I is Noob :)

[evan_]

Hehe...howdy folks...I just recently started up my new tank...it's a standard 5.5g rectangular tank...I just want a few pieces of coral and a couple of small gobys for livestock (as well as the usual CUC)...I have LR fragments for substrate (roughly 9.2lbs)...and I have about 10lbs of LR (3 pieces)...water was supplied from the hard coral display/sale tank at work as well as the LR and LR substrate...It's got an Aquaclear 20 with just a sponge inside...and I have a Jebao PP-300 mini powerhead for circulation with another Jebo PP-333 mini powerhead on standby...(they came out of the little decorative water fountains you put in your living room)...There are already about a dozen featherdusters having a grand ole time flowing in the current...
My question is this...is there a skimmer that is small enough to work on my tank? I DO NOT want to upgrade tank size...I know chemicals and such will be hard to measure accurately with a tank this size, but thats the beauty of working at a large LFS...free RO and salt water from work, as well as the 30% discount on dry goods and 40% discount on livestock...
Aany help or possible DIY links for skimmers would be appreciated...thanks.

 

[nycbob]

a tank that small, u really dont need a skimmer if u change water often. the smallest skimmer i can think of is the nano remora pro, but it measures 13 inches tall.

 

[evan_]

yeah thats way taller than my tank...is it internal or external?

 

[evan_]

Could I possibly use the skimmer thats made for the 28g nano cubes? Or is a skimmer really even necessary? I plan on putting a Leather coral in on Monday...just a little frag or something along with a handful of hermits and a few snails...I have an old Odysee (sp?) PowerCompact running a 13" 24 watt 50/50 bulb...right now its literally sitting on top of the glass 'cuz I don't have any legs for it...I was going to make some though so that it doesn't get too hot and heat the water...

 

[evan_]

tank as it is right now...remember its a 5.5g. I have added another "powerhead" also, both spray from the top rear corners to the front center of the tank. I have about a dozen or so featherdusters that came on the LR...
and some little insect looking things...kind of look like a white/clear rollie pollie bug...really small with a multitude of clear legs...kind of have a brown stripe down its back and its rear end kind of goes up underneath it...any idea what these are?
I'm also wondering about a stockin list for this tank...I wanted to know what kind of zoanthids, shrooms, and leathers I could put in here...and also what a good CUC would be and how many...I want to put an Emerald Crab in there too cuz they look awesome...

 

[maeistero]

Nano Air Wood Protein Skimmer
search on e, it's like $15. the only way to adjust is with water level but in a 5 i'd imagine you'll have no problems with that.
oh and i don't think it's necessary whatsoever on a nano. it'd be so much easier to just have an 10 with mixed water and a powerhead. a water change would be faster than messing with a skimmer.

 

[chrisnif]

I have a 5 gallon AGA with lowes "paver base" as substrate (this tank wasnt supposed to be salt) 6 pounds of live rock, a small walmart HOB filter, and an improvised fuge with 3 pounds of rubble and a yellow tail blue damsel now held prisoner in the fuge for beating my royal gramma up. I have no skimmer and have been very tempted to get one, but i change 1 gallon weekly without fail, sometimes 2. Also, when i do the water change i use a clean plastic cup to surface skim in my fuge as it has no surface agitation at all and it gets a thick coating on the surface.
Hope that helps you out...and welcome to the world of improvised nano reefing.
Also, I have a mushroom, a zoo frag (10 polyps) a very quickly growing green star polyp colony, and a thumb sized xenia, all happy as can be.

 

[evan_]

Originally Posted by Chrisnif
http:///forum/post/3178914
...and an improvised fuge with 3 pounds of rubble and a yellow tail blue damsel now held prisoner in the fuge for beating my royal gramma up...
Could u post a pic of ur fuge? also, how did u go about doing the plumbing for the fuge? u have me really curious now.
on a side note, this site is easily navigated on a cell phone, hard to post quoted replies though lol.

 

[chrisnif]

My fuge is "interesting" to say the least.
I got a rubbermaid container that is made for putting cereal in so it stays fresher than in the box/bag. Main thing is it is taller than the tank. Next I took a piece of tubing about 6 inches long and bent it into a U shape (had to put a weight at each end, now I have a live rock rubber banded to it on the fuge side and have a piece of finger live rock holding it against the glass on the tank side). This tube is the siphon tube and will pull water from the tank to the fuge. Lastly I bought a Tom Mini Internal filter, it has a 50 gph power head and comes with some neat spraying attachments, most importantly the tubing from my siphon/gravel cleaner fits in the output hole very nicely, so I routed about 6 inches of that tubing and actually rubber banded it to the intake tubing. I then experimented with the ends from the tom filter as there is a higher pressure nozzle and a spray bar, I found there isnt enough water flow to use the spray bar for much, so I put the high pressure nozzle on and its blowing across the top of my live rock toward where the HOB filter dumps its water back in, the Xenia LOVE the flow, as do the GSP.
I'll see if I cant get some pics for you but the canister sits right behind the 5 gallon on the end table in the living room, and the fact that it's salt water turned the cat off from drinking the water very quickly