2.5 gallon - 4th months old and I think it is complete! (for a week at least)

[FlyGTI]

Up until Saturday when we broke it down and pitched it, I had the very same desk you did, Liquid.

 

As far as the tank goes, I'm nearly speechless. Beautiful. No two ways about it.

 

Second the nomination for tank of the month.

[R*Frost*]

thx for the advice i never thought of asking the LFS for dead shells. I will try the glueing plan too and tell ya how it's going and how quickly it was covered.

 

thx again Simon

[LiQuiD]

LEEWINK: I changed 4 breakers in my fuse box last summer to much higher amp ones (now I hope the house doesn't burn down). What I am paying for electricity, some pay for rent. I feel like Dr. Frankenstein at times. The plug near the tank in this thread has 22 plugs in a bunch of power strips all in the one local plug (2.5g along with a 55g next to it and computer with periphials and lights).

 

FlyGTI: Thanx for the compliments. It is a great desk. I am thinking of doing an eclipse 3 gallon planted freshwater on the oposite side of the desk as the reef for a symetrical thing (I'm just out of plugs at the time ).

 

R*Frost*: No problem. You really only need to glue them if your other critters will kick them around. You may be able to get away with wedgeing them in holes in your LR. Just remember to make sure they are touching the coraline and in an area of good growth. If you must glue them, just use enough to keep them from getting kicked around but little enough that they will snap off without breaking the shell. You may not even need to do this aproach if you have a good LFS with lots of shells in their reefs, I'm sure you can find a few nice ones there. Good luck.

[reefan]

Bill O'reilly ROCK'S

Oh and your tank rocks LOL

I am currently working on the hood for my 2.5 the base is completed. I love all the corals in your tank it looks so colorful. What happened to the Mixima clam???? Did he out grow his home??

your tank rocks JJ

BTW can anyone think of a good purple fish for a 2.5?? The 2.5 I am building is for my mom's desk and she keeps saying she wants a purple fish!!

[palaegic]

Well LiQuiD - I hope your'e happy. You, and Glazer, and all of those other reefers running 2.5's have infected me. I have spent the last week thinking about it - searching and learning. Please do keep adding to the thread. I am curious to know if there have been any sore spots - I have tried to track down most threads relating to 2.5's (including yours prior to this update) I was wondering if and how far pH drops at night, and if a days worth of evaporation can completely throw off specific gravity/salinity.

 

reefan - pseudochromis sp jump to mind for "purple fish", and I know small specimens are out there - but I don't know how appropriate they would be for a 2.5.

[freakaccident]

I got a free 2.5 a week ago. The cycle has completed and is ready to go. These things are really cheap to set up and very cool. Not like I needed one more tank in my bedroom though. The 2.5 fits perfectly on top of my subwoofer. Gotta keep the bass turned down.

[LiQuiD]

Reefan: Bill does rock doesn't he. The clam had a run in with the emerald crab a few weeks back. The crab stuck it's claw into the hole in it's mantel while looking for food, the clam shut down on the crabs claw and the crab just started walking around with the clam attached to it's arm. The whole time I would assume the crab was just grinding up the clam because when the clam finally let go, it was pretty messed up. I hoped it would recoupe but it became hermit food within a couple days of the incedent. I was going to get a replacement for this tank but now have no room for one at the moment. I am going to move some things around tonight and see what I can come up with. I would agree with Palaegic on the purple pseudochromis, I have one in a 12 gallon and really love it, it is a carnivorous preditor so it is cool watching it hunt out pods and such (and it does eat flakes if you are curious). I think it would be fine in a 2.5 but I would not try to add any additional little fish if you did get one.

 

palaegic: PH fluctuations are no different then larger tanks from what I have noticed (although I haven't run a single test on this tank in a couple months now). As far as salinity fluctuations, i have not noticed any higher then .002 (sg) increase from the evap. and that was when there was a lot of evap so I tested to see, typically no more then .001 so don't sweat that either. Sore spots, well except for the mithrax clam wrestlemania action, now it is just the hermit in the purple shell bulldozing through things as well as diging out the crushed large coral chunk pieces and spreading them all over my nice white sand. Other then the crustations causing terror, all else is good.

 

freakaccident: Welcome to the 2.5 club. The sub-woofer stand does kind of scare me though. Cheap ain't the word (and "ain't" is not a word), under 100 bucks and your good to go, these systems rock.

[freakaccident]

It worked out cheaply for me. I already had everything I needed except the heater and Whisper mini. Two days ago I added one turbo snail and two scarlet hermits. They are happy. I need to move the turbo out due to lack of food. He has about cleaned the rocks up. Last night I added one small Xenia frag, one small mushroom growing on a snail shell glued to a rock, one small candy cane frag, and one small yellow polyp rock. I didn't acclimate them at all. The Xenia closed up for about 5 minutes after the transfer across the room. All were happy this morning when I woke up. I wold like to add a fish here in about two months. I may look into the purple pseudochromis too.

[Dave ESPI]

It is rare that I say any negetive commentary about members tanks, but I have to go against the grain of the sheep in this one......

 

Liquid, nice tank, BBUUUTTTT.....

 

poor choices in husbandry and placement of species in relation to the neighbors. That gorgo will NOT like being near that riccordia much longer as I am suprized it has not burned itself out of existance yet. The soft wartys.... while the carnations look nice, they are very short lived in captivity and I hope you realize that.

 

your tank while looking nice now, will soon over grow each other and many of the various corals are boarderline already fighting in the tank (judging by a few pictures.) If you look, you will see what I am talking about. For a tank that has been running a VERY short time, you jammed a lot of stuff into it. For that, I both commend your skill and adept ability (or shear luck) to do so and have it healty and looking good, but must also caution that it may have serious repprocussions in the near future.... AKA: the 6 month "Burn out" or algae invasion. I can see the obvious asthetics of the tank is appealing NOW, but when it come to fruitation, you will be scrambling to keep the chemical warfare "soup" from destroying it all.

 

 

Perhaps it was that NEW JERSY SHORE LIVE SAND

Take this post wiht a grain of salt...... There is a pot O' Gold , but no one said that it was full and the rainbow didn't have pitfalls

[LiQuiD]

Freakaccident: Good to hear. The Xenia is the only coral I have removed from my 2.5 due to it's rapid growth and tendency to climb to the top of the reef then spread out to shade other corals I had to trim it weekly (the stuff just grows too much for a 2.5). Just thought I'd fill ya in on that since you have added some to yours. Good luck with the purplr psuedo if ya get one, I do love mine.

 

Dave: The Gorgonian was moved away from the Ricordia the next day after that Pic (I'll show update at bottom). I had put it in about 10 minutes before the original pictures and realized a few hours later that it was too close, but is now well out of reach as are the rest in the tank. The only poor placement I see in the tank is the fact that their is a Ric in it to begin with (maybe you can fill me in on the other poor placements). The Ricordia, if you look at the first week pictures from when I set it up, was the first coral in the tank that was added with the rock from day one even through cycle time. It was there and I really think of ripping it out daily but don't have the heart. I actually HATE Ricordia for the fact that they hate everything around them, but as is, it has not bothered anything in this tank. I know it will not drop to bother lower corals and have blocked it from higher ones with the Halimedia which does not mind its presence at all. The carnation/chilli came from a 12" tall parent colony that has been growing for over 3 years now. I had not planned on the carnation but well you should know how the "sure, I'll take it for the little tank if ya don't want it especially with the small 7 polyp colony growing so close to it that it is too hard to seperate" thing goes.

 

I look at some of my friends tanks and there is no visable LR to be seen, coral touching coral throughout. Sometimes they fight it out and the winner prevails and grows over the looser. I think that is kind of mean but the damn tanks are astounding. I am not saying that I want fighting in my tank because the amount of water would be hard to deal with the chemical warfare. I have tanks that I don't bother with as much as I should but this little 2.5 is in my face 12 hours a day roughly 7 days a week. I am meticulous about upkeep and moving or snipping if need be. In fact, since starting this post, I have glanced at it probably 10 times, believe me, nothing has time to cause a problem in there.

 

I have added 5 more corals since the last pics (notice the brown hairy shroom and white shroom with halimeda to the mid right side along with the 2 new patches of star polyps center bottom, moved the existing white shroom to the front of the center rock and a buttom polyp in the bottom sand) and still feel I want just a few more in a couple spots. I understand your concern and appreciate the feedback but I have it all under control (so I hope;) ) If need be, snipped, cut, moved or eraticated will a radical coral be. Myself to this tank is like Edward Scissor Hands to a shrub.

[reefan]

Thanks for the reply with what fish would be good. That is my new choice for the tank. I also hope to keep 1 or 2 hermits and a shrimp probably pepermint. Also I decided against the overflow style fuge. I went with a bio-wheel mini. This thing sits perfectly on the side. I am working on the hood for my 2 13w PC's. I think I will go to that fish place tonight to see if there is any decent rock.

Your tank rocks,

JJ

[jdsabin1]

You know I am new to nano-reefing but looking at LiQuiD's tank is about the biggest inspiration I've come across since I started all this crazy, and what is turning out to be wildly fun (yet educational

[freakaccident]

My 2.5 is looking beautiful after only a week and a half. I had a moment of weakness when I went to the LFS the other day for RO water. This little green chromis was begging me to take him home. He is about half the size of Liquid's and loves the 2.5g. Such a cool fish under the atinics.

[Neal M]

now THAT is a nano-reef-

 

totally awesome!!! thank you for sharing the beautiful pics with us. i can speak for everyone when i say your tank is inspirational-

 

good work

[LiQuiD]

Reefan: Yes, the purple psuedo's are cool, you will love the way they "stalk" for prey (while the rear sways and swims like a snake, the head stays perfectly straight and focused). When you start getting coral, the hermits and pep will drive you nuts. I have a small blue legged in the tank that is too small to do damage, I would maybe suggest getting some of the little ones insted of the larger ones. Good luck with the rest of the setup.

 

jdsabin1: Yes, it is a 2.5, no smoke and mirrors here. I'm glad to see that this system has become an inspiration to many of you. Good luck with your new (totally addictive) hobby and thank you for the comments.

 

freakaccident: They are awsome little fish aren't they. They also do seem to fit right at home in the 2.5 and kind of is going to make me sad the day mine outgrows the tank and needs to be moved to the fish only to then have to fight for territory.

 

Neal M: Thank you. Glad to have inspired you as well.

[Neal M]

liquid,

 

can you post some more details about how you do your water changes. do you use RO? or buy the distilled water at wally world? Do you use Instant Ocean? any other details that im forgetting that should be mentioned-

 

also, i noticed that you moved your tank in and out of that little cubby hole in your desk, is it really that light? whats it weigh?

[LiQuiD]

Neal M: The water is Distilled from my local grocery store.

 

The salt is Instant Ocean, IO has done fine by me. I know of all the debates over salt and as far as the last one with Dr. Ron and the Urchin's, well the point I have that no one else seems to have noticed is this: All organisms should be acclimated to new salts, I know he dripped the babies into that cup of salt water, now the question is did he then eyedrop them out and drip them into different water or did he have one urchin per salt brand where the babies were always in the original salt water. I would assume the one that is the most different from the original salt would have the most not live due to the dramatic change in it's ingredients and due to the fact that he tested with them because they are one of the most touchy creatures in the sea. I may be totally off with what I just said and don't want to debate anyone at it but another way of looking at it is this: If a bad component of natural sea water is normally at .0000003 ppt then you really can't say that brand x that has .005 is much better then brand z that has .03, the point is they both totally suck when it comes to natural water. Please, no debates, I just wanted to share my reasoning on salts.

 

Every other week I take 2 scoops out with an old Breakstones 16 ounce Sour Cream container and pour 2 back in, takes about 1 minute.

 

I suppose the tank weighs about 25 pounds. it slides very easy in and out with just 2 fingers and a little pressure. It is on felt stick on feet that are attached to the bottom of the base (I will show below), and being on a smooth surface, it is extremely easy to move around. As an example, you could do this: take (2)-1 gallon jugs of something and place them side by side on a cloth on your kitchen table or other smooth surface. Now, grab the rear corners at the bottom with each hand and pull it towards you, it's like a hockey puck on ice, very easy.

[LiQuiD]

Here is a better pick from the bottom, the above really isn't a good example.

[reefan]

my 2.5 is filled with sand water and the HOB. I was scraping the back with a kent scraper and almost pushed the friggin thing off the desk. I almost SH** my pants.

JJ

I hope you learn the lesson hold the back when applying pressure.

[Dave ESPI]

the prosicutuinnon an on and on' ... rest.

 

I promised Chris Marks I'd post pictures of my finished 2.5 . after you and glazer have done this good, I just might have to do so.....

[LiQuiD]

Reefan: I know, if your not careful, you can send them flying into the next room.

 

Dave: Sounds good, would be nice to see some more 2.5's. I thought I had read that you tore it down a little while back.

 

Took a few more shots today, so here ya go:

 

This is of the brown and white hairy shrooms that were added a few days ago. They will probably not be staying where they are, I really just wanted some Halimeda over in that area and haven't had a chance to surgically seperate the algae from the shrooms.

[LiQuiD]

Here is a shot of the Gorgonian getting ready to have some dinner. The polyps are not always open so I thought I would throw up a shot while I had the chance.

[LiQuiD]

This shot is just for kicks. I am concluding that this Hermit does not and will not eat algae (the other one in there is just as worthless)! This tank is totally spotless of algae (except for the macro's I added), due to what I believe to be the slugs and the snail. The one and only place that has any is on the shell of this snail. I and only I give the fro a cut myself every few weeks so it is not too long. The Hermit will walk past it and most of the time directly over the top of it and does not devour it as I would have hoped it would do.

 

I conclude, HERMITS ARE WORTHLESS! The only thing they are good at is knocking stuff over and messing up my substrate

.

[reefan]

Well I got some rock today and was working on the aquascaping. The difficulty is leaving enough room on the sides to clean algae. This tank is viewed from both large sides.

BTW Liquid I love the "snail fro"

JJ

[danano]

Liquid, that's an amazing 2.5G! I see you have an orange dendro. Red chilli is nice too.