Off the Wagon - New Nano

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by cale262

Got any pics of the lights?

1/2" x 8" x 4" aluminium flat bar
6 LEDS, no optics
Aluminum screen frame used to hold 1/8" acrylic shield

LEDs are a little beat up as I ran them without the shield for few days. Runs a little warn so I'll probably add some fins when I get a chance.

[sphelps]

So you figure this tank is too small for a ghost ribbon eel? Good or bad idea?
I had one before, pretty sure they're blind and wouldn't really notice, just swam around in circles before anyway or just hung out in the overflow box

[Polscot]

welcome to the fluval nano nation, that tank is gorgeous, u did the light mod amazing dude, and chance you could post or pm me detailed info on how you did your plumbing and ATO, i wanna redoo my edge with better plumbing, and did u just order all your lighting from cree.com?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Polscot

welcome to the fluval nano nation, that tank is gorgeous, u did the light mod amazing dude, and chance you could post or pm me detailed info on how you did your plumbing and ATO, i wanna redoo my edge with better plumbing, and did u just order all your lighting from cree.com?

I've attached a quick sketch of the plumbing/overflow. I simply used 1/2" PVC to get the job done. I drilled three holes in the back piece of acrylic just big enough for 1/2" PVC pipe to slide through. For the drains I used a Tee and a cut off piece from an elbow to sandwich outside the acrylic. The return is simply a 90 and a 45 sandwich. The fittings where glued in place and silicone was used to seal around the hole.

The two drain tees simply act as standpipes preventing siphon, they are tee'd together to a single drain line.

Personally I don't think this is the best way to go, if I could have I would have just notched the back acrylic piece and added an external overflow in a more traditional manor. However I went this route purely for the ease of doing it in my current situation.

The LEDs were ordered as a kit from RapidLED
Here's a link

[reefwars]

how long did it take to get the leds delivered??

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by reefwars

how long did it take to get the leds delivered??

3 Weeks with USPS priority, originally tracking stated an estimated delivery of 3 days but shipping with USPS over the border always gives random results. Sometimes things only take a few days other times a few weeks. They did ship it the day after I placed the order though.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by sphelps

So you figure this tank is too small for a ghost ribbon eel? Good or bad idea?
I had one before, pretty sure they're blind and wouldn't really notice, just swam around in circles before anyway or just hung out in the overflow box

Any thoughts?

[Delphinus]

I thought you were kidding at first. What are the dimensions of the tank? I was under the impression it was really tiny. I have no experience with ribbon eels but I thought it was still true that these guys still have a very high mortality in the hobby. If you've had one before then you know the score with them better than I do.

Myself having tried a different species of eel (golden dwarf in my case) in both a small setup and a larger setup, the one in the smaller tank wasn't quite as comfortable in his surroundings as the one in my cube tank. For an animal which you can tell is functionally blind at the best of times, he's surprisingly spatially aware.

So anyhow I would probably steer myself away from a ribbon eel at the best of times never mind one a nano, but what I know is only based on hearsay, and I do remember that you had one before and was able to train him onto food.

[sphelps]

White/ghost ribbon eels aren't traditional ribbon eels like the blue and black ones. They are easy to keep and very hardy. It is a recommended fish for nanos but yeah mine is pretty small at around 16x10x10. They usually tend to like small spaces and the one I previously had seemed to prefer the tiny overflow box over the 50 gallon tank it was in. I personally think it will be just fine but I'm worried about getting harassment from certain people if I later post pics of it in my setup, then again what do I care

[Delphinus]

Interesting, I didn't know that about them being a recommended livestock for nanos.

Doing some reading right now - Pseudechidna brummeri? Interesting stuff. Ok so I see they are totally different than the traditional "ribbon" eels - that face is distinctively moray looking for one.

Only thing is that it looks like they get to 40" ? If that's the case it seems that eventually you'll need him a bigger home but seems to me if you could find one small enough that it would probably do OK for at least a little while. As long as you have the escape routes sealed up, I'd be worried about him snaking his way down to the Fluval?

Dumb question maybe but how easy is it to open the tank up for feeding and so on? Not too bad?

I'm not sure I've ever seen one offered up around here. (Not that I've been looking though.)