My 10 gallon...the next step in my reefing journey

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! As planned, I tore down my two reef jars today, 8/2/2024, and replaced them with a 10 gallon...the details, however, went awry. I was going to put the tank in the same spot as the reef jars, but when I tried to do so there was not enough space above the tank to easily do water changes, leaving me no choice but to move it to the bottom shelf of my fish tank stand. This makes water changes more complicated and forced me to awkwardly weave the wires behind the stand to the nearest power strip...time will tell if the tank stays here. Anyhow, here is the tank as of a few minutes ago (the faint light on the right is from a nearby freshwater QT tank that currently houses about a dozen Betta rubra juveniles...it may eventually become this tank's QT tank);

Current Specs;
HEATER - 100 watts. I forget the brand.
LIGHT - 19 inch Reefbar Pro (it won't be turned on until I add corals...the light adds about 100 PAR at 19 inches under water and this tank is not nearly that deep, so I will likely run it at about half strength)
PUMP - Currently a 211 GPH Aquarium Co-op pump. The pump is problematic in this context, however - the outlet is an inch below the top of the pump, so it does not create much surface agitation. I will likely replace it. (I was planning to attach an Aquarium Co-op sponge filter to the intake to provide an easy way to get a QT tank filter, but the sponge filter+pump combo did not fit in the tank very well). I will keep the pump for mixing saltwater.
SALT - 160 grams instant ocean salt per gallon distilled water. I am going to start with 2 gallon WC's each week.
FAUNA - None yet if you don't count the copepods (side note...I got some Phyto-feast from Reef Nutrition today and they sent me a bonus bottle of Tigriopus copepods. I was quite pleased...they went into this tank after they adjusted to room temp). I am VERY undecided what is going in here...

Any thoughts on how to progress the setup further would be deeply appreciated. Thanks so much for following along.

 

[kevgib67]

Hi everyone! As planned, I tore down my two reef jars today, 8/2/2024, and replaced them with a 10 gallon...the details, however, went awry. I was going to put the tank in the same spot as the reef jars, but when I tried to do so there was not enough space above the tank to easily do water changes, leaving me no choice but to move it to the bottom shelf of my fish tank stand. This makes water changes more complicated and forced me to awkwardly weave the wires behind the stand to the nearest power strip...time will tell if the tank stays here. Anyhow, here is the tank as of a few minutes ago (the faint light on the right is from a nearby freshwater QT tank that currently houses about a dozen Betta rubra juveniles...it may eventually become this tank's QT tank);

Current Specs;
HEATER - 100 watts. I forget the brand.
LIGHT - 19 inch Reefbar Pro (it won't be turned on until I add corals...the light adds about 100 PAR at 19 inches under water and this tank is not nearly that deep, so I will likely run it at about half strength)
PUMP - Currently a 211 GPH Aquarium Co-op pump. The pump is problematic in this context, however - the outlet is an inch below the top of the pump, so it does not create much surface agitation. I will likely replace it. (I was planning to attach an Aquarium Co-op sponge filter to the intake to provide an easy way to get a QT tank filter, but the sponge filter+pump combo did not fit in the tank very well). I will keep the pump for mixing saltwater.
SALT - 160 grams instant ocean salt per gallon distilled water. I am going to start with 2 gallon WC's each week.
FAUNA - None yet if you don't count the copepods (side note...I got some Phyto-feast from Reef Nutrition today and they sent me a bonus bottle of Tigriopus copepods. I was quite pleased...they went into this tank after they adjusted to room temp). I am VERY undecided what is going in here...

Any thoughts on how to progress the setup further would be deeply appreciated. Thanks so much for following along.

Great start, looking forward to seeing what you decide to do!

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! Small update (8/9/2024). The tank has been changed as follows;
-I turned the light on. The blue and 12,000k channels were both set to around 50%.
-I added three cerinth snails to eat the algae that will likely result. If algae gets out of hand the lights will be turned off for a week.
-A few days ago I figured out how to attach the aquarium co-op powerhead to my aquarium co-op sponge filter. Now the tank is safe for small fish
-I ordered some tubing that I will attach to the output of the powerhead to allow it to create better surface agitation.
-My plan is to keep a shoal of Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis (a small euryhaline rainbowfish) in this tank, perhaps accompanied by a single larger fish (maybe an orchid dottyback? I am a sucker for them, perhaps because there are very few purple freshwater fishes. Not sure if they would be safe with a tiny neon tetra sized fish, though). Sessile life will include macroalgae, photosynthetic sponges, and soft corals (I will avoid anemones and LPS, both of which might eat the rainbowfishes, and SPS, which are more difficult than I want to deal with). As P. cyanodorsalis does not have a pelagic larval stage I will give a go at spawning them in a second tank.

Thanks again for following along! Thoughts on my setup are still very much appreciated.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! Long time no update. Here are some updates;
-I added a piece of flexible tubing to the pump to direct the flow towards the surface. It is working swimmingly
-Parts of the rockwork and sand have what I think is some kind of algae? It doesn't look like any saltwater algae I'm familiar with...it is brown and flat, not obviously filamentous at this point. I should get a picture at some point...any ideas what it might be?
-Today, 8/20/2024, I added my first fish! A royal gramma I coined "Alberta". Alberta is currently hiding near the sponge filter that is attached to the pump. I am not sure whether I will still add the blue eyes to this tank, as (I wasn't thinking about this at the time) royal grammas might get large enough to eat them.

Thanks again for following along If I remember, I will try to post pictures later today.

EDIT: Here is a full tank pic!

And here is a less than fantastic pic of Alberta, who is still hiding around the filter;

 

[Flameback Pair]

@LordJoshaeus nice score on the bonus bottle of copepods. Subscribed.
-Mitchell

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Hello again everyone...today is a bad day for my reefing hobby. Alberta has disappeared...can't find them in the tank, can't find a corpse outside of the tank. Feeling like garbage right now...

EDIT; Just tested some parameters in the tank. Salinity is 34-35 ppt according to my refractometer; ammonia and nitrates are both 0 ppm (I did not bother to test for nitrite). Most likely, if Alberta is dead, they did not die due to a water quality problem.

EDIT no. 2: I just found Alberta! They were hiding under a rock. As good of news as this is, though, I have a bad feeling I will see very little of this fish...

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone...today, 8/25/2024, has been a rough day, partially for reasons I won't disclose here. Because I was already feeling bad early this morning I thought it would be a good idea to go to my nearest Petco (the same one I got Alberta at) to acquire something for my saltwater tank...that didn't go according to plan. They opened at 10am (not 9am like I thought) and, when they eventually opened and I tried to have a staff member get something for me, he refused to sell me any saltwater livestock because, according to him, saltwater tanks need to be at least 30 gallons When I eventually calmed down enough to drive again I drove another half hour to a city with two additional Petco's. One of them did not have a great saltwater section, but I purchased a fire shrimp from the other...I spent about an hour total acclimating the shrimp, who explored the tank for a little while before making like Alberta and hiding. I REALLY hope at least one of them doesn't spend their whole life hiding...

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Hello again everyone! Here are some updates;
-Alberta the royal gramma and my fire shrimp (whom I have coined "Godzilla") are doing reasonably well. They are still shy but are coming out more, especially when fed...they are being fed frozen fish eggs, frozen copepods, frozen mysis, and live baby brine shrimp (I'm not sure Godzilla can eat the baby brine, alas).
-I made an order on Gulf Coast Ecosystems last night for some macroalgae...I'll tell you the specifics when it arrives
-The "ugly" stage in this tank lasted a week before the brown algae vanished. Clearly my tank has a good microfauna population...