Beta Falls tank

[TheCurriculum]

Been years since I've posted and gone through a few 12g and larger tanks.  Right as Covid was starting I stripped down all my tanks and pulled my pico back out and a 2.5g to hold some extra LR that I didn't send out with the tanks.  I put 1 bubble tip anemone and a mushroom in the 2.5g and over the last year I have probably 20+ mushrooms and 15 ish bubble tips.  Great growth, will post a pic of the current simple setups tonight or tomorrow.

 

Worked moved to a new location so going to try out a new tank for the office as my tank at home is over flowing with bubble tips.  I understand there may be a salt creep issue, will do a week test of it running just SW and top off to see what happens.  If this is a fail will just go get a standard 5g tank.  Will pickup one of the small coralife clip on SW LED's . been running one of the bubbles and shrooms and had massive growth results, cheap and it works if someone is looking for a small LED ...

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Curious to see how this turns out.

Good luck 👍

[M. Tournesol]

Good use of a tank too small for betta fish 👍

[TheCurriculum]

Tank 1 year ago . Bubble tip split 3 way.  Than tank 9 months ago . In that 3 month span you can see more bubble and solid growth 

 

2 to 3 fish food pellets per bubble every other day .  

 

 

9 months ago 

A lot a lot 9f new bubble tip

 

 

 

[TheCurriculum]

Well the pump just went out … 1 day of running no noticeable creep at least.  I have an old dog water bowl at home that uses a pump around this size …. will need to order something off amazon as no one local has the baby fountain pumps in stock . only need 40 to 80 gph .   Will just buy a few extra and use one to drain each of the three tanks when I do a water change instead of picking them up and messing with them if I don't have to.  Glad I decided to test this and not just toss everything in ...

 

side note:  saw the coralife LED marine clip on for $37 on Petco . they wanted $50 local but honored the online price when I went last night ... check should have everything for the tank except for I now need to make some type of stand to clip the coralife LED to ...

 

[TheCurriculum]

Damn lost a turbo snail double size of gold ball so huge bloom . Quick scrub of tank . Everybody in tank a little annoyed . All the bubble tips retreated off rocks . Should be fine tomorrow . Waiting on pumps for work to show up 

[TheCurriculum]

update . the pump that came with the tank went belly up .. finally got a replacement … the salt creep isn't to bad but going to test out the auto top off for a few days before looking into stocking the little tanks . damn need to find some sand bed … I may just say shrug and put stones in the bottom and than what ever little pieces of LR on top ...

 

[Ratvan]

can you post a FTS of the entire thing? really interested to see how this set up looks 

[TheCurriculum]

I haven't made base for the little coralife light yet . once that's up will do a quicky video. just gonna make a simple wood base with a small board pointing up to clamp to. as far as living with it on the desk next to me …. Once you tap the tanks enough most of the plastic buzzing goes away and just the sound of the baby water falls and small hum of the pump. low enough volume that it's not bugging me to sit next to it.

[TheCurriculum]

tested pulling out water till the pump engaged and let it top off 3 gallons of water this way .. few oz at a time.  Was out of the office for 4 days and left the top off low to make sure it would run out after 1 refill.  Came in today and wasn't that bad.  Main salt creep is on the lid of the last container, not enough to worry about.  Good to go live at this point, just the last few get going steps  … Need to see if any of the local stores have a small bag of live sand.   If not I'll just break up some live rock and use that as a base. The condensation on the lid should actually make for some interesting lighting effects on the little tanks.  Need to dig through my stand and see if I have any bio media or old nano tank bio balls to toss in the sump area.  If not will just run some sponge media

[banasophia]

Such a cool little tank, so much potential! 

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, TheCurriculum said:

tested pulling out water till the pump engaged and let it top off 3 gallons of water this way .. few oz at a time.  Was out of the office for 4 days and left the top off low to make sure it would run out after 1 refill.  Came in today and wasn't that bad.  Main salt creep is on the lid of the last container, not enough to worry about.  Good to go live at this point, just the last few get going steps  … Need to see if any of the local stores have a small bag of live sand.   If not I'll just break up some live rock and use that as a base. The condensation on the lid should actually make for some interesting lighting effects on the little tanks.  Need to dig through my stand and see if I have any bio media or old nano tank bio balls to toss in the sump area.  If not will just run some sponge media

Nice little set up 

 

@Weetabix7 had one of those up several years back. 

[TheCurriculum]

Picked up some live black sand and a different light . Short term I may just cut two 4x4 blocks to put light on till I decide on the look of final stand pieces.  Just set light on top to show size.

 

If anyone is in Houston TX... I will have some black sand available for the cost of picking it up.

 (also depends on how light performs)

[TheCurriculum]

I found some cool little SW lights that are small disk on bendy arms.  Once those are available again will switch to 2 of those.

[TheCurriculum]

Getting there . Let the tank begin . Gonna let sand settle and look at different thickness . Super cloudy . Blue than mixed white on light.  Cardboard template so I can build a light stand that doesn't interfere 

[TheCurriculum]

Off till next Tuesday.  As long as everything is good when I come in next Tuesday will bring an anemone for tank 1 and a shroom or 2 for tank 2.    Tank 3 I'm going to shop for a 2" or so open brain . Neon green or blue. I don't need to cycle LR as I have a 2.5g at home full of nothing but LR with those little star fish and random pod stuff . 

[TheCurriculum]

Haven't decided on rock scape.  But will pull out a hammer and break up and glue back together the spare LR I have.   Maybe rock going up the back of all 3 tanks.

 

Anemone tank . A ledge of some type for it to climb on or under.  Small rock in front and get some green star polyps or war coral.  Green grows stupid fast though.

 

Mushroom tank.  Probably lean rock on left and right also with loose little pieces in sand.  Let shrooms do there thing.  Maybe zoa.  I want pulsing xenia but it would grow way to fast.

 

Open brain tank.  Just a sand bed.  A 2" allowed to grow to 4 or 5" will fill up the 3rd tank on its own eventually.  

 

The rock ...my LR tank ... gets a few fish food pellets a week to keep algea growing to feed everything.  Almost 2 year old and never needed to clean it or glass.   Super stable and change out a cup of water every couple months.  Tons of little life. Random sponges, stars, pods, etc...

[TheCurriculum]

Ok quick build on a stand . About 10 minutes and $10 of fittings and pvc.  Already had a can of paint.

[TheCurriculum]

#### yeah . Tank is ready to go !!!

Angled the light a little bit,. So I'm not directly seeing any of the LED.

 

All in all so far very happy with this setup.  My worries on salt creep aren't an issue.  Less than any open top nano tank I've had.  Little tops on top of each tank really help.

 

Got my paintings, Orange amp, guitar and a nano coral tank.  ####ing love my office now.

[TheCurriculum]

For a pvc stand build it looks like it came with it.  Was worried it look a little poo poo.

[WV Reefer]

12 minutes ago, TheCurriculum said:

For a pvc stand build it looks like it came with it.  

I agree…….The stand looks “official”. 😊

[banasophia]

24 minutes ago, TheCurriculum said:

#### yeah . Tank is ready to go !!!

Angled the light a little bit,. So I'm not directly seeing any of the LED.

 

All in all so far very happy with this setup.  My worries on salt creep aren't an issue.  Less than any open top nano tank I've had.  Little tops on top of each tank really help.

 

Got my paintings, Orange amp, guitar and a nano coral tank.  ####ing love my office now.

Wow, that came out great, love this setup.

 

It does kinda make me think it’s a robot that’s gonna come to life to be your friend and take care of your tanks if lightening strikes it. 

 

[TheCurriculum]

Tomorrow will pick an anemone or two and a few of the smaller mushrooms.  Wish my camera could record with the blues on.  The pop is amazing . 

 

Quick Video of the picotope Mushroom and bubble tip

 

Going to order a blue open brain tomorrow.  Found a nice 2.5" will give it room for years of growth.  Will quickly train it open and feed during the day.

 

Will see how the multiple feedings per week go but with the feed going to be small I should be OK on algea.  

 

No plan on a clean up crew/ snails unless algea growth is hi.

 

Thanks for the thumbs up's and wow loving the short circuit didn't even notice the look till you pointed it out 

 

[DevilDuck]

Stand looks great! Great work turning a betta death trap into a very cool nano reef! For snails the tiny cerith snails that reefcleaners.com sells would work.

[TheCurriculum]

Wow kick ass website will pick some up next Friday