5g. I've Heard It's Not Easy To Keep So Small Reef Tank. That's Not True.

[kapelan]

When building the system the target was to do it as much compact as possible.
Basically from the picture we can see everything.
No sump, no skimmer - nothing extra, just tank

This tank is about 6 month old.​

From the picture:
- 5g fluval spec tank
- dimmable LED lightning fixture 80W (max). Light stays on wooden canopy
- controller on the top
LIGHT.

Light is actually running on about 50% of power, so for 5g about 40W provided for 6 hours.
Increasing the daylight or intensity gives an algae problem. This 6 hours daylight with 40W power was found as the best solution during half a year of experimenting with duration and spectrum.
MAXimum wattage for:
- Ultraviolet: 10W
- Royal Blue: 30W
- White: 20W
- Green: 10W
- Red: 10W
Intensity and spectrum are changed during the day.​

DOSING.

Balling method: 1ml daily of each solution
Four dozer pumps located on the back of the controller​

CONTROLLER.

Doing everything (it's in the top of the picture):
- chiller: when temperature more then 27C a fan turns on (on the right side of the canopy)
- heater: turned on when the temperature less then 25C
- full spectrum control for each LED color
- controlling dossers pump
- also monitors PH level​

CANOPY:

- 4 peaces of wood from homedepot + paint + 2 days of work​

LED FIXTURE.

- hatsink from RapidLed
- CREE LEDs from ebay​

CORALS.

doing very well ​

 

[heath]

looks good..

 

[TORX]

Great looking pico. Looks like you are doing it right for sure. Fishless will keep the bioload down and should require many, if not any, water changes etc. Would be cool to see a banded shrimp or something fancy in there though.

 

[Shooter000]

A banded for sure!!!, that's my most favourite thing in my nano, just there behaviour alone makes it worth it.....

 

[kapelan]

It says it needs a food:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+698&pcatid=698

 

[jeffopentax]

It says it needs live food:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+698&pcatid=698

Where does it say that?


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[kapelan]

Where does it say that?


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at the end:
"In the wild, the Banded Coral Shrimp is a scavenger. In the home aquarium, it will accept most flaked and frozen foods"
Are you saying, they will survive without feeding them?

 

[Nonuser]

Question is this the only tank you have? When you do water changes is it salt mixed in fresh water and how big are the changes and the batch you mix up?

 

[jeffopentax]

at the end:
"In the wild, the Banded Coral Shrimp is a scavenger. In the home aquarium, it will accept most flaked and frozen foods"
Are you saying, they will survive without feeding them?

Coulda swore your post said it needed "live food". My bad My guess is you'd have to feed it something.


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[Shooter000]

Mine will take anything-flake, brine shrimp, pellets, I've even seen him take a piece of flake that a zoa grabbed, peeled that zoa open an snagged it right out, not really that aggressive though, not to the fish either....

 

[scubasteve]

nice setup you will have zero problems long as you stick to your routines i love how a few frags look massive in a pico it definately gives the joys of a mature reef alot faster

 

[kapelan]

Question is this the only tank you have? When you do water changes is it salt mixed in fresh water and how big are the changes and the batch you mix up?

3 liters once in a 1-2 weeks. Instant Ocean salt.
Testing for Mg,KH,Ca level twice a week.
Mg: 1060-1200
Ca: 420-450
KH: 9-12

 

[EricTMah]

Nice little nano you've got there!

 

[Nonuser]

3 liters once in a 1-2 weeks. Instant Ocean salt.
Testing for Mg,KH,Ca level twice a week.
Mg: 1060-1200
Ca: 420-450
KH: 9-12

thats impressive. You see tanks like this and then you find out the guy has a 200 gallon tank and uses some of that water for daily water changes. I have a 20 and with this heat I'm fighting evaporation and constant salinity swings. I'm replacing a gallon every day.

 

[yveterinarian]

Very nice looking nano tank. It truly makes me want to have one...Oh the curse of always wanting another tank...

 

[kapelan]

Spectrum.
1. Royal Blue and Ultra Violet on the first picture.

Day starts at 3pm in 15 minutes brightness up to 75% then slowly to 100% and then slowly down to the end of the day.​

2. White, Green and Red from the picture 2.

I've found these colors promote algae grow. But it makes corals looks good for human.
So these colors floating from 20% to 80% of brightness.
It looks pretty cool when watching, I mean corals always different when watching them.
From corals reaction did not noticed any positive or negative reaction of this floating light.
Algae: it grows less with floating white/green/red.​

3. Moonlight from picture 3.

Slowly UP and DOWN - that's the time to go to bed. Some corals already closed some of them is closing at this time.​

Royal Blue:

White Red Green:

Moonlight:

 

[kapelan]

Utter Chaos, Bought 3 month ago 1 large and 2 baby.
Now 3 large and 3 babys

 

[yveterinarian]

They look really nice and healthy! Good work. Just a note of caution though - to the right of the zoanthids it looks as if you have a Strawberry Anemone in the picture. Some people consider them to be a pest anemone and apparently they have quite a sting. Personally, I think it looks cool. Have never had one though so I don't know how much of a pest they actually are.

 

[kapelan]

It was identified as Corynactis, it looks nice: tips are glowing green - want to keep it.

 

[Shooter000]

You should do a time lapse or 40x speed of your daily light cycle of the tank, for everyone to see of course