2.5 Gallon Set Up (Corals In)

[Jon-Paul]

Well I set up the tank on June the 20th 2004. At that time I bought some frags and put them in my 37 Gallon (to give me time to get the Actinic Pc's). The tank at the time of the setup consisted of:

 

2.5 Gallon AGA Aquarium

7(ish) pounds of Live Rock

3(ish) pounds of Live Sand

Fluval 1Plus 50 GPH Filter (also acting as owerhead)

1x13 watt Power Compact 6500K Light (Bayco Edition)

 

I don't think the tank cycled at all because i used the water from my already established 37 Gallon Tank (Almost 2 years old). All of the corals were left to sit and wait in the 37 Gallon. Also the Live Rock was collected from the 37 Gallon.

 

One day After set-up 1 Blue-Leg Hermit Crab was added to see if he could survive (as tests of Amonia and Nitrite showed 0). He is still alive.

 

July 6th 2004 my 2 Actinic (13 watt) bulbs arrived. That day my father also went out and bought metal harnesses and another Bayco Edition Power Compact Light to Support the Actinic Bulb. That night The actinic was added (The tank still never had a top at this time. The bulbs were laid on top of a very small grill I found laying on top of my Salt Bucket) and so were two more Hermit Crabs (1 a Blue-Leg and the other a Silver-Leg considered by my LFS to be a Blue-Leg).

 

July 7th 2004 both of the lights were hooked to my old timers:

8:30 AM Actinics ON

9:00 AM Daylight ON

9:00 PM Daylight OFF

9:30 PM Actinic OFF

This was done to simulate Dusk and Dawn periods of the day.

 

This very day the first Corals were to be added. When I reached down into my 37 Gallon to get the first of my Corals (The smallest of the two Tree Corals) I notced that I couldn't pick him up. This was due to the fact that he was a frag and latched himself onto the biggest piece of Live Rock in my tank. So I would have to wait to get him. So I though I would go for my Button Polyps which were getting dangerously close to a neighboring pesty Aiptasia. There were 3 mini colonies of this one small colony. So I tried to pick up the on closest to me... it to had latched tiself onto the largest piece of Live Rock in my Tank. But tehre were stil lthe other 2 mini colonies in my tank. they were all attached by a thin cord. So I ripped them off and scurried them into the bag and put the bag into my 2.5 Gallon for accimilation. I also took with me the bigger of the two Tree corals and slpped it into a bag and then into my 2.5 Gallon also. Now I just played the waiting game and tested my salinity to make sure the Salinity was the same. The I finally opened up the bag (after pouring small doses of the 2.5's water in) and added the two corals. They looked great shortly after this i went through the same process with a mushroom and Green Star Polyps.

 

Thanx for listening to my story. I havent been able to tell it to anyone because they al lfind it too boring. LmaO. Either today or tommorow I will add pics to this page of the tank, corals, crabs (I don't have any snails). I'll also showcase the Mahogany Top and base my father and I are building for the Tank (being stained right now by my father hopefully).

 

Peace out

[BJK2]

cool, keep us updated. I will eventually want a 2.5 but right now i am still setting up my 20L as the parent tank so it'll be probably a year