New Fluval Spec V

[yamaha772]

Hey guys, decided to jump in with the herd of people buying the fluval spec v lately. Pretty excited to get going on this tank. Bought the tank at petco and the rest of the stuff at my lfs.

So far:

• Fluval Spec V 70.99
• 10 lbs aragonite white sand 15.00
• 7 lbs BRS fiji rock (leftover from last order)
• 10 gallon box of IO reef crystal salt
• thermometer 1.29
• refractometer (which i could use some help with)
• 
  

 

Setting up..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filled up... Stock light..

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the T5 fixture I have sitting around that I would like to use if anyone on here thinks possible.. It is a 4 bulb fixture, 2 12000k daylight bulbs and 2 actinic bulbs. If I can use it I still need a way to get it raised a bit so any ideas on that would be appreciated..

 

 

^{On the tank, moonlights are on because it had least amount of glare to show the fixture with tank well on photo..}

 

 

 

Tank after 3 days with rock..

 

 

 

If I can't use this fixture I am looking at a Finnex Ray II Ultraslim fixture. They only come in 12'', 16'', and 18'' so I'm not sure which one would work. As for stocking for this tank I want to a lot of corals.. mushrooms, zoas, kenya tree, frogspawn... many more as well but those will be the first after cycling is done. fishwise I have no clue. Plan on either sticking another powerhead in the chamber or getting a magnetic powerhead for the side. If I don't put it in the chamber I will end up making that somewhat of a fuge with some sand and chaeto.. Any and all suggestions are welcomed. I know a lot of these tanks are going on right now and I am following any and all threads I see. Thanks all. Will update every few days with param readings. And another question, I bought a refractometer from BRS and they did not send me the calibration fluid.. Any way to make your own or any ways of calibrating it rather than waiting to order it and get it?? Thanks!!

[ExSmoker]

I like the T5s on there.

[yamaha772]

I like the look of them as well and they give a good amount of light into the chamber as well so they could possibly work to grow the chaeto as well. Now just to find a way to raise them..

[jestep]

I can't believe how well that fixture fits the tank. That should be a killer setup. With 4 bulbs you should be able to really get the color you want.

[yamaha772]

I was amazed at how well it fit to... The only problem I'm having is getting it raised off the tank. Right now I have it resting on the rim of the tank which I don't really want to do.. If I can't find a way to get it raised I will end up buying a 6 led solderless kit from rapid led and use 5 of them in a 2 cool white to 3 royal blue ratio, or just go 1 cool white to 1 royal blue and use all 6... Not sure yet.

I also had to remove some sand from the tank today. I had about a 2'' sand bed but after reading around a bit I saw many people recommending anywhere from barebottom to 3/4'' to make stability easier and lessen the chance of buildup.. Last question, does anyone have an experience with the bottles of cycle starter stuff? I bought some Nutrafin Cycle that says in will kickstart the cycle in place of doing the dead shrimp method that I usually do. Its only been 4 days so haven't tested yet. Just seeing if anyone has had experience with that kind of thing. Thanks all.