New build - 7.5g cube

[WiscoFishNut]

Hey everyone, thought I'd share my new project Being shut in from the Covid 19 mess has provided lots of spare time lol.

The plan for this tank is low maintenance since its in my home office. Initial plan is to move my clown over after the tank cycles for a bit. I did use Biospira and have been ghost feeding, so that plan may accelerate..

Tank - Mr Aqua low iron 7.5 gallon cube
Light - Zetlight ZA1201
Filter - AquaClear 70 w/ inTank media basket
Filter media - coarse sponge > Seachem Matrix > Chemi-Pure Blue Nano pouch x 1
Substrate - BB w/ some dead dry rock from reefcleaners
Heater - Cobalt Neo-Therm 50W
ATO - Auto Aqua Smart ATO micro
Flow - just the HOB filter so far, but I have an IM Aqua Gadget wavelink on standby if needed once coral gets added
Stand - cheated and bought a cabinet from Wayfair.com and added a butcher block top

Will post a pic thread in a bit.

Would love some tips/advice since this my first nano build. Hoping to add a nem for the clown further down the road, and easy corals.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Pic dump thread!

 

[jk_s124]

First off, I think the moon man ipa (one of my personal favorites) will work better as beverage than a filter media.......but I’ve been known to be wrong. Secondly, congrats on the perfect project to pass time during a lock down! I have always loved the small cube nem and clown fish tanks. Bare bottom is a cool choice to. Good luck!

 

[WiscoFishNut]

First off, I think the moon man ipa (one of my personal favorites) will work better as beverage than a filter media.......but I’ve been known to be wrong. Secondly, congrats on the perfect project to pass time during a lock down! I have always loved the small cube nem and clown fish tanks. Bare bottom is a cool choice to. Good luck!

Thanks! Yeah, Moon Man is my current favorite go-to beer these days.

I'm still unsure of what I want to do long term with the upper section of the media basket. I've seen videos where they've turned it in to a little refugium. Not sure if that falls in to my "low maintenance" category tho.. Two things made me go with bare bottom - low maintenance, and I was concerned about sand storms if I put that powerhead in there eventually.

 

[jk_s124]

I personally wouldn’t bother with a refugium in something this small. Looks like you have a pretty cool hob mechanical filter/media rack thing. Between that and water changes I think you will be good to go.

 

[TriggersAmuck]

You are doing something quite similar to my 14g cube anemone tank (see my build tag). I initially tried using an AquaClear 30 as a Chaeto refugium (with the InTank basket), and it didn't really grow well. Now that the tank is a bit more settled (read: lots of thriving long hair) I'm trying the same thing with the AquaClear 70 minus the InTank (after making room for it by taking off an IM UV filter I had on from the tank start up last August).

One problem I had with the InTank basket was that the water level would slowly creep up to the overflow point, so I had to keep an eye on that. Curious to see how it goes for the AC70 one for you.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Update -

The first inhabitants for the tank are on the way and should arrive tomorrow.

From Liveaquaria.com (first time ordering from them, kinda nervous TBH..)
Semi Picasso Clownfish
Neon Blue Goby
4 x sexy shrimp
Halimeda plant (figured the shrimp would enjoy another hiding area)

From Reefcleaner.org (made numerous purchases from them, not nervous at all)
Dwarf ceriths - half dozen to start
Nassarius vibex - just a couple
Florida ceriths - 3 to start

The Biospira and ghost feeding seems to have worked pretty well. 0 NH3, 0 NO2, and 5 NO3 (was 25ish before the last WC)

I'm not planning on QT'ing anything since this will be the final roster of livestock and I'm not too concerned about that small of a loss. If any of he fish look like they're in super bad shape I can spin up a hospital tank pretty quickly if needed.

Will post some pics tomorrow when everything is settled in

 

[Katrina71]

I think a nano fuge would be cool.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

I think a nano fuge would be cool.

Hmmmn, I like the idea. What'd you have in mind? I do have another 5g tank I could tie in if that's where you were going with that.

 

[Katrina71]

Hmmmn, I like the idea. What'd you have in mind? I do have another 5g tank I could tie in if that's where you were going with that.

I love that! Even a 2.5 would work!

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Or the whole thing is a fuge? That could be fun, and I do have a fuge light available. There are some cool looking macro algae options

 

[WiscoFishNut]

22 degrees this morning.. Great day for livestock to be delivered. Crossing my fingers.. ETA on fish - 10:30am, ETA on CUC - noon.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Got the shipment from LiveAquaria. The sexy shrimp and the neon goby are doing good, but the clown looks to be in pretty rough shape. The clown's colors are really faded and he's hiding in the rock work. I'm second guessing myself on the timing for the order for sure because of the cold snap we have right now. Hopefully they all pull through..

 

[jk_s124]

Got the shipment from LiveAquaria. The sexy shrimp and the neon goby are doing good, but the clown looks to be in pretty rough shape. The clown's colors are really faded and he's hiding in the rock work. I'm second guessing myself on the timing for the order for sure because of the cold snap we have right now. Hopefully they all pull through..

Hope your new clownfish is okay. Was he shipped from Rhinelander?

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Hope your new clownfish is okay. Was he shipped from Rhinelander?

Thanks! Actually the whole shipment was from the California location. I was going to try and go with all ORA, but only the CA location had sexy shrimp and I wanted a single shipment.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Some quick updates -

Well I broke down and ordered a different light. The Zetlight I have doesn't have a controller to set spectrum/brightness, so it's full blast, "night time", or off. Seems to be too bright for the fish lol. I ended up going with the reef version of Fluval's nano lights. I had the planted tank version going when I had this tank set up as a FW planted tank and I really liked the output and the mobile app. Here's the new one - Fluval Nano Sea

Both fish are doing good and eating, but are extremely reclusive. I'm hoping its because they're getting acclimated to the new surroundings and a result of the current light. The neon goby hides behind the heater and the clown hangs out under the light mount.. The sexy shrimp and CUC are all good.

 

[ESH]

First, as others said, great beer choice. As a WI native who's relocated to IL, not being able to get to WI to pick up one of my favorite IPAs right now is annoying. I still got a bunch of spotted cow in the fridge, and have some good local breweries who are still doing curbside pickup so I'm doing good!

I was hoping the Zet light was going to work out, as I have a spare one in my basement and was considering to setup a similar sized tank. Though what stopped me from using it was the lack of a controller, let alone theres no way to switch between the daylight or bluelight. I swear they made a controller for this, but cannot seem to find anything online anymore. I think I still have the box from when I got this years ago and will see if theres any mention in the paperwork.

Either way, cool build and definitely following along. Might end up copying you. Where'd you get the HOB filter basket?

 

[WiscoFishNut]

First, as others said, great beer choice. As a WI native who's relocated to IL, not being able to get to WI to pick up one of my favorite IPAs right now is annoying. I still got a bunch of spotted cow in the fridge, and have some good local breweries who are still doing curbside pickup so I'm doing good!

I was hoping the Zet light was going to work out, as I have a spare one in my basement and was considering to setup a similar sized tank. Though what stopped me from using it was the lack of a controller, let alone theres no way to switch between the daylight or bluelight. I swear they made a controller for this, but cannot seem to find anything online anymore. I think I still have the box from when I got this years ago and will see if theres any mention in the paperwork.

Either way, cool build and definitely following along. Might end up copying you. Where'd you get the HOB filter basket?

Thanks for checking out my build thread! I'm currently out of Moon Man and need to venture over to our mom & pop grocery store to restock since Festival doesn't seem to have it when we did the online ordering.. whamp whamp.

About the Zetlight - I had it originally when I was running this particular tank as a home for a nemo plakat betta and it did the trick since he didn't need anything fancy. I got it because of the cool look and cheap price, but ended up swapping it for a Fluval Nano "Plant". Regarding the controller, I saw the same thing so I did some googling to find out what the deal is. Check this url - Zetlight ZA1201 versions Apparently there's the manual one we have, a discontinued one that had a wired controller, and a WiFi enabled version.

About the filter basket - I got that direct from inTank. Here's the url - AC70 in tank media basket. I was originally looking at a whole kit to mod the AC70 HOB from these guys - OceanBox Designs, but they were on back order so I just grabbed the basket and called it good.

Let me know if you start up a similar build thread so I can follow along!

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Made some more updates today! Ventured out to my LFS and grabbed a tiny scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp and some nice looking macro algae. I forgot the name of the algae, but it's a real pretty deep red. I figured the macro would help with nutrient export since there's no skimmer on this setup, plus the sexy shrimp might like it to hide in.

I also swapped out the light with the Nano Fluval Sea. The mobile app for the Fluval LEDs is just super slick, and the other versions of the lights have been really reliable for me.

Here's an updated pic.

*edit* the macro algae is Pom Pom algae, had to check with my guy at the LFS for the name.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

@Katrina71 - operation "Fuge nano cube" is in progress lol ;Woot