Fluval Spec V Reef Build

[Crepe]

Hey guys. So for a long time I've been doing FW and I thought for college I'd up the ante and do a reef. I've done FOWLR in the past before but nothing with coral.

So far I've gathered all my materials which include:

Prime
HM TDS-3
API Reef master and other tests for cycling (pH, ammo, nitrite etc.)
Red Sea Mg Test
D-D ATC NSW Refractometer (Just zeroed at 68F and matched at 35ppt NSW with a Diy salinity standard)
Seachem Reef Salt
5lb Aragalive (probably just dead sand but I liked the particle size and color although I really would have liked fiji pink sand)
2 x 6g BPA free water jugs
80Gph Powerhead
16w blue and white LED
PURA Phoslock GFO
Seachem Matrix Carbon
Heater
JB water weld for putting rock together and frags
Egg crate to keep the tank from falling apart from live rock
Coral frenzy dry reef food (Don't really want oyster feast sitting in my tiny dorm fridge)

At first I had a 4.4g Rimless curve corner tank but after reading really TERRIBLE reviews (when a box to hold several gallons of water has bad review you heed them) about the brand I switched to the Spec V which is an all in one unit and also brand new from fluval.

As for stocking I'm thinking of:
So as for stocking I'm thinking:

1-2 small peps
1-2 pom pom crabs if I can find them
2-3 snails

And for sessile inverts I'm looking at:
Zoas
Shrooms (isolated on a rock on the sand)
GSP(Isolated on the sand)
Xenia(Small small xenia for the sand)
Frogspawn and hammer
May grab some favites idk yet. Still reading through the coral book to see what'll work.

Hopefully I'll be done with Borneman's Aquarium Corals before long.

 

[Rhino]

Looking forward to the build, I will be following along. I recently started my first reef tank as well, only I had no salty experience. Best of luck to you. How many gallons is the new Fluval tank?

 

[Crepe]

It's a 5g tank, rimless and internal overflow style filter (Big reason I got it).

 

[Saratj1]

Reefs2go.com carries pom pom crabs, I bought 2 from there ad am very pleased , all my friends love them (when you can see them) but reefs to go recently increased the prices pretty dramatically ( I bought my Pom poms for $7.99, the went up to 19.99)
Good luck on your tank, I have a fluval edge that I recently converted to salt. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.







Here's a pic of one of my Pom Poms its hard to see under actinics

 

[Crepe]

How hardy are the pom pom crabs? Were they shipped express or priority?

Also...today I'm off to the local RODI dispensery with my tds meter to test before I fill the jugs.

 

[Saratj1]

I believe they were shipped express, but I ordered other things as well so I'm not sure.
My Pom poms are pretty hardy I have a coral banded shrimp and a bunch of blue legged hermits and a couple large red legged hermits, the Pom poms hold there own every now and them they lose an anemone I assume from fighting with something, but they grow back in a couple weeks. They hide out a lot so you don't see them a whole lot but they a neat little additions, they only get about the size of a quarter, their bodies are about the size of a dime. Mine have had eggs a few times but none ever survive, I don't know if their viable, or they hatch and don't have the right conditions to survive, but no baby Pom poms yet.

 

[Crepe]

Pom pom crabs like many other marine inverts have larval stages so unless you're very dedicated to their breeding it probably won't happen.

 

[Crepe]

So, today I picked up a bottle of:

For a coral dip....Move in day is officially 23 days away. The local whole foods also came up with 0 tds for their RODI water so I'm set there. So far my time table is going to be:

Aug 21- get RODI from store and start mixing salt
Aug 23- Buy the LR
Aug 24- Move in and set up