Fluval spec v reef (beginner) need advice!

[picokeeno]

Hi!
Looking to start a pico/nano reef whatever you wanna call it for a 5g set up.
I have read up a lot on what it takes re upkeep and maintenance and due diligence on a weekly basis which is fine with me as I love how these look!

Basically I would really like to know the best way I can filter the water in the spec v within the compartment it has as standard. So what the filter should contain in it and how often I need to clean the separate media? I would do a 5-10% water change every week so I won't need a skimmer will I? And I will have a decent amount of live rock which will help the filtration as well.

Also if I was to just keep LSP corals would I still require an upgrade on the lights?

All I really wanna keep are simple corals, a clean up crew of some sort and one fish maybe two depending on all of your advice and experience.

Any help would be great as I really wanna get it right from the start otherwise I won't take it on as I don't want any death cos of a lack of knowledge!

 

[Spec V]

In the back chamber I kept the sponge left the media balls at the bottom, chemipure elite in the middle, and purigan in the top space. You're going to have to make the middle hole larger to fit the chemipure. You will def need to upgrade the light. I went with the fluval sea LEDs which work ok but if I had to do it again I would go with DIY LEDs. One clown and a purple fire fish is what I had. My fire fish jumped out during a water change so be careful if that's the route you go(didn't realize that happened till a week later). As far as corals go if you're religious with your weekly water changes you pretty good to go with just about anything you want as long as you have the proper lighting. My tank got crowded very fast. I have an ultra orange mushroom. Rastas, pink and orange zoas, a war coral, tree coral, green ricordia, purple tip torch, green tip hammer, a Duncan, a chalice frag, orange blasto, orange and green acan, the stuff that looks like grass and a orange acan bowerbanki. I'm sure I missed something. Like I said it's pretty crowded. Mowing to a 14 gallon biocube this week. Good luck.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

The spec v is a 5 gal right?

 

[picokeeno]

Yeah 5 gal i think they look great as a reef!

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Agree but I wouldn't put a fish in 5 gal, definitely not a clown. You could do a reef with a bunch if cool inverts that would get lost in a bigger tank like sexy shrimp and pom pom crabs

 

[picokeeno]

Yeah as much as i love clown fish! I think i like them too much to put one in a small tank although I was thinking of a goby of some sort? Some people also say that firefish are okay?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Maybe a clown goby, since they are more of a perch and watch fish than open swimmer but I wouldn't go fire fish either

 

[picokeeno]

Clown goby is good with me they're pretty awesome too!

 

[picokeeno]

Another question... What if I was to go on a 2 week holiday? What would i have to do to make sure things are okay?? Assuming i don't have anyone to look after it.

 

[Bectan01]

I would say you would need someone to check on it at least once or twice. my 10g loses water daily and without topping off the salinity would go too high! I also have a single yellow goby in it and am sure he would like food at least once if not twice in two weeks...

 

[picokeeno]

Yeah i thought that might be the case. I could probably just make sure i do a water change the day i leave

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Ato and an automatic feeder and a timer for your lighting. That being said I would still have some one check on it. FWIW when I have to go out of town I setup my ato's and use those pill holders with the days on it and I fill each day up with the food for the tank, then all the tank sitter has to do is throw it in. I like to have some one check on my tanks at least every other day but I may just be paranoid.

 

[dmolavi]

+1 on the pill boxes. I also connected the skimmer/filters to a single power strip so that they just have to flip the switch, drop in the food, let the fish eat, then flip the switch to turn it all back on again.

 

[jon2013]

Add a few 12.5" ecoxotic stunner strips, one 8k white and a blue 445, maybe even a uv 403 strip.
http://www.ecoxotic.com/stunner-led-strips.html#ixzz2q2m2bBtB

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[jon2013]

You will need a 24 volt power cord, and an in line dimmer to be able to turn down the 8k white to get a cool shade of blue all available at the link I posted above

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