A buddy of mine bought a pair of Reef Casa Flat 6 tanks to use for frag growout. He had them setup and full of water before deciding to go big with the 100g Waterbox frag system, so he drained the Flat 6s (never saw frag #1) and put them up for sale. I've been enamored by the Flat 6 since its release, so I couldn't pass it up (kind of bummed I didn't get both of them). I've had this tank for a while now, but I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with it until recently. A recent remodel on my home office, and some new furniture purchases gave me the perfect spot for it, and I was in love with the dimensions of the tank, but what do I put in it?
After putting the tank in my office and staring at it for a few days, it hit me. I have a growing collection of Jawbreaker mushrooms scattered around a few other tanks here. They're doing OK, but trying to find a balance of flow and light that's agreeable to them is difficult in nano tanks that are setup for other things. So why not setup a tiny shroom lagoon, JUST for Jawbreakers. So the name "Disco Inferno" (i.e. Discosoma) was born, and I formulated my plan.
While the tank's primary use will be growing out my ever expanding Jawbreaker collection, it will also be their display. For me, "display" means sand and aquascape. So that was next on the list. I could just throw some sand in there and scatter the growout tiles around, but who wants to look at that? I want some height (not much available in a 7" tall tank), I want some depth. I want it interesting to look at, so I grabbed some freshly bleached shelf rock, some Marco powder and thin super glue and got to work.
And here's what I came up with...
Top down will always be the best view in a shallow lagoon tank like this, but in order to give it some visual interest from across the room, I angled the shelf a bit so the mushrooms would be a bit more visible from the front. I'll still have them on their tiles, but this will make the tank a little more interesting and less "sterile" looking.
And this is how it looks in the tank...
Once I get the substrate in (mix of Special Grade and crushed coral) it will look like the shelf is basically sitting on the sand, with a slight angle towards the front. Most importantly, there's plenty of room for shrooms!
Trying to do a new build with everything else going on this time of year will probably be slow going. Luckily I had almost all the things I needed already though, so who knows? I still need to build and paint a slab/pedestal for it to sit on. I learned that a pedestal with felt feet is an game changer for small countertop (or cabinet in this case) tanks. Maybe I'll get the build done over the next couple weeks faster than I think.
Here's the equipment breakdown for the build:
Reef Casa Flat 6 AiO (16x15x7)
Reef Casa Media Basket
Jebao DC-650 Pump swap/upgrade
VCA RFG Flow Kit
Sicce Jolly 22w Preset Heater
AI Prime HD
Luxdium LuxEngine Gold LED upgrade (running the "Ultra Blue" color mix)
AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite
And that's pretty much it! Shouldn't be too crazy of a setup, and it doesn't really need to be! I can't wait to get this thing up and running and get my Jawbreakers into their new home!
After putting the tank in my office and staring at it for a few days, it hit me. I have a growing collection of Jawbreaker mushrooms scattered around a few other tanks here. They're doing OK, but trying to find a balance of flow and light that's agreeable to them is difficult in nano tanks that are setup for other things. So why not setup a tiny shroom lagoon, JUST for Jawbreakers. So the name "Disco Inferno" (i.e. Discosoma) was born, and I formulated my plan.
While the tank's primary use will be growing out my ever expanding Jawbreaker collection, it will also be their display. For me, "display" means sand and aquascape. So that was next on the list. I could just throw some sand in there and scatter the growout tiles around, but who wants to look at that? I want some height (not much available in a 7" tall tank), I want some depth. I want it interesting to look at, so I grabbed some freshly bleached shelf rock, some Marco powder and thin super glue and got to work.
And here's what I came up with...
Top down will always be the best view in a shallow lagoon tank like this, but in order to give it some visual interest from across the room, I angled the shelf a bit so the mushrooms would be a bit more visible from the front. I'll still have them on their tiles, but this will make the tank a little more interesting and less "sterile" looking.
And this is how it looks in the tank...
Once I get the substrate in (mix of Special Grade and crushed coral) it will look like the shelf is basically sitting on the sand, with a slight angle towards the front. Most importantly, there's plenty of room for shrooms!
Trying to do a new build with everything else going on this time of year will probably be slow going. Luckily I had almost all the things I needed already though, so who knows? I still need to build and paint a slab/pedestal for it to sit on. I learned that a pedestal with felt feet is an game changer for small countertop (or cabinet in this case) tanks. Maybe I'll get the build done over the next couple weeks faster than I think.
Here's the equipment breakdown for the build:
Reef Casa Flat 6 AiO (16x15x7)
Reef Casa Media Basket
Jebao DC-650 Pump swap/upgrade
VCA RFG Flow Kit
Sicce Jolly 22w Preset Heater
AI Prime HD
Luxdium LuxEngine Gold LED upgrade (running the "Ultra Blue" color mix)
AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite
And that's pretty much it! Shouldn't be too crazy of a setup, and it doesn't really need to be! I can't wait to get this thing up and running and get my Jawbreakers into their new home!
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