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Well let me first start things by saying that I am not new in the aquarium hobby. I have been into the hobby on and off for about 6 years now and I am in the process of saving for my own home which may take about a year or two so I can't really justify starting a project on a huge reef aquarium (my ultimate goal is at minimum a 400 gallon reef aquarium). I purchased a small Fluval Chi 5.5 gallon aquarium for one of my sons which I soon found out was not the best decision I could have made for a 3.5 year old as I starting catching him attempting to catch the fish like daddy with a small net (this was about 1 year ago). so I moved the aquarium into the master bedroom and their it stood with two Percula Clownfish and a few Sponge Bob Aquarium Ornaments. So just about 3 weeks ago I decided to stop looking at this dreaded thing and see what my imagination could do as I love tinkering and trying out new ideas (much of which many forums regarding aquariums are not very keen on). I always thought to myself I would love an SPS Coral Dominated Reef Tank, so why not see what I could do with this little guy? Yes, I know I sound a bit crazy but I guess so were the first individuals who wanted to keep specimens from the sea when this hobby first started. I am completely aware that a smaller reef aquarium has much less room for error but I think the adventure of giving this a shot is worth the time and effort.

So lets fast forward to today since I have already started this little project. I removed the Sponge Bob aquarium ornaments from the aquarium and relocated them into my wife's Freshwater Fluval Chi. Also I am in the process of completing a custom canopy that I am constructing by hand (literally a saw and a drill). The canopy is over sized because I wanted to hide the the equipment in the rear of the aquarium from view and also house some other equipment within the canopy. The Fluval Chi aquariums come with an Integrated Filter & submersible LED Lighting System which I planned on removing when I completed the installation of Daylight and Moonlight lighting from Rapid LED. But I was forced to accelerate my timetable a bit when I came home yesterday to find that the submersible light has stopped working. So although I was going to wait or the next paycheck I was forced to place an order for the Ultra Premium LED Lighting Kit which includes 6 Cree LED's, which according to Rapid LED would put out approximately 56 watts of lighting which should be more then enough to sustain SPS Corals in my Fluval Chi.


Current Aquarium Setup

• Fluval Chi 5 gallon Rimless Aquarium.
• Fluval Chi submersible LED light/filter.
• Seaclone 100 Protein Skimmer. (Not great but it gets the job done currently. I plan to upgrade this as we progress along.)
• Marineland 250 watt Visi-therm Stealth Pro Heater)
• 15 lbs. of live rock & 5 lbs. of base rock (currently cycling.)
• 2 lbs of live sugar grain sized sand.
• Livestock: 2 Percula Clownfish, 1 Filter Feeding Cucumber, 2 Turbo Snails and 3 Zebra Hermit Crabs.

Water Quality Testing Results for Friday, June 03, 2011.

• Ammonia (Recommended Range: 0ppm): 0ppm
• Nitrite (Recommended Range: 0ppm): 0ppm
• Nitrate (Recommended Range: 0ppm): 0ppm
• pH (Recommended Range: 8.2pH - 8.4pH): 8.0pH
• Alkalinity (Recommended Range: 8dKH - 12 dKH): 9dKH
• Calcium (Recommended Range: 400ppm - 500ppm): 440ppm
• Phosphate (Recommended Range: 0 ppm): 2ppm

I have included some aquarium shots so you can see what it looks like currently. Please excuse the infamous micro bubbles from the Seaclone 100 Protein Skimmer. I do plan on finding a much more suitable replacement for this Protein Skimmer shortly but for the time being its the best I have. Also please excuse the quality of the photographs. I will be purchasing a Digital SLR shortly to resolve that issue.









Blog Update - Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Well my aquarium has undergone a bit of a transformation for the better in my personal opinion. I ran into a major issue with flow in the Fluval Chi aquarium. I could not find a powerhead (including the EcoTech Marine Vortech MP10) that was small enough to provide additional flow without being too obtrusive inside the aquarium and that didn't have too much flow that my poor fish would be pinned to the glass of the aquarium. So I decided to purchase a small 10 gallon aquarium and make my new reef. That back has been painted and with an additional 15 lbs. of live sand it's sporting a new 1 inch to 1.5 sand bed. I have also added a Maxi-jet 600 pump to provide additional flow for the time being. The existing hood will need additional led lighting installed and some additional framework to accommodate the larger area requiring lighting but modifying it should not be too difficult. I think it is turning out rather nicely.