Finished my Low budget 5.5ga!

Well, here is my first official nano (seeings how a 45 FOWLR doesn't count!)

Specs:

5.5ga AGA free

Custom Hood and base $12

1x bookworm $20

2x 19w HD "Daylight" curly's $16

AQ mini $15

Aquaglobe 100 PH $11

Quikcrete comm. grade med. sand $6 for 100lbs

Grand total $80!!!!

I was planning on keeping this puppy on my desk at work w/o a heater (constant 74 degrees year round), but my wife just saw it and wants it in the living room or kitchen. So, I'll have to go over the $100 mark and pony up for a heater.

So here it is:

I'm going to have to run a 2" fan.....those lights still get pretty hot!

here's my lighting handy work

frog tank in back....

I was going to show the difference between the single book worm "on" and all 3 light "on".....It is a huge difference!!!!! But the pics didn't show it very well.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out considering this was my first woodworking project and first nano building project all in one. I was only going to run 2x bookworms and just keep a couple of softies (with the 26w), but now with 51W, I should be able to diversify! In its finished state, the lighting will be 38w 6500k and 13w 50/50.

Thanks for checking it out!

Nice get up.........

clean work

Hey Onthefly

I set up my 5.5 on a budget too, using those screw-in lights and they're working great! I'm sure you'll love 'em! Although, instead of a 13 watt 50/50, I'd go with a 7100K blue bulb from hellolights. The 6500K can look a little yellow over time, I've noticed, but the blue bulb takes care of it great. It really does a good job of making my corals fluoresce and evens out the tank's spectrum. I didn't know which I'd like, so I ordered a 13 watt actinic 03 and a 13 watt 7100K blue and now I'm running them both, including two 19 watt 6500K screw ins! It's CRAZY bright in that tank and I'm going to try some SPS when everything really ages in and stabilizes well. My xenia is doing great on the bottom of the tank and my small frogspawn frag is doing great near the top. Macro, blue shroom, single protopalythoa polyp, and GSP are doing awesome throughout the entire tank. The blue bulb really helps though, visually.

Run the tank with just water and run the lights for a few days and monitor the temp, I'm betting it'll be just where you want it without a heater. Those 19 watter's and the bookworm can put off a bit of heat, especially if enclosed like that. At least check it out first before shelling out the money for a heater.

Your woodworking skills are much better than mine and the hood looks increadible, good job! Do you have some glass between the lights and the water surface?

One last thing, can ya post a pic of the frog tank? It looks a lot like the little tank I have on my desk here for my little Eastern Red-Spotted Newt eft.

-Dan

Just noticed that the back of the hood is open, is that incase you want to plumb a sump or refugium back there? Or, is it just open for the pic?

I've got a used TetraTec 150 on mine for surge action (the feather dusters and corals really like it), a refugium, and a place for a heater. You might be able to find some on sale somewhere cheap from someone who thinks it's too loud. I've heard a lot of negative press about 'em from FW people who don't like the noise and can't see the value of the surge action. For a small SW nano tank, the surge is worth it in and of itself, but also a convenient place for a heater and refugium...it's worth it, I think. Mine is at the foot of my bed and the sound doesn't bother me at all (but I sleep like a log anyway, so that's not a big deal). It's worth looking into down the road.

-Dan

nice set up... welcome to the 5.5 club!

cant wait to see it with some coral

Wow! That's a really neat job! Nice!

Can you give us a little more detail on the curlies? the specs and the wiring/installation?

Thanks!

onthefly

This being your first woodworking project, were the plans for you hood simple? If so do you think you could post some basic directions to how you built your hood and stand? I would love to build a nano reef like yours but I dont know anything about woodworking. Thanks.

-yimmerz

I'll try to answer all the Q's:

dchisenh - I'll try that 7100K, I never thought of that! Your live stock sounds pretty much like what I wont to do. As for glass, I'm going to have glass over the 80% of the tank, just enough room for the HOB to fit. I think that will help curb some evap. The back was designed to be open to help dissipate heat and I knew I was going to run a HOB so........I'll look into the Tetra.

Rootsayia and Bertz - Thanks!

Changhsu - Those curlys are the 19w coiled pc bulbs from HD. They were $7.97 each and the wiring in simple:

1) take a $0.99 extension cord, cut the female end off

2) strip the ends and you'll notice one of the two wires that makes up the extension cord has lines on it....you need that later!

3) after mounting the screw-in base where you want it, run black and white (or red) wires from the base to the back of the hood

4) using wire nuts, attach both black wires (1 from each fixture) to the side of the ext. cord with lines and the 2 white wires to the side w/o lines.

5) plug it in!!!!

6) I run the wire down the bookworms curled wire for looks

yimmerz - no worries! You need a few simple tools: 1) jigsaw or circular saw (or something more fancy, but mrs. fly won't let me have any cool toys) 2)mider box (for the 45 degree cuts on the base 3) sandable/stainable filler (my friend!!!) to cover up your mistakes 4) sand paper and stain of your choice (I chose classic oak....."Do you like oak jimmy?") The base (which I made so lizbeth would be happy:P ) is your basic "base board", the rest of the hood was 5/16 ply (all edges sealed with polyurethane) and the top has 90 degree edge molding. PM me and I'll see if I can send you some detailed plans.

Got a pic of the frog tank? :

I've found that if you keep the kalk addition up, the soft corals in the tank will take off with the light you're using. I put a single protopalythoa polyp in the tank last week and I moved some rocks around last night and saw that the bottom had swollen on the polyp and he has 4 little extensions growing from the bottom, like it's making new heads, already! Good water parameters/high alkalinity and calcium/moderate nutrients/good light = awesome growth. Hope ya like your 5.5 as much as I do mine.

-Dan

I'll post some frog tank pics tonight....we have a 55ga, 20ga, and that 10 in the background....all have dart frogs in them

Woohoo! Nice 5.5, welcome to do club! Looking good, looking DAMN good

where do you get the bookworms??? i can't find the ones you have in the pics. please help out..

Hey,

How did those compact fluorescent bulbs work out. I copied and amended your canopy ideas for my ten gallon I am starting. I put 2x19W 6500k, 1x10W 50/50, and 1x13W bookworm. Just wondering if you had success with this and if heat was a problem.

I only have the 6500s on now and it looks pretty freakin bright.

Hey Triggerhappy8,

I'm using two of those 19 watt 6500K screw-in bulbs and they are doing great on my 5.5 gallon. All my corals are growing great, I had a protopalythoa polyp produce another polyp and expand a couple of centimeters along the bottom of my tank within a week of putting it in and I just put a small Pavona frag in there and it's doing great.

I'm also using two 13 watt bookworms on there, with an 03 actinic in one and a 7100K blue in the other. The 7100K actually is more pleasing to my eye, so I'm getting another one from Hellolights.com in 55 watts for my 10 gallon to replace the actinic on that. The blue bulb helps counteract the "yellow" look and actually helps things fluoresce better (even though they say an 03 is better for that, side by side though, the 7100K has it beat on my tank). Think about ordering a 13 watt 7100K for your bookworm fixture and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Also, heat isn't a problem for me because the 10 gallon along with a 5 gallon sump is attached to my 5.5 by plumbing, and the sump is uncovered. I do have a lot of evaporation though, so I have a gravity-fed drip system by Kent, the "Aquadose" and it keeps everything good and constant for me.

-Dan

Everything is looking good!

I put 5lbs of LR and a cup of LS from my FOWLR in on Friday. NH3 coming down fast and the dust storm has cleared. All the life in the rocks is opening up. Although I have some erosion issues in my sand bed from my HOB. I'll rearrange the LR to dispearse the flow.

I'll post some pics tonight, but to answer trigger Q.....the light look fantastic! I'm trying my hardest not to turn them on during the cycle, but every once and a while I have to! I'm not seeing the "yellow" effect dchisenh saw. Mine is crisp white! I put glass over 80% of the tank and evap is minimal. As for heat, I haven't see to much of an effect when the lights are on, but it is an open back hood.

Dchisenh - I promise I'll post those frog tank picks tonight!

I was wondering where those frog pics were..:

The lights looked pure, crisp white to me when I first started using them, but they aged just a "tiny" bit yellow. I noticed it because I have so many different bulbs in my room from various tanks (spectrums from actinic to 2700K) I've gotten pretty good at eyeballing a light and telling it's Kelvin value. Still, I like them a lot and they just really balance out well with the 7100K blue bulb added with them. Just the way they look to me, anyway.

-Dan

I've already ordered my 7100K bulb!!!!

Great! I think you'll like it a lot! Especially when you get some corals in there and will be able to see them fluorescing. It's also a good evening/morning light.

-Dan

Wife looked at the tank last night with the lights on.....and said......."get what ever you need for it!" She said it is very therapeutic to look at it. Basically, my nano budget just got a congressional pay raise! Looks like I'll be driving over to SPSFRAGS!!!!!

dchisenh asked for them, so here they are!

First tank holds the "blue" azureus sp. One frog is in the hut and the other is just outside 4-5" to the right of the hut. Blue Blur!