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Coral Vue Hydros

5.5g Reef Island


Sandeep

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I was at the LFS on the weekend and noticed this absolutely lovely 5.5g glass aquarium with nice looking seamless rounded corners on the front edges like cubes have. It was pretty cheap so I picked one up.

 

Following the wild success of my 5.5g with built in refugium that started a lot of people off

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=132714

 

I was considering doing the same kind of mod to this tank, but the real beauty of this tank is the front rounded edges, & to section it off like I did with the AGA tank would really kill it's looks. So I thought of building a refugium/pump area at the back, but I like the back of my aquarium to be transparent and not blocked off with a wall running all the way along the back.

 

The solution I came up with requires modifying one of those Marina/Pen Plax 5 Way Breeding Traps which seems ideal to house the pump and act as a refugium for the chaeto macro-algea. They look like this:

reef_breeder.jpg

All of the internal partitions are removable and one entire face of it has long thin slots to let water circulate - perfect. Here is one at marine-depot for reference:

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~cat...MIBN~tab~2.html

 

I also picked up a Aquarium Systems Premium Maxi-Jet 400 Utility Pump which is significantly smaller than the maxi-jet 400 powerhead that I'm using in my current 5.5g and has the same flow rate. It looks like this:

reef_maxi400.jpg

and comes with a similar long intake nozzle attachment (not shown in the picture) as the regular maxi-jet's have.

 

Basically all I had to do was melt a hole in the side of the breeding trap for the pump out nozzle, melt a tiny hole for the cord to get out, put the pump into the trap with it's nozzle sticking out the hole, remove all the internal partitions of the breeder, fill it with chaeto macro-algea and you are all set. I've placed it vertically in the back left corner of my new tank with the intake slot wall facing the front of the tank and the pump out nozzle facing towards the right of the tank. Placed vertically, it does not take up a lot of space and leaves the majority of the tank free for coral placement. The Breeder is big enough that if you wanted you could even place a small titanium heater inside if you want, something I might do down the road.

 

As it stands the tank looks great so far and has that same uncluttered look at the back while providing a completely open front. If everything works out, I'll slowly migrate my coral island and inhabitants from the old 5.5g to this new home.

 

I'll post pictures of what the tank looks like soon, it's been running for a few days now.

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This is what the tank looks like, I just love those curved seamless round corners on the front. Those decorative clips on the top and bottom corners are plastic, not metal so no chance of corrosion. I don't like acrylic tanks, so I'm very happy to find such a nice tank design in glass.

PicoDec18_08a.jpg

 

Here is what the converted breeder looks like in the corner. As you can see those slots on the front will allow for easy circulation and turned on it's side like that it's almost the full height of the tank which is great. The maxi-jet is very tiny but powerful.

PicoDec18_08b.jpg

 

This is what it looks like from the back. The entire back comes off so you only need a tiny hole at the top edge for the pump cord to get out. As I mentioned the pump comes with that long traditional intake like you find on maxi-jet powerheads and that's what I'm using.

PicoDec18_08c.jpg

 

You can see my SAIO tank behind. So far I've just got some live rock and a xenia in the tank, I'll add in a hermit crab in a few days and then in a week or two if things look good I'll make the big move of bringing over the coral island from the SAIO to the new tank.

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I've had chaeto surrounding my maxi-jet 400 intake in my current 5.5g with built in sump/refugium. In over a year of operation, I have not had any issues with the macro-algea clogging the pump intake. The chaeto is slow growing and pretty wirey. As long as you clean the intake every few weeks it's never become clogged.

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Tank cost only $20 Can, about $15 US with glass top.

 

Covering up the breeder with rocks would cut off the light to the chaeto for photosynthesis, I'm going to leave it as is, better circulation through the breeder that way too.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes the plastic corners come off quite easily along the top of the tank. They are just held in place with a bit of silicone underneath and can be removed if you want that open rim look. I'm keeping mine in place to provide a bit of structural support to the glass at the corners.

 

I successfully completed the migration of my coral island with all inhabitants from my 5.5g AGA to this new tank over the weekend and it went well. I'll post pictures soon.

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My coral island and all inhabitants have now been successfully moved over from my 5.5g AGA with built in sump/refugium which has been shut down to this new tank. Here is what the tank looks like now:

 



PicoJan6_09a.jpg

 

PicoJan6_09f.jpg

 

PicoJan6_09h.jpg

 

PicoJan6_09g.jpg

 

PicoJan6_09c.jpg

 

PicoJan6_09d.jpg

 

PicoJan6_09e.jpg

 

And finally my rarest inhabitant, a tiny baby Elegance frag that I have been nurturing over a year now, he's now developed a mouth as you can see and has a diameter of about the size of a nickel (you can see how big the damsel looks next to it for scale)

PicoJan6_09b.jpg

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awesome setup. inhabitants look great too, how did you get the elegance? did a larger colony drop it?

 

btw, your original 5.5 aio inspired mine, which has been a blast, thanks.

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  • 4 weeks later...

1) The light fixture I'm using is the same 18" T5-HO Current USA that I was using on my previous 5.5g AGA.

 

2) Last year I fragged a large Elegance Coral into five pieces. A really tiny bit of tissue that I hardly noticed broke off and I was about to throw it in the garbage, but got curious so I kept it in my 20g nano to see if it would regenerate, and it did!

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