Spif Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Hey all! Have been lurking for some time gathering nuggets of wisdom and admiring the tanks everyone has been posting. Decided it was time to give it a shot myself! I had a Fluval spec 2 gallon set up for freshwater shrimp that I am setting up for my new pico reef. Mods so far. - Removed the stock pump and replaced it with a mini-jet 606. - Removed the stock filtration media and replaced it with a media rack. Going to try to use Live rock rubble, chaeto, and filter floss. - Plugged the lower hole for better filtration. Still waiting on the UPS man to bring me my test kit and heater. But decided to start the cycle. Here are a few shots. Enjoy! All Cleaned out and ready to go. New media rack and pump installed Cycling. Day 1. Cycling. Day 1. Link to comment
uniquee1 Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 awesome tank cool ideas for filtration. is it easy to change out pumps on these little guys? i have an aqueon evolve and am curious if it provides enough flow or not.. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 For the fluval spec it was very easy. Had to remove the front and back plates off the mini-jet to make it fit, but they pop right off. The minijet I dropped in does 82-153 gph. From what I read, the evolve does around 100... That should be pretty good Link to comment
evanski Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Check out the Fluval Spec Owners thread for some tank-specific tips and tricks! Link to comment
Spif Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 Day 2 and the water is still very foggy, so I tossed some filter floss in the back. Adjusted the nozzle so it stirs the surface up a bit. Seem to be clearing things up better now. Any opinions on when I should add the live rock? Link to comment
evanski Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Filter floss will help the cloudiness, if you haven't already put some in. I put rock in with the sand, day 1. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Thanks Evanski. Looks like I have to make a run to the LFS tomorrow. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Watch your temperature in the summer with that 606 pump. My spec would start overheating at about 76 degrees ambient. It was necessary to run an iceprobe chiller. Check out my pest tank build in my signature below to see what I did. Very effective. There are a number of challenges you will have to deal with using a spec. You mentioned you removed the front and back cover of the 606 pump, but from my experience, the pump will migrate towards the glass and choke off the flow as it sucks itself against the glass unless you do a simple modification to the front cover that will have it serve as a spacer, preventing restriction. Cut the front cover like this and super glue it in place: If you want some other suggestions for having a happy life with a marine spec, I would also recommend getting some clear aquarium safe silicone and sealing the slight gap between the plastic base and the glass... any water spilled that gets between the base and the glass will form a messy salt crystal formation that's annoying to clean up. Also, force silicone sealer into any gaps under the top plastic corner pieces. These can be a significant location for salt creep in the long run. Annoying to have to clean it off every day or every other day. And, IMO, get one of these: http://www.shop.mediabaskets.com/Fluval-Spec-Media-Basket-FLSMR.htm Link to comment
evanski Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Good advice from IOT. I have this setup, wish I would have known about the trick to seal up the corners. Not too bad though... keep the water level about 1/4" or more below the top, and set the surface skimmer (part of the media basket package) appropriately to keep the surface nice and clean. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Any opinions on when I should add the live rock? You can throw in live rock any time you're ready. You won't really be cycling the tank until you put the live rock in since that is your main source of biological filtration. I'd probably so go with the live rock as soon as you get your test kits, so you can follow along the cycling process the whole way. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Great advice! Thanks. I would have never thought to seal up the corners like that. I actually drew a lot of inspiration from both of your tank threads as I was planning this build. Tiki. Did you have the suction cups on the bottom of your 606? I am trying not to modify the cover too much in case I want to reuse the flow limiter in the future. (maybe in another build) I may go with that media basket in the future. Its pretty clean looking and I like that skimmer attachment. I was using a credit card and a paperclip when I was running fresh water. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Tiki. Did you have the suction cups on the bottom of your 606? I am trying not to modify the cover too much in case I want to reuse the flow limiter in the future. (maybe in another build) No suction cups. I did that once and had a devil of a time getting the pump back out of the tank to clean it. If you don't modify the cover, consider rigging up some sort of simple spacer that will prevent the pump from getting sucked up against the glass. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 Test kit, heater, and hydrometer finally made it here. Time to party! Picked up the live rock a few days ago. Just have to figure out how I want arrange it all. So far it seems to be cycling along nicely. The live rock I bought was already cured. Will that cut down my cycle time or should I still expect to take a few weeks to normalize? Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 If your live rock was fully cured already, you may not even see a cycle. Give it a week or two and see how it goes with ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I like the archway in that rock. I'm excited to see how this tank comes along. One last thing. That hydrometer is going to be useless for that tank (they're also very inaccurate). Get yourself a refractometer. Trust me, You'll have to take too much water out of the tank just to check your salinity. Get an inexpensive refractometer or splurge and buy one of THESE! Trust me on this one. You need either an optical or a digital refractometer with a tank that small. I speak from experience. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 21, 2014 Author Share Posted February 21, 2014 Moving right along. Ammonia and nitrate are at 0. Nitrite is still at 2. Still playing with the rock. Need opinions More rock or less? I think one of my next purchases is going to be a refractometer. The one I have now needs to go! lol Link to comment
evanski Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 I like #1...gives you more space to place corals, and makes better use of the vertical dimension of the the tank. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Tank is still doing great! Nitrites are still hanging out around .25. they have been going down steadily. I had some time over the weekend, so I redid my media rack. (inspired by the rack by JoshuaC). Bought a few critters for the CUC. They seem to be doing well so far. Hopefully I didn't add them too early. I think they will be okay. They seem active and show no signs of stress. Also tweaked the rock a bit and I think I am finally happy with the arrangement. Link to comment
Mstefa1 Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Hi, sorry if I missed it but what are you using for light? Link to comment
Spif Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Just the stock light for now. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Nice work on the media rack. Looks great. I like the rockwork, too. You're making me want to fire up my spec again. I could have it up, running and cycled in about 2 hours. Link to comment
Mstefa1 Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Just the stock light for now. Cool, I didn't know they came with reef lights - thought they were for freshwater only. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Cool, I didn't know they came with reef lights - thought they were for freshwater only. The light is truly fresh water only, and honestly, bright enough to keep plants alive, but not thrive. However, I don't doubt it could support some low light corals like Mushrooms, and probably GSP. I have a freshwater planted Spec with some amano shrimp, and it works to keep the plants alive, but they aren't exactly thriving. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 I am upgrading the light soon. Waiting on the coral compulsion par30 to be back in stock. I am having a lot of fun with this spec build. Learning something new every day. Link to comment
pinguinorojo Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Nice Spif. Yeah I just got my coral compulsion 18k bulb a few weeks back for my spec.. great lights. I'll be following this thread to watch your progression. Cheers. Link to comment
Spif Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 Finally! Coral compulsion led's are back in stock and on the way!. Last time messing with the rock. really like it this time. FTS Blue legged hermit. He was just sitting there for a few minutes like he was surveying his kingdom. Link to comment
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