Bedroom Budget Build

SydneyRose

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I eventually gave it up and have come to like frozen better. I just wanted the option to use an automatic feeder if I was gone for a few days. Oh well.
 
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muzikalmatt

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I eventually gave it up and have come to like frozen better. I just wanted the option to use an automatic feeder if I was gone for a few days. Oh well.
Yeah I definitely prefer giving them frozen, it's just a bit more work and like you said you can't autofeed it. I'm considering putting an autofeeder on my main tank. My bicolor blenny picks at certain corals so I'm trying to feed him more frequently to try and prevent it.
 
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muzikalmatt

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I picked up the inTank media basket for the Aquaclear 70 HOB filter. I have several inTank baskets for my IM Nuvo 40 and absolutely love them. These things are well made, look great and make maintenance easier.

This one is great because instead of having to place the filter floss on the bottom like the stock basket, I can place it on the side and replace it without having to remove the basket. It also has a separate compartment on the bottom where I could place filter media like gfo or chemi pure. I may even try running a refugium in it at some point.

All in all, I'm very happy with the purchase. It's definitely not needed but it makes maintenance more convenient and give me a bit more flexibility with how I run the tank's filtration. Below are some photos.

Here it is fresh out of the box. The green shelf divider is removable.
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Here it is installed and running.
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And here it is with the lid back on.
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muzikalmatt

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It's water test Sunday! I try to test both of my tanks once a week and typically test/record temperature, salinity, alkalinity, nitrates and phosphates. I was testing pH pretty regularly at first, but both of my tanks stay pretty muck rock solid at 8.15. (My house is old so I get a pretty good supply of fresh air through my less than airtight windows.)

Temperature: 76.6
Salinity: 1.026
Alkalinity: 7.9
Nitrate: 3.0
Phosphate: 0.03

Parameters are pretty much right where I want them to be and other than an issue with my ATO overfilling the tank a week ago (dropped the salinity to 1.024), it's been smooth sailing.

I've added a couple of additional "tester" corals from my main tank: a GSP frag that just hasn't been doing much in that tank, and one of the many many frags of gorilla nipples zoas I have. I'm interested to see if the GSP will do better in this tank, and also if the gorilla nipples grow as prolifically in this new tank as they do in my main tank.

Full tank shot after cleaning the glass.
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Corals look happy and healthy so far.
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I'm about to head to the LFS to pick up some clean up crew and maybe another fish. We'll see what they have in stock. I'm looking for some sort of goby, either a diamond goby or a wheeler's goby if they have one, but I'm not particularly in a rush. Ghostface Killah, the banggai cardinal, is doing great so far after 3 weeks, but I think he could use a friend. :)
 
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muzikalmatt

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Time for another livestock and gear update for the 10 gallon "semi-budget, but maybe no longer budget" bedroom build. I'm a sucker for gadgets and gear so while a lot of the stuff I'm adding is not entirely necessary, most of it makes running the tank much easier and helps maintain stability.

So since I had some algae showing up, I picked up a single small astrea snail for the algae cleanup and a nassarius snail for eating leftover food that the banggai doesn't eat. The astrea has already started going to town on the algae, cleaning off the top of one rock structure. I'm taking it slow and will beef up the CUC in the future as needed.

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Then I finally received the magnetic overflow box from Oceanbox Designs for the Aquaclear 70 HOB filter. It was on backorder so it took about 3 weeks to get to me. This thing is great and it serves several key purposes for me! One, it provides much needed surface skimming as I was starting to see an "oil slick" on the top of the water due to the Aquaclear pulling water from the bottom of the tank. Two, it allowed me to get rid of the intake at the bottom of the tank which I think both looks better and will prevent any livestock from being sucked into the filter. And three, it conveniently hides the ATO sensor inside the overflow which makes it much more consistent and also prevents light-spill from the sensor into the tank. Previously the tank would be slightly lit up at night due to the sensor. Overall, I really like this thing. It was a bit tricky to install and get dialed in, but once I did it's been working like a charm!

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Here it is with the ATO installed inside the box.
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As far as gear and equipment is concerned, I think I'm pretty well set with the tank now. I may try a refugium in the HOB filter in the future if nutrients get out of control, but all I would need is a small fuge light to implement that.

I'm looking forward to watching this tank progress and continuing to slowly add livestock. I really enjoy the small size as it makes it easy to place and move corals around, something that is noticeably more difficult in my other tank.
 
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muzikalmatt

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I am a sucker for budget builds! ( even if this is less of a budget build now, the idea is still there )
Thanks! I definitely went a little outside of the "budget" realm on some of the additional gear, but if someone wanted to mimic this build with a cheaper light, no ATO (although I'd still recommend one), no inkbird, and without the filtration upgrades (inTank basket and overflow box) you can definitely keep it under $200.

I'm really enjoying this tank so far and since I have my larger, main tank as well, I'm not rushing on this one. It's funny because most people's second tanks are much larger than their first and I went the opposite direction.
 
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Happy New Year everyone! It's been almost a year since I posted a tank update, but I'm happy to report that the tank is still up and running! A bit of sad news though: I did lose the only fish inhabitant, the bangai cardinalfish (RIP Ghostface Killah). :( I'm not sure what exactly happened as he was doing well for a few months and then one day I found him stuck to the overlow. After that happened, I basically just let the tank run without any fish for 6-8 months. It went through a fairly substantial ugly phase during that period, but after some TLC it's looking a lot better. The tank crossed the 1 year mark at the end of November last year and I believe it has reached a solid level of maturity/stability.

For Christmas, I went and picked up a couple of new inhabitants for the tank including a tiny false percula clownfish and a rose bubbletip anemone. I've always wanted a BTA but was hesitant to put one in my already established reef tank. Given that this tank was now a clean slate and had been running for over a year, I thought it was a good opportunity to get one. So far both the clownfish and anemone are doing well! The anemone has moved around a bit, but I believe has settled into a spot that it likes and I was able to feed it some LRS Reef Frenzy the other day. I have a lot of ideas/plans for this tank and am excited to see where it goes in the new year.

Here are a few pictures of the current inhabitants. I'll try to get some full tank shots to post in the near future. Happy New Year R2R and Happy Reefing!

False Percula Clownfish (named RZA)
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Rose Bubbletip Anemone settling in.
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muzikalmatt

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Looking good ! Is the ATO & overflow box still holding up ok ?
FTS !!
Thanks! Yep, the AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite and the Oceanbox Designs overflow box are both doing great! I've had zero issues with either and the overflow box is definitely helping keep the surface film at bay. (I also really like the cleaner look in the tank. I makes it look like a higher end custom tank rather than the cheap glass box that it is.) I may upsize my ATO reservoir though as during the dryer winter months the 2 gallon reservoir runs dry pretty quickly.

I'll get a full tank shot later today when the lights come on and the anemone comes out. I'm planning to stop by the LFS today to pick up some corals and maybe some clean-up crew for this tank as well. Thanks for following along with my build!
 

Solga

2 lost souls swimming in a fish bowl ...
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Any time !
Just like everyone else, I love the big tanks, and the ones that are public display size, but the small nano tanks have always held a special interest to me. Glad to see your is still up and going, and doing well !
 
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muzikalmatt

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I went to the LFS today and picked up a few cheap, hardy corals including a kryptonite candycane frag that I split into two pieces, a purple gorgonian and a red montipora cap. They're all still acclimating after being dipped and put in the tank, but here are some quick pictures I took this afternoon. I'll post more pics when everything is looking a little happier.

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Solga

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Nice !
Is that a cyphastrea on the left ? Bizarro maybe ? I can't really tell, looking on my phone.
 
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muzikalmatt

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Nice !
Is that a cyphastrea on the left ? Bizarro maybe ? I can't really tell, looking on my phone.
Actually that's a large frag of purple and yellow zoanthids that were a bit closed up as I had just hit them with the turkey baster to clear off some detritus. Here's a closer picture of them although they're still not fully opened up in this one either. I think they're still adjusting to the parameters in this tank which are a bit different from my main display.

20221227_170039.jpg
 
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The corals I picked up from the LFS yesterday are looking a lot happier today. I also added a ricordea yuma and blastomussa from my 40 gallon and they're both looking great as well. I'm planning to continue to transfer corals from my main display into this one. I'm really enjoying working with such a smaller tank as moving things around is much simpler.

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