I'm working on a new tank, a 5 gallon nano reef, and I'm totally stoked about it. It will be going back to school with me in the fall in place of my 10 gallon planted freshwater (which may or may not stay set up--I'm debating putting the shrimp and plants in my 20 gallon planted). I made my mind up a couple months ago that the tank I was taking to school in the fall was going to be a reef tank, but until this week, I was planning on doing a 10 gallon reef. However, after putting much thought into it, I decided I'd use my empty 5 gallon. It has a smaller footprint, which is always a plus in a dorm room. It will also get about 7.2 wpg, which will allow me to have some corals I wouldn't have been able to have if I had done a 10 gallon. Because it's smaller, it will also be easier to transport it to and from school when necessary.
So, a few days ago, I started working on this tank. I want to get it established before going back to school because I've yet to find a good fish store in Lexington (if anybody has suggestions, let me know!). I also need something to keep me busy over the summer. I purchased about 6 pounds of live rock and some dry sand, which I seeded with some sand from our other reef tanks. I've been monitoring the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates levels. Yesterday, the ammonia was almost at .50 ppm, the nitrites were between 0 and 0.25 ppm, and the nitrates were too low to be detected.
Current equipment for this tank:
Filter: Bio-wheel (either 100 or 150, can't remember; probably not the best for this tank, but I was working with what I had)
Heater: none yet (tanking staying at 72.5 F during the day with the lights, drops to 70 F during the night)
Light: Nova Extreme HO Light Fixture - 10,000K-460nm - 2 x 18W - 18 in. - T5 (same one I had on my 10 planted; I never switched out the actinic light like I planned)
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