A simple 10 gallon nano reef tank

[Noah_Reefing]

Hi,

This is my first post on reefcentral, on reef2reef i started a thread outlining this tank. i set it up on saturday march 5th 2022, so far it has been going good only problems i have had is that i have gotten some dinoflagettes and other algaes cause i got a lot of sunlight in there (2 hr a day! good for coral, but the algae takes a lot of nutrients from the water that the corals need)


TANK SPECS:
- Fluval aquaclear 30 filter (150 gph)
- Aqqa 500 gph powerhead
- Aquaknight or Nicrew reef light (30w) idk about this cause the aquaknight said it wont come until april, if thats true then i will get the nicrew. i already have lots of corals in there XD
- Aqueon 50w heater (thank god they had this, the aqueon heaters are my fav cause they can be thrown in a HOB filter with ease)
- Digiten ATO system (coming wednesday)
- 20 Lbs of crushed coral from Caribsea
- 10 lbs of ocean direct gulf live rock, tons of cool stuff on it.

FISH STOCKING:
- Pair of Broadstripe Cardinalfish O. angustatus
- Falco hawkfish C. falco
- Royal gramma G. loreto (any advice on how to grow mine bigger, he is very small right now. i feed half a cube of frozen daily. & an assortment of prepared foods along with marine snow & plankton

- NOTE: considering replacing the cardinalfish with my "bicolor" blenny Escnius bicolor

CORAL: (everybody's favorite part)
- assorted zoanthids Zoanthus sp.
- assorted palythoa Palythoa sp.
- yellow polyps Parazoanthus gracilis
- neon green mushroom polyp Discosoma sp.
- 2 head teal ricordea Ricordea florida
- kenya tree Capnella sp.
- purple whip gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia sp.
- very large colony of pagoda cup coral Turbinaria pelata

picture of the tank, waiting a while to do pics with the coral cause i cannot decide on an aquascape. suggestions appreciated
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i plan on starting a plankton culture tonight, any advice for that. i got a bottle of RMS live phytoplankton. i plan on taking my salt container (large plastic tupperware) and taking my ratatatatatattatatatattatatta saw & cutting a hole in the lid for a HOB filter & a lightbulb. this time, i am going to let it set for a few days so the salt dissolves plus im using the light for it so i can see my fish outside of 10:00-12:00 in the morning. any advice is appreciated! im exicted to start my journey here!

 

[JohnL]

Welcome to Reef Central. That setup looks very nice. You may want to rethink the natural sunlight. Did you use RO/DI water? How did you cycle the tank?

 

[Noah_Reefing]

Welcome to Reef Central. That setup looks very nice. You may want to rethink the natural sunlight. Did you use RO/DI water? How did you cycle the tank?

i used distilled water & i skip cycled the tank with live rock & established substrate. the dinos spores and things were already in the substrate so i assume they just cross contaminated. it hasnt been much of an issue, the worst thing thats happened is my gorg got a lot of dinos on it cause of how its shaped but they havent came back.

 

[JohnL]

Ok. Sounds like you know what you're doing. Do you have a question?

 

[Noah_Reefing]

not that many, im just kinda seeing what happens right now as there isnt much i can do with the tank while its going through the beginning

 

[Noah_Reefing]

i got my new light, it looks really good.

 

[vlangel]

i got my new light, it looks really good.

What kind of light did you choose?

 

[Noah_Reefing]

What kind of light did you choose?

nicrew hyperreef 30w, the corals still pop on 100% white 100% blue but it isnt to the point where its like "OMG! this tank looks like i stuck my head in windex!"

 

[Noah_Reefing]

LOL so my phyto bloomed, how much do i feed? i have 3 gallons of phyto & i have no idea what to do with it all.

 

[JohnL]

LOL so my phyto bloomed, how much do i feed? i have 3 gallons of phyto & i have no idea what to do with it all.

I guess it depends on your feelings about green water ?

 

[JohnL]

What do you have in the tank that will consume phytoplankton?

 

[Noah_Reefing]

What do you have in the tank that will consume phytoplankton?

i have a lot of tunicates and sponges and a gorgonian. currently i am feeding 200 ml a day, is this too much?

 

[JohnL]

That seems like a lot but I don't know how concentrated your culture is.

For comparison I started using AlgaeBarn OceanMagik. They recommend 5 ml per 20 gallons to start.

As long as the water doesn't get too green for your taste, it should be fine.

 

[Noah_Reefing]

That seems like a lot but I don't know how concentrated your culture is.

For comparison I started using AlgaeBarn OceanMagik. They recommend 5 ml per 20 gallons to start.

As long as the water doesn't get too green for your taste, it should be fine.

it isnt that concentrated, should i refridgerate some of it for a seed bank for my tank>

 

[JohnL]

it isnt that concentrated, should i refridgerate some of it for a seed bank for my tank>

I don't know. I never cultured it.

 

[Noah_Reefing]

i got an auto feeder & a dosing pump, took some jerry rigging but i set it up so it feeds the right amount. im going to dose the plankton at 5 ml/hr every hour for 120 ml of plankton a day. im going to florida on thursday. while im there, i am going to experiment with collecting native stuff. my plan is to take a water bottle full of phyto, a 1 gallon tank, a HOB filter, & a plastic box (container for the plane ride). 100% water changes daily, im really excited for it

 

[JohnL]

Very nice. How about a photo and summary of how it works?

 

[Noah_Reefing]

i tok the hole in the auto feeder where the food comes out and covered part of it in hot glue. i still have to figure out how to fix a peristaltic pump cause one of the heads is messed up. mabye i will contact jebao about it after spring break

 

[Noah_Reefing]

oh wow they updated the forum

 

[Noah_Reefing]

long story short: i got 2 sea fans, acorn barnacle colony (live) macroalgae. ato broke but i have a lid, my mom is a blogger so digiten is really screwed.