10 Gallon Nano Reef Build

[educatedreefer]

Hello everyone!
This is my 10 gallon nano reef tank and is about 1.5 years old with many corals growing out of it and going into my larger display tank. In the photo, the corals aren’t showing their typical PE as I just stuck my hand in the tank to pick up a fallen frag and caused them to slime up a bit from touching them.
System includes:
-now 2 Fluval Marine Nano lights
-Seachem Tidal 55 (250GPH) HOB filter
- Aqueon 10 gallon rimless tank
- Aqueon 10 gallon acrylic heater

Doesn’t have skimmer, ATO, calcium reactor, refugium, or sump.
Just plain and simple daily dosing of Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino, frozen mysis shrimp and copepods, Tropic-Marin All-for-Reef to replenish alkalinity, Brightwell Aquatics Kalk +2 with RODI water when salinity gets above 1.026.
Weekly addition of Microbe-Lift Special blend bacteria.
Zero water changes!
Can’t think of a simpler reef tank than a filter, heater, and lights

 

[GHOSTLY]

What fish do you have? Beautiful

 

[dstockwell]

Sweet looking tank

 

[OldRed1]

Is that a mummy eye chalice on the bottom?

 

[educatedreefer]

What fish do you have? Beautiful

Just two clownfish and a wrasse

 

[educatedreefer]

Is that a mummy eye chalice on the bottom?

Baja Rampage Chalice! Mummy eye chalice is more lime green color with just orange or yellow mouths if im not mistaken. Mine has dark coloration around each yellow mouth which makes it Baja Rampage

 

[educatedreefer]

Sweet looking tank

I can’t wait for the chalices to take over!
If only I could afford those crayon melted rainbow chalices but alas corals are $$$

 

[OldRed1]

Baja Rampage Chalice! Mummy eye chalice is more lime green color with just orange or yellow mouths if im not mistaken. Mine has dark coloration around each yellow mouth which makes it Baja Rampage

Ah, got it! Thanks for the identification tips!

 

[V A R I A N T]

Really nice tank! Surprised that you don’t run better lighting. Keep it growing!

 

[educatedreefer]

Just installed the second new Fluval Marine Nano light!
The right side of my monti is getting direct hit by the flow from the HOB filter but either it’ll grow thicker against the flow or loss tissue and I’ll just remove the frag plug that it grew out from and put it into my display tank.
However, from my observation this past year, with daily dosing of 1mL per gallon or 10 drops of Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino, my corals have been a lot more puffier and was able to fully grow over exposed skeleton from direct coral warfare in the span of 2-3 days so im sure the montipora cap will be fine *I hope*

fully

 

[educatedreefer]

Really nice tank! Surprised that you don’t run better lighting. Keep it growing!

I was doing my due diligence researching the specs on most lights and I figured, if the spectrum of light entering the water column is the same, albeit my Fluval lights are running near 100%, whereas I might run 30-40% intensity on a single Radion, I think the only difference between the light that I’ve enjoyed using vs high-end lights would be spread of PAR via refracting lens, LED wattage, distribution of spectrum, UV degree variance.
I don’t, or more realistically, can’t afford a PAR meter and don’t want to overkill my small tank with advanced lights and have to play around with the settings so I just went with these affordable lights and just stuck with it ever since
My growth, imo, is determined by alkalinity consumption since it’s difficult sometimes to observe physical growth unless i were to document, and it’s been going down by 2dkh daily so I’d say it’s going well while I know some monsterous tanks consume alkalinity like it’s candy hahahah

 

[69cam]

Wow, no water changes, nice job

 

[mrjohnreed]

Nice setup...curious on how you have been able to obtain zero water changes on this size tank.

 

[dstockwell]

Very nice

 

[Lavyathan]

Awesome nano setup! I’m running something similar with a 5g, Fluval Nano Marine, Aquaclear 30 HOB, and Jebao MLW-5 powerhead.

Wanted to compare some notes and get your thoughts on a few differences, as you’ve obviously had plenty of success in your tank:

-How’d you decide on 100% for all channels for your light? I initially started there but absolutely bleached my first frags (Zoa and mushroom), which are now barely starting to recover. I’m sure the tank depth differences are a factor, but I haven’t raised above 40% on all channels (PAR around 150 at surface, ~60 at sand).

-Do you find the HOB is enough flow for SPS all over the tank, or do you have be be careful with positioning? I’ve considered swapping out the wave maker for a second HOB, but wasn’t sure if that would be enough for a few easier SPS frags.

 

[NanoReef_lover143]

Hello everyone!
This is my 10 gallon nano reef tank and is about 1.5 years old with many corals growing out of it and going into my larger display tank. In the photo, the corals aren’t showing their typical PE as I just stuck my hand in the tank to pick up a fallen frag and caused them to slime up a bit from touching them.
System includes:
-now 2 Fluval Marine Nano lights
-Seachem Tidal 55 (250GPH) HOB filter
- Aqueon 10 gallon rimless tank
- Aqueon 10 gallon acrylic heater

Doesn’t have skimmer, ATO, calcium reactor, refugium, or sump.
Just plain and simple daily dosing of Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino, frozen mysis shrimp and copepods, Tropic-Marin All-for-Reef to replenish alkalinity, Brightwell Aquatics Kalk +2 with RODI water when salinity gets above 1.026.
Weekly addition of Microbe-Lift Special blend bacteria.
Zero water changes!
Can’t think of a simpler reef tank than a filter, heater, and lights

Can you share your light set up? I recently turned on my fluval marine light and I was surprised on the last set up that I had so I left it at auto for now. I'm looking to have torches and zoas on it - it's an innovative marine 15 gallon.

 

[MoshJosh]

Hello everyone!
This is my 10 gallon nano reef tank and is about 1.5 years old with many corals growing out of it and going into my larger display tank. In the photo, the corals aren’t showing their typical PE as I just stuck my hand in the tank to pick up a fallen frag and caused them to slime up a bit from touching them.
System includes:
-now 2 Fluval Marine Nano lights
-Seachem Tidal 55 (250GPH) HOB filter
- Aqueon 10 gallon rimless tank
- Aqueon 10 gallon acrylic heater

Doesn’t have skimmer, ATO, calcium reactor, refugium, or sump.
Just plain and simple daily dosing of Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino, frozen mysis shrimp and copepods, Tropic-Marin All-for-Reef to replenish alkalinity, Brightwell Aquatics Kalk +2 with RODI water when salinity gets above 1.026.
Weekly addition of Microbe-Lift Special blend bacteria.
Zero water changes!
Can’t think of a simpler reef tank than a filter, heater, and lights

Didn't even have to read, could tell by the LED reflection... MY FAVORITE LIGHT!!!

Beautiful tank and more proof that my favorite little light can grow SPS just fine!!!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Any updates on your tank?