousy LED setup I had. Zoas did fine too, they just were a bit leggy, but only lower down, the top zoas were fine.

 

L

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