Conversion of my Flueval Spec V Desktop Aquarium

[texanjordan]

I have a Flueval Spec V 5 gallon Desktop Aquarium at work that I have freshwater fish in, and it is boring me to tears, so I decided to convert it to a nano tank! I was able to pick up a Marineland reef ready LED Light fixture off of ebay last week, and it is 100% brighter than the crappy fixture that came with the tank. This last weekend, I picked up 10 pounds of white sand, new carbon, new ceramic bio filtration, 2 5 gallon containers of pre made salt water, and around 7 or 8 pounds of live rock. I plan on doing the transition over lunch, and taking the fresh water fish back to petco after work today. The LR I have is cured and ready to go, so hopefully the cycle will be a mini one, and I will be able to start adding coral in a week or two. My plan is to have mostly zoas, some acans, and maybe a few other LPS. As far as fish and others are concerned, a clown and a goby most likely, and some crabs and snails.

[jcnkt_ellis]

Sounds like you have a solid plan for making the switch. IMO, I wouldn't stick a clown in there, it is too small of a tank; however, there are some gobys that will remain small enough for your footprint. 5 gallons is more of an invert tank then a fish tank. Good luck with the setup and post some pics.

[texanjordan]

Your probably right, I was thinking a few gobies maybe, and for the most part, it will be inverts and corals.

[koa25]

Be careful with that Marineland reef ready led on the shallow of tank. May be pretty strong. Those things aren't to good for a normal deep tank but when you have a shallow tank like that you may get more than enough light. Did you get live sand? It may help cut down on the cycle as well. Good luck. Post pics!

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[Dean]

We keep a Spec V. Weekly one gallon water change and it has been doing fine for 4 months now with a couple of gobies and a tiny baby clown. Just need to make sure you stay very diligent with the maintenance.

[texanjordan]

Desktop Reef (2).jpg

[texanjordan]

Not quite sure why the second pic is there, and I cant seem to delete it. Anyway, here is my desktop reef all set up. I did not get live sand, I used base sand with live rock, and the real ocean water from PETCO. I also added live bacteria to the water.

[polarbear]

You should try a clown goby. I have a yellow one in my biocube at work and love it. Also have a yashi goby and pistol shrimp combo.

[texanjordan]

I picked up a yellow tail damsel fish and 5 hermit crabs yesterday. Still zero ammonia and zero nitrates showing up when testing. Even with using all live rock, bacterial starter and real salt water, I assumed I would have a mini cycle. I plan on adding a small clown fish and a goby pistol shrimp pair, and then corals down the road.

[jcnkt_ellis]

Damsels and Clowns are both very territorial fish and you have a very small footprint, they may end up fighting constantly. Also, three fish plus a decorative shrimp is a large bio-load for a small aio tank, you may end up constantly fighting diatom/algae blooms from the waste they will produce.