Teresa Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Hi All, I have always loved the fluval chi, but never realized how to make it work for salt water until I did some additional research online. I'll show you the fun part first (pictures!) and save the details for after - Enjoy Yes, that is a mangrove on top Thanks to Brooks when I went to pick up two baby H. erectus sea horses Bought this separately (its made for the fluval edge but works perfectly in the chi). On the left is turtle grass, then a yellow sea whip, in front of that is my red macro garden, to the right is red gracilia and in front of that is my zoa garden (polyps not open yet) One of my new H. erectus. Behind him is the only fake plant I have in the entire tank. Now for the specifics Live Stock: fish: 1 dwarf seahorse, 2 baby H. erectus seahorses, 1 randals goby, 1 pistol shrimp Plants/Macros: red bush, red titan, red gracilia, dragons breath, turtle grass, sea oar grass (laid out in the front sand - hard to see in the picture), codium (behind the fountain), 1 mangrove shoot (the root is in the lower basket since I have the LED and fountain on a timer and the upper basket empties at night) Corals: miscellaneous zoas - looking for ideas on what to put in the space below the red gracilia How I modified the tank: I read online that both the lighting and flow of the filter were poor. I happened to have an ehiem canister filter and it turns out the decor I bought had the perfect spots to hid the in/out takes. I just hid the intake behind the solid wall (after putting a sponge filter on it) and the out put behind the fake plant/frosted glass wall. Now water is circulating around the outer edge of the tank. I then took the clip light from my old nano and added it to the back of the tank. I'm getting an upgraded clip on light in the mail (26w as opposed to the current 13) so I can continue to grow the sea grasses. I am hoping to replace the fake plant with real shoal or manatee grass real soon. So - What do you think? Questions, comments, concerns are all welcome 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cMidd Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 wow. quick turn around! that looks fantastic, and i'm sure brook's seahorses will do great! just watch them, they will grow fast and need a new home eventually! as to the dwarf, im sure he is happy to be among others again! good job teresa, wishing you the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 Thanks I figure I have about a month to prepare my 29 gallon for the horses. Now if someone would just purchase my eel . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Wow, I think that looks great. The erectus is so cute! I'm glad to see a picture of them at this stage. Best of luck with the setup! What do you run in the canister? Are you using it for filtration? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dena Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Looks great!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ludakris Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Where did you get your algae... Im looking to start a similar set up and this looks amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Where did you get your algae... Im looking to start a similar set up and this looks amazing. Set up has changed quite a bit actually and doesn't have dwarfs anymore. My macros and other corals are finally growing in it though! The main change is that I removed the center overflow (the main component of what makes the fluval chi, chi). The lighting just wasn't working. I now have a Finnex clip on 26w light and that has made the biggest difference. The macros and sea grasses came from reefcleaners.org. I also bought some recently from http://live-plants.com/. Hope this helps. I'm not sure if I'm going to get more dwarfs or not. They were cute, but I wasn't able to keep them alive for long . . . so I've been holding off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 very nice. where are you getting the clip on light? My tank has very bad lighting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 http://www.finnex.net/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=176&category_id=4&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=61&vmcchk=1&Itemid=61 I purchased the light from the above website. Someone sells it on amazon or ebay, but after reading reviews, it sounded as though the buyer sold the light with a cheaper bulb. I bought it from the company direct. I even have a tri color v. under this light that is thriving! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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