RDA’s 6 Gallon Long

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

~~FOR THE CURRENT BUILD SKIP TO PAGE 3~~

 

 

*Clears Throat* Hello.

 

Never thought that I would be here with another build, but alas, here we are.

 

Over the past few months I have all but gotten out of the hobby. Between renovating our living room, and then overhauling the yard I have had no time to take care of a tank, let alone think about them.

I guess like a lot of things in life this hobby ebbs and flows for me and balancing reef tanks with a few other interests has proven difficult if not impossible recently. To add insult to injury I have had to sell off most of my hobby things to help fund the ever hungry academic adventure that I am apart of. With the end of summer on the horizon, though, things have started to slow down a little and it was my wife who mentioned that a particular bookshelf would look nice with a reef tank to fill the space. Haha I think she missed having a reef tank more than I did. Well, I have to admit I didn't sell ALL of my reefing stuff (come on now 😉), and I soon found myself pulling out a gently used Lifegard Aquatics 6 gallon bookshelf aquarium out of storage. 

 

It took some work with a razor to scrape off all of the old crusties from once upon a time when it was a planted aquarium, but it cleaned up pretty nice. 

In a perfect world I wouldn't mind hanging some high end lighting and really going to town on this little tank, wouldn't we all, but in the process of paying for school I had to sell my wallet as well, so I guess we're going for broke with this one.

 

I did however have a few pieces here and there and a hardscape took shape. I usually use Aquamaxx's (RIP MarineDepot) reef welder to glue rocks together, but given the delicate nature of the scape I was trying to achieve it really looked tacky so I switched to just plain old superglue which worked well still. I decided to only add a minimal* layer of "standard grade" Caribsea sand (*all I had). I want to go pretty minimalistic on equipment as well as looks with this tank so between a light, a heater and small wavemaker that will be the only tech powering this tank. I placed an order for an inexpensive Nicrew LED. Since this tank is so shallow, I figured I can get away with a less powerful lighting setup (and save some coin too). Filtration will be taken care of by the rock and sand as well as water changes. I do expect some hiccups in trying to find a groove with this tank, given how low tech it will be, but it shouldn't be too hard to upkeep (<famous last words ha!). I have a few housekeeping things to do; wire management and hanging the light when it arrives. And as per tradition, a mixed reef seems proper here. We also had a friend open a new shop just a few blocks away so some perusing might occur soon.

 

Thanks for stopping by and happy reefing! 😁

 

Equipment:

• Tank: Lifegard Aquatics 6 Gallon Long
• Lighting: Nicrew Marine LED
• Heater: Hitop 50w
• Wavemaker: Jebao SOW-3

 

Corals:

     Soft: 

• Lilo & Stich Zoas
• Scrambled Egg Zoas
• Pink Zipper Zoas
• Deepwater Zoas
• Magician Palys
• GSP
• Golden Plume Gorgonian

 

     LPS:

• Duncan (×2)
• Rainbow Acan
• Misc. Orange Acan
• Watermelon Acan
• Purple Tipped Hammer
• Golden Hammer
• Green Purple Tentacle Fungia

 

     SPS:

• Purple Pocilloproa
• Neon Green Seriatopora
• Yellow Millepora
• Blue/Green Millepora
• Green/Pink Tenuis
• Purple/Yellow Tenuis
• Neon Green Tenuis
• Red Setosa

 

     Macro Algae:

• Codium

 

Inverts:

• Blue Legged Hermit Crabs

 

Fish:

• TBD

 

 

 

FTS 8/07/2021:

 

FTS 9/22/2021

 

FTS 10/21/2021

 

FTS 11/17/2021

 

[Melfy77]

I like it!! Funny I actually have the Lifegard 22g long with 2 Nicrew saltwater LED lights lol. I only have some softies in there and getting a BTA this week but since the tank is shallow those lights work really well and look nice! Apparently the fixture puts out 110 PAR at 12 inches deep. Now that at 100% but still pretty good. I run mine with whites at 30% and blue 100% I kept it simple as well. AC 50, heater and maxspect jump 2k gyre.

[debbeach13]

Welcome back. Good luck with the new set up it looks great. 

[pmemmer]

Love this tank size!

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

On 8/8/2021 at 4:25 AM, Melfy77 said:

I like it!! Funny I actually have the Lifegard 22g long with 2 Nicrew saltwater LED lights lol. I only have some softies in there and getting a BTA this week but since the tank is shallow those lights work really well and look nice! Apparently the fixture puts out 110 PAR at 12 inches deep. Now that at 100% but still pretty good. I run mine with whites at 30% and blue 100% I kept it simple as well. AC 50, heater and maxspect jump 2k gyre.

Nice!

 

We'll see how it preforms on ~7" of water. A lot of my coral will be higher up in the tank so maybe I can get away with growing a little more. 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Got the light and heater today. The box for the light had a large hole punched through it so I was nervous that it was smashed inside, luckily that wasn't the case! However, I promptly voided any warranty by spraying a light coat of matt white on the fixture to match the aesthetic I'm going for.

 

Waiting for paint to dry is the worst. Maybe I'll get a picture of it up tomorrow when it's dry and hung over the tank. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of my doggo in his natural habitat 😁

 

[debbeach13]

Doggo is adorable. 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

On 8/12/2021 at 4:43 AM, debbeach13 said:

Doggo is adorable. 

And he knows it too. He gets away with way too much haha.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Well. Here she is! 

 

It took me way too long to hang the light lol. My wife is a bit under the weather so I've been helping her and trying to work on my tank at the same time, I'm not super good at juggling things so it was fun haha, but I don't think it turned out half bad.

 

 

 

 

 

I used 30lb test line and a few hooks to hang the fixture, simple enough. The line is subtle enough that it doesn't distract from the pictures hanging in the background, but isn't quite "look at this floating light how is it hovering above the tank?" kind of vibe which I don't like. 

 

I also visited my new LFS tonight as well. I actually was supposed to be picking up some meds for the wifey but took a little detour and well, yeah, guilty as charged when I came home with some frags. (Don't worry I got the meds too, I'm not a savage sheesh).

 

I threw the frags in my 1.2 gallon as I still have that tank running, although it's seen better days. I don't really do much to it anymore so I can't really say I "keep that reef running" more just " I look at that reef running/burning". Lazy I know, but once I have this tank cycled I'll be moving those frags over.

 

Anyways that's it for now. Going to be getting it wet in the next few days and working out a few kinks.

 

Happy reefing and make it a great weekend 😁 

[Jaren45]

Looks great! Those are the frag zone rocks you used it looks like?

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

7 hours ago, Jaren45 said:

Looks great! Those are the frag zone rocks you used it looks like?

Thank you! They are indeed. Frag zone rocks are my favorite when it comes to scaping smaller tanks.

 

Smaller pieces can help maintain a sense of scale (if you're going for that kind of thing). Idk I really channelled my inner planted tank aquascaping skills for this one; used a lot of rules from the Iwagumi method.

[Firefish15]

Hey, looking good so far! I think you’re doing well sticking with the minimalistic look. 
What are your thoughts on the Jebao SOW-3 so far? 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

8 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Hey, looking good so far! I think you’re doing well sticking with the minimalistic look. 
What are your thoughts on the Jebao SOW-3 so far? 

Thanks! Yeah it turned out better than I had hoped. It honestly was inspired by not having enough room to work/put my hands in other tanks haha, that and experimenting with negative space. 

 

I'm actually filling up this tank right now so I have yet to test it out. I had it running in my 4.1 gallon pico and it did a good job! Although, I am excited to see it working in a long tank like this. 

[Firefish15]

I’m currently running my SOW-3 on minimum power in the sine wave mode, and it’s still a bit strong. Must be the angle I have it at. 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

2 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

I’m currently running my SOW-3 on minimum power in the sine wave mode, and it’s still a bit strong. Must be the angle I have it at. 

After tinkering around with the power settings I settled on minimum power as well (pulse mode/W1). I posted a short video of my tank here if you want to see it in action. 🙂

 

 

[greenerdayz]

I actually bought a rimless 6g myself awhile back and am collecting ideas- excited to see where this goes!!

[Firefish15]

Any updates on this little beauty? Been almost a whole week. That’s a long time for a new tank! 😄

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

4 hours ago, greenerdayz said:

I actually bought a rimless 6g myself awhile back and am collecting ideas- excited to see where this goes!!

Nice mate!

When you get around to starting it up you should start a journal 👍

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

2 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Any updates on this little beauty? Been almost a whole week. That’s a long time for a new tank! 😄

Haha I know it's killing me!  Nothing much to report on yet. I did turn the flow up on the sow-3 and adjusted the pulse interval so I have a nice little wave action going, but that's about it. I'm trying to figure out how/if I'm going to dose and such. But I guess I don't have to worry about that until I actually have coral haha

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Picked up a few corals this evening. Just some simple frags (a duncan, sunny d zoas, and a rainbow acan) nothing too special. I took a chunk of GSP from my other thank and put it on it's own little rock too. I'm due for a water change this coming weekend as well, to help keep things clean and fresh, so I have that to look forward too. My LFS has these crazy fungia plate corals that really caught my eye, those and a snakeskin torch that I think would look really good in here. Maybe when things get rolling I'll pull the trigger on those, but as for now I'll just sit and dream 😔

 

Pictures for your enjoyment!

 

Happy reefing!

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

The new corals look nice. How is the acan?

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

The new corals look nice. How is the acan?

The acan (clumsy me) wasn't glued down very well and took a scenic trip tumbling around the tank 😅 It's all puckerd up and really not happy so I didn't bother taking a photo of it. Once it fluffs up I'll be sure to post one.

[gena]

Very sharp looking setup!

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

9 hours ago, gena said:

Very sharp looking setup!

Thank you Gena! It means a lot 😊

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

13 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

How is the acan?

I gave it a food offering to appease it and agreed to look half decent for a cellphone photo 😅 it has orange, red, green, and yellow coloration and for $10 it was a good deal for 1 head 😄