10g low-budget diy nano reef

[Nevin]

Hi everyone,

This thread is to document the construction of my 10g reef, which will be my first attempt at a marine tank. I would greatly appreciate any advice as I go. My plans so far:

I am using a standard 20" 10g tank, in which I have built a small "sump" area to hide a powerhead, heater, filter intakes, etc. I'll attach a few pictures.

For filtration, I have modified an Aquaclear 70 as a refugium to hold some chaeto and a little live rock. The "sump" and display will have more live rock. I plan to add a Taam Rio nano skimmer as well and can add filtration media there if needed.

For flow, I have a powerhead with the outlet split in two, plus the AC70 (will modify impeller to reduce flow) and the skimmer. Water will be pumped out of the "sump" into the display area, then overflow back in, so the water level in the display will remain constant. Hope all the pouring water won't be too noisy. I'm almost ready to put in some water and see what the flow is like.

Lighting will be a Coralife 65w PC 50/50 and a lunar LED.

I'm not sure about the livestock yet, but will probably start with a clownfish and a few easy-to-keep corals.

I won't be doing much with this in the next week or so as I'll be out of town, but initial suggestions would be good. When I get it going, I'll be looking for small quantities of live rock, sand, chaeto and coral frags if anyone has some on offer in the Vancouver area.

Regards,
Nevin

[Nevin]

It took a while, but I'm finally starting to get going on this. So far 125 people have viewed this without a response, which must mean I haven't committed any obvious stupidities so far....

I put in some water and the flow seems good. I think I have an AC20 impeller on the refugium right now. Flow from the Aquaclear is released onto the surface without a drop, due to the constant, high water level, but the powerhead helps to mix things up a bit.

I picked up sand from 3littlebears and chaeto, salt and hydrometer from Tang Daddy yesterday (Thanks!). Mixed up some salt water (SG about 1.022, will raise to 1.024). A clamp-on incandescent plant light is providing light and heat (temp about 24C)--the 65w PC might be overkill at this point.

I hope to pick up a few pounds of live rock today and test the water. I have only a cheap Hagen test kit (PH, nitrite, ammonia, GH/KH), so I suppose I'll have to buy something at least for nitrates.

[LeeR]

looks solid. You might want to put something like eggcrate on the overflow so snail and fish cant get in there.

[Nevin]

Thanks, I might--I'll see if it becomes a problem when I get livestock in.

Added 2 pounds of live rock to help get the cycle going. So far I've seen 1 snail, 1 grey thing that crawls around at night (forget what these are called?), and what appears to be a tiny polyp of coral (a stalk with little wavy "tentacles" at the end).

No algae yet.

How much/how frequent water changes should I do during the cycle?

Regards,
Nevin

[Nevin]

Nitrite 0
Ammonia c. 1 mg/L (between .6 and 1.2 on my Hagen test kit)

Still no nitrate test kit.

[Boomboy]

you have a little bit of ammonia thats good, that means your cycle is starting you know when you can add you cuc when diatoms show up, then the fish. definantly get a nitrate test, cause even when you see diatoms its still good to test, and if you plan on putting more live rock in you might want to do it now, or you will have to cycle them in another container, need at least 10 pounds in a 10g. ive got a 20H and i have 25 pounds. very smart with using the ac as a pump to pump out the water from your over flow. i had the same idea. wanting to build a 10g AIO. Looks good and dont forget the pics.

[Nevin]

An interesting development:

My "coral" is now 3 (2 more were poking out from under the rock, so I turned it over) and they're moving around--one crawled across the sand and partway up the partition. Are these baby anenomes? I'll try to attach a photo.

Any help with identification and advice on care and feeding would be appreciated. I gave them all some crumbled flake food tonight and they grabbed it and held it for a while--hope they ate it. One is pale and hiding in a crevice, the others are brown to red. I hope they can survive the cycle--the rock was probably already cured and the sand may have been cycled (not sure about the storage) so I hope it will be a mild one.

I hope to move the tank within a few days and put on a 65w PC light--currently it has a 70w incandescent 6700k plant light.

Full tank shot:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...g/DSC06937.jpg

Occupant:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...DSC06939_2.jpg

Regards,
Nevin

[tang daddy]

looks good so far and yea you should add some more lr, leave the WC for a few weeks it'll be fine also give the sand a good rinse and put it in. After 2 weeks you can do a 15% WC if you want but with no fish in there I would sooner leave for a month just top up everyday, in a 10g you will have to.
Mine seemed to evaporate really fast but it was an open top and just an ac mini the turbulence waterfall effect seemed to cause mass evaporation.

With the sand the little pods will seed well and in a few months you will have lots.

[hillbillyreefer]

I hate to tell you this but that anemone looks like aiptasia. They are generally considered a pest and are hunted to extinction in most hobbiest's tanks. They multiply rapidly and take over the tank. I hope I'm wrong!! I was excited to see them in my first tank too, but have subsequently destroyed them.

Bra

[X-Treme]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but........ That inhabitant that you have that you are so excited about......... It's aiptasia. NOT a good thing. You are gonna wanna get rid of it asap if you plan on keeping corals. Sorry dude.