5 Gallon Marine Contour Reef

[MedievalITGuy]

Hi All,

 

I've been obsessed with the idea of setting up a nano/pico reef for going on 8 years now, and it's finally happened! The wife got me a Marineland Contour 5gal for my birthday, and the in-laws pitched in to gift me with startup cash.

 

Front of the tank:

Right side of the Tank:

Left side of the Tank

Small Dragons Breath algae frags, placed high for better lighting:

 

As you can see, there is a lot of live rock in the tank. The wife and I went a little overboard at the LFS, and we ended up with something around 15lbs in the 5gal tank I believe. There was so much, we had an extra chunk left over from the base piece, which, of course, I couldn't leave to die. So my 5gal tank quickly spawned a 1gal pico bowl (post to follow).

 

The amount of rock, combined with the height of the tank is going to make for some interesting lighting constraints, especially because I am not planning on upgrading the stock lights for at least 6-12 months. I would be interested if anyone has experience working with such a large volume of rock in such a small tank. Or dealing with a tall, relatively skinny tank like this one. I don't think we're going to be able to grow anything photosynthetic on the bottom shelf, at least until the stock lights get upgraded, but what do you all think?

 

The tank has been up and running for about three weeks now, and was started from live rock and water out of one of the better LFS locations. The Nitrates have been reading a bit high, but Amonia, and Nitrites have consistently measured 0, and the PH, and Alkalinity read normal, so I am not too concerned for the moment. Water changes seem to have little effect on the Nitrate levels, and I have tested the new water, and it reads 0. I was hoping to get some good pieces of Dragons Breath macro algae to bring the nitrates down, but the small frags you see here were all that was left by the time I got to the LFS. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated, but like I said, I'm not too concerned. We never got an algae bloom worth noting, but I believe this is because all of the rock, sand, and water came out of an existing system, and were only left dry for a few hours.

So far, we only have the cleanup crew and algae added. Cleanup crew consists of two small hermit crabs, one scarlet hermit, two snails, and a pom-pom. Our hopes are to include either a small perching goby, or perhaps two of the smaller swimmers, such as neon gobies. I had my heart set on a randals goby and pistol shrimp pair, but after looking at the amount of open sandbed available, I think they would be too cramped to be happy.

As for corrals, we're going to stick to simple stuff. The wife loves pulsing xenia, and we are going to put some below the dead acropora, and add 1-2 types of zoas to the peak where the algae currently resides. I might branch out later, with better lighting, but for now, I think we'll be happy with those two. Will probably pick up the frags in a week or two and get them started, as the water has been stable for the past two weeks.

So, any suggestions, warnings, or slaps on the wrist? Anything I can be doing better or differently, or does this just look like a cool piece of rock?

PS: I should also note, I'm using the Red Sea Marine Care test kit, and a generic refractometer for testing. Change/top-off water is from a local grocery store RO-DI unit, and the salt I'm using is Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. I'd be interested to hear if anyone thinks the reef crystals are overkill for zoas and xenia, or if it's better to have all my bases covered.

[SantaMonicaHelp]

WHAT?! How does this thread have no replies?! You're reef has an amazing rockscape, and you provided pictures from 4 different angles. I'm in awe that this thread didn't get more recognition. Amazing work!

 

- C. Smith

[brandon429]

Agreed. That's very nice and we skip cycle pico reefs all the time you've done great!

[thejoie]

Looks awesome!

[joey13254]

What are your nitrates reading at? The best thing I would suggest to get them down is frequent water changes. Nice tank. I love it

[MedievalITGuy]

WHAT?! How does this thread have no replies?! You're reef has an amazing rockscape, and you provided pictures from 4 different angles. I'm in awe that this thread didn't get more recognition. Amazing work!

 

- C. Smith

Aw thanks!. I guess I just posted at a bad time. Forums can be strange like that. Wish I could take more credit for the aquascape, but really, all I did was bring home two cool looking rocks, and find the most attractive way to jam them in the tank

 

 

What are your nitrates reading at? The best thing I would suggest to get them down is frequent water changes. Nice tank. I love it

Nitrates are reading anywhere between 10 and 30 ppm. I think this is more due to differences in how I'm reading the test than actual fluctuations though, while it's easy to use, the RedSea test kit leaves a lot of room for interpretation on some of the tests. It is down from 40-50 that it was when I first started taking readings, so I do believe I am getting a slow decrease over time. The largest two drops I've seen were from the first water change, and then from removing the sponge filter a couple weeks later.

 

One of these days, we'll manage to make it to the LFS again, and I'll be able to get some more pics with corals and/or a goby or two.

[joey13254]

What I did to help my nitrates get down to 10 was I did a 20% water change twice a week for 2 weeks. I also added probido bioclean and bioptipm which are bacteria additives. Then i went to my normal water changes of 20% once a week. I had to get a protein skimmer to get them lower than 5.

[MedievalITGuy]

Update:

 

I have recently added an emerald crab to the cleanup crew. He was in my pico bowl (which I still need to get around to posting), but after about a week on his own, he had started to clean the top of the LR to a bone white. I got him some nori to supplement his diet, but I wanted to give him a larger environment to work with, so I didn't have to target feed as often and risk water quality in the bowl. If he ever surfaces again, I'll put up some pics.

 

I nearly had a heart attack this morning when I went out to check the tank and found my scarlet hermit lying on the bottom of the tank without his shell. I thought that the emerald had committed crustaceicide until I realized that it was just a molt. I have since moved the scarlet to a secluded ledge with his molt, as I read somewhere that they will eat their old exo-skeleton for the extra calcium. Has anyone else heard of this, or am I just making stuff up?

 

 

In other news. I just did a rather large water change this weekend of roughly 2.5gal and my nitrates are finally down to about 5ppm. I will continue to monitor them, but it looks like I've finally gotten the initial spike under control.

[chaostactics]

Very unique dimensions. Hows this tank doing.

[MedievalITGuy]

Well, I've been trying to get myself to post a proper update to this thread for over 9 months now. Considering how well that worked out, I'm just going to leave this here for now, with a vague promise of more details to follow soon.

 

 

[cfaye@Delaware]

That is so interesting, they really like each other, I wondered why they sold them in pairs. I would like to see your marineland, I hope to start my 5g next year. That was a good share, thanks....

[MedievalITGuy]

8 hours ago, cfaye@Delaware said:

That is so interesting, they really like each other, I wondered why they sold them in pairs. I would like to see your marineland, I hope to start my 5g next year. That was a good share, thanks....

It's a really cool interaction, and that's why I wanted to get them. That plus the fact that the goby really doesn't need swimming room, since he likes to sit in one place for the most part. If you're going to have a shrimp goby in a small tank like this, I would not recommend having any (non-pistol) shrimp, because it's exceedingly hard to get the goby any food without the shrimp stealing it all.

I'll post some more pics later, but if you decide to go with this tank, I'd give two pieces of advice. Don't skimp on the light, and you'll need some kind of additional flow besides the return pump. The tank started out with stock everything, and then I eventually added a decent light about 4 months in (but no extra flow). Neither setup could support corals, even zoas/xenia ended up dying, and I ended up with major algae issues. I've only just now gotten the algae under control, and am looking to add some coral in the next couple weeks. So basically, plan on extra money for a coral supporting light, and some kind of internal powerhead/pump.