Minibow 2.5 - need a bunch of help...

[ab420]

So, I have a FOWLR tank set up with a Green Spotted Puffer (acclimated to full marine) There is some really nice live rock in there, as well as a some lava rock I was seeding with the live stuff. I am getting some really cool growth from the live rock, but the puffer is biting everything on it, so I want to get it out of there. At this point, the lava rock is full of bacteria (just not as cool looking as the live stuff yet).

 

I have a 2.5 gallon minibow that I want to put the nice live rock into (smaller pieces anyway) so they don't get picked apart by the puffer.

 

Lighting:

I already have a 10 watt Coralife 50/50 screw in bulb in the hood, and was thinking about getting the 20watt, but it says all over the hood to not use anything above 15watts. Is the 20watt gonna cause a meltdown? Is there a way to get another fixture for a second 10 watt in there?

 

Filtration:

The minibow has a Whisper Internal Micro Filter. Can I hack it apart and just use the powerhead from it? I will have about 4-4.5 pounds of live rock in there.

 

Flow:

If I can use the powergead from the filter, that's rated at 70gph, will this be enough flow? If I can't use that, how much flow should I be looking for in a powerhead?

 

Stocking:

Some have told me a Neon Goby would be fine in a 2.5, but it seems awfully small to me, what do you guys think? I definitely want a few scarlet reef hermits, some nassarius, astrea, and cerith snails for cleanup. What would be a good number there? How about a cleaner shrimp? Is 2.5 too small for one?

 

Thank you in advance for all of your help!

[jg7]

Lighting:

I already have a 10 watt Coralife 50/50 screw in bulb in the hood, and was thinking about getting the 20watt, but it says all over the hood to not use anything above 15watts. Is the 20watt gonna cause a meltdown? Is there a way to get another fixture for a second 10 watt in there?

 

The 20 watt is a bit longer than the 10 watt bulb. You can't put in the 20 watt bulb without cutting out parts of your hood. If you want to mod your hood or add another 10 watt in there, you should do a search for 2.5 gallon pico reefs. There are a bunch of posts on how to mod a 2.5 gallon minibow hood in the Nano-reef forums.

 

Filtration:

The minibow has a Whisper Internal Micro Filter. Can I hack it apart and just use the powerhead from it? I will have about 4-4.5 pounds of live rock in there.

 

You could do that if you know what you're doing. If you do a search on Google, I'm sure you can find a powerhead that fits nicely in 2.5 gallons. I personally like to use www.aquariumguys.com or www.marinedepot.com, because they both have a nice selection of powerheads and other equipment.

 

Flow:

If I can use the powergead from the filter, that's rated at 70gph, will this be enough flow? If I can't use that, how much flow should I be looking for in a powerhead?

 

That should be enough flow for a 2.5 gallon tank. If you can't use that powerhead, then you could try to find a powerhead that has a flow of anywhere between 50 gph and 80 gph.

 

Stocking:

Some have told me a Neon Goby would be fine in a 2.5, but it seems awfully small to me, what do you guys think? I definitely want a few scarlet reef hermits, some nassarius, astrea, and cerith snails for cleanup. What would be a good number there? How about a cleaner shrimp? Is 2.5 too small for one?

 

Gobies are the only kind of fish that I know of that can live well in such a small tank. For the cleanup crew, I think your tank should be fine with 2 of each kind of snail and hermit. A cleaner shrimp could fit ok in a 2.5 gallon, as long as it isn't too crowded in there with your cleanup crew and fish. If I were you, I would add the shrimp last. That is only a suggestion.

 

Good luck with your tank. You should do more searching on the forum for more information on 2.5 gallon minibow reefs. There are a lot of posts on them.

[ab420]

The 20 watt is a bit longer than the 10 watt bulb. You can't put in the 20 watt bulb without cutting out parts of your hood. If you want to mod your hood or add another 10 watt in there, you should do a search for 2.5 gallon pico reefs. There are a bunch of posts on how to mod a 2.5 gallon minibow hood in the Nano-reef forums.

You could do that if you know what you're doing. If you do a search on Google, I'm sure you can find a powerhead that fits nicely in 2.5 gallons. I personally like to use www.aquariumguys.com or www.marinedepot.com, because they both have a nice selection of powerheads and other equipment.

That should be enough flow for a 2.5 gallon tank. If you can't use that powerhead, then you could try to find a powerhead that has a flow of anywhere between 50 gph and 80 gph.

Gobies are the only kind of fish that I know of that can live well in such a small tank. For the cleanup crew, I think your tank should be fine with 2 of each kind of snail and hermit. A cleaner shrimp could fit ok in a 2.5 gallon, as long as it isn't too crowded in there with your cleanup crew and fish. If I were you, I would add the shrimp last. That is only a suggestion.

 

Good luck with your tank. You should do more searching on the forum for more information on 2.5 gallon minibow reefs. There are a lot of posts on them.

 

Thank you for all of your great info!

 

I think for now, I will try out the 10 watt bulb and see how it goes. I don't have any corals or anything besides what's growing out of the live rock, so I think I will keep it simple for now. If I start adding some stuff that really needs the light, I'll upgrade then.

 

My LFS sells these little 85ph powerheads for only $10. Surprisingly, they aren't half bad, especially for the price. I think I may try to hack up the filter, but if I fail, one of those pumps should do the trick.

 

As far as the fish goes... I don't think I want to do that, it just doesn't seem big enough.

 

For the shrimp, what about a single sexy shrimp?

[jg7]

Thank you for all of your great info!

 

I think for now, I will try out the 10 watt bulb and see how it goes. I don't have any corals or anything besides what's growing out of the live rock, so I think I will keep it simple for now. If I start adding some stuff that really needs the light, I'll upgrade then.

 

My LFS sells these little 85ph powerheads for only $10. Surprisingly, they aren't half bad, especially for the price. I think I may try to hack up the filter, but if I fail, one of those pumps should do the trick.

 

As far as the fish goes... I don't think I want to do that, it just doesn't seem big enough.

 

For the shrimp, what about a single sexy shrimp?

 

No problem at all. I hope that everything works out the way you want it to. If you're keeping only soft corals and whatever grows on your live rock in your tank, then the 10 watt bulb should be enough. As long as you keep everything simple in your reef, you shouldn't run into many problems down the road. My 5 gallon tank (ignore the skimmer I added) is a simple set up and easy to maintain, and there is no reason why your tank can't be a success too.

 

I agree with you on the fish. Unless you have an extra larger tank lying around then it's better to avoid adding any kind of fish to your 2.5 gallon tank.

 

From what I've researched, I think that sexy shrimp generally stay around the 1 inch range when they reach maturity. They should be a great addition to any pico reef.

[Phixion]

I've heard of people (on this site at that) that used the pump from the Whisper filter, so it should work. It's about 70gph of flow which should be quite sufficient for the tank.

[ab420]

Awesome! Thank you both...

 

I think I will stick with the 10 watt bulb for now, as soft corals and live rock IS all I'm really planning for now anyways.

 

I'm definitely gonna skip the fish, I am going to have a good amount of live rock in there, so there definitely won't be enough swimming room.

 

I'm gonna try to use the Whisper Filter's powerhead, since it's just going to go sit in a drawer otherwise, and I think I can make it work and save some bucks.

 

Sexy shrimp sounds like the way to go: small, cool, and reef-safe... perfect.

 

So... for stocking, that would be:

 

2 x scarlet reef hermit crabs

2 x nassarius snails

2 x astrea snails

2 x cerith snails

1 x sexy anemone shrimp

[directional]

That sounds good.. I have 3 orange marked hermits and 1 other hermit ... 1 nassarius snail.. 2 brittle star hijackers.. Kenya tree, cabbage leather, blue mushrooms, green hairy mushroom... check my tank out its pretty new but has some pics you may find useful...

[ab420]

That sounds good.. I have 3 orange marked hermits and 1 other hermit ... 1 nassarius snail.. 2 brittle star hijackers.. Kenya tree, cabbage leather, blue mushrooms, green hairy mushroom... check my tank out its pretty new but has some pics you may find useful...

Your tank is very nice, thanks for the link! I definitely want to do the mushroom thing in this tank.

 

About sand:

 

Should I just buy new sand for this tank, or should I try to use some from my other tank?

 

If I use it from my other tank, how do I get sand out without murking up the water?

 

And also, I would need to put some new sand back into that tank, how do I do that without murking up the water?

 

I think I should probably just buy a 5 pound bag of regular sand, there's gonna be a bunch of live rock in there that should seed the sand anyways... right?

[SaVeThEeELs]

So, I have a FOWLR tank set up with a Green Spotted Puffer (acclimated to full marine) There is some really nice live rock in there, as well as a some lava rock I was seeding with the live stuff. I am getting some really cool growth from the live rock, but the puffer is biting everything on it, so I want to get it out of there. At this point, the lava rock is full of bacteria (just not as cool looking as the live stuff yet).

 

its gonna take up to a year for your "lava" rock to become functional live rock....not just bacteria on it, im talkin the whole deal, coraline, macro algea, sponges...etc....

 

mines full of sponges and fan worms

 

take the puffer out!!! he'll strip you clean! probably loving the tank isnt he? of course he is, theres mad food in there!

[ab420]

its gonna take up to a year for your "lava" rock to become functional live rock....not just bacteria on it, im talkin the whole deal, coraline, macro algea, sponges...etc....

Yea, I know, it's defintely a long process, but the bacteria is there, so that by itself in the puffer tank should be cool. It has the bacteria to help keep the tank clean, but doesn't have anything cool on it that the puffer will eat (and make me mad lol).

 

take the puffer out!!! he'll strip you clean! probably loving the tank isnt he? of course he is, theres mad food in there!

that's the main reason behind all of this:

 

Originally:

I got the puffer from the LFS who had him in FW (poor guy) I brought him home, set him up in a FW tank by himself and a bunch of lava rock, using a filter that was being used from another tank so there was no cycle.

 

The, I slowly raised the salinity over a long time, so the SW bacteria had a chance to grow as the FW bacteria was dying off, and doing tons of water changes and watching the parameters like a hawk.

 

The puffer got happier and healthier the higher the salinity was. When I got him, his belly was almost black!!! In time it lightened as the salinity was raised, and by the time I hit SG 1.023, his belly was completely white, he was very active, and very happy.

 

So... the lava rock by this point already was full of SW bacteria...

 

THEN I added a bunch of live rock in with it which has been in there for a couple of months. Not nearly enough for any cool stuff to hop over onto the lava rock really, but I am confident that the lava rock has enough bacteria to keep this tank stable. I have a HOB filter on that tank with lava rock rubble in it, and a foam filter to trap debris, which I rinse out regularly...

 

I don't have room in the 2.5 gallon minibow for ALL of the live rock from that tank either, there is one large piece that has been in that tank the longest that will be staying in with the puffer.

 

The rest of the live rock in there has great growths (several feather dusters, coralline algae, polyps, as well as all the little critters running around).

 

That is what I wanted to protect, so that is what will go in the 2.5 gallon. There is about 5 pounds of live rock that I REALLY want to make fit in the Minibow, but we'll see how that goes...

[SaVeThEeELs]

get another tank!

put it in a well lit window, one that catches sun for most of the day and run a power head on it!

nothing fancy, you just wanna keep it growing...

 

my 20 gal is 3/4 sunlight w/ supplumental actintics for now...its thriving so far...

heres a pic, the rock in the center on top of the "junk" is my live rock i made....

theres more LR i made floating around in memphis somewhere...

 

also a pic of my 10 gal in memphis w/ 80% lr that i made....

 

ive used both tuffa and limestone

[Hekim]

Awesome! Thank you both...

 

I think I will stick with the 10 watt bulb for now, as soft corals and live rock IS all I'm really planning for now anyways.

 

I'm definitely gonna skip the fish, I am going to have a good amount of live rock in there, so there definitely won't be enough swimming room.

 

I'm gonna try to use the Whisper Filter's powerhead, since it's just going to go sit in a drawer otherwise, and I think I can make it work and save some bucks.

 

Sexy shrimp sounds like the way to go: small, cool, and reef-safe... perfect.

 

So... for stocking, that would be:

 

2 x scarlet reef hermit crabs

2 x nassarius snails

2 x astrea snails

2 x cerith snails

1 x sexy anemone shrimp

 

I have seen a thread where someone removed the pump from the whisper internal filter and used it for a powerhead, cant find the link right now, but as I remember it was pretty simple. Sexy shrimp do better in groups, you could put 3 or 4 in a 2.5. If you get corals down the road be sure and keep the sexies well feed, otherwise the will pick on soft corals and polyps. Best of luck.

[ab420]

Anyone have any experience with Harlequin shrimp? I would love to have a couple of them in 2.5 instead of the sexy shrimp, is that possible?

[ab420]

Anyone have any experience with Harlequin shrimp? I would love to have a couple of them in 2.5 instead of the sexy shrimp, is that possible?

So, today I found an old small flourescent light fixture I had kicking around. It's a F6T5/D bulb, which needs to be replaced as its practically green. I am trying to find a nice bulb for it, as I could easily fit that into the hood with the 10watt 50/50 bulb. So far though, all I have been able to find was a daylight bulb rated at 6500k, that wouldn't really provide any benefit, would it? The bulb is 6 watts, but its that 6500k spectrum that worries me.

[ab420]

So... now I'm really not sure what is going to happen...

I may actually be going with an AGA standard 10 gallon instead of the Minibow 2.5. So, this should give me a lot more room to work with. I didn't think I had the room, but I might be able to pull it off (now to convince the girlfriend...)

 

I started a thread about that here: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101948

as I now have different questions, but thank you all for your help! And don't worry it won't be wasted (I still want to set up the 2.5 gallon mini reef too!! Shh... don't tell my girlfiend...) lol!