These two builds were such a journey but were sooooo worth it after all said and done. I just had to post it somewhere because... I'm pretty proud of them!
Upgrades/Equipment:
- Fluval Marine Nano light (Right), Eshopps stock light (Left)
- Auto Top Off from Amazon with Acrylic Liquid Dosing Pump Reservoir Container (6.3 * 4.25 * 7.28 Inch;2500ml/2.5L)
- SICCE Mirca pump/SICCE Syncra pump
- Custom back lid for "LidPropzShop" on Etsy
- Custom front lid with evaporation cover from Kraken Lids
- Small Submersible Aquarium Heater, Adjustable Mini Fish Tank Heater 50W with External Temperature Controller, LED Display
*(Coldwater tank only) - 10 gallon rated aquarium chiller*
On the right is my original clownfish/anemone tank build (1.5 years old now) with:
1 Davinci Clownfish, 2 sexy shrimp, 1 candy cane pistol shrimp, 1 yasha goby, 1 trochus snail, 1 blue legged hermit
Cheap Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone (Original + it's baby split), Florida Ricordea mushrooms, Green Star Polyps, Green toadstool (trimmed from my main tank), Kenya tree (will eventually be removed when it gets bigger), and Duncan
On the left is my PNW coldwater tidepool tank:
1 tidepool sculpin, 1 blue spotted jawfish (decided he didn't want to be in the photo), 5 Red-banded Transparent Shrimp , 1 green shore crab, 1 Bering hermit crab, 1 northern bay mussel, several checkered periwinkle snails, lacuna snails, and various small limpets, Sargassum macroalgae, stringy acid kelp, and other macroalgae that I have to restock every so often because the hermit crab eats it all
How this all began:
Originally, I bought the Eshopps deskmate 4.8 tank on the left to house blue striped pipefish. I had wanted seahorses... but with my main display tank only being 20 gallons and already having other things I loved and no space for bigger tanks, I thought the blue striped pipefish would be interesting... and to be honest, they were great! But... I struggled a with cyano because I had low flow for the pipefish and then I went on vacation, the tank crashed because of evaporation. You see, when I first set up the tank, I didn't have an auto top-off and while I had a lid, it didn't cover the back portion of the tank since most people like to put protein skimmers and such back there...so evaporation made the parameters go crazy while I wasn't there and killed off everything.
I learned a lot from that first crash so when I started over again I took some lessons to make sure things wouldn't crash.
1. I need an auto top-off
2. I need a lid that covers as much surface area as possible
3. The flow needs to be higher because algae/cyano in a small space takes over quickly
4. Add inhabitants that will enjoy higher flow
5. I need a better light than the stock light so I can reduce whites/reduce algae
Upgrades/Equipment:
- Fluval Marine Nano light (Right), Eshopps stock light (Left)
- Auto Top Off from Amazon with Acrylic Liquid Dosing Pump Reservoir Container (6.3 * 4.25 * 7.28 Inch;2500ml/2.5L)
- SICCE Mirca pump/SICCE Syncra pump
- Custom back lid for "LidPropzShop" on Etsy
- Custom front lid with evaporation cover from Kraken Lids
- Small Submersible Aquarium Heater, Adjustable Mini Fish Tank Heater 50W with External Temperature Controller, LED Display
*(Coldwater tank only) - 10 gallon rated aquarium chiller*
On the right is my original clownfish/anemone tank build (1.5 years old now) with:
1 Davinci Clownfish, 2 sexy shrimp, 1 candy cane pistol shrimp, 1 yasha goby, 1 trochus snail, 1 blue legged hermit
Cheap Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone (Original + it's baby split), Florida Ricordea mushrooms, Green Star Polyps, Green toadstool (trimmed from my main tank), Kenya tree (will eventually be removed when it gets bigger), and Duncan
On the left is my PNW coldwater tidepool tank:
1 tidepool sculpin, 1 blue spotted jawfish (decided he didn't want to be in the photo), 5 Red-banded Transparent Shrimp , 1 green shore crab, 1 Bering hermit crab, 1 northern bay mussel, several checkered periwinkle snails, lacuna snails, and various small limpets, Sargassum macroalgae, stringy acid kelp, and other macroalgae that I have to restock every so often because the hermit crab eats it all
How this all began:
Originally, I bought the Eshopps deskmate 4.8 tank on the left to house blue striped pipefish. I had wanted seahorses... but with my main display tank only being 20 gallons and already having other things I loved and no space for bigger tanks, I thought the blue striped pipefish would be interesting... and to be honest, they were great! But... I struggled a with cyano because I had low flow for the pipefish and then I went on vacation, the tank crashed because of evaporation. You see, when I first set up the tank, I didn't have an auto top-off and while I had a lid, it didn't cover the back portion of the tank since most people like to put protein skimmers and such back there...so evaporation made the parameters go crazy while I wasn't there and killed off everything.
I learned a lot from that first crash so when I started over again I took some lessons to make sure things wouldn't crash.
1. I need an auto top-off
2. I need a lid that covers as much surface area as possible
3. The flow needs to be higher because algae/cyano in a small space takes over quickly
4. Add inhabitants that will enjoy higher flow
5. I need a better light than the stock light so I can reduce whites/reduce algae
