5 gallon q?

[fishes2889]

hey all

i dont have any of the equipment yet but, just wnated to through out some ideas and questions for a 5 gallon. im still in high school and i have to do a graduation project so i will be doing a 4-6 month log on this 5 gallon.

filtration: thinking about an AC30.....wondering if there is enough room for the fission skimmer (C USA) if not ill be willing to do a mod and put in some rubble and some cheato. the filter is 150 gph and that may to much turn over for a 5g.

PH: do i need one???......... small maxi jet???

lighting?? what do i do???never had a tank so small before.....dont kno of such lighting

im going to do a BB tank on this one but with plenty of Lr covering most of the bottom but with a cutting board underneath.

Heater: already have one

im currently keeping some SPS corals in my 12g(acopora ,some monti) and wondered if anyone has a 5g with stable enough water for them.which i heard is vry hard to do but willing since i have alot of frags and i have the kno how to do so.

Livestock(cant tell right now, always changes but i have an idea)
-so im thinking 7 pounds of LR
-a catalina goby(housed in my 12g at the moment)
-some pepper mint shrimp
-definitly 1 or 2 clams(ikno they will probably out grow it but have other tanks i could put them in)

Thats all for right now......sorry for the long post. just wanted to through some ideas out there.

thanks for reading=)

[1105]

My 5.5g nano at work is mostly SPS. For the lights I'm using 2x32w PC lights I got from www.hellolights.com being powered by a $25 ballast I got from Lowes. I wish I had pictures of it, but basically the ballast sits in the middle of the hood I made, then one bulb on each side with a reflector for each bulb. The inside of the hood is painted white, along with the ballast.

For water movement I have one Rio 90 powerhead. Tomorrow we will be getting a Prizm skimmer for the tank since it has been running without one since it was setup about a month ago. Since I have saltwater at my disposal I did a water change once or twice a week depending on how I felt. So far everything has been coloring up very nice under the PC lights, but it hasn't been long enough to tell about growth.

Here is a cost of parts to get it how it is:
2x32w PC Lights - $32 (I think)
Ballast - $25
Tank $10
1x4 Poplar wood for the stand/canopy - $20
Rio 90 - $15 (but free from work)
Prizm Skimmer - $60 (on sale, but again free from work)

All and all you're probably looking at around $200 for everything except the frags for it doing it this way. For corals I have frags of milli's, pocilipora, stylophora, bali slimers, tri-colora, plus a few others. All and all I have 24 frags in the tank. Since you also work at a LFS you can probably get some of the equipment free/cheap like I did. If you have any guestions about it feel free to ask, I'm going to try and get some pictures of it soon.

[beefcake78]

My 5g hex got WAY too hot with a PH I have the old ac 50 lots of flow with room for a small refugium

[fishes2889]

1105, i get most of my equipment for free from work too since i work at american aquariums here. its awesome..but that besides the point. i want to go skimmerless on this one. so i will take beefcakes advice and go with the AC 50 instead of the AC30 ( i can get that for free at my store). would u think i would need a PH with the AC50 or no??because i now would like to do a sps nano and mabey thow some zoo's in too. and about the light your talking about i cant find it on that website=( i f anybody else has ideas about lighting for this sps 5 g tank feel free to chime in!!!

beefcake,
what Ph were you using???
and are u running a refugium???
if so what light for it???

[1105]

Here's the bulbs I'm using, http://hellolights.com/10000kac03pa.html They fit perfectly over a 5g. And here are the sockets for them http://www.hellolights.com/pcentypbas.html

There isnt many lights that will fit over a 5g and still look nice. The shortest VHO bulb is 18" so the bulb is allready longer than the tank. Maybe a 70w MH held pretty high above the tank will work good, but that will cost a lot to do. Thoes PC lights I posted the link for are ~13" and fit perfectly above the tank, you can even get 3 in there if you want to, but I opted to put the ballast in the middle to get it out of sight since it sits on a table.

I guess you're only other option is to get a coralife fixture and place it on top of the tank.

[HartfordWhalers]

I just started a 5.5 gallon. Im just using a regular 10 gal filter and heater. I bought a 18 watt light and a soon 20 watt, so it would be 48 watts. Good Luck with yours