'Left-Over Bling' 10g

[malacoda]

Time for another tank.

Realized I had quite a bit of left-over equipment stacking up in my closet ... including an unused 10g.

Decided to set myself a little challenge — set up a nano on my office desk using as much of it as possible ... along with DIY or cheap new stuff where needed. Then, put the savings toward filling it with mid-to-high-end SPS and fish.

Equipment (source):
Tank — 10g aqueon (closet)
AIO — sump (DIY)
Lid — (DIY)
Light — Orphek Altlantik V4 Compact (closet)
Return pump — Sicce Micra Plus (new, bought with credit card reward points)
Powerhead — Nero 3 (New, about the only high-end full-priced item.)
ATO top-off — Litermeter III ATO (closet)
Doser — (ebay, a cheap, adjustable persistaltic pump that will be controlled via a cheap outlet timer from Amazon)
Dosing reservoir — Crystal Reef Aquatics (closet)

Filtration:
Media rack — (New, from InTank. Bought with CC reward points. Will hold floss and GAC which I already have on hand for my 65g.)
Rock — CaribSea (closet, cured in my 65g sump)

Planned Livestock:
Helfrichi firefish (Nemateleotris helfrichi) x 1
Yellow cardinalfish (Ostorhinchus luteus) x 3 OR White-Spotted Dwarf Goby (Trimma cf. caesiura) x 3
Two-Spot Bimaculatus blenny (Ecsenius bimaculatus) x 1
Blue-Banded Coral shrimp (Stenopus tenuirostris) x 1 OR Yellow-Banded coral shrimp (Stenopus cyanoscelis) x 1
A few assorted snails

Current Livestock (as of 9-15-2021):
Helfrichi firefish (Nemateleotris helfrichi)
Yellow clown goby (Gobiodon okinawae)
Featherduster (Sabellastarte Sp)
Two-spot Bimaculatus blenny (Ecsenius bimaculatus)
Crocea clam
Gold banded coral shrimp (Stenopus zanzibaricus)
banded trochus snails
Astraea snails

FTS:

 

[malacoda]

A few pics of the sump and lid construction...

Cut lines drawn out on the cell-cast acrylic sheet for the sump (I've already routed out the weir slots in this shot):

In the process of cutting out the DIY lid from a sheet of polycarbonate:

Wasn't too worried with getting the calk in the back of the sump very neat. I did trim it up a bit once it cured, but it'll be facing a wall so my only real concern was making sure the seams were well sealed.

 

[Spicy Reef]

Nice build, I wasn't expecting all that in 10g - cool!

 

[malacoda]

Well, it's wet, warm and flowing.

Next up will be adding sand and the rock that's been sitting in my 65g sump.

 

[malacoda]

Sand and rock are in.

Tank is lit.

And the first, unplanned, resident is in...

Turns out that a 4' long 65g is NOT big enough for two non-bonded yellow clown gobies.

After doing fine together for months, the larger clown goby (Sunny) decided it wanted to be the only clown goby in the tank ... and started to beat the hell out of the smaller one (Sonny).

So, Sonny spent a few days in the 65g sump until I got the rock and sand into the 10g.

Today it moved in to its new home. (Was feeling a little shy and did not want to pose for the tank update pic.)

Next up will be a Helfrichi firefish and some trochus snails. Hopefully later this week.

 

[ChaosAquaculture]

Looks like a solid little tank! - kali

 

[malacoda]

Looks like a solid little tank! - kali

Thanks!

 

[malacoda]

The little kingdom grows..

A Helfrichi's firefish, feather duster worm, and about 16 astraea snails went in yesterday.

I was impressed at the job they did on the initial signs of film algae and diatoms showing up on the rocks. With a little luck, they'll help even more than expected on the 'ugly stage' once it kicks in.

 

[malacoda]

 

[malacoda]

Today...

Recent events — dinos set in sooner than I expected. I knew they would make an appearance ... since I started the tank with dry rock that was seasoned in my 65 DT sump. They just came a lot sooner than I anticipated.

They went dormant in about 3-4 weeks as anticipated ... but I lost the fanworm.

Last of the fish and corals are in ... although I nearly bleached the corals by moving my frag rack a little too high during acclimation. 6 of 7 survived but need time to settle back in and regain their vibrant colors.

Current critters include:

• Sunny the clown goby
• Mario the helfichi firefish
• Oakley the bimaculatus blenny
• gold banded coral shrimp (Stenopus zanzibaricus)
• crocea clam
• 3 or 4 banded trochus snails
• 16 or so Astraea snails

Now it just needs time to blossom.