My 5 Gallon Nano Tank experience

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After much research I finally got my hands on a Aqua-Tech 5 gallon tank to start my nano. I am going to run this tank to get some experience in the hobby, and prepare myself for my in-wall tank project which will get underway soon.

The Aqua-Tech 5 is basically an Eclipse 6 with a different name branded to it and sold @ wal-mart. It comes with the pump and bio-wheel, light all built into a slick hood.

I started Cycling the tank two days ago, starting with 10lbs. of live sand and a little over 3 lbs. of fiji live rock. I scraped the stock lighting and got a new bulb for the fixture. Its a Power-Glo 8W T-5 12" bulb. According to the chart on the side of the packaging, the light spectrum emitted is 18000K if I read this correctly. Can someone make a bit more sense of this? This should give me the ability to be able to put a bit of variety in this tank I would guess.

For right now, the pump is running with simply the bio-wheel spinning. I did NOT put the carbon filter in because I'm still on the fence on this one. From what I have been reading, the Bio-wheels seem to be nitrate factories but regular filter changes will correct this along with my water changes. Right now in the carbon section, I have just a couple pieces of rubble live rock that broke off from the big chunks.

I do have some questions that I am having trouble finding the answers too though. They are as follows:

While cycling my tank for this first month or so, I do NOT need to do water changes, correct???

My lighting is sufficient for more common nano items such as a clown fish or two, a few corals, etc. yes?

Filtration, will regular changes of the Bio-wheel and water changes on say the 10th, 20th, and 30th of the month of say 10-20% take care of the nitrate problems that could occur? What about the carbon filter?

 

[Colin]

I have the same tank. I ended up scrapping the filter and the hood and going with a custom hood. I tried upgrading the lighting with 2x13W PC's but even that wasn't sufficient. All that would grow was mushrooms. In the end I went with a custom canopy and 4x13W PC's. I think you'll be dissappointed with the 8W bulb. Your spectrum is fine, it's the light output that will be lacking.

The filter is bad in that it blocks light to the back of the tank. I got a Aqua Clear 70 power filter and modded it into a refugium. It gives more water volume and really helps the appearance of the tank since the stock filter isn't blocking the light.

Don't do water changes while cycling. Leave out the biowheel and the carbon filter. Or run the carbon occassionally if needed.

Watch how many fish you put in there. I only have a clown goby in mine. I'd think a pair of clowns would be pushing it, but maybe someone else can chime in on that.

--Colin

 

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After thinking about it, I think a pair of clowns is prolly a bit much. Prolly just run with one.

Do you have any pictures of your hood? I'd love to see other ideas of what people did for mods to them.

 

[Colin]

Here's what I did with the stock hood:

The inside:

I took out the heater that is visible in the filter (it didn't work well). I eventually put some chaeto in there. I glued some aluminum foil to the underside of the lid to reflect some of the tank light (the lid is propped up so it got plenty of light).
The top:

Note that I ended up removing the small fan and just propped the top up for temp control.

A little better view of the ballasts:

I'll try to take some pictures of the new setup soon.

--Colin

 

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Mine doesn't have a heater in it, however there is a spot I could put one in I s'pose. With some good lighting though, I wouldn't think I would need it.

Do you have some sort of splash guard to protect your lights? Whats your water temperature at with having those lights on? Lights off?

 

[Colin]

You will need a heater. The tank will cool off to room temp within a few hours of the lights going off.

With that setup (no fan), lights on, and lid propped open, it would get up to about 79-80.

No splash guards on the lights. I ran it 2 years and never had an issue other than having to occassionally wipe off the lamps.

--Colin

 

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What do you have for livestock in your tank currently under this lighting? Any pictures of it?