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fewskillz goes nano


fewskillz

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As a result of some in-decisiveness regarding my 54 corner I moved all of my softie frags from that tank into a 2.5 gallon. That tank was too much work with the amount of rock I had crammed in it so I moved everything to a 5.5 for now. There is 3 or 4 pounds of Live rock from my other tanks, and 2 or 3 pounds of dry rock from marcorocks.com and I think reeferrocks. As for equipment it's got a stealth 50w heater and an AquaClear 30 powerhead. Lighting is a Current Satellite 40w 50/50 with a 1 watt LED moon light. This is an incredible light fixture for a 5.5 or 10 gallon. Great bulb color and very high quality reflector. Livestock consists of a scarlet reef hermit, a misc. snail from the LFS, a peppermint shrimp, and the following softy frags:

 

RDE's from travisurfer:

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red zoas from absinthe:

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pink paly's from absinthe:

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brown zoas with yellow center from absinthe:

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multi colored 'shroom on the left (from travisurfer, I have 3 of these), and an umbrella mushroom from saltwaterfish.com on the right:

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I'm working on the design of a drilled 10 or 15 gallon tank with a 10 or 20 gallon sump for all of these softies plus future softies to move into. I will also move my ocellaris clown from the 54 into the new nano whenever I get it up and running. Then I'd like to add a cleaner shrimp and something to stir up the sand a little like a blenny, goby, or jawfish. I've already got a Mag3 and a SCWD for the return. I just need hole saws and the plumbing pieces. My biggest question right now is what to use as a stand. I don't really want the sump to be visible. I've got a few ideas I'm working on. I'll ask for y'alls advice as soon as I've got it down to 2 or 3 choices.

 

This is my first SW tank under 20 gallons, what do ya think so far?

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travisurfer

lol, it looks sort of crowded right now, but it will be nicer once things are in the 10g. wait until you see those multicolored mushrooms color up under the new light. they can't crave enough of it imo. just adjust them slowly but everytime i moved mine closer to the light, they just kept geting brighter :P i love those things. glad to see that the rde's are doing well. the pink paly still hasn't seemed to want to open up here on my end.

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yeah, I crammed as much of my dry rock in there as I could. I'm ready to get some coraline growing on some of that stuff. I'll start the 10 gallon process once I decide what stand to use. That will determine whether I drill the bottom or the back and what type of overflow I go with.

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Just ordered diamond bit hole saws, bulk heads, loc-line, and miscellaneous other goodies for the new upgrade. I've already got a Mag3 (hopefully that's enough flow), a 50w heater, and the PVC glue. I've pretty much decided on doing a 10 gallon with a 10 gallon sump.

 

Only thing now is what to use as a stand. I've got a dresser that holds a 10 gallon nicely, but it'd have to be sumpless. Not sure if I want a closed loop on a 10 by itself. I've got an AGA stand that'll hold up to a 20, but it's open, and I don't want to see my sump/fuge. Right now the best two choices are looking like either building my own from scratch, or modifying a set of cabinets to hold what I want. First I'm going to search craigslist and the local yard sales website for anything cheap.

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Loc-Line arrived today! They sent me a free key-chain with like a 3" piece of the 1/4" diamater loc-line on it. NPT Connection, nozzle, and everything. Pics tonight!

 

modularhose.com has everything you could possibly need for loc-line.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bought another 10 gallon the other day. This tank is officially going to move to a 10+10 in the next few weeks. I've got to plan out the baffle arrangement in the sump and decide where to drill the display. I think I'm going to make an overflow using a plastic mailbox. I've decided to build a cabinet. I'll post up plans for it soon.

 

Should I go corner overflow with one return (much easier, less space), or center overflow with 2 returns (more difficult, more space taken up, but more effective)?

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who's ready for some DIY work?

 

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While I was at Lowe's buying all the PVC I priced all of the wood for building the stand, I think I can do the whole thing for under $50. Any reason I couldn't just do 2x2's for the frame of the stand? I'm going to build it big enough to hold a 20h, just for the versatility and the stability while it's only holding a 10. I might do the four main posts 2x4s and everything else 2x2s. There will be a shelf to elevate the sump, to reduce head loss, and to leave storage space in the bottom. I'll skin it with decent plywood and just have the entire front be the door, that should make for a lot less work. This should be fun.

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Yesterday we moved the 5.5 into a 10 (not drilled, yet). Just a plain ol' 10 with heater, powerhead and light. I'm QTing an orange spotted sleeper goby and also wanted to see how everything would look in a 10. I'm undecided. I kinda want to upgrade the light. If I do that I may as well go to a 24" light and do the 15 gallon I have instead of a 10. We'll see how it looks once the water completely settles and I'm going to have a one piece glass lid cut because the stupid brown hinge of the all-glass versa-top blocks alot of light. I'll post pics once the water settles. I also need to get this goby fattened up a little. He's active and healthy, just a bit thin. He'll probably go into the 54, just because they get so big, but I might keep him in this setup, especially if it's headed for a 15+10 setup.

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travisurfer

sounds good fewskillz. keep us posted. also, you can just take the brown thing off the versa top and you end up with two pieces of glass that can still cover the tank, etc. hth.

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also, you can just take the brown thing off the versa top and you end up with two pieces of glass that can still cover the tank, etc. hth.

 

Yeah, that's what I'll do if it's more than $5 or so to have a one-piece cut. That's what I did on the old 46 bowfront to lose the shadow. I just think a single pane would look alot better.

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Temporary 10 gallon FTS:

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The goby's burrow is under the right half of the rocks. He has an entrance coming out right into that center part of the tank. He also has a backdoor on the right side of the tank seen in the bottom of this pic:

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He's still pretty skittish and I haven't seen him eat yet. He's pretty skinny so hopefully he'll start to fatten up once he's settled in.

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travisurfer
FRAGS! YAY!

yep, we'll see what happens though. right now all we have is some gsp for around $20 but we should be getting some other frags in the $10-20 range. that store always marks things up so much though so we'll see ;)

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DAMNIT! When people say tight fitting lid, they aren't kidding. There was about a 1/4" gap at the back of the tank from where I took the hinge out of the glass versa-top. My goby (who was at least a 1/2" in diameter) was on the floor in front of the tank this morning. This sucks. He was really cool (and not cheap). I guess I'm going to get that orange spot goby-pistol shrimp pair from the other pets+. Man he was a cool fish.

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travisurfer

:(

 

we didn't really get any corals at the store but here's some stuff that i thought you might like:

baby occy's

feather duster

m. dorensis

h. crispa

yellow watchman goby

i think thats about it for the cooler stuff. everything looked really healthy except for the dorensis which was a little bleached but otherwise in good shape.

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hmmm...

 

H. Crispa would be nice in the 54. YWG would be perfect to replace my carpet surfer. A baby occy would be perfect to pair with the female I've got. I was just thinking about getting her new mate from somewhere other than Tropical Paradise because all of John's occy's come from the same breeder at UNC-W, so it's probably the same parents as the one I've got. I'd like to try to prevent in-breeding as much as I can. Just to spread out the gene pool a little.

 

Too bad I'm paying for my SCCA membership, my first autocross entry fee, and a helmet today. We'll see what my budget looks like when we get back from camping. Gotta go pack the tent. Talk to ya Saturday! It's time for a little bit of a long overdue Vacation!!!

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