UK Attempt At A 2.5 Gallon

[Lofty]

OK, well here goes, started on it about a week or so ago, i'll keep this bit brief

 

Tank

12" x 8" x 8", split into a 8" x 8" x 8" and a 4" x 8" x 8"

Lighting

None yet, bu 2x 18W PC 50/50's coming

Filtration

700lph Powerhead in the sump, pushing water through a spaybar.....although i seriously doubt it is 700lph And Liverock

 

The tank, i added the divider myself on a 12"x8"x8" tank, so i have a little sump as well in there.

 

 

First leakage test! Success

 

 

In a new position, and with crushed coral sand.

 

 

And the hood was cut so the heater could poke through the top (It gets cold here and i couldn't get hold of a smaller heater:D)

 

As it is now with Liverock as well, not all that happy with the aquascaping yet, and tips would be good Notice the lack of lights, they are coming tomorrow, 2x 18W Power Compact 50/50 tubes.

 

 

I have my first piece of coral waiting for me at my LFS, a little polyp of Florida Ric, about 1" across, orange and blue. Cost me £28.50, i guess around $40..... it is like gold dust to get hold of over here in the UK

[uk reefer]

lighitng?

 

i cant see any

[Lofty]

Lighting

None yet, bu 2x 18W PC 50/50's coming

 

There isn't any lighting in there just yet, little delay with the supplier on the internet (Surrey pet Supplies, never dealt with them before, but quite impressed with the prices)

 

Phoned up today, and it will be delivered tomorrow, which will be good since the tank looks crappy at the moment with no lights

[Haagenize]

how much is 700 liters?

[deacon hemp]

Do you have a site for surrey pet supply? Ive never heard of it and i live there! lol

 

Edit: Wow must have been trippin,didnt even notice it says UK in your thread title!

Any chance you got it from canada?

[jfish]

deacon hemp you live in BC me too!(i live in langley)do you have a nano? if you do ware do you go for livestock?

 

PS sorry for hijacking

[nano_kev]

There isn't any lighting in there just yet, little delay with the supplier on the internet (Surrey pet Supplies, never dealt with them before, but quite impressed with the prices)

 

Phoned up today, and it will be delivered tomorrow, which will be good since the tank looks crappy at the moment with no lights

 

Have to agree, Surrey Pet Supplies have PC lighting marked up at quite a low price. I have got the lighting for my Pico and my Nano from there and have never had a problem.

 

Keep up the good work

[Lofty]

Edit: Wow must have been trippin,didnt even notice it says UK in your thread title!

Any chance you got it from canada?

 

Heheh, yeah unfortunately the wrong side of the Atlantic

 

Come on lights.....please turn up today

[Lofty]

how much is 700 liters?

 

?

[nano_kev]

how much is 700 liters?

 

It is equal to 185 gallons

[Lofty]

Woohoo, lights came!

 

Wrong ones, but yeah, they came :hee: I had ordered 2 18 watt starters and one white, one actinic tube, i got 1 24watt starter and a 24 watt 50/50 tube, but it will do! Sorted out the price difference anyway Thankfully managed to squash a 24 watt tube in there as well.

 

Here are a couple of pics with lights,

 

Front view:

 

 

Right Side:

 

 

Left Side:

 

 

 

Quite pleased that there is a fair bit of room at the front of the tank to build up with zoo colonies or something similar

 

Lofty

[deacon hemp]

deacon hemp you live in BC me too!(i live in langley)do you have a nano? if you do ware do you go for livestock?

 

PS sorry for hijacking

 

Jfish you got PM

[Ishtar]

Hey-

nice mods. Maybe you need to worry about the fish going over the over flow?

[Lofty]

I'm not intending on putting any fish in there yet, at least not for a long while anyway, i guess some kind of mesh on the overflow would solve that if i decided to

 

Thanks for all your comments

[Lofty]

Diatoms is here Good sign i guess!

[Lofty]

Little update You can see the Diatoms and even some macroalgae growing (Pretty sure it isnt just hair algae, seems to have leaves if you look close enough Notice one of my turbos i added today as well, he has 1 otehr friend in there somewhere as well

 

 

Also blacked out the rear section which looks better

 

[Lofty]

Couple Of Days Ago

 

Added my first corals a couple of days ago, and they seem to be settling in nicely

 

Firstly, Ricordia Yumas

 

 

And a little bit of Trumpet coral

 

 

And finally, Frank the Hermit crab. Also has a friend in there somewhere, hopefully these two will sort out the hair algae.

 

 

Lofty.

 

Yesterday

 

Little update for today, picked up a little frag of Zooanthids, nice brown colour with a luminour green mouth, about 5 polyps, and best of all....free! Not quite opened up yet, but nearly there! Sorry about the dark pic, camera batteries are on their last legs, and in a rush i put it on ISO50 not 400.... doh!

 

 

My ric is starting to look beautiful, really opening up. Although the picture dpoesn't show it, in reality it is almost orange

 

 

And finally a FTS, hair algae is slowly receding with the 2 crabs, and the diatoms is virtually gone.

 

[Ann]

Hi Lofty,

 

The tank's coming along great, I really like the rockscape. Keep an eye on the hermits, they may decide to investigate if the algae is greener on the other side of the divide. Believe me it will happen, my two hermits climb up the side of the tank by grabbing a hold of the silicone and pulling themselves up.

 

Keep the updates coming!

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[Lofty]

Hi Lofty,

 

The tank's coming along great, I really like the rockscape. Keep an eye on the hermits, they may decide to investigate if the algae is greener on the other side of the divide. Believe me it will happen, my two hermits climb up the side of the tank by grabbing a hold of the silicone and pulling themselves up.

 

Keep the updates coming!

 

Best regards

 

Ann

 

Ah yes, i saw your incredible macro of the hermit I have already found a snail (that i didn't even know i had:p) on the other side of that divider

 

Lofty.

[echo-bravo 4-19]

hey your tank looks realy nice i might make my own , do u thinck i should use plexi glass or just regular glass im afraid the plastick will break or sumthing and is glass expensive?...

[MrAnderson]

really nice little tank, it's coming along well.

 

very clean job on the fabrication too.

 

best of luck!

[Lofty]

Right, lets try and pick up where i left off 2 months ago! Sorry about going away for so long!!!

 

I haven't actually added anything except for a couple of snails, and these zoo's since i had a pretty bad algae bloom. Almost gave up, but it started receding, and when i added Vodka from the tank (As read on ReefCentral) it literally went within about a week with no apparent ill effects!

 

I am shocked as to how much everything is growing, my ricordia has split in 2, although it is helpfully lodged somewhere really hard to get a picture typically! There are about 8 new heads on the trumpet coral, and as seen below, one of them has 3 mouths!

 

 

Unfortunately i lost (Quite literally! No shell that i can see or anything) one of my hermits, so i am left with the remaining one.

 

 

Calcium levels must be pretty good, this is a pic of the end of the 'stork' think of the trumpet coral.

 

 

And finally a full tank shot, down the bottom left is my new tubeworm who only ventured out for about half an hour before retreating back to the tube. He did only get added this morning though. To the right and up a bit you can just about see the ricordea, and nearer the top there are a few zoo's and the trumpet coral. And some slightly weird algae! Got 3 of them in there.

 

 

Finally, visited Living Reef Aquatics in Dartford (Am i allowed to say their name?) Anyhow, i am just a very pleased customer!

 

Came back with some orange zoo's-

 

 

All opened up-

 

 

Last one, the trumpet thought it was night time when the lights went out to acclimatise the zoos! I don't think its going to be long before those 3 mouths split completely either.

 

 

Lofty.

[Fload]

vodka?

[Lofty]

vodka?

 

Well.... couple of weeks ago i was browsing ReefCentral (it was April Fools Day) and i discovered this thread on using Vodka to reduce nitrates and therefore help with getting rid of algae. Assumed it was a bit of a joke until a read into the topic a little more, and it turns out it has been used for quite a long while (2 years plus) in some peoples tanks.

 

The explanation for it is that the carbon in the ethanol feeds the nitrogen cycle bacteria. I was still at this point a little dubious about it, but gave it a go anyway, and hey presto, it actually worked!

 

Warning- do not throw huge amounts of vodka in your tank though, the recommended starting volume is 1ml/100 gallons, so i was using 0.02ml. I have also stopped treating with vodka now, as personally i would rather not chuck random things into my aquarium, although it certainly solved my problem!

[oogie]

Yes, people has been dosing Vodka to "boost" Nitrofying bacteria. Some products that zeovit system uses has similar purpose. Only danger is, if you overdose, it can be detrimental to your tank. So don't pour vodka in you tank after reading this thread!!!