NanoClown's Fluval Spec V | Retired

[NanoClown]

Hello All!

 

After my long awaited hiatus from reefkeeping I bit the bullet and decided that it was time for me to start back up another tank. Recently a good friend of mine started up a Nuvo 30 and hooked me up with his fluval spec picos (V and 2.5) (empty ofc ). This was just the incentive I needed right? Anywho my wallet hates me yet again.

 

Equipment:

Tank: Fluval Spec V

- one wall painted black

- added Hydor Flow to the output nozzle

- glued shut the slit that enters the false wall

- InTank Surface Skimmer

 

Heating/Cooling:

- Marineland Visi Therm 50w heater, set to 78 degrees

- cooling will be provided by a simple clip-on fan, I have no need for it at this time so its not purchased yet

 

Lighting:

- Current USA Orbit Marine LED, 18-24in

Not much that I can say about growth yet but I can say this fixture is pretty nice for the price, it fits over the main display perfectly. It has its own controller that lets you fully control your LEDs (blue and white independently). The controller also has a few cool options such as natural light replication (overcast days, cloudy, dawn/dusk effects ect.). My only complaint so far is that the moonlight option only runs for a maximum of 6hrs (odd?). From what I have heard about the PAR values, I will only be keeping LPS and Softies for now, but considering that this tank is rather shallow it shouldn't be too much of a problem for me to try and put some easy to keep SPS in this tank in the future

 

Flow: Provided By

-MiniJet 606 (modded by taking off the front and back pieces, connected to my Hydor Flow) fits in perfectly in that tiny chamber from hell and adds tons of more flow over the stock pump, Great!

-Hydor Koralia Nano 425gph (a little overkill for a 5 gallon but I love this thing)

 

Filtration: Natural, Mechanical, and Chemical

- ~5-6 lbs live rock

- ~7 lbs of live sand

- Aquaclear 20, refugium modded w/ Cheato and LR rubble

- 7w power compact 6700k fuge light

- DIY Media Rack made from black eggcrate, 3 teirs (top has filter floss, middle will hold my Chempure Elite and Purigen, bottom has live rock rubble)

 

Livestock:

Clean Up Crew:

- 5 Nassarius snails

- 1 Astrea turbo snail

- 4 Cerith Snails

Adding:

- 1 Cleaner shrimp (I recently has a small misshap with my water quality that caused my cleaner shrimp and watchman goby to go into shock , i'm in the process of getting it back in order)

 

Fish:

Adding:

- 1 Six-Line Wrasse

- 1 Watchman Goby (Possibly Yasha Haze) w/Pistol Shrimp

 

Corals:

- Torch Coral

- Various Zoa frags

- Blasto

- Red Mushroom

Adding:

- Hammer Coral

- Frogspawn Coral

- Plate Coral

- Pulsing Xenias

- Duncans

- More Zoas!!!!

- Ricordias/ Yumas

 

Obligatory FTS

 

Up closer

 

You can see how well the Current USA fixture fits over this tank

 

AquaClear 20 Refugium. I keep the light on 24/7

 

Here you can (kind of lol) see my DIY media rack, as well as the rest of my chambers

 

Please excuse the messy diatoms right now

[BigAl18]

I have one of these too, curious to see how the AC20 helps you. I almost though you made it fit in the filtration chamber somehow but realized you painted one side black which threw me off a bit. Definitely following!

[NanoClown]

I actually don't plan on running the AC20 in the future, its kinda just what I had laying around from another pico. Hopefully down the line I can upgrade my refugium to something more like an AC50/70. I currently have an AC110 sitting around, but that thing is just way too big for this tank.

 

thanks for following btw!

[1.0reef]

JMO replace the wrasse with another small goby or blenny, a rockdweller would be best.

[Cameron6796]

^^ yep wrasses are more active fish

 

Also your moonlights shouldn't stay on all night anyways, corals need a break and i find it to be more of aesthetic thing for before you go to bed and it just helps "calm" the inhabitants then i turn them off (for my fresh water tank anyways but still most people don't have light constantly ) when you think about it the moon can barely penetrate the water so its not like its mimicking something natural or providing photosynthesis for the corals. Unless I'm forgetting something why do you want the moon lights longer then 6hrs

[NanoClown]

yeah I might have to reconsider, if anything ill probably get some kind of other goby instead of the wrasse

Im going to take my time before getting any new fish for this tank, im already in for a loss on my first yellow watchman goby

 

Cameron6796 I just figured that it would be standard option to be able to run your moonlights all night, In my tanks in the past ive ran moonlights on all night

[Kijho]

Love this - can't wait for further progress!

[NanoClown]

Woo! got a little package in the mail today

Thanks to Intank for the goodies, my picos will enjoy!

 

 

I didnt get 2 purigen b/c I dont plan on running it on my other smaller pico

[NanoClown]

Quick Update,

With the addition of the chemipure elite and purigen to my system I am finding my water quality to slowly come back in check. I performed a good 2 gallon w/c over this weekend and it seems like my frags are getting happy again! Although I still do have some diatoms as wells as a little GHA left over from my mishap. Currently it seems as though my Cerith snails have been putting in a good amount of work on the algae. Sometime later this week I'm hoping to pick up a couple more small astreas(they like to jump ship.... [upside down]) or trochus if my LFS. I hope they will put in some work on the GHA, if not i'm all for adding an emerald crab into the cuc just to have some diversity in the tank.

[NanoClown]

Everything is starting to look healthy again, aside from my losses im glad that everything else pulled through. Currently my ceriths are doing a decent job cleaning up the tank, I still want to go back to my lfs and get some more grazer snails and a replacement cleaner shrimp.

 

http://s1220.photobucket.com/user/to-turo/media/Fluval%20Spec%20V/photo1.jpg.html'>

 

these were pretty much on the verge of melting, im glad they didnt

 

http://s1220.photobucket.com/user/to-turo/media/Fluval%20Spec%20V/photo4.jpg.html'>

 

single head of torch is getting bigger and expanding more by the day, it gets hit with pretty random flow and it seems to enjoy it

 

unfortunately this colony of zoas took a hit, there used to be about 15+ polyps now all theres left is this one. Hopefully I can grow an entire new colony from it

 

http://s1220.photobucket.com/user/to-turo/media/Fluval%20Spec%20V/photo3.jpg.html'>

[Kijho]

Really like your tank so far mate. If you don't mind me asking - what was the change that happened to your water?

 

Thanks,

[NanoClown]

Thanks Kijho

Ive been following your tank as well and I really love what you have going on with it!

 

To answer your question:

My system was already established (3+ months) and I had about a 2" sandbed at the time. I decided to redo my aqua scape and take our some sand (basically tore down my tank during a water change), but I stirred up the sand bed a little too much. This caused a lot of excess crap to be re-released back into my water column which led to a huge spike in my nitrates and phosphates. I ended up losing my Watchman goby and cleaner shrimp in the process :\

 

but as of late my water quality has been getting back in line. I plan on waiting it out a week or so more until my diatom bloom dies off before I replace my fish with something new

[Kijho]

Oh man looking at your corals make me so eager... love what you have going!

More pics more pics more pics more pics pleasseee!!!!

[NanoClown]

Ill take some pics tomorrow when the lights come back on, Not much has changed but im excited to finally see some growth after the mini crash I had a few weeks back. I also got around to replacing my yellow watchman goby

[ETucc]

Everyone is doing watchmen and pistols in their Spec V's. I gotta do something different...

[NanoClown]

LOL

Sorry im so bad at keeping things updated around here. Its coming down to the end of the semester and school has been taking up all of my time lately. I havent added anything new to the tank recently other than a Yellow Tail Damsel. My tank was looking a little too bare without something swimming around. I've decided that sometime soon ill take the little guy back and replace him with a Tailspot Blenny and some kind of a goby.

 

 

This single polyp has grown 2 more polyps since the mini crash. Additionally im starting to get a nice amount of coralline algea growth on my rocks as well.

 

 

My red mushroom has really started to look nice since ive moved it towards the front of the tank. I dont mind if it spreads onto the rockwork as eventually I would like my tank to be taken over by corals anyways

 

 

Im not too sure why but the polyps in the middle of this colony have been pissed off lately?

 

 

FTS!

 

Also, im sorry for the crappy quality photos. My digital camera took a dump on me and I never replaced it.

[ETucc]

I think I'm going to get a Tailspot Blenny as well! The more I read about them, the more I fall in love haha. I just hope I can find one locally because I refuse to pay to ship something that costs less than the shipping charge, itself... Not trying to bad mouth these companies, whatsoever. I just don't have that kind of money and I'm bitter

[NanoClown]

Lol same here bud,

luckily for me one of my favorite LFS in the area has been getting them in stock lately. I've been taking my tank slowly because of school, so we will see when I can get a chance to pick up some new things. As of late its just been in a recovering process

[NanoClown]

Ill have a quick update later today after my lights come on. Hopefully I can get a couple decent pics. I have a couple new additions and a crazy/cool story to tell

[Kijho]

Looks wonderful! I love the coral frags, and the location of your torch! Kinda like mine, with where I have my Hammer located! I love that spot with the glass on both sides of the frag!

[antsypants]

Hi, I was just skimming your thread when I noticed your question about the PO'ed zoas. It looks like zoa pox to me and I'd suggest a furan-2 dip before it spreads to your other polyps. Otherwise, great tank, scape is really interesting good luck!

[NanoClown]

Thanks antsypants ill definitely look into it soon, I cant really get around to that today :\

 

Quick update: my yellow-tail damsel has been removed from the tank and replaced by this guy

 

 

Here's "Sumo" my Tailspot Blenny!

So far hes been really shy but ive caught him out and about picking algea off my rocks. The photo-bombing Ocellaris Clown is actually part of a rescue. I bumped into somebody bringing him back to the LFS because his other fish were picking on it. Idk why but my LFS owner didn't seem too thrilled to take it off his hands so I offered to take it in if he didn't mind. I wouldn't normally put a clown in a small tank, but I felt compelled to do so. I probably wont have this tank up for too long into the future as I have a MUCH larger system in the works.For now, my current tank should be a sufficient home for the time being. The clown isn't aggressive at all and should be fine tank mates with the Blenny

 

I still havent thought of a name for the Clown yet, so im open to any suggestions

[Kijho]

Dude!! All these new Blenny's making me jealous!!! They looks SO chill and laid back haha!

Love it man awesome job!!

 

We need more pics of the clown I think... haha

[NanoClown]

So far my blenny has been very shy and timid, I hope it gets to be more chill and laid back lol. Every time I walk by the tank he darts back behind the rockwork

 

I would've uploaded a pic of the clown but I couldnt get him to sit still. My crappy iphone camera cant keep up the focus

[ETucc]

I love my Tailspot Blenny! They're incredible fish. I think I might add a Yellow Clown Goby down the road to give him a buddy!