10 gallon half moon build

[nanoman]

So after playing around several forums I've decided to make reef to reef main forum. The community here seems to be one of the best around. Anyways to get to the point, I'm going to start my 10 gallon half moon build and I would love your comments and advice along the way. I'll make sure to post tank dimensions, equipment, specifics, etc. along the way. The tank will start out with LPS and will hopefully get into SPS territory later on. I should mention that this isn't my first build and is actually a new and improved rebuild of the system. I wasn't happy with the way it was before and when a disease broke out I decided it was time to make some improvements. Hope you guys like it :bounce:I'll post pics asap.

 

[revsgirl]

Well hello there!! Thank you for making R2R your reefing home!! Looking forward to seeing how your tank comes along!


Chasing the Dream Giver, not the dream! Tonya

 

[nanoman]

Thanks for the interest! And btw John 3:17 is one of my absolute favorite versus in scripture

 

[nanoman]

So I'll go ahead and post all the tank specifics.

Tank: Tetra 10 gallon half moon
Light: Ecoxotic EcoPico Led Fixture with three light strips (10,000k white and 452nm blue), work lamp and 5000k bulb for refugium light
Sump: 5 gallon gallon DIY sump refugium (approximately 2.5 gallons of refugium area)
Overflow: Eshopps pf-300 overflow box
Return Pump: Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5
Powerhead: Hydor Koralia nano 240
Heater : Tetra 50 watt
Filtration: Chemipure elite, cheatomorpha algea in refugium
Live Rock: approximately 16 pounds of rock (10 in display tank, 6 in refugium), bought as dead rock and seeded with Instant Ocean Bio Spira
Sand: 20 lbs. CaribSea aragamax reef sand

Livestock(so far): 1-misbar ocellaris clownfish juvenile
10-hermit crabs
3-nassarius snails
1-green tip hammer coral, two polyps

Hopefully going to be getting another baby clown to add to my tank in the hopes of making a mated pair. This tank will not be there forever home because of the size they can reach. I want to get some zoas, a few more lps, and maybe some sps for the tank. I also will be looking into getting a Deresa Clam. Pictures will come shortly

 

[nanoman]

Dry Aquacape

 

[Jonathan G]

Love the tank, I have a half cylinder also and love everything about it except the height, have to put a mask on to reach the bottom. Good luck!


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[nanoman]

Love the tank, I have a half cylinder also and love everything about it except the height, have to put a mask on to reach the bottom. Good luck!

Thanks! and I completely understand what you mean, reaching the bottom of mine requires me to practically submerse my entire arm, but I find the added difficulty more than rewarded when the finished product is something so much more unique than the standard rectangle tanks. However when I get a bigger tank in a few years I'm definitely going rectangle simply because more products like light fixtures and such are made for rectangle tank sizes.

 

[nanoman]

DIY Sump/Refugium

 

[LukeG]

Nice start.

 

[T.W.]

I know how it feels to go swimming during maintenance! lol My son has a 40g Tall FW and guess who gets wet during water changes? Thats ok the crab pinched him the other day so at least I got a laugh.
Keep the pics comin'

 

[LukeG]

I know how it feels to go swimming during maintenance! lol My son has a 40g Tall FW and guess who gets wet during water changes? Thats ok the crab pinched him the other day so at least I got a laugh.
Keep the pics comin'

lol


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[nanoman]

Where the tank is currently

Not the greatest pictures in the world but these were as good as my phone could take. I took pics with the actinics on for the first two and off (mostly) for the third.

 

[nanoman]

I'll try to grab some better pictures as i realize these are horrible. I just wanted to show you guys the tank as it currently is.

 

[nanoman]

I know how it feels to go swimming during maintenance! lol My son has a 40g Tall FW and guess who gets wet during water changes? Thats ok the crab pinched him the other day so at least I got a laugh.
Keep the pics comin'

Lol well serves him right lol, unfortunately I get stuck doing my own water changes, not like I would let anyone touch my tank anyways lol.

 

[nanoman]

Well I no longer have any snails in my tank as my crabs murdered them for their shells. Not entirely sure as to the type of hermits they are, but they're killing my nassarius snails.

 

[Jonathan G]

Well I no longer have any snails in my tank as my crabs murdered them for their shells. Not entirely sure as to the type of hermits they are, but they're killing my nassarius snails.

Ouch, sorry to hear that. My hermits never went after the nassarius snails but I did lose a couple nerite snails to hermits. All my nassarius snails had their tubes eaten off by my six line wrasse. They all lived but the six line now resides with someone else.

 

[ritter6788]

Looking good so far!

 

[nanoman]

Ouch, sorry to hear that. My hermits never went after the nassarius snails but I did lose a couple nerite snails to hermits. All my nassarius snails had their tubes eaten off by my six line wrasse. They all lived but the six line now resides with someone else.

Yeah I have never had any snail/hermit problems before. I threw some extra shells in the tank hoping this wouldn't happen but I guess the Nassarius shells were too good to pass up lol. Hermits are still one of my favorite inverts so I'm not too upset, as long as they don't touch the hammer coral.

 

[nanoman]

Looking good so far!

Thanks!!

 

[nanoman]

So does anyone know of some easy SPS test corals I can throw in the tank to see how SPS would do? I was thinking either birdsnest or pavona. Since I'm limited on space I'm trying to only get bright and vibrant corals for the tank. I'm also thinking about more fish I can add to the system. I'm hoping for another clown soon to get a mated pair. I've always wanted a geometric pygmy hawkfish as well but I'm concerned that might be too heavy of a bio-load. Would something like a tailspot blenny be easier for the tank? Since its going to be an SPS tank clown gobies are unfortunately out of the picture as they nip at SPS polyps.