This1fish's 5.5 nano

[this1fish]

i started this tank 2.5months ago, lost track of actual date but about that far back.

Here is a shot of the tank when i first started.

it had
- 1 orange firefish(jumped out and died)
- 5 hermits consisting of scarlets,red leg,blue leg
- 1 astia snail
- 1 turbo snail
- 1 certh snail
- 1 skunk cleaner shrimp
- 2 peppermint shrimps
- 4 mushrooms
- 2.5G refuge with macro/chaeto and 2lbs live rocks
- 5lbs live sand
- 4lbs live rock
- 10watts 50/50 PC lighting

my tank has gone a long ways since. My cleaner shrimp recently died 2 days ago, it was molting and the hermit got to it while it was in the process. the firefish jumped out and died(1 month ago), i added a yellow watchman goby that caught a disease and died(3 weeks ago), my two peppermint got sucked up by the filter(thank goodness too because they were becomming a pest). it has been a month now with my tank being fishless. today my tank has


display tank:
- coralife 12" 2x18watts 50/50 aqualight
- ebay 2 x 5 leds moon light
- 5lbs live sand
- 6lbs live rock
- maxijet 400
- 2 whisper HOB filter hooking up display tank to refuge.
- 1 torch coral w/ 1 head
- 1 baby torch coral with 8 heads(not visible as it's 1.5inches)
- 1 zoo frag with 40ish polyps
- 1 people eater frag with 7 polyps
- 1 pom pom xenia frag
- 1 pulsing xenia frag
- 4 green/purple mushrooms
- 2 red mushroom
- 2 blue/purple spots mushroom
- 1 two mouth green ric
- 2 orange rics(1 that was split in two)
- 1 coral frag i forgot what it's called.
- 1 GSP frag
- various macro algae
- 1 scarlet reef hermit
- 3 zebra reef hermit
- 2 red legged hermit
- 1 blue legged hermit
- 1 margarita snail
- 1 turbo snail
- 3 nass. snails

refuge:

-2 clumps of chaeto
-1 clump of macro
- 3lbs live sand
- 2 lbs live rock
- 10watts 50/50 PC lighting
- 50watts marineland heater
- coralife digital thermo
- red sea hydrometer
- elite 801 air pump
- marineland air tube and 1 way valve

here are pictures!

FTS

FTS w/moon lights

angled shot

side shot

right side shot

left side shot

some shots of the refuge

 

[this1fish]

When I started this tank, i was on a low budget so i bought two whisper HOB filters(15bucks each) and a long plastic tube. I cut off the pipe that draws water from the tank to the HOB, connected the plastic tube to it and route it to the refuge. Did the same thing from the refuge to the tank. ended up costing me 35dollars total. It has been working extremely well for me so i kepted the set up.

I place the end of the tube high in the tank just incase one filter fails, that way the water level will drop low enough to the point where it wont' be able to draw water anymore and keep my tank from over flooding.

here are pictures