My 9ish gallon

[justjosh012]

EHEIM aquastyle 35.
Stock comes with a little corner filter/pump that the 7w 6k LED plugs in to.
took about 1 minute out of the box to put it together.
only thing changed was the filter pad in the stock filter so it just acts as circulation pump.

additions:
eheim jager 50w heater
Rio 50 pump

CUC/inverts:
1x Nassarius snail
1x Zebra Turbo
1x Emerald crab
2x Margarita snail
1x Blue reef hermit
1x Harrlequin shrimp
1x pom pom crab
1x crocea clam
1x RBTA

Fish:
Helfrichi firefish
Standard firefish

Croal:
Kenya tree
assorted mushrooms
GSP
snake polyps
assorted zoas
Birdsnest

I plan on slowly phasing out the softies for nicer LPS.SPS as i go. I really just wanted to get my head around the maintenance of a small tank, and the capabilites of the equipment i have. future plans for upgrades are an MP10 and a par38.

maintenance is weekly 2gal water change with Tropic Marin Pro Reef and daily FW top off.

ive adjusted the CUC as ive gone aswell and feel comfortable with what i have.

ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are stable at 0. I attribute this to the rock and sand beign from my older system and full of all sorts of life. Biodiversity FTW :D

Here are the photos. birdsnest isnt in them as its only been in there a couple of days. it has full polyp extension and no bleaching. the little 7w LED does a good job.

 

[rajkovich207]

Do you ever see aggression between your firefish? Beautiful tank btw! Love the mini bta!

 

[justjosh012]

Do you ever see aggression between your firefish? Beautiful tank btw! Love the mini bta!

No agression at all. I read up alot on this before i attempted it. Standard firefish was added first and allowed to settle fore about 2 weeks while Helfrichi was in QT. No territorial display or nipping once the Helfrichi went in. they spend much of their time in the water column together and share the same hole in the rock pile. Both fish are near full size, so im hoping no agression appears as they age.

The mini RBTA was a gift from some customers. After an ATO issue and hyposalinity, most of their corals and inverts died, but their RBTA split TWICE in as manyh days :D

 

[Squishie89]

I love it. Keep up the great work.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I love the pic of the helfrichi. It is gorgeous!!!

 

[skinz78]

Great looking little tank and I love the Crocea clam too!

 

[justjosh012]

I Really didnt think i was going to be able to leave the clam in there... But once again i was blown away by the little stock LED. I just wish EHEIM would release the reef spectrum one already. I would go with that over a par38 on this tank.

 

[revsgirl]

Beautiful tank!! Nice pics! Thanks for sharing!

 

[revhtree]

Tank looks great! :D

 

[justjosh012]

I added a nice Duncan frag last night, only to wake up this morning to my emerald crab finishing off the last polyp. out he goes!:tsk: maybe a treat for my tusk and triggers.

 

[swannyson7]

Beautiful nano! 1smile1

 

[skinz78]

Dang that sucks, I say fish food for sure!

 

[justjosh012]

Ive decided to do a DIY LED. Im on a tight budget so only 4 diodes, but im making it so I can expand as needed with some quick soldering.
here is what im using:
2x cree xp–g r5 5w cool white
2x cree xt–e royal blue
mean well lpc–35–700 constant current driver

I have never done anything like this before, so if anyone knows better please critique :D

 

[Mike171]

looks great! will be following along!

 

[justjosh012]

I re arranged some rocks, removed the large light steeling Kenya Tree, and made an LED fixture. Sorry for the cell phone pics and cyanobacteria... I'm running phosguard to try and starve out the latter, and will get better pics tomorrow if anyone wants :D

 

[justjosh012]

Thanks to Rapid LED for getting me this stuff pretty quick :D
On a less happy note, RIP mini RBTA... power head surfing is a bad idea.

Anyone know what kind of shroom this is? it was a hitch hiker

finally got a shot of this little guy

 

[justjosh012]

Just got a shiny new mp10 to replace all the other stuff in the tank. makes it looks sooo much nicer and less cluttered

 

[LukeG]

I was considering one of these today st the LFS. What do you think of the stock LED? I thought I'd need 2 or 3 to do SPS.

 

[LukeG]

Sorry I read the thread again and saw your thoughts on the stock light. Do you think it's better to use a MP10 than the stock filter? Did you use both?

 

[justjosh012]

I do think the stock filter was decent, it provided good surface agitation. You will need additional water movement though.
I fully replaced it with the mp10, but im hanging on to it as i can stuff any media i want in there incase i need to. I cant say enough about how happy i am with this tank, even though im only using the glass now. if you want something you can start with and upgrade over time, its a really good way to go.