fluval 5gal reef, back in the hobby again

Fishguy

Reefer reefer
Had a 55G with sump in 2007 but after that tank only fish stuff has been a koi pond. Covid-solation had me wanting to get a tank going again, and I'd always been interested in doing a tank that was just tooo small.


Today at around 3 months
p1clh.png


AquaClear refugium
modified overflow/bypass
wave pump
smart ATO micro
intank filter chambers
amazon reef LED 20W light

Its pretty much where I want it as far as setup, 24 different corals.. zoas zoas zoas mostly with blastos/acan/Duncan/Xenia
seeing growth all around, very happy with how the tank has gone.
 
Collected up a lot of smalls from anywhere I could find and some of my old rockwork, 15lbs or so in 5 gal.

all my past efforts had been done with T5's or MH lighting, LED's were a big motivation to try again without the heat management. going zoa heavy.. want it covered end to end.

rainbow/orange acan
white xenia
GSP
2x blasto
Duncan coral
David Blaine Paly
bloodsucker zoa
red people eater zoa
dragons eye zoa
glow bug zoa
taser zoa
AOI zoa
fruit loops zoa
Tubbs blue zoa
whammin watermelon
blue watermelon
yellow submarine
orange mushroom
orange ricordia
Misc zoas.

solitary six line wrasse.
I started slow but did add a ton at once.. haven't kicked of any real cycles and everything has been going better than other times I've done this.
 
Last edited:
Thanks! I used to attend meets back in 06.

once my colonies have some growth excited to get some fragging/trades going
 
5 Monthish update.

4 acans, less xenia.

going well other than my 6-line wrasse harasses my Duncan coral so it always looks like chewed gum.
I bleached a blasto because too much light, have things tuned better now and it's been getting some opacity back so there may be hope for it.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_E0447.JPG
    IMG_E0447.JPG
    279.5 KB · Views: 359
Thanks all, still going better than expected by this point.. I've also pushed a little harder stocking it than I figured I would.

Just got a Pyloplabs gel/filter for my camera so I can finally take pics under blue lights! these are with filter no adjustments on camera.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0471.JPG
    IMG_0471.JPG
    130.5 KB · Views: 344
  • IMG_0472.JPG
    IMG_0472.JPG
    121.4 KB · Views: 347
  • IMG_0473.JPG
    IMG_0473.JPG
    111.5 KB · Views: 342
  • IMG_0474.JPG
    IMG_0474.JPG
    140 KB · Views: 354
put in some effort and adjusted the light output for a more normal looking pic with the new lens gel.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_E0500.JPG
    IMG_E0500.JPG
    254.2 KB · Views: 320
I've had one prior code brown where a WWC yellow submarine zoa colony came off the plug and nearly disappeared in the rockwork.

my new CB money shot single pylop frag had gotten knocked over and I was clumsy in recovering it.. zoa popped right off and disappeared into the middle base of the rockwork. couldn't even see it.

managed to get air line tubing in behind some of the adjacent rocks and create flow enough to get a visual on it.. somehow removed 3 lower rocks that weren't load bearing, didn't collapse anything above it.

recovered the zoa..
sent it to shot glass zoa jail with the yellow submarine till I get the nerve to try and glue it.

no lie, I'd have taken a personal day and used this as an excuse exercise the bad idea of re-doing the rock work, wouldn't mind trying to make the middle third depth more usable.

"depth".. 5 gallon tank for scale.
 
Last edited:
First pic was last week, Acan damage via feral starfish.
the lower outer mantle had been eaten, feeding tentacles pretty much flopping in the breeze.
second pic is today, showing a little scar but coming back fast.

have wrangled most of the starfish.. saw one on other orange acan at one point but no damage.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0543.JPG
    IMG_0543.JPG
    167.8 KB · Views: 309
  • IMG_0567.JPG
    IMG_0567.JPG
    157.9 KB · Views: 312
New pic.. on the other side of a pretty decent cyanobacteria hit, wiped out two acans. added a hygger wave pump to address the flow issues the cyano seemed to enjoy. I spoke to the guys at Jay's aquatics and they kinda matter of factly confirmed it being cyano and got me on my way to treating it. Used Chemiclean and the tank didn't even flinch, couldn't believe how effective it was.

Changed to Nicrew single channel pro LED controllers, huge improvement in the intensity control for cheap money.

Despite some losses during the Cyano bloom, was about a month an a half of me changing water and not improving anything.
2 acan gone, another kinda rough.. The acro, we'll im trying but not surprisingly it's not doing awesome. Seems a little better since flow+light changes.

still amazed it's gone as well as it has.. real itch to do something larger.
 

Attachments

  • 512211.jpg
    512211.jpg
    286.2 KB · Views: 287
Upcoming Events

April 21, 2024
Paul B
Club Meeting

Back
Top