QuentinSaltwater
Community Member
OVERVIEW:
Hello, this is my saltwater tank, the inhabitants consist of one little YWG, two trochus snails, one adult, and a baby which I found the other day, formed from a relationship with a past snail who is gone, and one nassarius. This tank is around 4 months old. It is 10 gallons in the display, 12 gallons in total with the rear sump. The tank is quite boring right now, but I am going to get a pistol shrimp friend for my YWG this weekend. My YWG has created a cave for himself inside a cave I made for him , and it is a pain to feed him, I never see him, he's so shy, he only perches on the rock at the entrance of the main cave when there is nobody to be seen, when he sees someone he darts into his cave, and sits there waiting for me to leave. Anyways, it's a pain to feed him because the turkey baster can't go so deep into the cave, and he doesn't bother to come out and get the food from the baster. I have to push the food in with the baster, then leave for like 30 minutes, just so he'll eat. He used to be chilling in the main cave all the time, would come and try to eat the baster in an attempt to get the food inside, but one day he decided to make a tiny cave, to be never seen. Is anyone else's YWG this shy? The cave and the mini cave are shown below.
There's also chaeto everywhere in my tank because me and my smartness decided to take the chaeto out of its container thing, and try to make it look nice in the display, and I ended up putting chaeto everywhere. I might take this chance to buy a tuxedo urchin, and add him into my tank temporarily to demolish all the algae I have, he will be fed for enough time because I have the chaeto to feed, and I can buy algae wafers, I hope. In the future once I have all the equipment I need, I will finally get coral, I think that time is quite far away . I will go for beginner coral, I wanna keep softies and lps, especially euphylia, and acans. I also really want a crocea clam. That time is far away, but planning ahead doesn't hurt right.
CUC:
Please recommend me some CUC members I should get, I only have basically 2 trochus snails, a useless baby which will grow, and a useful adult one, and a nassarius. I'm not sure what algae it is, but I had some on my sandbed, it was green, but didn't really look like green hair algae, I blasted it away with my turkey baster, and there's some green stuff on my glass, and some green algae on my rock, probably film. I have lots of brown algae, lots of diatoms I think? I came back from a holiday, and the fish were being fed by someone else, so maybe the tank got a bit over fed. Here is a photo.
Please recommend me what CUC I should get to deal with these stuff, I'm getting a tuxedo urchin to hopefully clear up the chaeto and lots of algae everywhere, I will trade it in, or give it to my friend who has a bigger tank once it does its job. Thank you it would really help.
BACKGROUND:
The tank I purchased was from my LFS, and it was the choice between clear glass, and a rocky background which would look a bit strange, the tank came with a bundle, and I had already waited so long for it to come back, the background was not installed and it needed to be installed with silicone, I couldn't be bothered to wait so I just got the tank without the background. 4 months later, I regret not making a background, anyone have an idea how to create a black background for a tank like this? My ideas so far are to drain the tank and take out everything, then dry it, and clean out all the algae that has grown, and the spray paint the back glass black with aquarium safe spray paint, anyone have any good brand's of spray paint or good suggestions for how to make it black and also but parts of the rear sump should I make black? The whole rear sump is clear, so I guess you could imagine what it looks like right. Thanks.
FILTRATION:
I am doing water changes every 1-2 weeks.
I take out lots of water everytime, like 20-40%, I don't need to, but my siphon is massive so so much water just gets siphoned so quickly. In the back I have some filter floss stacked on top of some media with a piece of egg crate, it's a simple easy design, came with the bundle. I want to replace the filter floss with a filter sock, it looks better, and I just prefer it generally. As for the media I would put it in the middle section. Do you think I need a skimmer? I want to keep the tank sleek and clean, and I would prefer it if I didn't have stuff sticking out the back. Let me know your thoughts please. Thanks.
CORAL AND CLAMS:
Where the letters are is where corals and other things will be placed. I am going for hardy corals mostly, and euphylia, so maybe a bit moderate care level. I will start of with the beginner soft corals though before adding euphylia. In section A I want to add a photosynthetic gorgonian coral to make a shadow and tree like cover for the cave, and also I want the goby and pistol shrimp to cave under rock A, if they do, the gorgonian will have a nice effect of a tropical tree providing shade for the two buddies. Then in section B I really want to add a crocea calm, I really love clams, they are beautiful and will help me with maintenance. I'm not to sure a crocea can fit on that rock, so I will ask you guys for your consultation. At the top I want to create a mini euphylia garden, I will put the hammer in section F as it has the shortest tentacle so I can avoid the risk of stinging of my potential clam. I know eventually the hammer will grow to big, I'll leave that to later on for me to figure something out, the clam will probably not fit, if it doesn't I'll add another euphylia, a torch garden could be nice. If I can't make a black background, I'll make a green star polyp background, which will be nice. In the photo it doesn't show a part of the rock at the back, the big rock has a big part sticking out behind, like a big butt, and maybe I could put a tall coral, that could stick out so I could still see it from the front view, I was thinking maybe another gorgonian, or maybe kenya tree, or a finger leather, I'm not to sure so please suggest some ideas please . In section C I could take a small rock which I have which covers a back exit to the cave, and put it there to maroon something like maybe pulsing xenia. In section G I'm not so sure what too put, maybe some mushrooms, but placement is not right, and I am scared of them becoming too much of a pest. Zoanthids are unfortunately out of question, they look amazing, but the palytoxin defintely isn't as amazing. I'm a teenager who lives with my family, I don't think my parents will think it's a good idea to have a dangerous coral, and I'm scared . So that is my idea of what I want to do, I think I would need to dose for a tank like this? I think water changes would be enough, but I'm not to sure, and also can dosing make up for water changes? Thanks. I also want to create a tank that I don't have to do much maintenance in, because I will be busy a lot revising for my tests, I have GSCEs which are important, and things like end of years, so I don't want to be distracted. Maybe I want to try a tank without water changes, and some water changes from time to time when I am free, or the tank isn't looking too good. Please give me tips on how to make it low maintenance, and how my placement ideas are, thank you.
EQUIPMENT:
I need to buy:
- AI prime HD + flex mounting arm
- ato system + container
- better return pump / wave maker
- chiller
Does anyone know any good chillers for a ten gallon that aren't too expensive? And do you know any good ato, I am thinking of the Innovative Marine one? Also, do you think that I could upgrade my return pump instead of getting a wave maker, maybe I could get a return pump of around 300 gph, the one I have right now is 105 gph. And if anyone has a good AI prime HD schedule for a tank like this so small, please let me know! Thanks.
CONCLUSION:
Wow I wrote a lot, not sure anyone will bother to reef all this hehe. Anyways thanks for reading this if you did, and please give me advice on how to make a tank like this overall please! Thanks!
Hello, this is my saltwater tank, the inhabitants consist of one little YWG, two trochus snails, one adult, and a baby which I found the other day, formed from a relationship with a past snail who is gone, and one nassarius. This tank is around 4 months old. It is 10 gallons in the display, 12 gallons in total with the rear sump. The tank is quite boring right now, but I am going to get a pistol shrimp friend for my YWG this weekend. My YWG has created a cave for himself inside a cave I made for him , and it is a pain to feed him, I never see him, he's so shy, he only perches on the rock at the entrance of the main cave when there is nobody to be seen, when he sees someone he darts into his cave, and sits there waiting for me to leave. Anyways, it's a pain to feed him because the turkey baster can't go so deep into the cave, and he doesn't bother to come out and get the food from the baster. I have to push the food in with the baster, then leave for like 30 minutes, just so he'll eat. He used to be chilling in the main cave all the time, would come and try to eat the baster in an attempt to get the food inside, but one day he decided to make a tiny cave, to be never seen. Is anyone else's YWG this shy? The cave and the mini cave are shown below.
There's also chaeto everywhere in my tank because me and my smartness decided to take the chaeto out of its container thing, and try to make it look nice in the display, and I ended up putting chaeto everywhere. I might take this chance to buy a tuxedo urchin, and add him into my tank temporarily to demolish all the algae I have, he will be fed for enough time because I have the chaeto to feed, and I can buy algae wafers, I hope. In the future once I have all the equipment I need, I will finally get coral, I think that time is quite far away . I will go for beginner coral, I wanna keep softies and lps, especially euphylia, and acans. I also really want a crocea clam. That time is far away, but planning ahead doesn't hurt right.
CUC:
Please recommend me some CUC members I should get, I only have basically 2 trochus snails, a useless baby which will grow, and a useful adult one, and a nassarius. I'm not sure what algae it is, but I had some on my sandbed, it was green, but didn't really look like green hair algae, I blasted it away with my turkey baster, and there's some green stuff on my glass, and some green algae on my rock, probably film. I have lots of brown algae, lots of diatoms I think? I came back from a holiday, and the fish were being fed by someone else, so maybe the tank got a bit over fed. Here is a photo.
Please recommend me what CUC I should get to deal with these stuff, I'm getting a tuxedo urchin to hopefully clear up the chaeto and lots of algae everywhere, I will trade it in, or give it to my friend who has a bigger tank once it does its job. Thank you it would really help.
BACKGROUND:
The tank I purchased was from my LFS, and it was the choice between clear glass, and a rocky background which would look a bit strange, the tank came with a bundle, and I had already waited so long for it to come back, the background was not installed and it needed to be installed with silicone, I couldn't be bothered to wait so I just got the tank without the background. 4 months later, I regret not making a background, anyone have an idea how to create a black background for a tank like this? My ideas so far are to drain the tank and take out everything, then dry it, and clean out all the algae that has grown, and the spray paint the back glass black with aquarium safe spray paint, anyone have any good brand's of spray paint or good suggestions for how to make it black and also but parts of the rear sump should I make black? The whole rear sump is clear, so I guess you could imagine what it looks like right. Thanks.
FILTRATION:
I am doing water changes every 1-2 weeks.
I take out lots of water everytime, like 20-40%, I don't need to, but my siphon is massive so so much water just gets siphoned so quickly. In the back I have some filter floss stacked on top of some media with a piece of egg crate, it's a simple easy design, came with the bundle. I want to replace the filter floss with a filter sock, it looks better, and I just prefer it generally. As for the media I would put it in the middle section. Do you think I need a skimmer? I want to keep the tank sleek and clean, and I would prefer it if I didn't have stuff sticking out the back. Let me know your thoughts please. Thanks.
CORAL AND CLAMS:
Where the letters are is where corals and other things will be placed. I am going for hardy corals mostly, and euphylia, so maybe a bit moderate care level. I will start of with the beginner soft corals though before adding euphylia. In section A I want to add a photosynthetic gorgonian coral to make a shadow and tree like cover for the cave, and also I want the goby and pistol shrimp to cave under rock A, if they do, the gorgonian will have a nice effect of a tropical tree providing shade for the two buddies. Then in section B I really want to add a crocea calm, I really love clams, they are beautiful and will help me with maintenance. I'm not to sure a crocea can fit on that rock, so I will ask you guys for your consultation. At the top I want to create a mini euphylia garden, I will put the hammer in section F as it has the shortest tentacle so I can avoid the risk of stinging of my potential clam. I know eventually the hammer will grow to big, I'll leave that to later on for me to figure something out, the clam will probably not fit, if it doesn't I'll add another euphylia, a torch garden could be nice. If I can't make a black background, I'll make a green star polyp background, which will be nice. In the photo it doesn't show a part of the rock at the back, the big rock has a big part sticking out behind, like a big butt, and maybe I could put a tall coral, that could stick out so I could still see it from the front view, I was thinking maybe another gorgonian, or maybe kenya tree, or a finger leather, I'm not to sure so please suggest some ideas please . In section C I could take a small rock which I have which covers a back exit to the cave, and put it there to maroon something like maybe pulsing xenia. In section G I'm not so sure what too put, maybe some mushrooms, but placement is not right, and I am scared of them becoming too much of a pest. Zoanthids are unfortunately out of question, they look amazing, but the palytoxin defintely isn't as amazing. I'm a teenager who lives with my family, I don't think my parents will think it's a good idea to have a dangerous coral, and I'm scared . So that is my idea of what I want to do, I think I would need to dose for a tank like this? I think water changes would be enough, but I'm not to sure, and also can dosing make up for water changes? Thanks. I also want to create a tank that I don't have to do much maintenance in, because I will be busy a lot revising for my tests, I have GSCEs which are important, and things like end of years, so I don't want to be distracted. Maybe I want to try a tank without water changes, and some water changes from time to time when I am free, or the tank isn't looking too good. Please give me tips on how to make it low maintenance, and how my placement ideas are, thank you.
EQUIPMENT:
I need to buy:
- AI prime HD + flex mounting arm
- ato system + container
- better return pump / wave maker
- chiller
Does anyone know any good chillers for a ten gallon that aren't too expensive? And do you know any good ato, I am thinking of the Innovative Marine one? Also, do you think that I could upgrade my return pump instead of getting a wave maker, maybe I could get a return pump of around 300 gph, the one I have right now is 105 gph. And if anyone has a good AI prime HD schedule for a tank like this so small, please let me know! Thanks.
CONCLUSION:
Wow I wrote a lot, not sure anyone will bother to reef all this hehe. Anyways thanks for reading this if you did, and please give me advice on how to make a tank like this overall please! Thanks!
