My 5.5 and 'fuge

Thought you might like to see some pics of my new baby. It's been up and running for a month now and everything is working/doing great!

here's the fuge...

Is a 3.5 gallon "KritterKeeper" I drilled with a 1/2" inlet and a 3/4" bulkhead overflow gravity feeding back to tank. Has a 50 watt ProHeat titanium heater in it, 2.5 lbs of Fiji rubble and 5lbs. of live sand.

Here's a close up of the tank...

Is a 5.5 gallon AGA. Lighting is a 2x32 CSL fan cooled hood. There is a MaxiJet 400 for circulation and a MiniJet 404 feeding the overhead fuge. Got 6 lbs of Bali and 5 lbs of Fiji rock with 15 lbs of live sand.

Last one, hehe

I have only added a couple of shrooms and snails since cycle completed.... The rock was great and I am happy just watching it grow out for a bit... lots and lots of hitchhikers. Already have some polyps and stars showing up. I have a shrimp goby and his buddy on hold at a LFS, might just have to pick him up tommorrow, hellacool!

Very nice.

Like the setup. I like the idea of above sump/refug. Easier isnt it?

Thanks Sahin!

The overhead setup was the only way to go I thought... my shelving arrangement would have let me do either above or below. I started out with the idea of doing a sump below the tank but couldn't find an overflow small enough so started making one, then I got all paranoid about possibly losing the syphon and flooding and all....well you know, hehe

Spiffy! Thanks for sharing your tank. Have you had any problems with using the critter keeper as your refugium? I always thought those would make nice cheap sumps.

Wooo Hooo another 5.5!

Very nice, your rocks looks great! Now I'm inspired to put a refuge on mine.

Hey lizbeth, why don't you use your forty...?

Very nice looking tank as well glazer. With your rockwork, looks like they'll be plenty of nice spots to add little frags of corals.

Neat !

I like the way you've set up, a lot

Looking good:)

very nice. what kind of corals do you plan on keeping? with that lighting over a 5.5 you could prolly keep sps and clams.

Thanks everyone! I had a blast setting it up...

Chris, no probs so far whatsoever in using the KritterKeeper... I got it at Petco for like 4 bucks cuz the plastic mesh on the top was broken. I ended up cutting it all out anyway and setting a 1/8" piece of acrylic on top anyway. You do have to excercise care in drilling them though.. to much pressure on the pilot bit of holes saw could make it crack rather easily... this happened on the larger hole for the overflow but was okay as the diameter of the hole ended up taking enough out so no crack went beyond edge of hole.. whew!

Metz, I have entertained the idea of a clam for sure... I would love to get a tiny T. Max but still uncertain if I got enough umph in the lighting... maybe a derosa? Any thoughts from you guys? I did see this really cool green bubble about the size of a half-dollar, Hmmm wonder how long before it becomes a monster...lol

I've only added a couple of really cool metallic green shrooms, the rock is really growing out nice... have a small colony of zoos and some stars showing up. I even found three teeny tiny miniscule blue and purple shrooms that HAD to have come in on the rock.. I didn't put 'em there...hehehe

Nice setup.

As far as the clams go you should be able to keep a squamosa in there for little while. Anything else would need lots more light. You'll need to find a home for the clam when it gets too big though.

A nice squamosa would do great in your tank, only problem with clams in a nano is that they sometimes outgrow the tank and you need to swap them in for a younger specimen, bummer!

Here is a pic of a squamosa i got off the net

you could also keep a derasa clam under that lighting, they don't need nearly as much lighting as t. maxima and t. crocea.

hey what are the dimensions of the ref and how did u drill the hole?[a reg drill?...special bit?] are their any larger ones?....looks great..........

Thanks "TheUnit"

The 'fuge is a 3.5 gallon KritterKeeper... is the biggest one they make to my knowledge. I used a 1/2" inlet which required a 1" hole and a 3/4" bulkhead for the overflow which needed a 1 1/2" hole. I just used standard holesaws and a cordless drill, drill set on lowest speed and very little pressure on saw.

Dimensions of 'fuge are approx. 13"across,9"tall and 8"deep.

Thought I'd throw up another pic since I had Adobe opened up, hehe...

A Clams certainly be nice. However, they need nitrate to live!

I have a 2.5 Inch Emerald Squamosa in my 2.5G nano

(Ma's 2.5 G nano...) under 27W PC lighting. I have also a

Tiger Derasa in my 29 G with only 55W PC. Both clams are hardy

& both seems to be happy.

What I heard is that the Squamosa is the most easy calms of them all, plus my Squamosa has beautiful green color, to me, it's actually prettier than my both my 2.5 Inch Maxima & 5.5 Inch Crocea.

CroceaMaxima

yeah Crocea, I have been looking at clams and doing some research... I am finding that out, that they require nitrates to really flourish.

Problem is I'm fresh outta 'trates! After three weeks still getting a 0 reading.... I put my Perc in the tank about a week and a half ago (only temporary, he is going back in the 30 soon) and still get a 0 reading. Thought maybe the test kit so bought another and it says the same... soooooo then I took some water into a LFS and had them test... 0 again!

This is the only tank I have ever set up that got 0 readings... I have always had low readings before but never 0. Only conclusion I can come to is that the sand, rock and my first foray into a refugium is all working together.