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Cultivated Reef

My 2.5 Gallon AIO Nano Reef


iball1804

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I've started a small 2.5 gallon nano reef. Currently it's cycling (you might be able to see some diatoms, they just showed up today). How does it look?

 

Left shot:

6030781594_688869dba7.jpg

IMG_2763 by iball1804, on Flickr

 

Overflow chambers (heater, area for chaeto, return pump):

6030225969_28d493d1e0.jpg

IMG_2762 by iball1804, on Flickr

 

FTS:

6030225439_f3a19547b0.jpg

IMG_2761 by iball1804, on Flickr

 

Right:

6030224819_ba0d4fe7fc.jpg

IMG_2760 by iball1804, on Flickr

 

Comments/Suggestions?

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Thanks thanks and thanks.

 

I wanted to maximize my space and so a wrap around scape was a must. The little island on the lower right will be the spot for a euphyllia, and the curve will be other softies.

 

I am using a hydor pico revolution 400. Water level in the chamber is super finicky, I'll have to think of someway to raise it somehow!

 

Any coral suggestions?

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I like it! only problem I see is the rocks against the glass are gonna make it hard to clean. You should be able to raise the level in the pump chamber by just adding water unless I'm missing something. I also have a 2.5 pico with a false back built the entire width of the tank where I run chaeto, chemipure elite and filter floss, an entire filtration system in a 1 3/4" space, I also built my LED lighting through trial and error I finally got it figured out,. I will be following your build, keep the pics coming. My tank has been up for over 5 months and I have sps corals plating onto the rocks. I see you are using T5's for lighting, that will support more than softies, lps easily and I would think the hardier sps. If you want to follow along on my build here is the link.

Donnie's 2.5 pico with SPS.

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Newman - It can't support a hammer coral? I find that hard to believe for some reason. It's a 12w T5 over a 2.5 gallon tank. (~5 watts per gallon, but doesn't matter anyways :P)

 

DonnieP - I have looked and scanned your build so many times, it's crazy. I'm so glad you came and took a peek! Yes I added water to the tank and it solved the problem (although the tank lost 1/8" in evaporation, the resevoir in the pump area dropped almost 6 inches :o, gotta stay on top of the top-offs.) Gonna add chaeto, and want to switch to LEDs soon!

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Perfect. The tank will be a week old this Sunday. Hopefully I can order some corals soon (next 2/3 weeks), and get this tank going.

 

I find myself staring into the tank even though there's nothing to look at. Odd? ;)

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very nice setup, I'll be following along!

 

Thanks. Followed your thread, nice tank! love the wall-hugging scape. Made the 10 look much bigger.

 

Newman - love your 3 gallon pico

 

Hopefully getting corals in the next week or two. School started today. Rats. :angry:

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You can reduce the evaporation by adding a hinged piece of glass over that open center section, or make you a DIY ATO and put the float switch in that back chamber where the pump is. Once you got Chaeto growing it will produce oxygen, I have a dang Damsel in mine and he is doing just fine and I only evaporate about 10 ML per day, seriously! I am posting a link to my ATO build on my hometown forum. This is for my JBJ 28g nano LED.

DIY ATO build.

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Just a thought but if you want coraline algae in the tank you better stick to the T5's for six months anyway. It has been my personal experience and that of several friends of mine that coralline will not grow under the leds. If you look at my 2.5 there is not a speck of coralline in there after 5 months but the sps are plating onto the rocks, its been led since startup. My JBJ 28 led barely has any coralline after over a year. I think the leds are to intense for the coralline as I have it under the rocks! I think if you check around that the T5's as close as they are to the shallow tank will support a lot of sps, check Brandons builds, he is using flourescent if I remember right and he is growing sps beautifully.

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LEDs grow coralline in more shaded areas. my picotope hasnt had an issue of being coralline-less.

Newman

Looking at your starter thread, you had lots of coralline on your liverock to start with, Led's will sustain coralline but believe me if you start out with dead rock and leds its gonna be a long wait for coralline, I've seeded mine several times and with calcium at 420 and alk at 10 you would think it would grow but it hasn't. I'm beginning to think it may be a blessing though. I have been building reefs in large tanks for forty years and I always hated the coralline scraping.

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Well I might have to go with LEDs sometime soon. We will see.

 

I guess I will top it off just daily. I am getting surface film, because the pump isn't strong enough to pull enough water for the teeth to effectively work. Maybe a surface skimmer is necessary...

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Not really. The water levels in the chambers are a little lower than the display, thus really no breakup of the protein film. Rats.

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Let me tell you where the problem is, I had the same problem and I had to go back and make the gap in between the dental work bigger, I see yours is pretty small, the gap needs to be about a quarter inch wide to let the film slip through rather that building up and letting the water flow under the surface film. Believe me it works to just open up the dental, you may just need to break or cut off every other tooth. The water level in the chambers will be a little lower because your pump is pushing out more water than the overflow is letting in. You could start by removing one tooth at a time until you get it right. I did all this experimenting on mine before starting the tank in saltwater and I fine tuned it before startup, so this should help you out.

 

I also have filter floss in the chamber where the overflow is, this catches the film and I have Chemipure elite under the floss, this helps keep my PH at 8.1 constantly, no swings that I have detected.

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Hmmm... Yes that makes sense. So breaking the teeth will allow for more water flow, thus raising the level of water in the pump chamber AND lowering the water level in the teeth chamber? Nice!

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DonnieP- I will probably do that. Do you just recommend snapping the teeth one by one until I have the current flow levels?

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