New 5g Nano Build

[Flreefkid88]

Trying to save money on this build,I built my own cube. Costing me about $12,instead of about $75 for buying one offline. My main goal with this is,the near impossible... Is to maintain JUST sps. With just T5's. I know,intense. But its just way too tempting hahah.

The Setup:

5g Cube
Hagen 20 Filter,upgraded to a fuge.
50w Heater
72w T5:BlueLife 14K,BlueLife Pure-Actinic,Bluelife 6700/10K. (Suspended about 3 inches over the tank )
5lbs CaribSea Ocean Direct Live Sand
6.5lbs of Live Rock
5 gallons of Oceanic Salt
Kent Nano Reef A & B
Brightwell Aquatics BioFuel

And I will be performing about 2.5-3 gallon water changes every week as well to keep the params in check and stable. And topping off the tank every day to every other day.

Please,I welcome .2's and input so shoot me some thoughts,ideas positive or negative.

 

[Reefmack]

Welcome to Reef Sanctuary! Cool little tank! I'll be following along. Your plan sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Reddog170]

Yep I will follow this. Those little tank are very cool. Shaun

 

[Flreefkid88]

Thanks guys . Im about to head to the store now,and grab some distilled water and fill 'er up tonight and get things going.

I have a 10g with a bunch of live rock in it from an older tank,which they have been pretty much curing with nothing more than a CUC in the tank. So Im going to break that tank down and use some of the rock for a nice scape. I'll try and get some pictures up in the next couple of days and how things turn out !!

 

[Reddog170]

Looking forward to it, Shaun

 

[Flreefkid88]

Got the water,going to have to wait to fill 'er up I need to get more filters for my filter for the cycle process before I do away with that media and go with just the floss,biomix,and carbon. Got the tank set up,and scrubbed the LR down from the 10g,and everything is ready to go here soon.

Quick little picture update:

 

[Flreefkid88]

Update:

I started to break down the 10g tonight and I took the surface skimmer I had out ( which actually worked better than everyone said it did ) and soaked it in hot water,and then scrubbed the crap out of it. Thinking about using it in the 5,but its a bit bulky and I wouldn't think it would be up to par with the filtration that sps require.

So on that note,I was thinking about grabbing a Rapids Mini Canister Filter,and running that for filtration and the spray bar,and using the the surface skimmer packed with bio-balls and carbon for primarily water movement so I don't have to run powerheads.

I took some picture of the surface skimmer in the tank,and the rock which I don't know how Im going to set them up yet.

 

[Reefmack]

Keep us posted on what you decide to do.

 

[GrendelPrime]

any updates? and welcome to rs

 

[Flreefkid88]

So I was thinking about what I want to do,and I think I might just make a 7 gallon,but about 24" long therefore it'll have ample coverage of my 24" fixture with minimal spillage of my light in the 5 gallon. I got glass from work today,so Im going to cut that tonight and on friday Im going to get some more silicone and we will have a new tank.

And I might just scrap the idea of the Current Surface Skimmer,and just use a Koralia 240 Nano for water circulation. But I don't know,so many decisions and ideas hahah.

As for updates,thats about all folks.

 

[Reefmack]

The 7 gallon sounds like a good idea to make use of the light fixture. Good luck with it!

 

[Flreefkid88]

Update:

...Me and the brother-in-law some how managed to break the piece of glass I was cutting tapping on it too hard,and well it cracked all over the place. So I think I might have to get a dremel tool this week some time and just cut it that way. YAY !!!!!!

 

[Reddog170]

Yikes, Been there done that though. Not certain a dremal will work though. Let me know if it does, Shaun

 

[Flreefkid88]

This guy at work was telling me the have a glass cutting bit,which I would assume would be a diamond bit of some sort ?! If not,does lowes or home depot have a glass cutter with a bigger wheel ?!?! Anyone ?!?

 

[Reddog170]

Lowes here will cut glass for you.

 

[Flreefkid88]

Ahh see you're one of the lucky ones. I don't think lowes or home depot cuts glass here in Fl. Which is crap. Oh well,what can you do.


New little update. I went to petco earlier and grabbed a filter cartridge for my filter and Im going to fill the tank up tonight. So there will most likely be a picture update. :LOL:

 

[Reddog170]

Cool, caint wait. Shaun

 

[Flreefkid88]

Quite the update,I came home from work today,and well the tank had leaked not too though,but there was quite a bit of water on the stand and what not. So I threw some silicone on the front edges to see if that stops it from leaking further more. :columbo: Lets cross our fingers. I'll have pictures up later on today.

 

[Flreefkid88]

Got the leak fixed,she's been holding good for about 6-7 hours now,so we shall see. Put the first piece of rock in the tank,take a lookski :

 

[Reefmack]

Good news on the leak! Looks good!