My 5.5 Gal AIO Reef

[Paranoidobseshun]

I built this Nano back in December of 09. Did it as a christmas break project for the month I was out of school.

Started with a 5.5 gal AGA aquarium and I built a small overflow box for it. The box houses Macro algae and a small thing of carbon in the one compartment and a sponge goes down in the middle center. Then on the other side houses the heater and pump. Pump is connected to locline that goes out both sides of the overflow.

The tank has a 36watt T5HO Current Nova Extreme Unit over top of it. This this is amazing.

Started the tank with about 10lbs of Live rock and a few small corals, has been setup for about 4 months now.

It mostly consists of LPS and Softies. Have a bunch of Candy Canes, and I have frogspawn, Bubble, Acans, Duncans, Black Sun Coral, and a small elegance. I have multiple mushrooms, gsp, zoas and palys, and pulsing Xenia.

You will see pictures of the build from the beginning, and then some first stocked pictures, and then progression.

At the end of this post entry will be the Picture of it today (Picture taken on April 25th 2010).

January 2010

February 2010

Picture of the tank on April 25th

My tank is chuck full of frags. I need to move some frags to my 20 gallon reef at home which has a lot more space.

Will keep posting pictures with updates and all.

Will also post closeup pictures of corals if anyone wants to see.

 

[BlazinNano]

What did you use to make the overflow?

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

I made it from a sheet of polystyrene.

 

[juicemonkey]

I found my new project!!! It looks great, need more detail on the build.

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

What kinda details you looking for?

 

[BlazinNano]

I have a 10 gallon that is waiting for this. Just need two new T5 bulbs! On the overflow did you bend it your self or did you find something already bent and add a baffle?

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

The overflow is all custom built. I had a sheet of the stuff, and just made the measurements for the size that I wanted. I bent it myself using a vice and a heat gun. Then added the baffle and drilled holes for the loc-line.

 

[46gReef]

That is sweet, I have been thinking about a nano build for sometime now, yours is inspiring!!

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

Hey guys Thanks for the comments, I will take more pictures in the next few days hopefully. I need to clean the glass first and then move around some of those corals in there.

I DEFINITELY need to move that elegance in the corner. I bought him at a local frag swap I went to and thought he would look nice in the corner. He does look nice but he is huge. He has stung up some zoas and killed both my nassarius snails, several stomallea snails, and I think he just killed my margarita snail that you can see on the front of the tank in that last FTS. So I am going to relocate him to my 20 gal reef tank where I think he will have more room and be less of a problem.

 

[46gReef]

Def looks awesome, I'm thinking of doing LED's as my primary lighting......loving the pics, keep 'em coming!!

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

Here is a list of the corals I have in there now.

LPS
Purple candy cane with slightly blue mouths
Kryptonite candy cane
2 frags of teal candy cane
Reddish with green mouth candy cane
Yellowish candy cane with green tint around top of heads and neon yellow mouth
2 Acan frags
Bubble Coral
Frogspawn
Duncans
Small Plate coral
Black Sun Coral
Elegance Coral

SPS
Small red Digi Frag

Softies
Multiple mushrooms, green stripped, superman, red, orange, purple, blue
Varied GSP
Pulsing Xenia
Nuclear Greens
RPE
Teal Rings
8+ different frags of zoas

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

New updated FTS! Elegance was removed from this tank and placed into my other one. Other corals were moved around so they were less crowded. More will probably be getting moved one of these days when I find a placement I like and they like.

 

[underwaterfirefighter]

Great looking nano!

Dave

 

[Lytehouse]

Awesome 10

Very creative

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

It has been a while since I have updated this thread on my tank. I have removed some of the items from this tank, I got rid of the elegance, duncans, some mushrooms, and traded some zoas.
Going to be getting a zoa pack next week. Will post pictures of all new additions when I get them in and they start opening up.

Picture isnt the best quality, it was taken with a crummy camera.

Will have some more pictures soon.

 

[smiley]

Wow! Very nice!

 

[revhtree]

Got some goodies in there!

 

[Paranoidobseshun]

Well its been over 10 months since I have updated this thread. The tank is still going good. But had to overhaul it several months back. Just altered the pump outlets, switched some rock up, and switched to using all sand instead of a mix of sand and crushed coral.

Here is a FTS from about a week ago. But it has changed a little as I have added another frag or two and moved some stuff around.

Here is a list of some of the corals I have in the tank.

LPS

Plate
Yellow Goniopora
RPE Blasto Merletti
Blasto Wellsi
Pink with silvery tip hammer
Pinkish with green tip wall hammer
Bubble coral
Several varieties of frogspawn

No SPS or Mushrooms

Zoas
About 45+ different zoos

Inverts
3 small blue leg hermits
2 Astrea snails
Bunch of stomatella and collonista snails
2 nassarius snails
1 female emerald crab

No fish yet


Will post pictures of individual corals soon.

 

[xmetalfan99]

Man, you crammed that tank full of as much coral as you possibly could. Looking good. What lighting are you using?

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Sweet little tank and man it is jam packed with all kinds of goodies in there!! Are you planning on any fish??