Kruger's 10 gallon nano

[jungliztkruger]

This tank is about nine months old. It was a downsize from a 37 gallon to help facilitate a 10 hour move that is coming up in a few weeks. I'm going to try and post a few pics then the specs will follow.

I still haven't mastered the art of uploading pictures but it will have to do.

Here are a few specs:
This is a typical off-the-shelf 10 gallon aquarium that I modded with an acrylic overflow chamber. When first set up the tank had a crushed coral substrate but now is bare-bottom. There is about 2-3 pounds of liverock in the system. I have the skimmer set up with the pump in the overflow and the return is directly to the right of it. It is an Aqua-C remora. Inside the overflow chamber have temp and ph probes, heater, dual float switches, kalk ato tube, and occasionally carbon in a media bag. It is a very busy section. I designed it so that all water that enters the chamber is processed through the skimmer before entering the aquarium again. The probes are hooked up to an aquacontroller. I am running 175 watt Mogul 14k MH in a Lumenbrite Mini. It is an SPS bulb on a Hamilton Ballast. For flow inside the tank I have an MP10 turned all the way up though it is on reefcrest mode. I top of with premixed Kalkwasser and go thorugh almost 2 gallons a week.

paramaters:
Salinity 35ppt
Temp around 81.7 F
PH 8.27
NO3 Undetectable
Ca 335 ppm
Mg 1170 ppm
Alk 11.6 Kh

 

[jungliztkruger]

Here is the tank as of yesterday!

 

[reefinder]

so you put a tang in a 10 gallon tank, and you want us to comment on your sytem?

 

[mike_cmu04]

Nice tank and corals. I hope the tang is not permanant. Also i would work on your alk and cal the alk is high and the clacium is low you will get better growth if you fix these.

 

[jungliztkruger]

Yeah the tank is not permanent, I'm moving 10 hours away in about 6 weeks and there will be an upgrade. I'm not looking for tang police, he is assuredly fat and happy and probably gets too much exercise in the tank with the vortech all the way up. My chromis (any chromis police?) is bigger than the tang and they are a happy pair.

Chemistry-wise I've noticed that my alk has been slowly trending upward over the last six months while calcium is trending downwards. I am have been doing nothing other than dosing kalk in the top off and Mg in the overflow once a week/every other week. I took out about 5 no name colonies 2 weeks ago to help stabilize the Ca and to make a little more room in the system. Do you think that by reducing the load on the Ca it will cause the alk to swing back around proper?

 

[curlykid]

kalk actually raises alk more than calcium. Try dosing concentrated calcium, it will probably stabilize both.

 

[jungliztkruger]

I think I'm heading over to the chemistry forum right now

 

[manix man]

2-3 pounds of live rock in 10 gal tank doesn't seem enough, you may want to up that in the future. I would be a bit worried about the parameters you have with those corals in there like the others mentioned.

TBH you haven't got long with that tang, it is at the fast growing stage - think of growth in inches within the next few months if fed correctly.

 

[curlykid]

you'll prolly want like, 2 more pounds.

 

[jungliztkruger]

I'm going to retest right now, those stats are about a month old. Thinking about making a trip to the LFS for some calcium if the test shows badly (using salifert kits)

My goal on the rockwork is to be very minimal. I did have more inside but have taken some out and have like it this way much more.

 

[jungliztkruger]

I tested twice because I didn't believe it at first.

temp 80.2
ph 8.15
no3 undetectable
Ca 400
Mg 1275
Alk 15.2!

the previous stats were from july 6th and I think part of the high alk is form cleaning out the skimmer ( the bottom of the remora had become full of detritus) and I know patches and piles of detritus can act as alk sinks and lower alk. Without the alk sinkhole my alk has gone through the roof?

I took all kalk out of top of and switched for regular rodi water and am going to get some calcium from lfs. any other tips for lowering alk other than adding detritus?

 

[bmac]

You don't need more rock, pounds per gallon is over rated. Just make sure you have ample biological bacteria. You can do that without any rock...

 

[jungliztkruger]

I added a little liquid Ca and am topping off with RODI only now. I will get this in check one way or another.

 

[jungliztkruger]

Did a water test today:
temp 81.9 (fan kicks on at 82)
PH 8.14
NO3 Undetectable
Ca 415
Mg 1290
Alk 13.6

I'm not outta the water yet but I can at least see land! Dropped 1.6 dkh in two days topping off with RODI and liquid Ca instead of Kalk. My polyp extension has always been decent with colors leaving something to be desired. I am now getting even better PE and colors are popping again

 

[jungliztkruger]

another water test today

temp 82
ph 8.27
no3 und
ca 400
mg 1305
alk 12.2

getting better everyday