So instead of asking a noob question this time I thought I would start a thread chronicling my attempt at a nano reef tank. The good the bad and the ugly.
This is as much for me to track my progress as it is sharing all the fun I am having but please do feel free to chime in, especially if I am screwing something up! :funny:
So three months ago a bought am empty 10 gallon fresh water set up (my fourth) from a friend thinking that it would be nice to try it as cheap foray into salt water..... I was certainly wrong on the cheap part but so far it' been fun!
Here's where I started - this was taken about 1 month in:
The rocks are too close to the edges and it sort looks a bit haphazard. Plus the pic's not very good.
Here's where I am today, three months in:
I'm liking the look more and the rock are off the glass but I'm worried about the "coves" collecting debris. However I can still vacuum the on on the left and I can use a turkey baster to blow out debris so I'm thinking it's OK.
I've got a nice little CUC in there with red and blue legged crabs and a selection of snails. I think my trochus snails are trying to breed, I saw them climb to the top and "release" and now every once in awhile a see a little snail on the glass the look like a mini trochus....
I'm also loving the cerith snails and their digging behavior.
I've got 1 grumpy emerald crab who waves her claws when anyone gets too close.
And here's my cleaner shrimp:
There's no fish in here yet so I occasionally feed a few shrimp pellets or algae wafer.
Here's my equipment:
10 gallon glass tank
live sand and live rock (ok I know all sand and rock will become live but I bought "ready to go" stuff)
maxi jet 900 set-up as a power head- I'm running one right now but I'm still not happy with my flow. I either get blowing sand or single direction flow. I've got two maxi-jet 400s I tried but IDK...... I'll probably play around with it more
Fluval sea mini skimmer - I'm staring to hate this thing it seems like it always runs "wet" I can't seem to dial in the right setting but maybe I don't know what I'm doing. It also makes copious bubbles that wont go away. It's been running for 2 months, I'd thought it would be broken in by now. I've got a bag of Phosban (more on that later) near the output (next to sponge bubble trap) which helps but...... ugh
And hood and heater that came with tank - both of which need replaced. The light is only a T8 and the heater is utterly insane. One morning I got up to find the tank water approaching 88F despite being set to 78.... ugh
Now my chemistry is only OK:
Salinity is a bit high at 1.28 due to difficulties with my hydrometer (my brewing one is much better but I'm not about to stick that in the fish tank!). I bought a refractometer and I'm slowly bringing that down with water changes.
Mg is low at 1040 and Ca is now low at 300 (wasn't before) so I'm going to bring the Mg up with Kents. I tried some Epsom salts as first but then got worried about sulfate build up so I stopped. I figure Ca will right itself as I get Mg in line.
Kh is 9 and Ph is 7.8 This has beed fairly constat which is good but I think it needs some tweeking. I'll see what happens after Mg and Ca are back in line.
Phosphate is there at low level but my test kit has no resolution lower than 0.25ppm. At first I thought it was my water but I got a TDS meter and got a 3ppm and now a 0ppm (from a different tap at work) so I think I'm OK there. I figure it's either the rocks or the food I am using. But the Phosban seems to be lowering it at this point.
My ammonia and nitrites are 0 with a trace of nitrate though I did get a reading of 5ppm once just before a water change.
I've got a case of red slime, some folks have assured my that it's new tank "uglies" so I'm hoping that once I've got my numbers better and equilibrium is reached it will clear up.
The good stuff, it's nothing special but a good start for a noob I think!
Here's my pulsing xenia:
my daughter loves it because its sort of purply pink. I also think it's trying to grow. I see new head forming and found one small head detached trying to stick to small rock elsewhere in the tank.
and my green star polyp:
Which seem to be growing like a weed, I can only imagine what it will do once I get things in better shape
and my zooanthid???
I noticed this recently on a rock it must have come with the rock since I didn't buy anything like that.
I think I'll keep updating this thread as I make progress (or fail), I'm really excited to be starting this project. We'll see if I keep with my current plans to upgrade to a 55gal in one year (and turn this one into a refugium/sump?
and just for fun a pic of the bachelor tank aka my fancy guppy tank that's been up for ~5 years, that neon tetra moved with me from TX to NY!:
This is as much for me to track my progress as it is sharing all the fun I am having but please do feel free to chime in, especially if I am screwing something up! :funny:
So three months ago a bought am empty 10 gallon fresh water set up (my fourth) from a friend thinking that it would be nice to try it as cheap foray into salt water..... I was certainly wrong on the cheap part but so far it' been fun!
Here's where I started - this was taken about 1 month in:
The rocks are too close to the edges and it sort looks a bit haphazard. Plus the pic's not very good.
Here's where I am today, three months in:
I'm liking the look more and the rock are off the glass but I'm worried about the "coves" collecting debris. However I can still vacuum the on on the left and I can use a turkey baster to blow out debris so I'm thinking it's OK.
I've got a nice little CUC in there with red and blue legged crabs and a selection of snails. I think my trochus snails are trying to breed, I saw them climb to the top and "release" and now every once in awhile a see a little snail on the glass the look like a mini trochus....
I'm also loving the cerith snails and their digging behavior.
I've got 1 grumpy emerald crab who waves her claws when anyone gets too close.
And here's my cleaner shrimp:
There's no fish in here yet so I occasionally feed a few shrimp pellets or algae wafer.
Here's my equipment:
10 gallon glass tank
live sand and live rock (ok I know all sand and rock will become live but I bought "ready to go" stuff)
maxi jet 900 set-up as a power head- I'm running one right now but I'm still not happy with my flow. I either get blowing sand or single direction flow. I've got two maxi-jet 400s I tried but IDK...... I'll probably play around with it more
Fluval sea mini skimmer - I'm staring to hate this thing it seems like it always runs "wet" I can't seem to dial in the right setting but maybe I don't know what I'm doing. It also makes copious bubbles that wont go away. It's been running for 2 months, I'd thought it would be broken in by now. I've got a bag of Phosban (more on that later) near the output (next to sponge bubble trap) which helps but...... ugh
And hood and heater that came with tank - both of which need replaced. The light is only a T8 and the heater is utterly insane. One morning I got up to find the tank water approaching 88F despite being set to 78.... ugh
Now my chemistry is only OK:
Salinity is a bit high at 1.28 due to difficulties with my hydrometer (my brewing one is much better but I'm not about to stick that in the fish tank!). I bought a refractometer and I'm slowly bringing that down with water changes.
Mg is low at 1040 and Ca is now low at 300 (wasn't before) so I'm going to bring the Mg up with Kents. I tried some Epsom salts as first but then got worried about sulfate build up so I stopped. I figure Ca will right itself as I get Mg in line.
Kh is 9 and Ph is 7.8 This has beed fairly constat which is good but I think it needs some tweeking. I'll see what happens after Mg and Ca are back in line.
Phosphate is there at low level but my test kit has no resolution lower than 0.25ppm. At first I thought it was my water but I got a TDS meter and got a 3ppm and now a 0ppm (from a different tap at work) so I think I'm OK there. I figure it's either the rocks or the food I am using. But the Phosban seems to be lowering it at this point.
My ammonia and nitrites are 0 with a trace of nitrate though I did get a reading of 5ppm once just before a water change.
I've got a case of red slime, some folks have assured my that it's new tank "uglies" so I'm hoping that once I've got my numbers better and equilibrium is reached it will clear up.
The good stuff, it's nothing special but a good start for a noob I think!
Here's my pulsing xenia:
my daughter loves it because its sort of purply pink. I also think it's trying to grow. I see new head forming and found one small head detached trying to stick to small rock elsewhere in the tank.
and my green star polyp:
Which seem to be growing like a weed, I can only imagine what it will do once I get things in better shape
and my zooanthid???
I noticed this recently on a rock it must have come with the rock since I didn't buy anything like that.
I think I'll keep updating this thread as I make progress (or fail), I'm really excited to be starting this project. We'll see if I keep with my current plans to upgrade to a 55gal in one year (and turn this one into a refugium/sump?
and just for fun a pic of the bachelor tank aka my fancy guppy tank that's been up for ~5 years, that neon tetra moved with me from TX to NY!:
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