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Coral Vue Hydros

Sean.G's Spec V Reef!


Sean.G

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Hello Fellow reefers! My name is Sean and although I have been a member of this forum for a few years now I was mostly inactive except for my early months. This was mostly due to the fact I wanted a reef but couldn't afford one. Now I am finally able to get on and Just started it up Today! (4/11/2015)

 

Tank Stats

 

Fluval Spec V (5 Gallons)

DIY 24, 3 Watt LED setup

Aquion Pro 50 Watt Heater

Aquatop cps-1 powerhead

 

Upgraded filter pump

Hydor pico 180GPH

 

Livestock:

 

Corals:

Randome Zoas

Green Mushrooms

 

Inverts

1 Porcelain anemone crab

1 Cerith snails

1 bumble bee snail

 

Plans for the Tank

 

My plans for this tank is mostly to just start out slowly with easy corals and expand as time goes on.

I don't remember many different coral names as it has been years since I heavily researched this stuff but I know I wan't lots of Zoas, and some ricordia, other then that I need to do research on to see what I like and am capable of keeping. Eventually I am planning on getting a Porcelain Crab and cleaner shrimp.

 

I want to make an auto top off system for this tank as this is such a small tank I feel an auto system will be good for insuring my salinity stays in check.

 

About Me

 

So just a bit about me, I have been taking care of freshwater aquariums for many years now including High Light planted tanks with CO2 Injection. This is my first reef tank and I am aware of all the cautions to start with a larger tank but I have done pretty intense research in the past and feel this is something I can handle. I am currently going to school studying Biology and I love learning about the reasons why things happen. Having an ever increasing knowledge of the natural world really helps with understanding why we do certain things in our reefs. I look forward to any comments or suggestions!

 

Full Tank Shot

 

FTS 4/17/2015

mupcaIA.jpg

 

Day:1

4/11/2015

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Lighting setup

OMzAAFxl.jpg

 

 

If your made it this far, congratulations! I have one question though if anyone would like to help. I have a spare Fluval Canister filter (I believe its their smallest one) Should I hook this up to provide additional Flow and filtration or will it be too much. It is quite a strong filter and probably holds a liter of water on its own. Right now the only filtration will be the rock and sand and the little built in on the tank.

 

Tanks!

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Ya the spec is a nice tank. Had it as a planted tank originally and since it was just sitting around and I had some extra money I decided now is the time to set up a salty tank. So far I have only spent around $50 to get it running since I already had salt the tank lighting etc.

 

I had a question maybe you could answer do you notice bristle worms in your tank? How big do they get in smaller tanks? I ask because I think they are creepy and disgusting especially when they get big. I saw one in my tank last night and I tried soaking the rock I saw him hide in, in freshwater for like 2 hours assumed this would kill him and put it back and just now I saw another on the same rock. I know they are mostly beneficial but It makes me not want to touch the rocks knowing he is in there.

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going to follow on this, just put togeather a spec 5 myself last night to my return to reefing. looks liek you're off to a good start!

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I'm sure I am going too fast but over the last few days I have had ammonia go up and down and NO3 go up and down. It seemed like a tiny but very fast cycle as my levels didn't get very high according to the API test anyways but I started to get algae growth and decided to grab what was going to be a CUC but ended up being a single bumblebee snail since the local store has a very limited stock at the moment. I also made the probably unwise decision to grab a zoa with 3 polyps.

 

Two of the heads opened up within 45 mins and the third within 2 hours so they seem happy at the moment, I just hope I don't go through another more sever cycle.

 

What would you all recommend for a CUC for this size a tank. I am assuming my single snail will not be enough lol.

 

No new FTS since you can't even see the change with the tiny zoa rock but here is a pretty decent picture of them.

 

I tried to edit the image to look the most like it does in real life.

anuoL5N.jpg

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Nice DIY Led. I like the look the specV. Id say youd be fine w/o that canister too.. Especially if its just softies for now, you can always add on later if need be! Let your inhabitants tell you what they want! For a CUC grab a couple ceriths and maybe a nerite or two!

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So I checked my levels and I am still good on all fronts! Still no idea why my cycle levels where so low but it does appear to have happened. I went out to Salem (45 min drive) to check out a store and mainly to get some more snails (4 ceriths and 1 nerite). But I also got a rock with mushrooms on it. This is it for corals for now because my bank account can't handle much more, and its good to let things settle in a bit. New FTS at the top of the thread and here are some shots of the corals.

 

You can probably see that one of the mushrooms is super not happy and is curled up he has been like that since I added them but I also saw a flatworm crawling on him! I garbed it out with a pair of tweezers I just hope there aren't more. This extra poking probably also made him more mad then the others.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok so pretty big update here. The tank had been running for 2.5 weeks and I have added quite a lot of stuff and made upgrades to the tank.

 

As far as upgrades I changed the filter pump to a Hydor Pic 180, much more water is now flowing through the filter system. I also added a powerhead because I have some SPS in the tank and I needed the extra flow.

 

As stated above I got some SPS, more Zoas, a new mushroom and some more livestock. the full list is at the top of the page. I might be moving too fast as I am having a hair algae issue but other then the algae everything in the tank seems to be happy. I have had the SPS a few days now and they haven't browned out, the zoas are usually open, and the cleaner shrimp recently molted.

 

Now for the Pictures!

 

FTS 4/28/2015

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I went a bit crazy with the glue on these guy but other then looking bad it shouldn't hurt them

 

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The hair algae looks particularity bad when you zoom in this close.

 

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All the inverts like to hide under this little bridge.

 

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The fish

 

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This mushroom is looking nice, I also got 4 more zoanthid color morphs but they are difficult to get good pictures of.

 

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Congrats on the tank, but you are moving much too fast. If you're getting any reading of ammonia at all then your tank is not cycled. I notice you have some Acropora frags, this is considered a very difficult coral and will likely not survive in a tank that is cycling or has just finished cycling. Anyway, goodluck with the tank

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Ya I realized the SPS frags might not do well but they where cheap and I don't mind so much. The tank has definitely fished its cycle though, I wouldn't have added the fish if I had though it had not cycled fully. As of today all my basic levels are good, salinity, pH, NH3, NO3, NO2.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So my algae problems continue. I have been picking the stuff out maybe once or twice a week and I pull about a quarter cup of solid algae each time. I added some phosguard thinking my problem was phosphates but that hasn't helped at all. I don't have a phosphate test so it was just a guess. My main thinking now is the problem is the sponges I was using in the filter box. Tomorrow I am going to go pick up some big sheets of filter floss and just start throwing out the old stuff rather then trying to clean it. Hopefully this along with maybe adding some carbon or GFO will tame my algae problems.

 

Its amazing how fast this stuff grow and I find it interesting but for the purposes of my tank I want that stuff gone. On the flip side the fact that the algae is growing and absorbing what is most likely excess Nitrates from the sponges it is keeping my fish and corals from being stressed, it just looks ugly for now.

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Cencalfishguy56

So my algae problems continue. I have been picking the stuff out maybe once or twice a week and I pull about a quarter cup of solid algae each time. I added some phosguard thinking my problem was phosphates but that hasn't helped at all. I don't have a phosphate test so it was just a guess. My main thinking now is the problem is the sponges I was using in the filter box. Tomorrow I am going to go pick up some big sheets of filter floss and just start throwing out the old stuff rather then trying to clean it. Hopefully this along with maybe adding some carbon or GFO will tame my algae problems.

 

Its amazing how fast this stuff grow and I find it interesting but for the purposes of my tank I want that stuff gone. On the flip side the fact that the algae is growing and absorbing what is most likely excess Nitrates from the sponges it is keeping my fish and corals from being stressed, it just looks ugly for now.

Get a handle on it now that's all I can say, I underestimated it one time and I started losing coral as they were suffocated lol good approach keep pick maybe add an emerald or mithrax crab

Oh and if you used cured live rock and live sand you most likely will not run into a cycle I never did

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Did you have to make any mods to the Hydro pico to get it to fit in the back chamber? Im looking at upgrading from the stock filter pump in my Spec V but haven't been able to find a pump that fits in the return chamber.

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The pump is a bit of a strange situation, its working for me but others may not like how I made mine fit. It's nothing that heavy but it sits at the very top of the filter box right by the outflow hole. This is because the way the pump is designed there is really no other way to orient it to fit. I will get a picture of it tomorrow. It is much stronger then the stock pump though.

 

As for the algae I do have an emerald crab but I never see him. Hes always hiding somewhere and presumably doing nothing to my algae. In all fairness this stuff is growing at a rate that the little crab could not handle. I'm really hoping fresh filter floss every few days will do the trick as opposed to cleaning a sponge every week or so.

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So here is how my pump fits the impeller as facing down with the out flow pipe pointing right at the hole. I took a piece of the tubing that comes with the stock filter and fit it to the tube, through the hole and zip tied the stock spray bar to it.

 

NVAE0oO.jpg

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So here is how my pump fits the impeller as facing down with the out flow pipe pointing right at the hole. I took a piece of the tubing that comes with the stock filter and fit it to the tube, through the hole and zip tied the stock spray bar to it.

 

NVAE0oO.jpg

 

 

Im definitely going to try this. I think I need more flow through the filter of my spec V.

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The algae is Bryopsis, it's very difficult to get rid of. Some people have success by raising their magnesium levels.

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Thanks for the info on bryopsis, I assumed it was just hair algae until now. I got some kent Magnesium and started dosing that, I also tore the tank apart and scrubbed off as much of the algae as I could. The only bits left I can see are between the Zoas and a few random strands. I did a big water change just before I added the Mg.

 

Hopefully this will make the algae growth slow and eventually die off while my MG levels are raising. I also hope my corals do alright with being out of the water for 5-10 mins and all this commotion. I also found my emerald crab dead. I am guessing he died of starvation because he didn't seem to wan't to eat the bryopsis and I only feed this tank very little so he couldn't really scavenge for food.

 

As of right now everything in the tank is fine and dandy, the zoas are even opening back up already.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been dosing the Kent magnesium for a while now with little effect. The algae does turn a lighter almost whitish color but its still growing especially where there is strong current it seems un-affected. This has also killed most of my snails (people said this could happen) as well as my cleaner shrimp.

 

So I am stopping the kent and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. Going to do some big water changes to bring the mag levels back down and try doing a hydrogen peroxide dip on the rocks. This really suck because this algae is growing into my zoas covering them up covering my two acro frags, (mostly dead but still some spots with color). The only things still doing well are my porcelain crab, clown goby and the birdsnest somehow is keeping the algae from growing onto it or covering it up.

 

If the H2O2 doesn't work I am planning on setting up another tank with new Live rock and sand letting it cycle then swapping over the livestock, provided I can actually remove the algae from them.

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  • 2 months later...

Been a while since my last update mainly because the tank has been a huge mess. Most of my animals have died unfortunately so here is what happened.

 

At first I tried dipping the Rocks in a diluted H2O2 solution. This appeared to work for the most part but had a negative affect on most of my corals. All I have left now are my Zoas in various conditions of recovery and a very angry mushroom coral. My Blue Porcelain crab, One cerith snail and one bumblebee snail. My Clown goby died of what I believe was starvation as he would not eat ANYTHING I tried to give him and he was getting noticeably thinner the longer I had him (I tried maybe 6 different types of food). This is also the reason I think I had such bad algae in addition to the fact it was almost all Bryopsis I was feeding a lot to try and get my fish to eat.

 

My snails also died but I have no Idea why, possibly the Kent Mg as some people said this could kill of inverts and mostly snails. I at one point tried getting some Turbos but they literally sealed up their shells immediately after adding them and they all just sat there and died, along with my existing cerith.

 

After this fish died I stopped feeding the tank and I picked big clumps of algae out when ever it was convenient so the amount of nutrients in my tank should be quite low. I also raised my lighting as far up as I can about 1.2 feet with and reduced my light on time.

 

I am finally ready to start rebuilding this tank. Planning on trying some more snails tomorrow and I will see how that goes assuming they survive I will proceed with getting some more corals and possibly a cleaner shrimp because I really loved the personality he brought to the tank. This time I will defiantly have no fish just because it seems like more trouble then its worth on this small a tank.

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