10 gallon reef build to teach myself to be more patient.

[King_Acidic]

After kicking around a few different ideas with a few people here as well as my girlfriend, I've decided to start out a 10 gallon nano reef to start. I've always been very impatient and driven to achieve what I want and as I get older, I'm learning that I need to be more patient so I figure starting with a nano build will be a good intro into reef keeping, it will also help to teach me to be more patient because as I've seen here a few times, some people have rushed into getting everything going and then had to watch it all fall apart on them. I know that I won't be able to put any of the fish I really want into a 10 gallon reef and this will help to teach me to be more patient until I can fit a bigger tank and use better equipment. I was able to consolidate a couple of freshwater tanks to free up a 10 gallon tank (hence the size choice as I essentially had a free one on hand).

The current plan for hardware:

Cleaned and painted back glass 10g tank
Current-USA Marine LED 18"-24" LOOP Controlled light fixture
Current-USA eFlux 1050 Wave Pump (included with light purchase)
Carib-Sea Hawaiian Black Aragonite Live Sand
Roughly 10 pounds of Live Rock
Tetra 10g HOB Filter with Filter Floss and Chemi-pure Blue
Aqueon 100 watt Submersible heater with temp control
Aqueon Glass top

Is there anything you guys can think of that I'm forgetting? Any stocking ideas?

 

[steakncheese]

You could buy an aquaclear and convert it to refug. Itank even sells a media basket for it. This would allow you to grow microalgae like chetta

 

[King_Acidic]

You could buy an aquaclear and convert it to refug. Itank even sells a media basket for it. This would allow you to grow microalgae like chetta

I've considered doing that previously. For me a fuge is one of the items that's on the "Be more patient list". This is more of a KISS methodology to build up to bigger tanks capable of doing everything that I'd like to do.

 

[2Sunny]

4 suggestions: ATO, bio-media, oolitic sandbed, a fighting conch.

I realize it adds complexity, but IMO success with a nano depends entirely on creating stable parameters whether through diligence or automation, and perhaps the hardest parameter to keep stable is salinity so I would recommend considering some type of ATO (automatic topoff). Look at Nano Sapiens thread and note his ingenious method of auto-topoff.

Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef​

Surprise surprise I also have an opinion on how to create a healthy biological balance. First in importance to me is my sand bed which is old fashioned. Namely, my sand bed is made from "oolitic sand", and I do not disturb it for any reason. So far the sand bed has remained pristine clean. This to me is proof that the sand bed has become a living filter. The activity in the bed can clearly be seen in the areas on the side where a myriad of small trails of benthic critters appear. My tank has so far remained immune to any algae outbreak and I attribute this to the biology. In addition to the sand bed I also have a piece of Marinepure Biofilter porous rock media in the sump. They also make small pieces that could easily be placed in the back filter area of an AIO. I feel this dramatically increases the biological filtration of a nano, and ultimately makes success much easier.

Lastly, I might suggest a fighting conch as an integral part of the sand bed. My pal Fred does an amazing job of eating detritus and leftover food. He's definitely not very picky and is better than a sand bed Hoover vac

Marinepure Biofilter

 

[King_Acidic]

4 suggestions: ATO, bio-media, oolitic sandbed, a fighting conch.

I realize it adds complexity, but IMO success with a nano depends entirely on creating stable parameters whether through diligence or automation, and perhaps the hardest parameter to keep stable is salinity so I would recommend considering some type of ATO (automatic topoff). Look at Nano Sapiens thread and note his ingenious method of auto-topoff.

Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef​

Surprise surprise I also have an opinion on how to create a healthy biological balance. First in importance to me is my sand bed which is old fashioned. Namely, my sand bed is made from "oolitic sand", and I do not disturb it for any reason. So far the sand bed has remained pristine clean. This to me is proof that the sand bed has become a living filter. The activity in the bed can clearly be seen in the areas on the side where a myriad of small trails of benthic critters appear. My tank has so far remained immune to any algae outbreak and I attribute this to the biology. In addition to the sand bed I also have a piece of Marinepure Biofilter porous rock media in the sump. They also make small pieces that could easily be placed in the back filter area of an AIO. I feel this dramatically increases the biological filtration of a nano, and ultimately makes success much easier.

Lastly, I might suggest a fighting conch as an integral part of the sand bed. My pal Fred does an amazing job of eating detritus and leftover food. He's definitely not very picky and is better than a sand bed Hoover vac

Marinepure Biofilter

An ATO is in the works for the near future, I just haven't decided what route to go yet. I may swap the filter floss for an intake pre-filter to add in a bag of biomedia. I was just starting to cycle with what I had on hand before buying stuff and ultimately buying the wrong stuff. Any reason to use oolite sand over aragonite sand? I chose the aragonite mainly for the color but went heavy (20 pounds total for a 10g tank) when setting it up to help with good bacterial colonies. Is a fighting conch better than a few hermit crabs and turbo snails? I just want to understand those suggestions better before deciding to essentially tear it down to start over.

 

[King_Acidic]

After meeting with some of the HVFNR guys yesterday, I added a small frag of Zoa's to the tank last night. Trying to decide on what invertebrates to add in to help with some brown diatom algae.

 

[andiesreef]

After meeting with some of the HVFNR guys yesterday, I added a small frag of Zoa's to the tank last night. Trying to decide on what invertebrates to add in to help with some brown diatom algae.

is your tank all set up with your live rock and are you getting readings of <20ppm nitrates, and 0 ppm ammonia and nitrites? is your ph around 7.9-8.3? if so, the zoanthid probably has a good chance of survival. for diatoms, I would second the fighting conch recommendation along with astrea or trochus snails for algae on the glass and/or a few dwarf hermits or nassarius snails for the sandbed. my emerald crab is also a machine at eating longer, wispy algae, and my team of cleaner and peppermint shrimp eagerly snatch up any leftover food. I would start with 2-3 snails, 2-3 hermit crabs, and maybe the conch. then I would go from there.

 

[King_Acidic]

Just a little update of the last month or so... I added a small zoa frag, a nano clownfish and most recently a pajama cardinal. I also added 2 trochus snails and a margarita snail for some diversity in clean up.

 

[count krunk]

I would suggest some fast growers like gsp or Xenia. Great for a first nano tank

 

[King_Acidic]

I would suggest some fast growers like gsp or Xenia. Great for a first nano tank

Definitely been thinking about those as options for coral. I'd like to get all of the fish in first before adding any more corals. There's only one more fish planned to go in so it's just a matter of waiting a couple weeks to find the right one. I just added the cardinal yesterday so I want to give it a week or two to let everything settle down before adding anything else.

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

I am big fan of the smaller nano sized tanks, glad to see your working on your 10 gallon. I am working on two 12 gallon tanks as well. If you have the patience you can see the limits of pushing these once impossible to grow corals in tiny tanks.

 

[King_Acidic]

Here's a few corals that I picked up a couple weeks ago...