B1N4RY's 8 Gallon Reef Aquarium.

So living in an apartment in the Bronx is not really conducive in my opinion to setting up the incredibly large reef aquarium of my dreams. So instead of staying out of the hobby cold turkey, I decided that I would challenge myself a bit by setting up an 8 gallon pico reef aquarium in my dining room. until I can no longer stand the urge and decide to go bigger. So I'm curious to see where this goes.


So I found a suitable location for the aquarium in the dining room just behind our kitchen table, which I thought was excellent because its the central hub of our apartment. Maybe when this thing start growing crazy I can setup a 20 gallon long aquarium right next to it. But all in due time.


I actually only ended up using a single bag to fill the aquarium. So I have an extra bag should I need to top off the sand level if it ever drops.


I know this is kind of like cheating... but I wasn't entirely sure how much live rock I need and especially what type of live rock I wanted to purchase. So I figured I could circle back around with that, but I didn't want to leave the aquarium bare. So in comes the coral insert and I have to say I'm not entirely displeased with it.


I know I just pulled the alarm on the "oh it's a nitrate factory" but I really couldn't pass it up. I have maintained aquariums in the past with canister filters and with routing cleaning I have had no issues. I just couldn't stand the thought of placing a hand on back protein skimmer on this aquarium and have it look like a little house with a chimney. Plus I got it for an awesome price and I couldn't pass it up.



So here is my full tank shot. Came out pretty nice so far and I have some upgrades planned down the line but I'm pretty happy.

 

I must not let my wife see this! Nice job.

 

Reply to FaceOfDeceit.

Thank you. ;D

 

I got tell you I am not a big fan of artificial rock and corals, but that is the bomb!!!!! I love how the top sticks out of the water and how the structure has those over hangs, too cool.

 

I agree with others! That is an awesome little tank you've got there!

 

Took the words right out of my mouth! Well done!

 

I managed to get to a local fish store yesterday and pick up a few things. I'm absolutely in love with Nudibranchs and I understand they have very specialized diets and with my aquarium being fairly new I was concerned that they would not eat algae sheets. But I was very happy when I say the very small baby (smaller than a dime) starting to find his was to the green algae sheet and chow down.



I also managed to find another one of my favorites, the Yellow Clown Goby. He perched exactly where I thought her would and I think he is happy with the artificial reef insert as well.



I Found another Nudibranch which I have never seen before and it is much larger. Haven't seen him too interested in the algae sheets. If anyone can identify it that would be helpful. I apologize for the impulse purchase in advance.



I also found this little guy fending for his life in a tank where he shouldn't have been in so I decided to take him home. He is not the most vibrant and his hidden away for the last day and is starting to slowly warm up but he is mine.

 

Power Conditioning & Battery Backup.

So as my little journey with this aquarium begins, I started thinking about what equipment I needed to address various aspects of the build process. So obviously the first thing that I thought about was power. With the recent power outages my first thought was that I need something to not only protect the equipment by conditioning the power coming from the outlet but also give me some backup power in the event of a power failure. So I purchase an APC Battery Backup that covers both of my power concerns. The one unit gives me approximately just under 5 hours of power to the entire aquarium. That includes the canister filter, internal sump pump, 50 watt heater and the LED light. All I need to do is add additional units to form a bank of backup batteries by daisy chaining them together and I can extend the run time as much as I need.

 

Searching for a Protein Skimmer.

Even though I have a Fluval G3 Canister Filter that is working quite well for me now, I have been thinking that I would like to replace the coral insert after I have obtained all my other equipment and place in some live rock and maintain some high end SPS Coral. So I'm in the market currently for a new hang on back protein skimmer. I'm interested in the Reef Octopus BH-1000 Hang on Back Protein Skimmer. So I created this little overhead schematic to have one of the online retailers to check with the protein skimmer manufacturer to see if it would fit on the rear of my aquarium and clear all the current equipment I have installed.

 

I'd leave it as is, pretty cool.
But I for one, understand the coral 'bug'.- need to keep it.

You didn't mention so I'd thought I'd ask- you did cycle that tank, right?

And with 2 fish, MHO is that you're already maxed out.

Again, I think the whole set up looks great, and I like the insert on the nano you have.
With that tank, I'd keep it FO, or FOWLR, but then again, corals are cool too.