1.8 gallon hex

[aquadrone100377]

pics on page two!!!

 

 

I will be setting up a 4 gallon night stand pico soon but I am still un decided on what kind of substrate to use.

for equiptment I will be getting an aqua clear 20, some sort of small hang-on skimmer and the 12" sateillite compact fluorescent dual fixture

I plan to keep:

 

1. either a yellow watchman goby or a very small fire fish

 

2. a blood fire shrimp

 

3. a porceilan crab

 

4. a few scarlet reef hermits and dwarf zebra hermits

 

5. 2-3 banded torchus snails

 

6. and for corals, mushrooms, zoas, rics and lps

 

here is the link marinedepot.com

give me your opinion on substrate choice, as well as any adjustments or critticisims on my stocking plan and equiptment list

 

thank's in advance

[J86]

a fire fish in a 4g!??......good luck.....

[aquadrone100377]

a very small one, like 1-1.5 inches then when he grows a bit he will be moved to my larger tank

[aquadrone100377]

only two votes?

[Iveman]

well the thread's barely an hour old

[aquadrone100377]

it took that long to show up? I posted this thread last night!

[aquadrone100377]

wow, there sure aren't very many opinionated people on this forum. I guess

I should have gone with a more interesting poll title but I have no idea how to change it now

 

 

Ive got it! I'll post a pic to draw some attention

(BTW those are the stock lights and filter I will be doing some major upgrading when the tank gets here later in the week)

 

[Haagenize]

dont porcelain crabs hide a lot?

 

well that wouldnt be a prob because now they have nowhere to hide =P

[aquadrone100377]

dont porcelain crabs hide a lot?

 

well that wouldnt be a prob because now they have nowhere to hide =P

 

I've heard that some do and some don't so hopefully I'll get a brave one

I also remember reading somewhere that if they don't have an anemone to host

they go for the next closest thing, which in my pico will probably be a torch or frogspawn or something, I wont have enough room for an anemone (not that I would want one )

[aquadrone100377]

come on people, vote!

[aquadrone100377]

pretty please

[aquadrone100377]

the tank came today! now I have to wait for all the equiptment

[aquadrone100377]

so far it looks like fiji pink is winning and tahitian moon sand is in second trailing by three votes

[Haagenize]

watch out for torches, in such a small tank, the torch can easily dominate the while tank by sending its tentacles everywhere

[aquadrone100377]

DUDE!!! I just did my fist ever mod, the tank that I ordered came with a very under sized light and filter that turned out to be perfect for my 1.8 gallon hex that i've been wanting to set up, so I completely gutted the hood to my hex and took the ballast and the 13 wat 50/50 bulb that came in the box with my new aquarium and some how the planets aligned and every thing fit right into the hood of my 1.8 gallon like it was made for it. so today I put the filter on (that thing is a beast! it say it does about 30 gph but I bet it's more like 60 ) and my modded fixture and filled it with water and every thing is hunky dory for about thirty seconds and then disaster strikes. the bulb just dies for no reason there wasnt even a pop or tink it was just like somebody fliped the switch and now it wont even try to come one!

[Haagenize]

haha... lets see some pics???

 

oh man i want a tank soo bad, but i still have to lower the price down, its $700 for the entire system right now for only (7.5g)

[aquadrone100377]

I would post some but my stupid computer isn't "detecting" stupid camera when I plug it in to the usb port hey your good with computers though right? any sugestions?

700$ for a 7.5 !? gosh, I figured the total cost of setting up a 24 gallon nano cube to be only about 800$ (not including stocking) what kind of a tank are you going for? custom? is the majority of the cost going to be lighting? that's what most of mine is then again the total cost for my 4 gallon is only about 250$, 89$ for the light (my mom thinks i'm crazy but my dad understands he's done this for alot of years) but I'll be able to set up my hex for next to nothing now

[Haagenize]

Well im not even counting the lighting.. if i was then about $1000

 

its a 12" cube so custom yeah $90

Ehiem Pro 2224 canister Filter around $170

and then with all the crap it turns out to be around $700

i still cant decide what light to use. I want a 70w MH lighting but im not sure where to get a cheap pendant or i should just use a lamp

[aquadrone100377]

if I were you I would just get a retro fit kit and build my own hood, from what I've heard they only run about 150$ but on on my 4 gallon I will have 36 wats of pc (18 actinic/ 18 10K) along with moon lights but I might up grade my lights to a metal halide too when I add a sump but right now everything is hang-on. one question though is your tank going to be drilled and hooked up to the canister filter that way or what?

[Haagenize]

i dont want to cover the top though, i want a clear view, i might use that tutorial where you use Halogen reagents for MH, or i might get those Iwaki flood lamp things

[aquadrone100377]

so you want to be able to see in through the top of your tank? well they do make ajustable hinged legs for some of those pc fixtures like i'm puting on my tank and it would be fairly easy to mod them to work for your own custom hood if you ended up going that route. just a sugestion

[Haagenize]

im thinking about 70w MH's that i can get for $200 total (pendant and bulb)

 

and thats the cheapest i can find for light..

[aquadrone100377]

what do you plan to keep in your tank a clam some sps and a few anemonies with insanely high lighting requirements

 

but you know if I had about 300$ just buring a hole in my pocket I would pull out all the stops and get one of these

[Haagenize]

not really, not clams, almost no SPS except for birdnest which dosennt really count. i'm just going to put it a little bit more off the water then regular lights to help keep temperature down and to make the "clear" view of the top of the tank

[aquadrone100377]

well, if I was going to have the room in my tank, a sump and better lighting I would get a super color croacea. but seeing as how I'm currently kinda unemployed and only making about 20 bucks a week from cleaning horse stalls (which totaly sucks!) I'm going to try to keep stocking costs for my picos fairly low until summer nothing too fancy