5g fluval Spec

[Andru881]

Ive been in the market as of this morning for a all in one nano tank...I went out to lowes to buy some stuff for my kitchen because i'm remodeling and I made the mistake of stopping by the pet store on the way home. And there is was on the shelf a 5 gallon fluval spec...never seen one befor and it looked kinda sexy so i bought it.

Planning on keeping mainly zoas and shrooms

Here it is out of the box

Here's where it will end up going just as soon as the counter tops show up, the blue top there now is just some scrap i'm using temporally...

I was right in the middle of building a 30g cube set up...had the stand 98% done and decided to shut down the project so ill have some stuff for sell soon. Here's a pic of what i was making...It was going in before I added more kitchen cabinets on the other wall...

And one last pick of my war wound with the nail gun...

Thought I had all the long nails (2 1/4") out of the gun but it looks like that was one left. I shot one and it went through a 1/4" plywood, through a 3/4" board and through my finger and out the thumb nail. I went to the doctor and it just scratched the bone. Hurt like crazy pulling it back out

 

[Andru881]

It came with a tiny 83gph pump with im looking for a bigger replacement already.

The LED light kinda sucks...it has 2 built in blue LEDs but it is controlled by a 3 way switch so there is no way to have a timer going to turn them on at night.

I guess i need to start looking into gutting the light and adding like 4-5 Cree 3w LEDs so i can dim them with my reefkeeper. I'll most likely just leave the 2 blue already there and control them with a timer

 

[cerolost]

I'm looking forward to your tank build! I've been contemplating this myself

 

[csammis]

If the Fluval 5g LEDs are anything like the LEDs over the Fluval 2g, you'll definitely want to replace them sooner rather than later. My wife ran the 2g for a few months with stock lighting and about half the LEDs burned out over that period of time.

Looking forward to seeing how you modify things!

 

[Andru881]

ok just put water sand and rock in it to let it cycle some before i move it to its final resting place later this week. The stock pump is low low low flow for the length of tank it is. I need something with more then 83 GPH that will fit in a hole 2 1/8" by 1 7/8"...thats a pretty tiny hole. Or i jest need a 2nd pump to stick to the bottom of the back wall to move out the junk or its going to be a problem i can already tell...

 

[Andru881]

Here it is as it sits right now...the giant power head is not staying...

 

[Andru881]

Any thoughts on this driver from rapid LED?

http://www.rapidled.com/moonlight-driver-350ma/

Where the tank is long and skinny, and the fixture is close to the water I'm thinking that i better run all the same color LEDs so it wont look funny with different sections of color. I have never run LEDs before so does this make since to anyone?

I also wish there was a chart somewhere showing what the light from each LED looks like on the same coral. I would like something that looks like 12-14k MH bulb.

 

[Curtis72]

Rapid LED sells quality stuff and great customer service. I bought my drivers and LEDS through them and if you have issues you can call them or post here on RC on their forum page and they are very helpful.

 

[Andru881]

And thoughts about 4-3watt Cree LEDs running at 350mA? The LEDs say can run full out at 1000mA.

 

[TX..r33f]

nice little build, i think you could build a small led setup from rapiled for under $80

 

[Andru881]

I got the top cabinet put in before I stopped to eat lunch. And I modified a place behind the plate rack to hide the Reefkeeper and LED power supply. I now have a hiding hole 27" long, 4" deep, and 15" tall.

 

[1Sik1500]

Looking great..

 

[bdevillier]

looking good, i have a spec 5 thats in process. i pulled the front cover off of my mini-jet 606 and it will just barely fit. the only down side is there is no more flow control and that puts the pump at approximately 160 gph. one of these days ill have to swap it out and see how it goes. hopefully its not too much flow. i was also lookin at a small led setup but have yet to make up my mind. good luck and look forward to seeing more.

 

[Andru881]

I think I'm going leave in the stock return pump for now and buy a hydor pico 180.

As for the LEDs i think i want to get the ones that have 3 mounted to one plate. The cree 3up

http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/cree-xt-e-3up/

Hopefully if i run 3 of those stars, which would have 9 LEDs. There would be 6 royal blue and 3 white.

 

[Mr2KiEu]

i've seen someone use a Ecoxotic Panorama Pro for their lighting. looked very very good! google it using images "fluval spec 5", and you'll see. good lucky!

 

[Andru881]

I like the look of the light and how you can link up to 3 together. Does anyone know if the…

Panorama Dimmable Remote 60 watt LED Driver $79.00

Will hook up to a reefkeeper of just just have a knob to turn it down.

 

[Andru881]

Just got back from the local "pet" store. Went to buy a max jet 606, and they were out of stock. The kid did say that the have 404's on sale right now. I asked how much and he said $29.99!!!!!

So I'm goIng to have to wait a little longer to find one...

 

[Andru881]

Here is a pic of my hiding hole for the controller

And here is the tank in its final location

Tonight I just ordered a battery powered air pump along with a float switch to make an auto top off for the tank.

 

[Andru881]

Ohh yea I forgot to add that I ordered all the stuff I needed to do a lighting upgrade. I'm getting 3-3w 6500k whites and 3-3w 445nm blues. Should be bright enough to do some coral growing.

 

[Andru881]

Saturday morning photo, haven't done much other then build the little box to the right of the tank.

The box has a fake bottom in it where I hid the RKL head unit. I chose not to cut a hole in the new cabinets.