Aaron's 10 gallon "budget" nano reef

[aaron186]

This is my first tank. Its a 10 gallon standard sized tank with lower end equipment. Specs below

day 1


About 2 months in:

3 months:

Tank Specs:

10 gal standard rimmed tank with glass lid
current orbit marine led 18in (running 100%% blue and 35% whites ~10hrs day)
HOB AC 30 running floss and chemipure blue
Hydor 240 nano powerhead
Eheim 50w heater
10 lbs live sand, 12 lbs live rock
SG 1.025
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate all currently 0ppm using API test kit

Maintenance Schedule:
Weekly 1-2 gal water changes
Dose Seachem Aquavito Fuel day before water change (to avoid overdosing - will change once more established and experienced)

Fish:
1 small yellow watchman goby (paired with pistol)
1 small o. clown
1 royal gramma



Inverts:
1 Skunk Cleaner
1 Fire Shrimp
3 sexy shrimp (only seeing 1 of them for past month)
1 randal pistol shrimp
1 emerald crab
2 pom pom crabs
4 hermits with lots of empty bigger shells
1 blue tuxedo urchin
8-10 snails of various species

Corals:
12 frags of various designer zoas (rasta, sunny d, pink zippers, blue hornets, fire ice, pipe, gorilla nipples etc)
1 neon blue green ricordea mushroom frag
1 green/brown mushroom frag
1 ironman mushroom frag
1 psychedelic mushroom frag
1 blue mushroom frag
2 frags of hammers
1 torch
1 plate coral
2 acan frags
1 trumpet frag
1 candy cane frag
1 small montipora cap frag
1 blasto frag
1 hollywood stunner chalice frag
1 birds of paradise birds nest frag
1 neon green toadstool leather frag

 

[Maritimer]

Lookin' pretty sweet!

Proof positive that reefing can be done on a budget, if it's done with attention to the details - inspiration for many, I'm sure!

~Bruce

 

[Mrs. Crabs]

Your tank looks pretty!
And the smaller tank work well with low tech.

 

[aaron186]

Thanks. This is my first attempt at a fish tank since I was little and had a tetra lol. I am probably going to be upgrading it a little bit in the near future. I am fighting hair algae as you can probably see in the picture. It's likely due to a combination of some overfeeding (since corrected), overstocking a bit (3 fish), and some over lighting. I was initially running the lights at 100% blue and 100% white for 10 hours. I have since changed to 60% blue and 20% white and decreased my whites to 4 hours and blues to 7 hours. It seems to be helping. My corals seem to be happy minus the birdsnest which I might have to remove (it was a free frag anyways). I am debating getting a HOB CPR Aquafuge and throwing a skimmer in there along with my heater and getting rid of the AC vs getting a bigger AC110 and putting a skimmer in it. I could also run macroalgea/mud and maybe some pods. I am a bit limited by skimmers since the HOB skimmers seem to be either crap or way to big for my tank. Would be about a $200 investment though.

 

[Vinh]

I started a 10 gallon standard as well. I'm about two months in. I started with dry rock where it looks like you used live rock. I have budget equipment as well except for my recent AI Prime lighting. Although the AI prime is not really considered high end either but perfect for my needs.

How's the heater working for you? I had the same heater but it didn't really keep up so I purchased the Eheim 75w and it's much better.

Do you have enough flow? I'm using the Hydor Koralia 425 along with a Hydor 180 and it seems to be just enough flow. I can't imagine a single 240. My 425 is pointed towards the surface though to get good surface agitation.

Seems like you stocked pretty quickly. You getting any coral growth? I'm going much slower. 2 clowns, 3 hermits, 2 turbo snails, and 2 eupyhillia frags. I might add one more coral but that's it for the next few months.

 

[Fishninja]

Nice tank check out mine it is pretty similar to yours!

 

[aaron186]

I'm new to this so I might be doing some things wrong. It seems like I have decent flow. My torch sways pretty well and my water doesn't look stagnant. I also have an AC 30 HOB that moves a lot of water and creates surface agitation. My coral growth has been slow. Nothing looks unhealthy though. The only thing that isn't doing well is my birds nest which is probably pushing it for my tank. Do you think I need more flow? How would I tell? I wish I had a better light but I'm not going to upgrade it yet.

 

[Vinh]

I'm new too so I was just doing a compare and contrast on similar tanks different approaches. From what I understand if you see more algae in one area than another it may indicate dead spots. I have a couple places low on the glass where it will slowly get brown algae so I assume it's lower flow areas. The HOB with the 240 may be enough. I have two small frags (a hammer and frogspawn) and I'm already seeing some growth. Now that doesn't mean much but my theory is that they do not need to compete with other corals for nutrients and calcium. Just a guess based on my research. I also think my full spectrum LED is helping with coral growth and limiting algae growth since I'm able to control how much of the spectrum I want to expose throughout the day. Again, more guessing here. I have no filtration other than the rocks and no dosing. Using IO reef crystals for salt seems to be enough calcium for now. WYSIWYG.

Here's a quick pic of my progress after two months. By the way, picture is deceiving. My rocks are not purple. It's brownish and I think I'm starting to see some coralline but it's very minimal. I wouldn't expect it this early in the game.

 

[Mrs. Crabs]

I started a 5gal-tank 3 weeks ago.
I used reef ceramic for it. With "dead material" it is important to offer macro algae or corals for competition, otherwise the free space on the tank decoration will be used by cyanos, micro algae and co.
You should not use expensive corals, but simple soft corals are fine for that.

 

[aaron186]

Tank looks great. I think I am going to add a CPR aquafuge HOB fuge to my tank so that I have room to add a skimmer and get the equipment out of the display and run some macroalgae. It will also add about 3 gallons of water volume to the tank

 

[Vinh]

I'll be interested to hear how it works out for you. I'm hoping to run mine as a minimalist nano with no extra equipment.

 

[Bunnee911]

What is the dollar comparison to an all-in-one? Would a beginner be better off with one?

 

[Thomasj616]

Looks great I started off with a 30 gallon with lower end equivalent too. I then caught the bug! I now run a 125 with higher end stuff. But I did all the plumbing and design work my self to help off set the price.
Your tank looks great, just watch the plate coral I had mine for months and it was one of my favorite ones, one day a hermit crab decided to run over it and that was the end of it

 

[aaron186]

What is the dollar comparison to an all-in-one? Would a beginner be better off with one?

I am a beginner too, but if I could do it over again I would definitely get an all in one. It's definitely more money but I think it would have saved me a few headaches along the way. I would also go a bit bigger than I went. I am running out of room for new stuff and the more time I spend in the hobby the more I want.

 

[Bunnee911]

Thanks for the answer about the AIO. We seemed to have picked up a lot of new aquarists. This could help them. I purchased a BC29 to attempt my first reef. I have been in marines for several years. The only concern I had was there is no UG plate to fit the BC. Lol