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7.5 Gallon Mr. Aqua Tank


ReachTheSky

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Hey folks! :D

 

My name is Van first of all. I've been into saltwater aquariums for about 3-4 years now. My first aquarium was a 90g which was torn down and sold last year for a variety of reasons but mostly because I was a n00b who lacked patience, discipline and knowledge. After that, I began planning a 50g rimless build and boy did I plan it out. Hours upon hours of research in builders/vendors, equipment, lighting, reef chemistry on top of detailed sketches and 3D graphics and what not. Well, that's on hold.

 

But now I've have something else cooking!

 

I decided literally overnight to build a nano in my bedroom. The next day I ordered a Mr. Aqua 7.5 gallon cube from Marine Depot. Here she is on the day of arrival:

 

Omq1Jv2l.jpg

 

Given my last tank, I've been forcing myself to be thorough and patient with this one. Fortunately, it's paying off very nicely.

 

Here's a giant list of all the bells and whistles:

  • Aquaclear 70 filter (modified)
  • RapidLED Par38 LED Bulb (6x RB, 2x NW, 2x CW, 2x V) + BoostLED Gooseneck
  • 2x Hydor Koralia Nano powerheads (240gph each)
  • 25-watt Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Therm heater
  • JBJ Auto-Top Off unit w/ Tom Aquatics Aqualifter

sxiFpCSl.jpg

 

That's roughly how I planned it out. It's missing the overflow box of course. :rolleyes:

 

I purchased about 5-10 pounds of dry Reef Saver rock from BRS and a 20-pound bag of Tropic Eden Miniflakes to go along with it.

 

aj4Hnuvl.jpg

 

This was taken after the overflow was built and siliconed in the top left corner.

 

I got a DI canister from Bulk Reef and attached it to my existing RO water filter system (0 TDS output). I got a small bucket of DD's H2Ocean and mixed about 10 gallons worth.

 

Here's Murkfest 2014 for you guys. Immediately after fill-up:

 

Opl7E8bl.jpg

 

,,,, aaaand after roughly a day of running through the filtration ....

 

FlVw7Gdl.jpg

 

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... much better. :lol:

 

Here's a shot of the overflow. I put filter floss in the corners where water spills over. I'm also hiding the ATO stuff in there, along with the probe for the electronic thermometer.

 

J4rQckll.jpg

 

Well, as I said, this thing is in my bedroom but fortunately it is suuuuuuper quiet which I absolutely love! All of the equipment is dead silent and the water levels in the tank and overflow are perfect so there's zero splashing and bubbles. The only sound I really hear is the float sensor for the ATO occasionally tapping against the plastic housing.

 

Here's the ATO setup. Not the prettiest thing in the world but it'll do.

 

vrQdOWYl.jpg

 

The only fail so far was when I went to the LFS to get a nice piece of live rock to seed the tank. I put the rock inside, went and watched the Superbowl game and came back to two enormous Aiptasia anemones happily hanging out on top. :blink: Tossed that rock out instantly.

 

It's cycling at the moment. Today the ammonia levels were 1.5 - 2.0ppm and nitrite was around 0.25 ppm. I occasionally dose ammonia chloride in there (Dr. Tim's) to keep it going. As soon as the cycle finishes, I will be ordering a clean-up crew from Reef Cleaners.

 

For inhabitants, there will only be TWO fish in here. I don't care what anyone else says! I will get a small Clownfish of sorts (maybe a Picasso or Snowflake) in the beginning and follow it up with a Yellow Stripe Goby a few months down the line. A Fire Shrimp and small Brittle Starfish are strong a likelihood.

 

Corals are a must of course. A nice Zoanthid colony will be introduced in the beginning and I'll work my way up from there to Mushrooms, Ricordeas and what not.

 

I would really like to keep SPS corals and clams in here as well. Hoping that the light will be strong enough to sustain them. If not, then I'm likely to upgrade it (maybe to a Kessil A150?).

 

So let me know what you guys think! If you have any suggestions, criticisms or whatever, let it pour out.

 

Thanks for looking!

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Sounds good, and I like your scape. I feel that you'd be better off with a pair of clowns only because when I had only one clown, it would normally stay in just one spot, as opposed to a pair that actually swims around.

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Thank you for the compliments!

 

Aiptasia? Seriously? Too many LFS aren't on top of they game. That's just wrong.

 

Yup. Very disappointing. I bought about 20 pounds of live rock from the same LFS a few years ago and had zero problems with pests. Not sure why this one little piece would turn out so bad.

 

Sounds good, and I like your scape. I feel that you'd be better off with a pair of clowns only because when I had only one clown, it would normally stay in just one spot, as opposed to a pair that actually swims around.

 

Thought about this a while ago but decided to stick with one. I guess I really don't want to exceed my two fish limit or have just a pair of Clownfish.

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Been about ten days since ammonia dosage.


As of today:

Ammonia - 0.5 ppm

Nitrites - 2.0 ppm

Nitrates - 5.0 ppm


Cycle's coming along nicely.

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Still cycling. Fortunately one good thing came from the horrible live rock: Copepods. There are tons of them in the tank.

 

I grabbed my DSLR and tried taking a macro shot of one. Keep in mind, he's less than 1mm in length!

 

ZwNOmMm.jpg

 

I threw 2-3 small sinking pellets in there for them to feed (and to help with the cycle).

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reefernanoman

We almost got the exact same setup, but I have an AC50 with intank media basket. Looking good BTW.

 

Excelente job on that overflow! That looks clean.

 

Where did you get the parts for the overflow? Did you use aquarium silicone with it?

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Thank you dramad and jrmiller!

 

en28so... Thanks! I ordered cut-to-size black acrylic sheets from TAP Plastics. To turn it into the overflow, we cut grooves into it with a dremel and welded them together with Weld-On #4. We siliconed it onto the tank using Petco brand aquarium silicone. It works very well at hiding unsightly equipment and keeping salinity rock solid - both of which are always a challenge with nano tanks.

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You know, at one point when I was considering doing a MR. Aqua with a HOB, I wanted to do the EXACT same thing with the false overflow. Thought it would give surface skimming and somewhere to hide my stuff. I could have swore I had seen it before, now I remember where, it was your tank! looking great!

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Thanks! I got the idea from a friend of mine. He had a standard 10g from Petco and he built the faux overflow which worked great. His tank was taken down months ago though.

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Thanks slooye!

 

Cycle seems to be nearing the end. The tank completely murks ammonia and nitrites almost overnight. Nitrates are roughly around 5-10ppm.

 

Pod population is continuing to grow wildly. There's not a square in of glass that's not covered in copepods and isopods of different sizes and shapes. Even in the water column, there's free swimming pods everywhere.

 

I've started the light cycle (6-8 hours a day usually) so the diatom bloom can start up and go away quickly.

 

I've contacted ORA to find out who their dealers are in this area and they responded with a nice list. I'm not completely confident just yet that the tanks ready to handle a fish so I'm going to give it some more time. In the meantime I'm continuing to dose Dr. Tim's ammonia and dropping in a few pellets.

 

The target date I set is March 1st. I'll get my first fish and coral then. I'll put in the order for the clean-up crew in a few days so it'll arrive around the same time. Can't wait. :lol:

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I'm stuck in a bit of a rut here with the CUC and need some advice. I'm looking at three packages from Reef Cleaners:

5.5 Gallon:
- 5 Dwarf Ceriths
- 2 Nassarius
- 4 Florida Ceriths
- 3 Nerites

OR

10 Gallon
- 10 Dwarf Ceriths
- 3 Nassarius
- 6 Florida Ceriths
- 4 Nerites

OR

10 Gallon Hex
- 12 Dwarf Ceriths
- 3 Nassarius
- 5 Florida Ceriths
- 6 Nerites

What would be the best option in your guys' opinions?

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Get the 5.5. You know he's going to send you more. :)

 

Glad to see you aren't doing the clown pair. I ran a Mr. Aqua 7.5 cube for my QT, and with a clown pair, I needed to do daily 5-gallon water changes to keep up with rising ammonia levels. You have rock and sand, so you've got better biofiltration than I did, but two clowns generate a LOT of ammonia quickly for that volume of water. You might be challenged even keeping a single clown in that tank, long run.

 

On that note, have you noticed that the tank doesn't actually hold 7.5 gallons? The external dimensions are 30x30x30 cm, which works out to 7.497 gallons. The inside dimensions are almost exactly 29x29x29.5 cm if filled to overflowing. If filled to 0.5cm from the top, it is actually 6.1 gallons before any displacement for rock or sand.

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lol... I'll take your word for it. I ordered the 5.5 gallon pack.

 

I'm definitely getting just one Clownfish. Two would be nice - I had two in my 90g and they were the stars of the show - but that would limit my fish selection greatly.

 

I actually didn't measure the tank empty but with the rocks, sand and the AC70 hanging from the back, it came out to about 6 to 6.5 gallons total. A tad bit underwhelming but such is such I guess.

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Thanks Matty! They are pretty sweet.

 

For fish/inverts, I'm going to keep a Clownfish, a Goby of sorts, a fire shrimp and maybe a brittle star. Corals will mostly consist of polyps and mushrooms. I do want to keep LPS/SPS corals as well.

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Sure.

 

Well, first of all the outside case has been spraypainted black. The Aquaclear's are normally transparent so the light leaking out will be very distracting - especially at night time.

 

mD02KkPl.jpg

 

S64t2KBl.jpg

 

A single LED is rigged on the filter cover to provide lighting for macroalgae, should I feel the need to use it. Now that I think about it, I may not need to. This kit is from RapidLED.

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Sure.

 

Well, first of all the outside case has been spraypainted black. The Aquaclear's are normally transparent so the light leaking out will be very distracting - especially at night time.

 

mD02KkPl.jpg

 

S64t2KBl.jpg

 

A single LED is rigged on the filter cover to provide lighting for macroalgae, should I feel the need to use it. Now that I think about it, I may not need to. This kit is from RapidLED.

Thank you for the pictures do you have live rock in the filter

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An AC70 has a little less than a gallon of water volume, IIRC.

:)

 

I actually didn't measure the tank empty but with the rocks, sand and the AC70 hanging from the back, it came out to about 6 to 6.5 gallons total. A tad bit underwhelming but such is such I guess.

 

Love where you're going with this, especially the false overflow.

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