Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

5.5g Reef Islands


Sandeep

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 182
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Your tank is beautiful. Can you let us know how the parameters are with the two fish? I started an 8 gallon nano and have some coral and a fire fish goby. I want a snowflake clown as well. I have subscribed to your thread for inspiration. Thank.

 

Don

Link to comment
How are you liking that coral compulsion 14 watt so far? The price on it isn't bad at all.

 

I'm finding the 14W Coral Compulsion Par 30 is perfect for my 5.5g tank. Swapping out the optics for 120 degree ones gives full coverage across the tank without harsh shadows. You can ask them to send it with 120 degree optics instead of the stock optics when ordering and they will do that for you. I also tried the lamp without any optics, but 120 degree is much better. For a pico using a larger par 38 bulb instead of this par 30 is just unnecessary overkill in my opinion.

Link to comment
Your tank is beautiful. Can you let us know how the parameters are with the two fish? I started an 8 gallon nano and have some coral and a fire fish goby. I want a snowflake clown as well. I have subscribed to your thread for inspiration. Thank.

 

Don

 

Tank seems to be fine with the bioload of two fish. The key to sucess is the combination of only feeding the fish twice a week, target feeding them by only giving them a little at a time, waiting for them to consume it and then giving some more. That feeding schedule combined with the weekly water changes are the key to good water quality.

 

Alternatively instead of fish you can also consider shrimp. I love skunk cleaner shrimp and fire shrimp. They are intelliginet and very active. It's just that I decided to pass on them for this tank because I have found it a pain to constantly be protecting the corals from food theft when I'm spot feeding them. Even after gving the shrimp some food first before attempting to feed the corals.

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...

Hi how did you cycle your tank I know you used seachem stability but did you have a diatom bloom and could I use just any dry coral?

 

No I did not have any bloom. I used the seachem stability with new water mixed up with Seachem Aqua Vitro salt and the fish was added in the first week as per the seachem stability's directions.

 

The advantage of using just dry coral like I did is that you can then glue them into whatever shapes you want.

 

Very nice pico, but your damsel is an Azure damsel (Chrysiptera hemicyanea) - one of my favorite damsels... :)

Thanks for the correct ID on the damsel, now I know.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

This thread has answered so many of my questions! I'm loving the par30 and the fish! Other than the hermits, do you have a CUC?

 

Edit: How high up is your light? I have a 5.5 deep blue that is 16 inches long, 8 wide, 10 high. I'm trying to figure out light height and whether 120 or 90 degrees would be best suited for the tank.

Link to comment

My Par 30 with 120 degree optics is about 12 inches from the water surface for full coverage on my 16" wide tank and I have a glass top to limit evaporation. I would recommend you go for the 120 optics.

 

Nope, just the two hermits. I'm the cleanup crew. I stirr up the sand with a rod every week, catch floating particles with a fine fish net and then do a water change. I also use a bottle brush to occasionally clean the rocks a bit if they need it.

 

In general too many crabs are a nuisance as they crawl over and irritate corals and some will even pick on the coral tissue. Snails are nice until they totally crap up the water quality when they die - a issue to be mindful if putting snails in such a small volume of water.

 

This thread has answered so many of my questions! I'm loving the par30 and the fish! Other than the hermits, do you have a CUC?

 

Edit: How high up is your light? I have a 5.5 deep blue that is 16 inches long, 8 wide, 10 high. I'm trying to figure out light height and whether 120 or 90 degrees would be best suited for the tank.

Link to comment

My Par 30 with 120 degree optics is about 12 inches from the water surface for full coverage on my 16" wide tank and I have a glass top to limit evaporation. I would recommend you go for the 120 optics.

 

Nope, just the two hermits. I'm the cleanup crew. I stirr up the sand with a rod every week, catch floating particles with a fine fish net and then do a water change. I also use a bottle brush to occasionally clean the rocks a bit if they need it.

 

In general too many crabs are a nuisance as they crawl over and irritate corals and some will even pick on the coral tissue. Snails are nice until they totally crap up the water quality when they die - a issue to be mindful if putting snails in such a small volume of water.

Gotcha. Thanks!

Link to comment

My Par 30 with 120 degree optics is about 12 inches from the water surface for full coverage on my 16" wide tank and I have a glass top to limit evaporation. I would recommend you go for the 120 optics.

 

Nope, just the two hermits. I'm the cleanup crew. I stirr up the sand with a rod every week, catch floating particles with a fine fish net and then do a water change. I also use a bottle brush to occasionally clean the rocks a bit if they need it.

 

In general too many crabs are a nuisance as they crawl over and irritate corals and some will even pick on the coral tissue. Snails are nice until they totally crap up the water quality when they die - a issue to be mindful if putting snails in such a small volume of water.

Hey Sand,

What brand Par 30 are you using?Thanks

Link to comment

The Coral Compulsion 14W Par 30 18K Vibrance Reef with 120 degree optics is perfect for the tank and all the corals are happy. Most importantly the acans are not loosing their intense colours as has been reported with some types of LED lighting. The blue mushroom actually got back it's intense neon blue colour that had turned more to purple under my previous Par 38 bulb.

 

Still chasing my 'holy grail' acan. The seller is still growing it out, so no frag yet.

This is what it looks like, is that unreal or what!

CrazyAcan1.jpg

The plan once I get a frag of this beauty is to put this on top of the flat portion of Acan Island that is reserved for it.

 

Tank looks pretty much the same, just growing slowly. I'll try to post and updated picture in the next week or so.

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

Very cute little tank, I love the coral selection, I lost all my acans in a crash of sorts last year and haven't found the guts to try them again. The elegance baby is awesome. Your 5.5 gallon thread really brought me down memory lane, used the idea for a 2.5 we had at our apartment in 07-08, learned quickly that pico was a pita to clean. Still have nanos but a 7.5 nps and a 24 gallon reef. Simple setups like this.

Link to comment

I'm loving my CC par30, I think the best part is the color. Though because it has one cool white that side of the tank looks slightly different. Do you notice that with yours?

Link to comment

  1. Still chasing the holy grail acan. Hey if it were that easy to get it would not be called 'the holy grail'.
  2. Yes my original concept compartmentalized pico which has now been commercialized by a number of vendors does have narrow deep chambers which are hard to clean.
  3. No different colours with my Coral Compulsion Par 30 bulb. Since I'm using 120 degree optics it really diffuses the light very well, so no spotlight effects.

Time for some new pics of the tank!

 

One new acan added, just resting on the tank bottom for a couple of weeks before getting added to Acan Island

pico_20131217_5.jpg

pico_20131217_4.jpg

pico_20131217_3.jpg

pico_20131217_6.jpg

Dendros & micro-Elegance want food, not their picture taken

pico_20131217_2.jpg

Finally FTS

pico_20131217_1.jpg

 

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...