Kailyn's 5.5g AIO

[Shyla8]

This is a 5.5g made into a AIO by addition of the standard false wall with media and pump/heater sections.

 

Equipment -

5.5 AGA

Aquaclear 201 pump

25w Elite heater

Coralife Digital Thermometer

 

Lighting -

2 x 18w 50/50 PC Retrofits installed into wood canopy

 

5lbs Dry Sand

5 or so lbs Rock

 

Livestock -

Yellow Watchman Goby

Randall's Pistol Shrimp

15 Dwarf Ceriths

1 Sm Nerite

1 Florida Cerith

2 Blue Legged hermits

2 Sexy Shrimp

10 Dwarf Seahorse Adults & 2 Babies (Temporarily in a 2.5g tank for deworming)

2 Dwarf Pipefish

 

2 Sm Blue Striped Mushrooms w/ Encrusting Gorg attached

Frag GSP

3 Polyp Orange center Green skirt Zoas

Frag Eagle Eye Zoas

Sm Frag Green Starburst like Zoas

3 Hd Red Acan Frag + 5 Hd Red Acan Frag (same - just 2 pieces)

Red Grape Macro

Sm Piece Ulva Macro (Eaten by the snails lol)

Halymenia Macro

Short Codium Macro

Feather Caulpera

Sm Piece Cactus Caulerpa (Just disappeared and was my favorite )

Grape Caulerpa (Dead)

Purple Whip Gorgonian

Random Brown Macro from the ocean (Dead or eaten)

Sargassum Macro (Dead)

Brown Bush Macro (dead)

Sm Piece Violet Flames Macro

1 Branch Red Finger Sponge

 

FTS - 4/27/10

 

Top view of AIO section - Media basket on left/Pump, Heater area on right - Complete with fish jump screen.

 

Still debating on whether to paint the back section black or leave as is in case I want to turn the tank in the future. Opinions?

 

And I must give a shout out to Deep Thief and c_k_kuehne for building the false wall, media basket and fish jumping screen for me - without that this tank would not have been built

 

May FTS -

 

June FTS -

 

July FTS -

 

August FTS -

 

Sept FTS -

 

Oct FTS -

[c_k_kuehne]

You did a great job Shyla --- Glad the AIO wall worked out. I was a little worried since all the dimensions were done over the phone and there wasn't a lot of room for error. Plus it was built while doing shots of Whiskey

 

Welcome to the Methodology Contest.

[RyanR1212]

wow that looks great!! the only thing that i would worry about is that it looks all inclosed so it might get a little hot.... otherwise very nice job and i cant wai to see what comes out of this

[Shyla8]

Thanks to you both!

 

Ryan - the back of the canopy actually has some holes drilled out and the bottom half of it lifts up where I can keep it up to let air through. Even still with those options I may have some heat problems and will just be adding a small fan in there if need be. I thought about that ahead of time but am waiting to see how it works first before I go ahead and do it

[reef2.5]

looks pretty slick

[Dwankmuller]

Gonna use that mug instead of live rock? Just kiddinggg, looks awesome, i which i made a setup like this, shoulda done a little more research before I started my tank!

[Weetabix7]

Shyla!!!!!

Awesome to see you on here and participating in this contest.

Can't wait to see what you do.

[Shyla8]

Ok well I finally got around to adding the live rock and finish it off to cycle if need be. In the middle of wiring lights for this canopy last week my nephew threw something at my 20g reef tank (that I was going to be upgrading to my 50g the coming weekend anyway) which busted it and made me make the switch over a lot faster than I had thought, which in turn, put off this pico project.

 

So today I got the scape figured out, the water in and it is now running! Lets see how it goes.

 

Heres the new pics.......

 

[Weetabix7]

Spiffy.

[shiver905]

im doing the same thing, had the same prob as you with the krylon rock textured paint,

 

To fix the problem, I did a layer of black first then covered it the rock paint stuff.

Its looking great,

 

Keep us updated

[Shyla8]

Yeah I kinda got annoyed with that and then thought I should have done black first. But ya know what? That pic was taken with the room lights off, with the lights on you don't really see that. Also too much of a hassle to go repainting it so it stays this way for now lol

[eddiecorrea]

Don't paint the back. Its cool when you can turn it it sideways and see it from 3 sides.

[Shyla8]

Too late, the back is already painted, well not really, its one of those backings so it can always be pulled off. But the way the canopy is designed you wouldn't wanna see the back part anyway haha.

[Shyla8]

Newest pic -

 

May 2010 FTS

 

Was taken today but there haven't been changes since last month, got some cuc in there to clean up the green hairy algae which I am not sure what type it is yet. Once that goes away I will add some corals, I hope its soon.

 

So the CUC I added was 15 dwarf ceriths, 2 red leg hermits and a small turbo snail who will eventually go in the 50 once hes done munching away lol.

 

I also add a Yellow watchman goby who is soo shy but soo cute. He's my daughters "Yellow Fishy" and she named him Yell (how original!)

I want to get him a pistol friend but no luck in finding any local as of yet. Anyone wanna ship me their unwanted one? lol

[c_k_kuehne]

Looks good Shyla. It may take a while but it will come around and you have plenty of time

[.Newman.]

can you get a close up shot of that green algae? it would help us to identify

the stuff on the sand looks best for a picture.

[Shyla8]

Thanks ck! Although not too much time huh - 3 months ahhhh lol.

 

I did take 2 other pics of the green stuff lol. Here ya go........

 

 

 

I had brushed some of it off yesterday when I decided to do a small water change, so its not as bad as it looked yesterday but still a ways to go yet. I would just hate to put corals in and have it get all over them, best to let it go away first. It may require raising mag but I am not sure.

[.Newman.]

the green mass on the left in the first pic reminds me of my bryopsis in my 3 gal tank...though the rest of the algae looks like you correctly ID it. as long as its not bryopsis you should be safe ^^

[Shyla8]

Yeah thats not what I wanted to hear lol. I did show a pic to John Maloney and he thought it may be Bryopsis halliae but wasn't sure. I guess I am just gonna have to raise the mag and see if that makes it go away.

[Weetabix7]

Pretty sure that's Bryopsis.

Use Kent TechM to raise Mg and get rid of it.

[.Newman.]

Pretty sure that's Bryopsis.

Use Kent TechM to raise Mg and get rid of it.

 

sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. for me that didnt work even at two weeks of Mag levels over 1700ppm

[Shyla8]

Well I just wanted to update this thread with a couple pics......

 

This is the full tank as of yesterday - decided to add a few frags....

 

This is the YWG/Randall's Pistol combo hiding in thier hole as always - The chickens.....

 

We'll see what else goes in, I'd like to add some macros because I think they look really cool. I can't wait till the shrimp and goby come out a bit, although they may have had a fight lol. Today I saw the shrimp still in the burrow but the goby was on the other side. Little spat I guess, that musta been what the clicking I heard last night was - lover's quarrel. I'd be mad too if I was the shrimp, the goby doesn't do much "watchmanning" since he is more chicken than the shrimp is!

[badfish816]

how could i have missed this thread? tank looks fantastic. i always wanted a randalls but i saw a antenna goby at my lfs and had to have him. that is a sweet peek-a-boo pic too. how is the clicking at night from the shrimp?

[Shyla8]

To be honest badfish, I rarely hear him click at all and when I do, its such a small pop its nothing at all. You have to be sitting right in front of the tank or near it to even know the sound came from the shrimp lol. And ty for liking my tank!

 

Here is a new pic I just took, was so surprised to see them both out but I had to click fast because shrimpy went right back in lol.........

 

Waiting on some new macros so once they get in I'll take a new FTS for this month.

[badfish816]

nice