Low cost 10 gallon office nano

[folsomreefing]

Hi folks. Follow along while I set up a 10 gallon low cost nano.

Here’s what I’m in for so far

10 gallon Aqueon from Petco $15
Caribsea Arag Alive special grade 20# $30
Dry Marco $30
Instant Ocean HoldFast epoxy $12
Hygger M-100W heater $27
Ink bird heater controller (had this from a previous tank but wasn’t playing well after I got an Apex)
Fluval C2 power filter (up to 30 gallons) $34
Since Voyager Nano 1000 $37
Noopsyche K7 mini $75
Topper $15

All in = $275

So yeah low cost with a bunch of hang on equipment. To pretty up the tank I put some black vinyl I found by my wife’s Cricut type machine on the back glass to make the hang on stuff stand out a little less. I installed it the same way you’d put tint on a car’s window with soapy water and a credit card.

I should also add for people who are looking to price some stuff out that I have a home tank and used a couple things that I already had lying around and found some free salt (Reef crystals) on Facebook.

I want to mention that I bought a bunch of dry Marco rubble and epoxied it into an arch shape. I didn’t make much of an effort to hide the epoxy seams since they’ll be covered in corals and algae (hopefully coralline) at some point. I just kneaded the epoxy into little balls and rolled them into little hot dog shapes and worked it into the crevices between the separate rocks. The morning after it seemed pretty solid. I did make it in two pieces even though they look conjoined so if I have to scrub one at some point I can leave some stuff relatively untouched and do a little at a time. The arch definitely looks unnatural but it definitely provides a lot of negative space for swimming and coral growth and flow to keep things clean.

Today was setup up day and my department is the proud owner of a box with warm water (have thermometer set at 77F and inkbird is at 77.5F), rocks, and sand. I added some ammonium chloride (Dr Tim’s) and FritzZyme 9 nitrifying bacteria I had laying around to help the sand get biofiltration up and running.

My long term plans are a couple fish, inverts to do my dirty work and maybe a couple show inverts, some coral, possibly an anemone down the line.

For fish I was thinking a single clown (water puppy) and possibly a court jester goby.

For clean up crew and inverts I’ll probably get a couple hermits, a nassarius, few little cerith snails, 1 trochus, and possibly a sexy shrimp or something a little more fun. Some of it I might add after the cycle like the nassarius and some of it won’t be added until some algae starts to develop. Cycling with the lights off right now.

For corals I’ll probably do softies and maybe some hardy LPS. Since it’s not at home I don’t feel like I have the space for dosing equipment and stuff to provide SPS with a life of dignity. I also have a rainbow anemone at home I might add down the line once the tank matures if things are stable and predictable. My goal is to bring some color into the office and I might try to grow an encruster on the back wall.

Follow along and I’ll do my best to overshare so everyone that wants a low cost nano can learn from my mistakes and my successes.

Feel free to give me guidance in the comments

 

[PizzaIan339]

Seems interesting, I would check out inappropriate reefer on youtube he did something similar and it turned out great.

 

[folsomreefing]

Day 6 update

Ammonia level is approximately 0.5 ppm tested with API liquid. I will retest sometime next week and acquire a nitrite reading as well.

Way too early observations:
I will have to keep some RODI handy at all times. Evaporation is pretty significant in this space.

I also feel like the Voyager Nano 1000 may be underpowered even for this tiny 10 gallon. We’ll see how the tank looks with stuff in it but I might have to get the 2000 or something else. Fingers crossed that it works out.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Digimes]

Day 6 update

Ammonia level is approximately 0.5 ppm tested with API liquid. I will retest sometime next week and acquire a nitrite reading as well.

Way too early observations:
I will have to keep some RODI handy at all times. Evaporation is pretty significant in this space.

I also feel like the Voyager Nano 1000 may be underpowered even for this tiny 10 gallon. We’ll see how the tank looks with stuff in it but I might have to get the 2000 or something else. Fingers crossed that it works out.

Both my Nano tanks sweat water like a 180. It's crazy.... I go through about 2 gallons a month and the total tank volunes together are 20 gallons, so top off is an ongoing 10 percent..

 

[folsomreefing]

Day 14 update

Ammonia is at 0 but Nitrite is still in 2-5 range according to chart. We’re tantalizingly close but there’s no need to rush things.

I want to mention that I was cycling at a lower salinity per Dr Tim’s advice


Not quite at low as he recommended but I started around 25 ppt and it’s been creeping up since I haven’t topped off. Came back to around 28. Right now I added some salinated water to bring the tank up to 31. When the cycle is done I will again top off with salinated water with a target of 33ppt. At home I keep my tank at 35 but since there is a significant temperature gradient here and evaporation has been happening really quickly I figure keeping it towards the low end of the good spectrum will be in everyone’s best interest.

 

[folsomreefing]

Day 17 update

Welp. Nitrite hasn’t budged. I’ve done a fair bit of reading on the matter and apparently my entire cycling paradigm is outdated. The new attitude toward nitrite is: “who cares?”

Nitrite is not toxic and generally not worth measuring in marine systems.

I’m not sure how the rest of you are doing things in 2025 but the problem that elevated nitrite produces is fake values in nitrate testing and it makes me a tad uncomfortable stepping forward at the present for this very reason. Interested to hear if anyone that might be reading has any thoughts.

Another thing I’ve been reading about is how phosphate can bind to dry marco. This is my first tank without live rock. I’ve read in some posts in forums from people who I do not know to be credible that dosing phosphate to a detectable level might be a good idea in new aquariums for that reason but it’s not something I’ve done with previous tanks and I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not.

 

[folsomreefing]

An overdue update

About a week and a half ago I added a bottle of tisbe pods and started feeding the tank about a teaspoon of phyto 2-3 times a week.

And then yesterday! Let there be light.

Despite still having nitrite in the 2-5 range I’ve put in a clownfish, hermit, and nassarius snail after reading this thread about people doing the same:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-unstick-any-seemingly-stuck-cycle.742202/I’m postulating that the lack of nitrobacter is because there’s very little phosphorus in the tank and what little was added by the few pinches of fish food I added over time was bound by my Marco. Either way it surely doesn’t seem to matter in my tank as the juvenile clown is just exploring in no obvious distress just trying his best to wipe out my copepod army. I added about a tablespoon of microbacter 7.
I turned on the light. I’m more or less running the stock LPS setting with a 10.5 hr photo period including a 30 minute ramp up and 30 minute ramp down. I turned down photo intensity to about 65% of default as a starting point.
And to follow up a previous point I think this power head will be just fine for my tank- surface agitation is good and flow is ok.

 

[folsomreefing]

5 days after adding fish.

Ammonia 0
NO2 0
NO3 5ish
PH 7.8ish

Nitrite didn’t budge for 5 weeks but I added fish and remarkably it hit zero in no time. This was about 4 weeks after ammonia hit 0. I have probably been overly conservative in my cycling in the past. I don’t have any regrets but my findings are consistent with the paper published by Randy and the new cycling thread: nitrite doesn’t matter. Especially if I’m going first fish clown I would add the fish after ammonia hit zero from here on out.

Fish and inverts from LFS seem happy and healthy.

 

[Tahoe61]

Looking good.

I didn't even test nitrites the last 2 cycles. If I see nitrates I am on the right track.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

5 days after adding fish.

Ammonia 0
NO2 0
NO3 5ish
PH 7.8ish

Nitrite didn’t budge for 5 weeks but I added fish and remarkably it hit zero in no time. This was about 4 weeks after ammonia hit 0. I have probably been overly conservative in my cycling in the past. I don’t have any regrets but my findings are consistent with the paper published by Randy and the new cycling thread: nitrite doesn’t matter. Especially if I’m going first fish clown I would add the fish after ammonia hit zero from here on out.

Fish and inverts from LFS seem happy and healthy.

Glad your fish and inverts are happy!

 

[folsomreefing]

Today it looks like there are little green specks on the wavemaker guard and the filter inlet. They’re really too small to photograph under blue light and I don’t really feel like changing the spectrum to photograph them would benefit anybody anyways but I just thought it was quick to get the beginnings of a presumably photosynthetic ugly in just under a week of lights on. The (formally) dry rock is still white and bright.

I haven’t really seen the nassarius snail since its addition. The hermit is constantly active mostly digging through the sand. The clownfish we selected is as active as a six line hunting for pods nonstop all day every day- you’d think we’re starving the little fella. All in all not much to report but it’s been nice to have a little department pet in the office.

Corals soon to come.

 

[folsomreefing]

I brought some frozen mysis into work today as a special treat for my nassarius snail and was greeted by a minor bacterial bloom. The nassarius didn’t surface and I’m now very concerned that he may have expired. He wasn’t the most robust specimen when he arrived but I didn’t think for a second that he’d be dead in a week. Fingers crossed he’s just pining for the fjords.

The cloudiness in the tank is pretty minimal and clearing up somewhat already. I retested ammonia to be safe and we’re still at zero. The fish is in no apparent distress so I’m just going to let the new tank do new tank things and proceed with a water change next week as planned.

Since I saw the green specks popping up I also brought in a couple stomatella snails to zoom around and keep things tidy.

 

[folsomreefing]

Came back to work today and the water is still hazy going through this bloom. It’s not horrible but I did a ~30% water change.

Everybody is still happy.

Last week I went digging for the nassarius snail and I couldn’t find him but this morning when I sat at the desk he came out for a couple minutes so he’s still with us- that made me happy. There’s been an explosion of copepods it must have something to do with the bloom.

I tested nitrates at around zero after the 30% change but I don’t really want to feed this bloom anymore so I think I’m just going to ride this out.

 

[folsomreefing]

Back at the office today and we’re past the bacterial bloom and have moved on to diatoms- it’s pretty much covering every surface it’s mostly just a dusting on the surfaces and difficult to photograph. I cleaned the glass this morning and it’s already reaccumulating there. I’m probably going to add 2-3 more stomatella snails tomorrow now that there’s a buffet in the tank.

 

[folsomreefing]

Came to work today and it looks like there’s the beginnings of green algae instead of brown now. Still have a healthy copepod population in the tank that the clown is munching on nonstop. I think it’s time for a few new cleanup crew members.

I blew the surfaces in the tank clean and turned over the sand bed using a turkey baster and proceeded with my bimonthly 20% water change. After the change nitrates are 0-5 range but a little closer to 0 by my eye.

Clown seems to love the tank and likes swimming through the arch.

 

[kyreefville]

Looking good!

 

[folsomreefing]

The tank has been still experiencing fluctuating levels of bacterial blooms so a few days ago I stuck a cheap in-tank Green Killing machine UV light that I had sitting inside a bin in my garage and it seems to have resolved it. Probably unrelated but the diatom bloom seems to be dying down as well. It’s almost tissue paper texture now and so loosely attached that they could be blown off the surfaces of my rock with a snail fart.

I brought in a tiger conch from home this morning to help me tidy up. I know this tank isn’t nearly large enough to sustain him but I plan on him being just a short term addition that will likely come home with me on Monday.

 

[folsomreefing]

My sand and rock are now boogery and bubbly so I’m thinking the diatoms quickly transitioned into dinoflagellates. UV doesn’t seem to be helping very much if at all and when I come in the morning they’re still adhered.

The plan of attack is to:
come in next week blow it around with my power head and do a substantial water change (30%ish)
Bring up nutrient levels with neonitro & Neo phos
Start a bacterial regimen
Keep my fingers crossed and test a little more regularly in the short term.

People make Dino’s out to be some impossible task but they’re really common and once your tank is set up for success they don’t frequently come back too often like in the beginning.

Plan b is TBS jar package.

 

[kyreefville]

Good luck