6.6 gallon bookshelf aquarium

[saltwaterfishes]

I bought this tank today at Petco. Tank dimensions 8.13"L x 24"W x 9.25"H. Also got a 24" Coralife T5 (2)24w.
My husband gave me the idea to spray the back black for the background, but I don't have any black cans left. I do have white so I spray painted the bottom. 'Til tomorrow....should be able to add water!

 

[kickside]

Just curious what are your plans for this tank?

 

[saltwaterfishes]

Just curious what are your plans for this tank?

Mostly mini maxi carpets and couple other frags my daughter wanted to watch them grow.

 

[dtd87]

By seeing your display and frag tank, I'm sure this will look amazing

 

[user 2204]

Very cool little tank.

FWIW if you plan on keeping the mini/maxi nems in there, you might look at putting more lighting on there. I have kept mine under 32W of PC lighting in a 5.5 tank and they didn't seem all that happy. Put them under a 150hqi in a 10 gallon and they seem to love it. And the Pheonix 14K really brings out all the colors in the nems. Not sure how many different colors you have or plan on having.

 

[saltwaterfishes]

By seeing your display and frag tank, I'm sure this will look amazing

Thanks :smile:
I really have not put much thoughts into this beside dimensions cause it's going to be on the kitchen counter in a small area. Hopefully I can keep the heat down in the summer. I'm use to having a chiller on both tanks and not have to worry about heat issues.

 

[saltwaterfishes]

Very cool little tank.

FWIW if you plan on keeping the mini/maxi nems in there, you might look at putting more lighting on there. I have kept mine under 32W of PC lighting in a 5.5 tank and they didn't seem all that happy. Put them under a 150hqi in a 10 gallon and they seem to love it. And the Pheonix 14K really brings out all the colors in the nems. Not sure how many different colors you have or plan on having.

Mmm....my husband wanted to get a 70w MH but I thought it may be to much. We'll see when I drop then in :biggrin1: Tank is pretty shallow, but if colors are not there then I have to get a stronger light.
Btw, how do you keep the heat down running 150hqi for a 10g?

 

[dtd87]

I've seen people keep the heat down with it hung moderately high and a honeywell fan

 

[Krish]

Cute little tank! Good luck with it.

 

[Skimmy]

if you want more color, more intensity and no heat then i strongly suggest you consider either an LED retro kit or an inexpensive led fixture.

 

[saltwaterfishes]

My first thought was LEDs to avoid heat issues, but some told me rainbow minis look really nice under LEDs yet other colors not so great. I guess I'll be experimenting with lighting on this tank.

 

[saltwaterfishes]

I got the bottom painted white and background black. The black took 3-4 coats to cover, I didn't do an very good job.
It was easy to transfer minis into the tank, but I didn't realize I got stung pretty bad on top of my hand. After I got everything in and turned the lights on....my minis lost a lot of colors, 48w is not strong/bright enough. Now I'm looking for a 70w MH or 96w t5.
livestock:
bunch of mini maxi carpets
3 flower nems
red shrooms
red blasto merletti colony
red and green blasto wellsi, single head
purple gorgonian
red branching cyphastrea
meteor shower cyphastrea
shamrock monti
red hornet zoas 2p
goblins fire zoas 5p
mary janes zoas 10p

fts I'm sure I will move things around in the tank. Or take things out if they're not happy

 

[user 2204]

I may have an extra 70W 14K with ballast to sell. I can let you know in about a week, if you'd like.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[saltwaterfishes]

I may have an extra 70W 14K with ballast to sell. I can let you know in about a week, if you'd like.

Cheers,
Alex

That would be great.

 

[Krish]

Looks good! It's amazing how much bigger a tank looks in a picture. Looks way bigger than a 6.6 gal lol. Are your rocks just stacked like that or did you glue them together or something?

 

[TJL]

Hey Caitlen, your lil tank looks awsome but as others have stated no big suprise. I'm with Skimmy on adding some LED's like a Stunner Strip and believe thats all you would need and would give the shimmer look as well. As far as cooling issues go the tank is sitting on a huge heat sink ie: 'granite slab' if you were to place a piece of heat conductive material thats the same thickness as the dimension of void under bottom of tank it would effectively remove heat from the water column. If you could give me exact dimensions I would be happy to fabricate a small piece of Corian type material for you. We have a few months yet before any chance of real heat issues but shoot me a pm if your interested or want/need a better explanation.

Cheers, Todd

 

[BlennyBabe]

Gorgeous tank. I was just at petco today and saw these. What a perfect bathroom or kitchen tank.

Where did you get your Maxi-Mini anemones? I have just discovered them (been away from the hobby a long time) Are they expensive? Can you propagate them?

 

[iroll253]

Dang! I need to check updates more often. Looks great. Love the scape.

 

[Brie]

I actually had this same tank, when I worked at petco a few years ago... I saw it and immediately thought "reef tank". lol. I really want to set up a new one. Here's a shot of mine, before I really had any coral in it. Yours looks WAY nicer. Much cooler inhabitants.

FWIW too, I just got a gold/tangerine/neon green mini maxi, and it looks AWESOME under my new Maxspect LED fixture. Totally surreal under the nighttime LEDs, like a little nightlight. And with how shallow the bookshelf tank is, I think they'd be fine under T-5s.

Temp. crappy maxijet was in there at the time of these photos too.

 

[dtd87]

It's amazing what you can do with just 6.6gallons or smaller. I'm not sure if it was on this forum but there was someone who had a .5g reef in a vase with zoas and mushrooms. If I can find it I'll post a link. I can't wait to see what caitlen does with this tank because her display and frag tank already speak for themselves

edit: I couldn't find the thread on the old forum but I found a video of it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOsitYhihc