Finally starting up a ten gallon reef!

[SquidySpecs]

Its been a while since I've had a saltwater aquarium, but I'm finally ready to jump back in. My previous tank was successful for the most part but I now know that I should do a few things differently. Mainly, not placing it by a window!!! As well as taking things slower and not messing with the tank as much, animals like stability.

I'll be adding onto this thread with updates and photos as the tank progresses! I've already got some of the equipment for it such as the powerhead and light from an old tank. For a filter I'm probably going with a simple HOB, but if a sponge filter could work with a reef tank I'd love that instead. I'd like to hear reccomendations about other equipment and livestock choices.

For livestock I'm mainly wanting invertebrate diversity to match with my other aquarium, a freshwater planted ten gallon with shrimp, snails, a crayfish, etc. I was thinking hermit crabs, turbo snails, nassarius snails, brittle stars, sexy shrimp, porcelain crab, pistol shrimp, maybe even a feather duster worm though all of that may be too much. Corals are still kind of a maybe, if I do keep some I want simple softies. Again, I'd love to hear any cool or unique reccomendations for corals, fish, or inverts.

Stay tuned for more, I've already got the tank leak tested and I'll probably be setting things up soon! Thank you for reading.

 

[PizzaIan339]

I would say that a yasha goby candy cane pistol shrimp pair could be cool in that size tank!

 

[kevgib67]

Sounds well thought out, following.

 

[Nano_Man]

Following along

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[SquidySpecs]

Its been a while since I've had a saltwater aquarium, but I'm finally ready to jump back in. My previous tank was successful for the most part but I now know that I should do a few things differently. Mainly, not placing it by a window!!! As well as taking things slower and not messing with the tank as much, animals like stability.

I'll be adding onto this thread with updates and photos as the tank progresses! I've already got some of the equipment for it such as the powerhead and light from an old tank. For a filter I'm probably going with a simple HOB, but if a sponge filter could work with a reef tank I'd love that instead. I'd like to hear reccomendations about other equipment and livestock choices.

For livestock I'm mainly wanting invertebrate diversity to match with my other aquarium, a freshwater planted ten gallon with shrimp, snails, a crayfish, etc. I was thinking hermit crabs, turbo snails, nassarius snails, brittle stars, sexy shrimp, porcelain crab, pistol shrimp, maybe even a feather duster worm though all of that may be too much. Corals are still kind of a maybe, if I do keep some I want simple softies. Again, I'd love to hear any cool or unique reccomendations for corals, fish, or inverts.

Stay tuned for more, I've already got the tank leak tested and I'll probably be setting things up soon! Thank you for reading.

Part 2 of the build thread!

All of the equipment is gathered and set up! The HOB filter is meant for a 20 gallon but I decided to use it here since I almost always use over-sized filters for tanks and it works well for me. Everytime I tested the water for my last tank it read low nitrates and I barely did water changes, this could've also been because of a deep sand bed and relatively low bioload which I also plan to utilize here. The powerhead pump I found on Amazon for really cheap, its around 200 gph and may actually be too strong. I wonder if the powerhead is even necessary since the filter will probably create a bit of flow.. we'll see. The heater is as basic as it gets, the light is from the old tank and worked well.

Next up I will be buying seawater, sand, and rock from my lfs. I will probably use mostly dry rock and have one or two chunks of live rock which should introduce beneficial bacteria and start up the nitrogen cycle!

Any comments or questions welcome! If the powerhead turns out to blast way too hard I'm definitely open to reccomendations for powerheads with less gph, I couldn't find one.

 

[SquidySpecs]

Part 2 of the build thread!

All of the equipment is gathered and set up! The HOB filter is meant for a 20 gallon but I decided to use it here since I almost always use over-sized filters for tanks and it works well for me. Everytime I tested the water for my last tank it read low nitrates and I barely did water changes, this could've also been because of a deep sand bed and relatively low bioload which I also plan to utilize here. The powerhead pump I found on Amazon for really cheap, its around 200 gph and may actually be too strong. I wonder if the powerhead is even necessary since the filter will probably create a bit of flow.. we'll see. The heater is as basic as it gets, the light is from the old tank and worked well.

Next up I will be buying seawater, sand, and rock from my lfs. I will probably use mostly dry rock and have one or two chunks of live rock which should introduce beneficial bacteria and start up the nitrogen cycle!

Any comments or questions welcome! If the powerhead turns out to blast way too hard I'm definitely open to reccomendations for powerheads with less gph, I couldn't find one.

PART 3:
Rock, sand, and water added!!

Just bought and placed all of the rock, sand, and seawater I got from my lfs! Let me know what you think of how it looks so far!

The one chunk of live rock I've added will introduce beneficial bacteria and algae to the aquarium. I'll soon get my water tested and probably add some corals and clean up crew. I'm still not sure on the powerhead, its flow combined with the HOB filter definitely creates a cycle of flow around the tank preventing dead spots but it may be too forceful for some corals. I'm in love with the crushed coral sand I got, my last tank had fine sand that would always cloud the tank if ever disturbed. The tank is obviously cloudy now since its brand new, but that should be far less of a problem in the future with the crushed coral sand. I'm also happy with the dead coral skeleton on top of the scape poking out of the water, I plan on putting an encrusting coral like green star polyp on that.

Any questions, comments, or advice welcome!