Kijho's Fluval Spec V - Retired (almost)

[Cameron6796]

Maybe it's your location your buying them from.

[Kijho]

Sorry for the lack of updates guys..

 

As a quick update: Nothing has changed in my tank in a few weeks..literally. I was in Vegas the week before this past week, and all of last week I have been incredibly busy with work and events recently. Tank has been stable, running very smooth, corals all looking good, and live-stock very happy.

 

My 2013 STI was rear ended the week before I left to Vegas too which also kept my insanely busy/ stressed. Ugh.

 

Now today my GF is leaving back to her home-town to visit family...for 6 weeks. (Isle of Man, UK) .. :'(

 

Planning a motorbike ride next weekend if the weather is nice, and then I'm flying off to Toronto first thing in August for a week with friends and a roadtrip to Montreal.

 

Soooooooooooo busy

 

Hopefully in the coming weeks I can get a bit more relaxed and begin looking again at continuing to add coral to my tank!

[RollaJase]

Sounds like your flat out buddy, sucks about the car though .

[Kijho]

Sorry for no updates in 3 weeks.. yikes...

 

Things have just been growing steadily. I added a nice big cluster of pulsing xenia, it seems to be doing alright but I may not have enough flow (or I don't have the right kind of "wavy" flow) so it's not as big as I think it could be.

 

Bicolor Blenny pretty much owns my tank right now. Darts between the barnacles, loves them.

Barnacles have begun to have growth on them, just detritus and whatever.. I try to blow it with the turkey baster every so often to keep it as good as possible.

 

Tons of pods .. my tank's literally crawling with them.

 

My cleaner shrimp died a few days ago very sadly. Parents were taking care of my tank like they've done in the past as I was away for a week in Montreal/ Toronto. They mixed up the waters and one day topped up with a good amount of saltwater. Cleaner shrimps are incredibly sensitive, and the poor guy died So sad.

 

Also the emeralrd crab died.. not sure if the same cause. I think perhaps the crab tried to take the corpse of the shrimp and perhaps the blenny went after him?

 

Added a very tiny yellow watchmen goby, he's cool and settling in right now. Pushing sand around, kinda neat to have something that moves sand again. Tank's been cloudy all day haha..

 

 

Will post pics as soon as I get a chance

[Kijho]

Day 511 (1 Year, 4 Months, 24 Days)

 

 

I apologize for my incredible lack of updates recently. Life has just been so very busy in all aspects. My office also decided to block nano-reef now hahaha.. I have a feeling though it was due to the amount of photos in build threads, the high bandwidth probably just got it insta-blocked (psshhh.. I must have spent too much time in Ninja's and 4x5's threads.... )

 

My reef progress has been quite slow, although I've been adding/ losing things over the past several months. I've added a few corals, and then last week I lost my cleaner shrimp and emerald crab. They either got in a fight (because I found the emerald crab disembodied sadly..) OR it was a result of too drastic a change in salinity. Quite saddening.. But, I've picked up another emerald crab today. I don't know if I'll be adding another shrimp or not at this time. I've also added a yellow watchman goby this past week.

 

Right now my current live-stock is: bicolor blenny, yellow watchman goby, emerald crab, 3 scarlet hermits, 1 halloween hermit, 5 nassarius snails, 5 trochus snails.

 

Let's start with a nice corner view FTS

IMG_9721 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Middle zoa garden looking good.. I can see a small aiptasia there. Really not happy to see that.. I haven't had to deal with aiptasia since the tank crash and I pulled the old rock-scape out... Will zap that tomorrow.. sadly it's within some zoa's and I bet they won't like the aiptasia-x...

IMG_9653 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

The new emerald.. Already eating away at some *stuff* on the barnacle rock..

IMG_9641 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

My blenny. This remains my most favorite fish I've ever owned.. (remembering my old clownfish, I miss them though.)

IMG_9648 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

My blasto.. this guy seems happy here. I can't think of anywhere else to put him but he's been here for a long time. 2 nassarius snails up front, and you can see one head (bland) zoa there too. oh, and a tiny featherduster coming along ..

IMG_9651 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Closeup of the blasto..

IMG_9711 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

My xenia.. it doesn't really "pulse" as I'd expect, but I've read online various people describing them as hit or miss corals. Sometimes they do well, sometimes they don't.. we'll see how it continues..

IMG_9660 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Closeup

IMG_9694 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Closeup of one of my ricordia.. This is the one coral I've had forever. It's the hardiest coral I have..

IMG_9676 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Some of my other ricordia.. This front one has become insanely fat since I got it. HUGE. The two corals seem to take turns with who's overlapping who haha.. this is the first time I've seen the florida overlapping the yuma.. Both seem very happy. Single green acan in the back also doing great..

IMG_9655 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Closeup of the yuma.. just a beautiful coral. I love it..

IMG_9668 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

No shots of the yellow watchman goby.. He has very happily made the back left corner (behind the rocks) his home. He's plowed the sand up on both sides and made it his own area which is awesome. I put one of my empty frag plugs over there on it's side aswell to give him something to shelter beneath, he seems very happy. Cool little guy, he's probably only about an inch in length!

 

~ Cheers friends!!

 

 

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Also; My sand-bed has a lot of "debris" sitting just on the top if it. Broken pieces of shells / rocks / whatever.. Thoughts on using a siphon and just pulling it all out? Makes it looks dirty...

 

Was just looking back at my last FTS and wow.. the difference in color on the rocks. They look so much better now, rather than being "brand new" and so vibrant fake-purple ish.. now they've got life on them, I love it. Also the size of the florida's has actually doubled too.. and that blasto. You can see the Frog isn't AS big though.... I've never had much luck with euphyllia..

 

My blenny doesn't have as vibrant of a orange tail anymore though.. I wonder why? Maybe I should start adding some sort of bottled stuff from the LFS? I always see this stuff advertised to make your fish / corals more "vibrant" .. ??

 

IMG_8073 by kijho6, on Flickr

[ninjamyst]

things are looking good in there, especially that frogspawn!

[Kijho]

things are looking good in there, especially that frogspawn!

 

Thanks you my friend, means alot from you!

[justinfox]

Nice tank (nice shots too!) and nice rides as well!

[metrokat]

Read your entire thread! Couldn't see most of the pictures, the links seem to be broken but the pictures I was able to see are amazing.

[Kijho]

Nice tank (nice shots too!) and nice rides as well!

Wow man, thank you ... that's huge coming from you holy frick!

I dunno if you saw my car earlier in my thread, here's a somewhat recent one..

Untitled by kijho66, on Flickr

 

 

Read your entire thread! Couldn't see most of the pictures, the links seem to be broken but the pictures I was able to see are amazing.

 

Thank you!! Wow, you're a huge contributor here - When I saw you started a Spec V I was like I can't wait to see how it progresses.. Also sorry I think some of my pics back in the day were on Facebook and those links must have broken, but my Flickr ones should all still be okay in here right? But if you want this is ALL my reef photos on Flickr !

 

I'm contemplating now on whether or not to pickup a very small pistol shrimp again. I mean, my little watchman goby seems happy.. but I know he'd be even happier with a shrimp burrowing with him. I think I've got sufficient bigger pieces now in the sand (lots of broken chips of rocks, shells, etc.) and a few smaller rocks in here that he could use to construct with..

 

Going to begin saving now for a Nuvo 20 I think.. I'd love to have that by Christmas..

[Kijho]

Cool crab, he's basically claimed a spot beneath the folds of my huge ricordia.. both seem mutually happy with this..

IMG_9729 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Halloween hermit

IMG_9742 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

My blenny.. so fast. Had to shoot like 1/300th for this, super grainy, and was using the worst possible lens haha..

IMG_9779 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

He's becoming a little bit more confident in the back corner there. Seems to really like it behind the big barnacle rock..

IMG_9755 by Spencer, on Flickr

[Kijho]

What are peoples thoughts on canister filters? Hydor has a new one out that looks pretty beasty, and I've read some good reviews... but not sure about Saltwater?

 

Waiting for Boxing Day or Black Friday for the savings and then potentially plunging into a new 20 (Nuvo?) or potentially slightly bigger depending if I can figure out sumps / canisters.. but thinking Nuvo is best.

[Cameron6796]

new nuvo shallow fusion tank a quick google will give you a result its 250$ and 25 gallons!!! and as for canisters the only problem is they collect detritus so you need to clean it alot and they are very powerful so it may be a little much for a small tanks

[Kijho]

My beautiful looking Watchman Goby is becoming more curious, he really just hangs out at the base of this right rock and hides most of the time. However, I caught him today coming out and swimming around a bit.. love this guy..

IMG_9967 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

If you notice beneath him in that photo .. bubble algae.. is starting. Right there. On that little rock, that came from an LFS with a coral.

That entire rock is going to most likely be put in the trash tomorrow....... There's nothing really on it, except these mysterious unidentified polyps that came up.. They seem to be very sensitive and go back into a worm/ tube looking hole whenever touched or anything.

IMG_9939 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Halloween hermits' legs/ molt.. with my favorite recently added Acan piece. Love this, you can see ONE tiny bubble also on the piece of shell I have sitting at the opening of the barnacle. That'll be gone real fast.. I'm not about to go through another tank wipe because of this shit..

IMG_9942 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Blasto is doing fantastic, this is a very hardy coral. Also, checkout that huge zoa on the left, it likes to hyper-extend itself often .. Also love the small corner you can see of the ricordia, it's very healthy and looks good.

IMG_9945 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

My larger frogspawn piece. Can you believe this was only $25? It's doing very well, this is probably the longest euphyllia I've owned - I think these corals are extremely sensitive to flow especially in small tanks like the Spec V. Very difficult to keep, I've lost all I've ever owned. It seems to be happy here..

IMG_9981 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

A shot of the Blenny, he's doing good. Every morning however when I wake up he's usually "breathing heavily/ rapidly" .. but it always calms down/ goes to normal within an hour after I wake up and see him. I'm not sure why? ... maybe he's scared of the dark.

Checkout this weird fact - See that vibrant frogspawn frag down below? I had one of these pieces a while ago and it lasted a week.. I bought another from the LFS for $10 they recently got some in. Cheap and nice looking coral - they were fully extended in the LFS and colorful. Bring it home - it opened for 2 days and then became like ever since. I've concluded that any euphyllia in a 5g Spec V is very difficult to maintain. They're very sensitive to flow and nutrients.. Perhaps even the Par38 isn't enough?! Who knows.. It's not looking good

IMG_9982 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

Lastly, one of my red tipped hermits doin his thing. I've always left empty shells in the sand - and this guy recently moved houses into an old Cerith snail shell I had. I love it - it's a spotted cerith shell on a hermit, my favorite style of shell.

IMG_9993 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

General update: I'm still looking at Nuvo 20's. I absolutely love the tank, my LFS has one now fully stocked and it looks beautiful.. they have it full of ricordia's and such and a few other corals. The entire tank in the LFS is thriving on the stock provided LED setup!?!? Kinda crazy.. I don't think I'd keep the Spec V + the Nuvo 20 in operation.. simply due to costs of running it with electricity etc.. I'd need another light then, too. I'll have to see though..

 

My plans for a Nuvo 20 are to wait for Boxing Day. I've made friends with some of the people in the LFS and (pretty big box store) they said they'd hold a Nuvo 20 on Boxing Day for me. I have also $100 in credit at the LFS to use.

Note: Nuvo 20 is $500 CAD up here in Canada. It's insane.. and nowhere ships up here

 

I'd love to do a very simplistic/ minimal design in the Nuvo.. Possibly bare bottom. 1 large dry rock, 1 large (the biggest I can find) anemone, several clownfish

 

Only thing that I'm afraid of is the costs of operating it. I'll have to really figure out a new routine for doing water-changes etc. Might need a new heater or two, might need spare pumps to do WC's with, definitely will need an ATO, might need an RO/DI machine unless I just buy 20G buckets worth at a time from the LFS at $0.50/gallon. Will have to see and do some planning, I don't want to spend too much. I've tallied almost $1,500 on this Spec V in the past 1 year 5 months.. it's insane!

[Kijho]

Oh man, I brought home 2 very small peppermint shrimp today. Didn't get any pics, or post above.. Was waiting until they were good so I could get a nice pic.

 

Anyways, just checking now and both have been killed The emerald crab was eating the corpse of one - and all my nassarias snails were on the other about to feast So sad.. I really think it was the Blenny who did it...... the crab and the shrimp were together/ touching/ in the same area for a long time earlier and they showed no signs of aggression!

 

I don't know what to do now with my Spec. What should I progress? Should I return m Blenny and go for something different/ more entertaining, perhaps another small clownfish pair? 6 line wrasse like my Cswan has? Oh no now I feel like I don't know what to do with this tank

[ninjamyst]

sorry to hear about the shrimps but ur pics look great! just dont get any more peppermint shrimps =P.

[emkovar]

Just read through your thread tonight! I'm running a spec V and am in Calgary as well. My tanks only been up and running since the beginning of May and seems to be doing ok.

 

Sorry to see that you have had some ups/downs with your tank, but its looking really good right now! Will definitely keep following your thread and watch for the Nuvo 20 upgrade. I always drool over them when going to Pieces as well

[Kijho]

Just read through your thread tonight! I'm running a spec V and am in Calgary as well. My tanks only been up and running since the beginning of May and seems to be doing ok.

 

Sorry to see that you have had some ups/downs with your tank, but its looking really good right now! Will definitely keep following your thread and watch for the Nuvo 20 upgrade. I always drool over them when going to Pieces as well

 

Waiting on Boxing Day there, I recall is dropping to like $299 (from $499) last year I'll probably get into the Nuvo very very slow though, as I'd like to do it the right way this time. No live rock, only dry. I want the skimmer, ATO, proper media holders, sufficient heater, sufficient flow (maybe just 1x hydor 240 will do). I'm excited for that, hopefully 2016 will be good for that.. but we'll see. The way out economy is going is a little frightening - and I work in the O&G sector, too hahaha.. *fingers crossed*

 

If you want some really nice corals, checkout Wai's Aquarium on 16th Ave - Amazing place. There's a small frag tank with little pieces for cheaper, but some area ~$300-$500 ea. in there. Also checkout 'Reef Wonderland', over in the NE off McKnight kinda near Center Street.. place is an Acan coral farm, but pricy. $25/head for Acans, but they have some very unique corals.

 

I have to really fight my urge to continue adding to this Spec V and I could be using that money towards the Nuvo..

[emkovar]

 

Waiting on Boxing Day there, I recall is dropping to like $299 (from $499) last year I'll probably get into the Nuvo very very slow though, as I'd like to do it the right way this time. No live rock, only dry. I want the skimmer, ATO, proper media holders, sufficient heater, sufficient flow (maybe just 1x hydor 240 will do). I'm excited for that, hopefully 2016 will be good for that.. but we'll see. The way out economy is going is a little frightening - and I work in the O&G sector, too hahaha.. *fingers crossed*

 

If you want some really nice corals, checkout Wai's Aquarium on 16th Ave - Amazing place. There's a small frag tank with little pieces for cheaper, but some area ~$300-$500 ea. in there. Also checkout 'Reef Wonderland', over in the NE off McKnight kinda near Center Street.. place is an Acan coral farm, but pricy. $25/head for Acans, but they have some very unique corals.

 

I have to really fight my urge to continue adding to this Spec V and I could be using that money towards the Nuvo..

 

Have a couple of frags from Reef Wonderland, a couple of frags from Pisces and a bunch of frags from private sources around Calgary (My tank is mostly zoas, acans and a small GSP colony. The tank is pretty full but I keep wanting to add. I have been considering an upgrade as well. I was looking at the Red Sea Max 130, but no final decisions yet..

 

I agree with going slow. I ended up with bubble algae, aiptasia and a bunch of other random hitchhikers.... Not ideal by any stretch. I wish I had started with dry rock and had spent more time on my aquascape. I was so excited to get started that everything kinda got thrown together.

But reading through your thread last night motivated me to clean up the bubble algae in the tank. Just have to get a soft tooth brush of something similar to get the bubble algae off my astrea snail, its pretty covered.

[Kijho]

Update; So I removed that entire little bare rock that was forming bubble algae on it. I also siphoned out a few stray bubbles.. was good.

 

Zapped probably 10 aiptasia' that were growing in-between zoa's... really pissed off some zoa's doing this, and I know zoa's really don't like aiptasia-x.. a few might not survive..

 

Also pulled that smaller single frogspawn I had for $10, moved it down behind in the sand. Something knock it over in the night - and it was opening/ extending again... oddly enough. Going to leave it knocked-over and see how it reacts when I get home tonight haha.. maybe it'll be happy there like that.

 

Also re-glued a piece of rock down that was crumbling off my zoa pieces (the main center island.)

 

My Blenny is quite an aggressive fish, too - I've noticed. I'll see how things continue to progress in the coming months, and perhaps sort out my plans for the future of this Spec V tank and my SW enjoyment.. Nuvo 20? Spec V and put more effort? I've always wanted to build an entirely custom lid for this Spec V... We'll see though.

 

If I get the Nuvo 20, I'd probably take the Par 38 and put it over the Nuvo with the two stock lights .. they're okay but not great from what I'm reading. Probably get an ATO, Temp controller, and the skimmer in the back w/ intank baskets x2 and chemipure + purigen media. Would be $700 probably after everything

[metrokat]

 

I don't know what to do now with my Spec. What should I progress? Should I return m Blenny and go for something different/ more entertaining, perhaps another small clownfish pair? 6 line wrasse like my Cswan has? Oh no now I feel like I don't know what to do with this tank

 

I've liked your tank from the beginning with all it's changes and additions. I know it seems like a large space for a small fish or two but it really is not. If the Blenny is aggressive, the clownfish - and a pair - in a 5 gallon will be even more so. A 6 line requires space to swim, mine in my 50 gallon roams everywhere- every single corner - he has 36 inches to swim - it's just that sort of fish. If you truly wish to swap out the blenny go with a goby species that don't swim laps around the tank and are generally perching kind of fish.

[Kijho]

We've been having some insanely bi-polar weather here lately.. oh man. It was 30*C yesterday afternoon, today only reached 9*C and it poured rain all afternoon. However - I can't complain when we have sunsets looking like this. Storm, rainbow, sun flare, and my Subi. Oh lord....

 

IMG_4316 by Spencer, on Flickr

 

If anyone's curious of my photography hobby/ enjoyment, my site is www.spencerhogg.com

[kimberbee]

DOUBLE RAINBOW!!

[Kijho]

Posting this here for my own reference at a later date

 

http://www.reefsupplies.ca/online-store/Innovative-Marine-NUVO-Aquarium-20-tank-only.html

[Kijho]

Ahhh, gotta love paydays. I've had my eye on this Cobb Accessport Tuner on ebay for about $300 recently for my car.. but, after looking more at it I'm kinda deciding I don't really need this for my car a few months before our long winter... and for $250, I could buy that Nuvo 20 without the skylights, and I'd retire my Spec V (possibly sell off the tank w/ filter + pump setup, heater etc.) and place this in it's spot..

 

Few thoughts, maybe some would like to chime in:

 

Right now I'm buying 5Gal jugs of Freshwater from the LFS, and 2.5Gal jugs of premixed enriched saltwater and doing my WC's about 1Gal per week. For cheaper, I can buy 5Gal Saltwater from a different LFS. I'd probably want to have 2 jugs of fresh + salt (total 10Gal each) on hand.. I'd probably need to re-fill at the LFS twice a month. Much cheaper. (Ie. 2.5Gal is $13. Whereas moving forward, the 5Gal jug is $3.75). Would doing WC's + top-off's this way be sufficient? I don't think I want to invest in a real technical RODI station right now in my parents house...

 

Top-Offs .. I think I'd probably invest in an ATO, probably a cheaper one.. I believe it goes in the back chamber/sump? No snails should be back there.. so nothing should cause it to be faulty. I'd get a safety/ overflow sensor with it though, too..

 

Heater.. I'd need to invest in a better one. Ideally, I'd like something with a digital reading of what I set the temp to. Probably a more expensive brand, 100W or so? I'd also find a cheap temp. controller from ebay and wire it up with my small USB fan to keep temp good in the summer weather. Winter is no problem, heater would do it's job.

 

Might need the Koralia 240gph back.. I know this one has a good pump though. Probably would grab a spin-stream nozzle and place it on one of the outputs for the Nuvo 20..

 

Sand .. Black sand. Definitely... I'd probably transfer over my zoa garden rock, and probably at least two of the barnacle rock I have. I'd want minimal rock-scape though.. not sure how I'd proceed. Possibly no barnacles and just new dried rock and use the zoa-rock to seed as live rock? Not sure best course of action here..

 

Eh, we'll see how things progress though. Might still just wait until Black Friday or Boxing Day .. then I can buy all the new equipment I'll need for much cheaper..