Spec V - last night of the nano (time for an upgrade)

[Little Square Fish]

So this is my first saltwater tank and after months of lurking and researching I decided to give it a go. Im taking it slow and learning lots on the way so that I keep the fatalities to zero. Space was a huge problem so it had to be a pico instead of a larger sized reef which I hope to have one day in the future. Lots of inspiration from the Spec V builds I've seen on this site which is part of the reason I decided to turn my Spec into a pico reef instead of a betta tank.

I'll keep this first post updated with the latest tank shot and specs

 

So after almost exactly 1 year, I am upgrading to a 100litre (27g). So long little nano.

 

25 October 2014 - last night of the nano

 

 

Bonus awesome video

 

15 August - rescaped and with added Bubbles!

18 May 2014 - looking good


23 January 2014 - I gots some fish!!
Everything is looking pretty healthy



26 Nov 2013 - Lighting Upgrade


25 Nov 2013 - First Corals


27 Oct 2013 - Just Started Cycling



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Tank

• Fluval Spec V 21 Litres (5.5gallons)

Equipment

• Pump 1 = Eheim compact 300 - 300l/h (80g/h) in the pump chamber
• Pump 2 - Eheim compact 600 replaced with 2 more Eheim 300s 600l/h (160g/h in the filter chamber with a Hydor Flo rotating deflector on the outlet
• Heater - 50w Aquaone Nano Heater preset at 26 deg C Dymax IQ Thermo 30w - seems to be doing a better job than the Aquaone
• Lighting - Nano Box Reef mono unit with storm controller
• ATO - Tunze nano

Filtration

• Dead rock -now seems be be alive
• Stock sponge thing that came with the tank removed as it was affecting flow in heater chamber. Replaced with media holder made from old undergravel thingie from old tank.
• Filter floss on top of the sponge
• Seachem purigen
• Seachem seagel

Livestock

Fish & inverts

• 2 x black and white ocellaris clownfish (+/-10mm will get moved when larger)
• Hermit crab (unknown kind-red legs & blue eye stalks)
• 2 x cleaner shrimp
• 3 x snails (advertised as turbo, may or may not be trochus)

Corals - mostly little frags

• Green Star Polyp
• Pulsing Xenia
• Zoa (green and brown)
• Zoa (orange and green)
• Zoa (green and yellow)
• Red macro agae
• Riccordia Yuma - big ric and baby ric
• Acropora milleopora ?(has shown excellent growth and is recovering from lighting mishap)
• Acropora ??
• Frogspawn
• Yellow scroll
• Acan accidentally murdered while trying to superglue it a rock. Superglue got all over the poor thing
• Blastoma?
• Cats paw (stylophora) died because I turned the lights down for too long
• Donut Coral
• Donut Coral
• Bubble Coral - freaking love this coral!

Hitchhikers

• Misis Shrimp
• Some sort of bristle worm - a couple of really big ones
• Possible aiptasia - killed with aiptasisia x
• Some sort of black tube like thing (sponge maybe?)
• tiny little brittle star

 

Maintenance & Testing

• weekly clean and change of filter floss
• weekly 5l (1.3gallon) or 23% water change
• Currently using Dupla Marin premium reef salt switched to Red see coral pro as its form a closer lfs & the Dupla had waaay high magnesium values.
• kH, Ca, pH, Mg, salinity testing weekly

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[lilflx]

nice choice! you may want to get another light if you want to keep corals.

[Little Square Fish]

The build

 

Tank

Seemed like a good idea. Like the quality and the dimensions.

 

Pumps

Removed the pump it came with - bought the tank from Amazon and the voltage is not quite the same where I live, so added an Eheim compact 300 into the little pump chamber. It fits just fine and I decided to add an Eheim 600 in the other chamber to add more flow. I saw on some other threads where people had added a Hydor Flo rotating deflector which I thought was a brilliant idea even if it will reduce the efficiency of the 2nd pump. This is where things got more difficult.

Hydor Flo Rotating Deflector

Getting a hole drilled in the wall and the deflector attached to the larger pump was an absolute pain in the butt. Partly due to limited tools and partly due to not having figure out the placement of the deflector relative to the pump BEFORE making the hole. Landed up butchering a hole and then also having to use a file to remove some of the plastic ledges inside the large chamber.

The flow from the deflector also started to create a bare patch in the bottom. No amount of shifting my rockwork seemed to help so I eventually resorted to glueing rock fragments to a bit of plastic to hide the bare patch. It seems to work and its in the back so not overly visible. Its also a bit on the noisy side, though I think it is more to do with the connection through the divider and the pump rather than the deflector itself. Hope this damn thing works out to be worth it because so far its not been an easy mod.

 

 

[Sunar357]

Looks nice! Welcome to the hobby!

[Little Square Fish]

nice choice! you may want to get another light if you want to keep corals.

 

Thanks. The stock lighting is definitely going to go. I was going to do a DIY led setup , but realised at the end of the day I want this tank to look really nice and decided that this tank wasn't the one to test my nonexistent soldering skills on. A nano box mono unit is going to look quite nice I think and be good enough for some corals.

[jestep]

Nice. I did a similar open scape on mine as well. I'd like to see how you like the flow deflector in there. I put one on with an upgraded mini jet 606 and couldn't stand it. Still just not enough flow to make it useful.

[Little Square Fish]

Nice. I did a similar open scape on mine as well. I'd like to see how you like the flow deflector in there. I put one on with an upgraded mini jet 606 and couldn't stand it. Still just not enough flow to make it useful.

Your tank looks beautiful. The open scape gives more space for corals I think otherwise the tank would just look too cramped.

Am going to see how the deflector works out. In theory it's a great idea giving a bit more turbulent flow. It's been a bit of a pain so far though.

[Little Square Fish]

Chemistry

Finally seeing a reduction in nitrites. YAY! Weirdly enough also a reduction in nitrates. Think something is wrong with the test kit? Yes I know thats a freshwater chart, but nitrites are about the same for both.

 

Pumps

Have removed the Eheim 600. it was just a bit too noisy and I could not figure out where the noise was coming from (either the pump itself or a vibration between the pump and the tank). Have replace it with 2 more Eheim 300s, Its not the most elegant solution and I'm sure there is a fair bit of flow loss from having the pump discharge pointing towards each other, but it seems to be much quieter.

Lighting

Ordered a sweet nano box mono light unit. Still waiting on delivery though. Come on hurry up.

 

DIY ATO

Had a go at trying a drip feed and then a gravity unit, but couldn't seem to get the water container to seal air tight. Will have a another think about it. Manually topping up about 500ml a week, so not too bad.

 

[jestep]

You're almost done, maybe a few more days. API NO3 is very inaccurate so I wouldn't be worried about it. Once the NO2 hits zero give it an extra day, do a reasonable water change, and you're good to go.

 

You can literally use the same API NO3 kit 5 times in a row and get 5 different readings with it. The scale should just throw out numbers and go something more like:

 

First color = Messed up the test

Next 5 = Yes, there's nitrates

Last color = Toxic sludge

 

I just manually top off on mine as well. I know the Tunze nano ATO fits but it's a bit more than $100 which is pretty steep.

[Little Square Fish]

Livestock at last!!!! Yipppeeee

 

Tank was finally cycled and with a substantial water change was ready on Sunday. I had scoped out the only 2 local shops that sell coral on Saturday and was super excited to buy my very first frags. Limited selection at the shops though and quite pricey too. Also fitted a new heater the day before. The Aquaone is complete rubbish. 50w and still struggled to keep temp at 25 degrees in a heated house! Has been replaced with a Dymax thermo. unfortunately the only other one that will fit in the back chamber. Will have to see how that one goes.

 

Have started with some very small frags. (pics to follow) to see how things go, but landed up doing an impulse buy as well. Damnit. All my research and preparation and still got it wrong. Landed up with what looks to be a piece of acropora, but also a nice little riccordia and some macro algae.

 

All came on tiny bits of live rock instead of frags, so got some tiny hitchikers too (misis shrimp and bristle worm as well as what might possibly be bubble algae?)

 

Drip acclimated them all and placed in tank. GSP was not happy, but came out after an hour. Everyone else looks happy. I think I watched them for about 2 hours straight. So much fun and excitement watching the polyps slowly pop out, and the riccordea flex itself a bit. Awesome. Like a million hot dogs awesome

[iadubber]

Connect with some local reefers. You can usually get frags for a 1/3 or less than what you would pay in store.

 

Oh, MORE PICS

[Paandemonium]

I love these tanks! Keep coming with the peesures!

[Little Square Fish]

Pictures

FTS

 

Pulsing Xenia and Acropora millepora - these were originally swopped around. Figured the acro would get a bit more flow where it is now. Took the opportunity to remove a bit of bubble algae off of the xenia rock also

 

GSP and some zoas

 

Red macro algae and riccordia yuma (?) - my favourite

 

 

 

[Little Square Fish]

Hitchikers

Eeeuw. learned about bristle worms today. They freak me the hell out. I know they are supposed to be beneficial, but I think I will be dipping my corals from now on.

[Little Square Fish]

Lighting Upgrade

 

Exciting! New light arrived today. Very nice nano box mono unit with the storm controller. Nicely made.

 

 

Now just need to paint the wooden arms holding the light and do a major cable tidy up.

[Little Square Fish]

ATO

 

So I gave up on the DIY ATO. I just couldn't get it to work reliably. I think I just didn't have a strong enough container that didn't flex. Should have gone for something in glass. Tried looking at a float valve type set up, but all the floats are freaking huge.

I was going away for Xmas and needed something asap, so eventually just went with a Tunze nano. Was a little aprehensive, but it has performed very well so far. Had visions of it malfunctioning and flooding the tank.

 

Need to do something with the cables and plugs.

 

Livestock

Scarlet hermit crab (named Cousteau) added in December. He is a bit of a jerk and drags his ass all over the tank knocking everything over. Huge entertainment though. Has molted once and we have caught him joyriding on the rotating deflector a couple of times.

 

Black and white ocelaris clownfish x 2 (not yet named) added 19 Jan. They are currently about 10mm in size. WILL MOVE THEM TO A LARGER TANK when they have outgrown this one.

 

Corals

Added frogspawn coral on 19 Jan

Added another zoa frag in December

Added yellow scroll coral in December

 

Things I have learnt

Coral frags need to be superglued down

Hermit crabs look freaky out of their shells

This tank has too many cables and plugs (8 at last count)

 

 

[4x5]

Looking good.

Lesson 4 - hermits are a pain in the ass when your frags aren't glued down.

[Little Square Fish]

Looking good.

Lesson 4 - hermits are a pain in the ass when your frags aren't glued down.

 

OH YEAH. Little bastard went wild trashing the place when I put him in. Superglue is now my and my corals friend.

[ninjamyst]

clown police gonna get you! but those clowns sure are TINY! nice nanobox mono unit.

[Sandeep]

Great job on the two islands. Creates good perspective and makes the tank look a lot bigger than a continuous rock wall look.

[Little Square Fish]

clown police gonna get you! but those clowns sure are TINY! nice nanobox mono unit.

 

Yeah I know. had to put two in cos one would look too lonely. I figure at most I will have a year before they outgrow the tank. Feeding once a day. Hopefully by then I will have a second larger tank to move them to or will have to sell them to someone who does.

 

Great job on the two islands. Creates good perspective and makes the tank look a lot bigger than a continuous rock wall look.

I like the cleaner less cluttered look. Allows space for the coral to grow and fill in the gaps

[Little Square Fish]

18 May 2014 Update

edit - replaced the photos with better quality ones (been playing with lightroom

 

Things have been easier than expected. I did lose 2 snails, but I believe it was because I did not acclimate them for long enough. Bought some more a week later and drip acclimated them for a good hour. They have all survived and been very happy. Massive impact on algae.

 

I had a cool little donut coral that is definately dying.Everyone else in the tank fairly happy, but not this guy. I bought another donut coral, but adjusted my light well down and have been slowly ramping them up every week. Major difference to the new corral AND the frogspawn has been much hapier an fuller looking. Ricordia also spreading out a LOT more. So I guess it has been the lights. Though the sps hasn't been as happy since turning them down. Hopefully I can find a happy medium.

 

some pics

The latest donut coral

 

Ric

 

Frogspawn

 

 

Blastoma

 

 

[Reefkid88]

For being a Spec,this thing looks amazing man. How are your sps doing being ducked off in the corner like they are ?

[Little Square Fish]

The sps were doing great. Showing lots of growth ....and then I turned the lights down to acclimate a donut coral and didn't turn them back up fast enough. Stylophora pretty much dead, and the acroporas weren't happy at all. tried moving them higher up, but they were stuck well and good. Since turning the lights back up to their original level, they are starting to make a come back.

[Kalanianaole]

Love the islands.