4g Ifish Luminous Aquarium Build

Been out of the hobby for a while.

Figured I would jump back in with this small 4 gallon Luminous aquarium. For the first few months it will be FOWLR but I do plan to convert it over to corals in the near future.

For the build we will be a 18l 4 imperial gallons, luminous aquarium.

For lighting I will be adding a KinGBO 18W LED full spectrum light. Which should be good for some coral growth.

Using all Live Rock and sand.

The planned stocking for the tank will be a pair of young clownfish. They will be moved out to a larger tank when they outgrow it. But for now, they should be fine. I've successfully done a pair of clowns in a 5 gallon tank a few years ago.

Full pictures following tomorrow when I actually start the tank

 

I can't wait to see it!

I looked at some Amazon reviews on the light. Not the best source of info I know, and, of course, there are contradicting reports on whether or not it'll grow coral at all. So, lol, sounds like a fun experiment. I'd suggest that you start with softies you like... I'd recommend mushrooms. Zoas are softies but take care here because not all zoa varieties behave similarly. Larger zoas, (which may be palythoas), or palys themselves (there are some nice ones, check out Utter Chaos) tend to do better under lower light, while pricey, fancy, tiny-polyped, and brightly colored zoas, (like Rastas) require fairly bright light indeed. I have Eagle Eye zoas, tiny polyped, in bright light, just under SPS corals and they grow very well indeed. I do think they'd struggle under lower light. Just an FYI on the ever-popular zoanthid corals.

Otherwise, I HIGHLY recommend Duncan corals for new tanks. They are gorgeous imo, hardy as can be, fun to feed, and have great movement mimicking euphyllias and anemones. My own Duncan was purchased as a single polyp about a month after the tank finished cycling. It has been through my mistakes (some were bad:eek and an extended power outage or two and has grown through it all. A year in, and that guy had more than 20 polyps, and now, two years in, I can't even count them all. Not bragging, but I do have a fairly successful 20 gallon mixed reef, with lots of coral... some of 'em fancy too, lol. Point is, I LOVE my Duncan colony, and even with branching SPS, lovely collections of favias, euphyllia, acans and more, the Duncan remains a favorite. Looks, strength, and fun... couldn't ask for more in a coral.

I can't easily find anything on the tank itself. Does it have those lights in the frame that makes the tank appear to glow? Sounds fun. Have you found a good nano pump/powerhead/wavemaker or something to provide the proper flow rate? Generally, at least 15x the water volume is recommended for a softie/LPS reef tank.

You may find it difficult to keep nutrients low enough to not have algae issues with two piggy clowns in the tank. Perhaps someday soon we should chat about HOB refugiums, which are super simple to DIY using Aquaclear HOB's.

Looking forward to updates!

 

Update.

Got the tank up and running today.

My local shop stopped selling live rock. Apparently people didn't like the critters that it came with! So was forced to go the dead rock route. But we will make it work!

Empty tank





Lights are in the frame near the base. We won't be using these as they require a specific glass like substrate to be used.





Decided to use this wave maker rated for 60 liter tanks. Should be more than adequate to create enough water movement in this little 4 gallon aquarium.





Live Sand!





This rock actually cost £15+ per kilogram and its not even live rock lol. The rock plate looks nice though.

 

Will upload more pictures tomorrow when the water clears as its really cloudy still.

 

I can't wait to see it!

I looked at some Amazon reviews on the light. Not the best source of info I know, and, of course, there are contradicting reports on whether or not it'll grow coral at all. So, lol, sounds like a fun experiment. I'd suggest that you start with softies you like... I'd recommend mushrooms. Zoas are softies but take care here because not all zoa varieties behave similarly. Larger zoas, (which may be palythoas), or palys themselves (there are some nice ones, check out Utter Chaos) tend to do better under lower light, while pricey, fancy, tiny-polyped, and brightly colored zoas, (like Rastas) require fairly bright light indeed. I have Eagle Eye zoas, tiny polyped, in bright light, just under SPS corals and they grow very well indeed. I do think they'd struggle under lower light. Just an FYI on the ever-popular zoanthid corals.

Otherwise, I HIGHLY recommend Duncan corals for new tanks. They are gorgeous imo, hardy as can be, fun to feed, and have great movement mimicking euphyllias and anemones. My own Duncan was purchased as a single polyp about a month after the tank finished cycling. It has been through my mistakes (some were bad:eek and an extended power outage or two and has grown through it all. A year in, and that guy had more than 20 polyps, and now, two years in, I can't even count them all. Not bragging, but I do have a fairly successful 20 gallon mixed reef, with lots of coral... some of 'em fancy too, lol. Point is, I LOVE my Duncan colony, and even with branching SPS, lovely collections of favias, euphyllia, acans and more, the Duncan remains a favorite. Looks, strength, and fun... couldn't ask for more in a coral.

I can't easily find anything on the tank itself. Does it have those lights in the frame that makes the tank appear to glow? Sounds fun. Have you found a good nano pump/powerhead/wavemaker or something to provide the proper flow rate? Generally, at least 15x the water volume is recommended for a softie/LPS reef tank.

You may find it difficult to keep nutrients low enough to not have algae issues with two piggy clowns in the tank. Perhaps someday soon we should chat about HOB refugiums, which are super simple to DIY using Aquaclear HOB's.

Looking forward to updates!

Thanks for all the coral advice stella1979. Honestly I have very little experience working with coral and this will be a pure experiment for me too.

As much as I would love an Anemone, I will settle for a look-alike Duncan coral


Regarding the light, I have no doubts that it will be fine for most hardy, lower light corals. Heard of a few people using them for LPS with no issues. My actual concern is that the light could be too concentrated and bright.

Can corals have too much light? Because these bulbs are very, VERY bright. Will need to place it fairly close to the top too so I don't blind myself when chilling in the room lol.