Low Tech 10g Nano Reef-The beginnings

[Advil_LiquiGLs]

Hey guys! Thought id just share an update

After posting an awful thread about "is my tank cycled in a week", I decided to turn off the lights and let everything chill. My last post was a couple months ago, and my tank should be cycled for sure. Confirmed with Salifert tests.

Ammonia-0
Nitrites-0
Nitrates- >100

Im not gonna lie. Keeping up with topping off in the desert is no joke. This beast drinks a vase full of water every week at least, and its hard to keep up with making rodi...I will admit, Ive been using regular drinking water instead of RODI for topoff but I havent had any mad algae blooms or anything questionable that is not normal to a normal cycle. I have a solution in mind:

Putting a glass lid on. This will conserve water the most but im concerned about how much light will get filtered out. I plan on buying a Nicrew Navareef 65w, and if i can use a glass lid and have minimal dropoff in PAR, that would be nice.

My second complaint is all the salt creep. I think putting a lid will mitigate this as well

Did a 50 percent WC and for that ill used rodi from a seahorse rodi filter

I understand people like tinkering with multiple gadgets and having skimmers and whatnot. But I literally have a cheap fluval internal filter rated for 30g in this build and a small current fan paired with a Nicrew Navareef 65w led light, and that's it. Take it or leave it, I believe you can keep a reef for the cheap and have it last a long time as long as you understand what you must buy and where you can skimp. Like, the aqueon 10s that are standard at petsmart are golden to me because of one thing: They don't leak like seamless aquariums might. Id rather have brackets than a leak, but that's just my cup of tea, Ive heard bad things about Red Sea seamless tanks...

Oh and no heater. My house stays at 75-76, and I think a 65w light will heat the aquarium to a couple more degrees, if at all

I plan on adding stock from my LFS, they have:

1x Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1x Hermit Crab
2x Margarita snails

As for corals Im still undecided. I do want a green duncan coral cause they're cheap, but I need to read up more because i don't want coral warfare in this tank. Just a peaceful little 10 with some cool corals and some inverts is the plan. No fish, unless theres one that really fits 10 gallons.

Thanks for reading! All comments welcome. Any favorite corals for a 10g? Have a blessed day yall.

 

[Advil_LiquiGLs]

Big shoutout to my dad for jerry rigging the Seahorse to a plank of wood and an old basket stand. I think it's a work of art, for rodi all I gotta do is attach it to our garden hose and run it, and we use the wastewater for our plants, so far so good, havent experienced anything negative on our plants yet.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you plan on running an ATO for your tank or just do it by hand?

You said there's no heater in your tank? Do you have a range of what you want your tank's temperature to be? I've seen some people run a tank without a heater, and I always find it interesting.

Following along, seems like a cool tank to watch as it progresses!

 

[Piotrek]

This will conserve water the most but im concerned about how much light will get filtered out.

Don't be. I have a glass lid and the light loss is negligible. Maybe 5%.
E.g Radion lights can be enhanced with a diffuser which is essential a cover as well.
The cover does need cleaning at least once a month. And if it's too close to water in will grow calcium overt it that would need to be scrubbed. And don't make it super tight, leave some space to breath.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would remove that filter, honestly its unattractive and takes a lot of space and its totally pointless IMO, the rocks are the biofilter, and small weekly water changes will keep that tank in good shape.

I would add an auto-top off, if you don't want to sped $100 on an ATO system, at least get the bottle cap ATO from amazon for $20, that will save you the effort of topping off manually every day.

I would point that powerhead upwards to get some surface agitation going to help oxygenate the water, a flat water surface is not good.

Otherwise, it all looks good, good luck.

 

[Advil_LiquiGLs]

Yeah, thats not a bad idea. I think instead of the box, ill add a powerhead to that side to agitate the surface more. As for ATO, ive been religiously doing that for months, its sort of been routine and is baked in my morning schedule, and Ive checked my salinity with a calibrated refractometer, its been at a stable 1.026. The only thing id change is topping off with RODI (as i should). I agree the box is an eyesore and yes a powerhead providing current to the surface will be better in the long term

As for the no heater, I live in the desert, and my house stays at 75-76 throughout the year. Im aiming for 76F, so I think a heater here would be negigible? Not too concerned about winter as it only reached like 44F last year, really balmy for the desert. If temperature is an issue I can always buy a heater. Im just super paranoid of them breaking all the time.

Next buys:
-Small powerhead
-Nicrew Navareef 65w
-Glass lid
-more Salifert tests (Cal, Mag, phosphorus, pH)

Thanks for the replies peeps. Really helps my scattered brain organize itself. Anything else I should buy before I get corals? Im confused as heck about dosing nutrients. I get that corals will uptake certain nutrients like nitrate, calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, and that has to be tested for and replenished as needed. Question is what do I buy?

I have these three that i was able to get on clearance in the photos below.

The reef pack fundamentals comes with three bottles: Reef Complete, Reef Carbonate, and Reef Plus. The back says Reef Complete provides calcium, magnesium, and strontium, Reef Carbonate maintains alkalinity, Reef Plus adds trace elements, vitamins, and amino acids.

The Reef Trace bottle seems to provide the same thing as Reef Plus, but looking at the bottle it provides things like boron, cobalt, and copper? I thought copper was toxic to shrimp, wouldnt this kill a scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp?

And the marine snow I believe is for target/broadcast feeding the corals, I dont intend to rely on just one type of food, I intend to cycle different offerings to my corals

Do I have nutrients covered or is there something better out there/ something I'm missing for dosing? Thanks again