Help a college kid out

[CD_Scapes]

I have had a few reefs in the past but haven’t been super patient with stocking and I probably overloaded them too fast which lead to early declines. Over the past few months I have gotten a lot better at hold off and letting my freshwater tanks sit for a while and really think about what I want to do with them before stocking and such.

This brings up my question, I have a 24” x 20” x 7” tank that is around 16 gallons. I have the heater, ATO, and a Kessil A80 for a tank. I don’t have a tank of room in my dorm this year, I would say maybe a space of around 12-14” cubed on my desk. I could make a stand for the tank I have but then I won’t have room for my mini fridge or TV. I think I might be answering my own question here but my LFS has a waterbox 10 cube that sounds perfect for my situation. I sort of have an idea on what I would put in it too.

The only reason I don’t think the 24” x 20” would work is that moving it would be harder and with a bigger tank I would need to spend more money on like sand, rock, filter, and probably another A80. So I honestly think I will just end up getting the Waterbox 10.

Ideally I would like a euphyllia (I know they changed genus) dominated tank, but I keep hearing about brown jelly disease and it makes me hesitant to go this route. Is brown jelly really super common?

 

[Dcal]

I have had a few reefs in the past but haven’t been super patient with stocking and I probably overloaded them too fast which lead to early declines. Over the past few months I have gotten a lot better at hold off and letting my freshwater tanks sit for a while and really think about what I want to do with them before stocking and such.

This brings up my question, I have a 24” x 20” x 7” tank that is around 16 gallons. I have the heater, ATO, and a Kessil A80 for a tank. I don’t have a tank of room in my dorm this year, I would say maybe a space of around 12-14” cubed on my desk. I could make a stand for the tank I have but then I won’t have room for my mini fridge or TV. I think I might be answering my own question here but my LFS has a waterbox 10 cube that sounds perfect for my situation. I sort of have an idea on what I would put in it too.

The only reason I don’t think the 24” x 20” would work is that moving it would be harder and with a bigger tank I would need to spend more money on like sand, rock, filter, and probably another A80. So I honestly think I will just end up getting the Waterbox 10.

Ideally I would like a euphyllia (I know they changed genus) dominated tank, but I keep hearing about brown jelly disease and it makes me hesitant to go this route. Is brown jelly really super common?

based on my time on here, ive seen like 3 brown jelly threads total so id be inclined to say not very common.

From one college kid to another lol, Id do a stand that you could put minfridge under and a waterbox 10 on top.

Ive heard great things and the search top right will help you find a ton more waterbox 10 threads for ideas

 

[LaxFrags]

+1^

sounds perfect. I’ve never seen brown jelly yet and I have lots of euphilia. I have a waterbox 20g and overall they’re just great tanks. Nice light too

 

[Manny D. Mandarin]

I have had a few reefs in the past but haven’t been super patient with stocking and I probably overloaded them too fast which lead to early declines. Over the past few months I have gotten a lot better at hold off and letting my freshwater tanks sit for a while and really think about what I want to do with them before stocking and such.

This brings up my question, I have a 24” x 20” x 7” tank that is around 16 gallons. I have the heater, ATO, and a Kessil A80 for a tank. I don’t have a tank of room in my dorm this year, I would say maybe a space of around 12-14” cubed on my desk. I could make a stand for the tank I have but then I won’t have room for my mini fridge or TV. I think I might be answering my own question here but my LFS has a waterbox 10 cube that sounds perfect for my situation. I sort of have an idea on what I would put in it too.

The only reason I don’t think the 24” x 20” would work is that moving it would be harder and with a bigger tank I would need to spend more money on like sand, rock, filter, and probably another A80. So I honestly think I will just end up getting the Waterbox 10.

Ideally I would like a euphyllia (I know they changed genus) dominated tank, but I keep hearing about brown jelly disease and it makes me hesitant to go this route. Is brown jelly really super common?

It is not that common. You can always limit your chances by dipping your coral and buying from trusted sources

 

[Tamberav]

Not common enough to not buy Euphillia if that’s the corals you enjoy!

likely more common in wild specimens or anything that didn’t get handled well.

Look for flesh around the sides and no rips or tears.

 

[ZoWhat]

........

 

[CD_Scapes]

based on my time on here, ive seen like 3 brown jelly threads total so id be inclined to say not very common.

From one college kid to another lol, Id do a stand that you could put minfridge under and a waterbox 10 on top.

Ive heard great things and the search top right will help you find a ton more waterbox 10 threads for ideas

+1^

sounds perfect. I’ve never seen brown jelly yet and I have lots of euphilia. I have a waterbox 20g and overall they’re just great tanks. Nice light too

It is not that common. You can always limit your chances by dipping your coral and buying from trusted sources

Not common enough to not buy Euphillia if that’s the corals you enjoy!

likely more common in wild specimens or anything that didn’t get handled well.

Look for flesh around the sides and no rips or tears.

Thank you all! I feel a lot better about this idea! I think I’ll start saving up for live rock and sand and maybe some other equipment. Won’t set it up until after I move to college though. Doesn’t make sense to setup the tank for 3 months and then move it.
Livestock I plan probably just a 4-stripe damsel fish to keep it simple, I like the look of the black and white and they are super hardy. Should make feeding and overall maintainence easy too. The only other thing I thought of was a smaller shrimp goby/pistol pair.

 

[Dcal]

Thank you all! I feel a lot better about this idea! I think I’ll start saving up for live rock and sand and maybe some other equipment. Won’t set it up until after I move to college though. Doesn’t make sense to setup the tank for 3 months and then move it.
Livestock I plan probably just a 4-stripe damsel fish to keep it simple, I like the look of the black and white and they are super hardy. Should make feeding and overall maintainence easy too. The only other thing I thought of was a smaller shrimp goby/pistol pair.

you can do a lot better than a damsel lol

 

[Dilan Patel]

I just set up a 2.5 gallon pico and it honestly was a great decision for a College tank. I do no waterchanges, Top off every week too 2. And everything just happy. The whole goalfor the tank was to be on a budget about $20 I ended up doing it less than $50 as I ended up making upgrades and stuff but I did have the light and rock and some coral from my main display the rest was Either trated for or bought on the budget. This tank had to be easy enough to take down in 1 hour or less driven back and forth and set back up within 1 hour. this time included cleaning the tank before leaving.

 

[CD_Scapes]

you can do a lot better than a damsel lol

I know I could but I really just like them

 

[Dcal]

I know I could but I really just like them

fair enough

 

[CD_Scapes]

fair enough

I thought about trying a captive born and conditioned african blue stripe pipefish but I doubt it would do well with euphyllia

 

[Tamberav]

Damsels are active fun fish. I have a starkii and a springer.

I think a four stripe will be really striking amongst the coral and not many people are able to keep them since they are feisty.

 

[mdb_talon]

Haha based off the title i thought you wanted money(or worse...coral).

 

[Dcal]

Haha based off the title i thought you wanted money(or worse...coral).

still a lil ptsd from last week?
if so join the club lol

 

[CD_Scapes]

Haha based off the title i thought you wanted money(or worse...coral).

Naaaah, just click baiting the forum

 

[CD_Scapes]

Damsels are active fun fish. I have a starkii and a springer.

I think a four stripe will be really striking amongst the coral and not many people are able to keep them since they are feisty.

I really think the black and white will look nice against the purple/green/blue of the frogspawns and hammers. I might try black substrate but I know it can get magnetic, it just looks so much better with hammers/frogspawns