Innovative Marine 10 Home Office Build

[Brandon44322]

Hey all, my name is Brandon, I've been in the hobby on and off for quite some time. My aquarium journey started in elementary school with freshwater and has stuck ever since. I'm now in my late twenties, with a career in aerospace engineering well underway. I work from home a few days each week and have also recently enrolled in graduate school, so i'm in my home office quite a bit. I decided to start this small AIO reef aquarium to help accompany me as I work and serve as an outlet. My goals for this aquarium is a low maintenance mixed reef with as many automation features as possible (as an engineer, this is the "fun" part)due to time limitations and work travel on occasion.

Equipment:
-Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 10 Gallon
-Stock MightyJet Return Pump w/ Spin Stream
-Cobalt Neo-Therm 50 Watt Heater
-Innovative Marine Desktop Manual Fleece Filter Roller
-Innovative Marine Media Reactor (carbon 100% of time, GFO as needed)
-Aqua Illumination Prime 16HD with Rigid Mount
-Coral Vue Hydros Controller, X2
-Coral Vue Hydros Triple Water Level Sensor for ATO
-Coral Vue Hydros Magnetic Temperature Sensor for Heater Control
-Coral Vue Hanna Instruments Nitrate, Phosphate and Alkalinity Test Kits
-Generic Refractometer
-Flipper Nano Algae Scraper

Other:
-CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Sand
-Reef Saver Rock from BRS (10 Pounds)
-Live Rock from LFS for cycle in media chamber

Current Livestock:
-Yellow Tail Damsel - for cycle (with Live rock and Dr Tims One and Only) - will return to LFS after ugly stages

Planned Livestock:
-Clownfish Pair
-Standard Clean up Crew
-Algae Barn Pods

Planned Coral (focused on ease of care)
-GSP (back wall)
-Pulsing Xenia (on island)
-Zoanthids
-Toadstool Leather
-Mushrooms
-Recordia
-Blastos
-Candy Canes
-Duncan
-Torch
-Hammer

Future Plans:
Once the tank cycles fully and starts the ugly stage, I'll introduce the clean up crew and pods. After that settles out i'll add the clownfish pair after removing the damsel. Then i'll add coral slowly over the next year. I plan to do 10% water changes weekly to start and then add dosing pumps for automatic water changes. I know thats overkill, but I enjoy the technology and the automation. I'd like to have this tank configured to be very hands-off and make it as stable as possible for a nano tank. I don't plan to dose, but instead do automated water changes to replenish levels and serve as nutrient export. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Alenya]

Looks great! I adopted maintenance of a 40% water change weekly in my nano once corals were in, which totally removed my need to dose anything other than a drop of aminos. You may find that a useful option later on.

 

[Brandon44322]

Looks great! I adopted maintenance of a 40% water change weekly in my nano once corals were in, which totally removed my need to dose anything other than a drop of aminos. You may find that a useful option later on.

Thanks! Definitely going to watch my levels and adjust the water changes up as needed. Since i'm going to use EcoTech Versas for automatic water changes, it'l be as simple as reprogramming them to do more. I like to feed heavy, so likely will settle on more than 10% for sure.