Mr. Z's 10 G Build Thread

[Mr.Z]

Began cycling my first reef tank on 21-Dec-2019...

I started exploring saltwater in December of 2018 and quickly fell into the blackhole of R2R posts and BRS YouTube videos. For the past year I have been reading, watching, and researching. Needless to say, I was eager to get the tank setup once I pulled the trigger on purchasing all the gear last month.

I went for an Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 10 gallon with AI Prime 16HD for lighting. I made a spreadsheet months ago when I started speccing out different permutations of tanks and equipment. I have used the spreadsheet to meticulously track all expenses up until this point as well as purchases I expect to make in the near future (e.g. livestock). I've included a screenshot of that spreadsheet below, because I think it's useful for other beginners to see what a viable setup might look like and I thought it was "interesting" to see how quickly things add up, even on a relatively simple system.

It's been 2.5 weeks and the tank is still working through the cycle. It's taking ammonia ~48 hours to drop from 2 to 0 and nitrites are still quite elevated.

Current Budget

Tank w/ Blue Lights (have been keeping them off during cycling except for pics)

Tank w/ White Lights (have been keeping them off during cycling except for pics)

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Welcome! Tank is looking good!

 

[virtual reality]

Looks really nice. Your off to a very good start.

 

[Mr.Z]

Welcome! Tank is looking good!

Looks really nice. Your off to a very good start.

Thank you both!

 

[Mr.Z]

Went to my LFS today and got our first fish and coral. We went to Absolutely Fish in Clifton, NJ and it was a fantastic experience. They have a large selection of fish (incl. fresh) and corals to buy as well as some impressive displays. A lot of staff on hand ready and willing to help us out.

The best part is my fiancée came today. She went from being supportive of the hobby when I bought the tank, semi-interested in it when we started aquascaping, and now totally engaged in reefing once we started picking out frags today. She’s already asked when we can get a bigger tank!

Here’s what we picked up:

• 2 Ocellaris
• Duncan
• Galaxea
• Trumpet
• Blasto (I think)

Have a couple questions:

1. The clowns have not left the same corner the entire day. Is that expected or a reason to be concerned?
2. Do I have too much direct flow? The galaxea seems to be blowing around a lot. Video attached.

 

[Mr.Z]

Mounted my 4 frags this past weekend, so the tank is starting to come together. Also removed a bit of sand because I thought there was a too much.

The sand removal seems to have released excess organics into the water column. I tested my nitrates and found they’re at 15 (up from 7 a few days ago), so I plan to continue with weekly water changes and be more stingy with feeding.

I was hand mixing water and adding it to the tank at room temperature. I found the hand mixing wasn’t ideal and the tank temperature dropped too much with this method. So, I’ve relegated my Koralia to mixing duties and have added a heater to my mixing bucket. These two items will also act as spares to my primary powerhead and heater.

Have upgraded the tank’s powerhead to the Tunze 6040. I appreciate the adjustability of the DC power and the fact that I can easily turn off power with feed mode (should help pellets from getting blown around and will assist with keeping nitrates lower as I can ensure no food goes uneaten). Also love the various options of mounting orientation and directional flow that create a lot of flexibility, which is very valuable in this nano tank. Only thing I don’t love is the blue accents on the powerhead — they are far from discrete and detract from the clean look of the tank. For now, I’m keeping the powerhead and stock pump at the lowest setting.

Short term goals are to get these nitrates under control and mitigate the brown algae developing.

 

[najer]

Very nice, love your scape.

 

[Mr.Z]

Very nice, love your scape.

Thank you! Gotta give credit to my fiancée who did most of the scaping.

 

[Reef Mania LLC]

Love this tank! hows the tunze powerhead in this size tank? ive been wanting to setup a 10 gallon nano reef for some time now and want to get a parts list going.

 

[Mr.Z]

Love this tank! hows the tunze powerhead in this size tank? ive been wanting to setup a 10 gallon nano reef for some time now and want to get a parts list going.

It takes up about the same amount of space as the Koralia, but because it’s flexible with orientation of mounting and direction of flow, it can be secured in a more discrete spot. So, it’s a bit bigger than I’d like, but probably as small as a powerhead can get. You’ll see in the side profile pictures that I’ve been able to tuck it in behind the main rock to obscure it as best as possible. I have the output directed at the back glass which seems to do a good job of dispersing the flow throughout the tank.

 

[Mr.Z]

Picked up some new additions from the LFS this weekend.

• Acan
• Hammer
• Favia
• Zoa
• Skunk cleaner shrimp
• Helfrichi firefish

The firefish was a bit shy at first, but has started to come out of her hiding spot today. It’s been actively feeding as well, which is encouraging.

Everything seems to be doing well, except for the trumpet. It’s been slightly deflated since mounting it. Going to just give it more time though. Thinking it may need to adjust to the lighting.

Parameters:

• Salinity - 35 ppt
• pH - 8.0
• KH - 7.0
• NO3 - 5
• Mg - 1400
• Ca - 440

 

[Mr.Z]

Here's the running total of tank expenses as of February 5th, 2020:

 

[Mr.Z]

Picked up the CUC this weekend now that algae was getting established in tank:

• 2 nassarius
• 5 “grazing” snails
• 2 hermit crabs

Have ordered a few empty shells to hopefully mitigate potential aggression by the hermits... We’ll see how that goes.

Most inhabitants seem to be doing well in the tank, with the exception of the “Infinity War” favia we got (pic below)In the store, it had bright fluorescent yellow highlights, but in my tank it’s almost completely lost those accents and is mostly a muted maroon. It could be a variety of factors, but for now I’m just being patient to see if it adjusts to the tanks conditions.

Only tank parameter I’m a bit concerned about is N03 which is reading at virtually 0.0. I’ve increased my feeding, but it hasn’t bumped up much in the past few days. I think it may be all the algae in the tank up-taking the N03. Will keep feeding steady for now and see if N03 comes up a bit as I manage the algae better.

Salinity: 35
pH: 8.1
N03: 0.0
KH: 6.5
Mg: 1740

Alkalinity is also low at 6.5, but it’s been totally steady. I believe it’s there because the Tropic Marin Pro salt I am using has a base KH of 7.0 and I’m holding off dosing for now. Once I get through this bucket of salt, I plan to switch to Tropic Marin Classic which has a slightly higher alk.

 

[Mr.Z]

Picked up a few more frags over President’s Day weekend:

• Pink goniopora
• Acan
• Green birdsnest
• Red montipora
• Leather (looks like a combo of Kenya tree and something else

Some coral seem to be doing very well (trumpet and hammer) while others not so much. The birdsnest seems to be STNing in some parts and the monti might have a small bit of bleaching. Monitoring closely, but I know my parameters aren’t ideal, particularly alk.

Salinity: 35
PH: 8.2
NO3: 6.0
KH: 6.0
Mg: 1400
Ca: 455

Since I’m using Tropic Marin Pro, which has a KH of 7, water changes haven’t been enough to keep my alk in line. I’ve ordered BRS 2 part to get alk increased.

Also, finally figured out why my Mg and Ca was sky high... I was testing incorrectly. The Red Sea test kit has a syringe with a plunger that has a pointed tip. The tip is a bit lower than the base of the plunger. Since the instructions said to measure from the bottom of the plunger, I measured volume from the tip of the plunger. This effectively increased volume of water I was measuring which diluted the testing fluid and increased the amount of titration needed to reach the target color. Lesson learned!

 

[ryan-23]

nice build!! can't wait to see those corals fill in!!

 

[Mr.Z]

nice build!! can't wait to see those corals fill in!!

Thanks!

Have just gotten alk dosed up to 8.5 and plan to keep it there. The zoa is definitely appreciating it, but the goni has been totally closed up for the past few days.

 

[ISFNick]

That's a lot of fish for a nuvo 10! I want to get more, but I'm gonna get a Tunze 9001 first to keep up with nutrient export!

Looks good so far! The aquascape is cool! I think this tank will grow out well!
I have a nuvo 10 too if you'd like to check it out!

 

[Mr.Z]

That's a lot of fish for a nuvo 10! I want to get more, but I'm gonna get a Tunze 9001 first to keep up with nutrient export!

Looks good so far! The aquascape is cool! I think this tank will grow out well!
I have a nuvo 10 too if you'd like to check it out!

I’ll take a look. Always like getting ideas from others!

My plan is to try to get by without a skimmer and will realistically upgrade to a bigger tank while using this for a QT within the next year.

 

[Mr.Z]

Quite bummed I lost my first coral today. Right before bed last night I noticed that the bottom of my duncan was “peeling” off. Seemed to just be around the base. But when I woke up this morning, all that was left was the skeleton.

The duncan has been almost completely closed the past couple weeks. I think because of my clowns. Every time it started to open a little bit, the clowns would try to be hosted by it. Consequently, the duncan remained closed as it kept getting irritated by the clowns.

I believe this is what led to the death of the duncan, but am open to anyone’s insight.

Parameters this morning
Salinity: 34
NO3: 4
KH: 8
Mg: 1400
Ca: 445

Duncan skeleton this morning

 

[najer]

Clowns can love things to death, usually lps, bummer.