Lyscer
New member
I just wanted to share my 10 gallon build with everyone. It has been a couple months in the making but I finally finished it.
SPECS:
10 Gallon tank/hood/stand from walmart
(2x) 20W Coralife 50/50 self ballast bulbs
Maxijet 900 "Return Pump"
15-20lbs live rock
1.5" Crushed Coral and sand substrate
Home-made acrylic overflow
1/2" plumbing
50W heater
2-3 gallon water changes weekly
Small bag of carbon changed out monthly
Background:
My wife wanted to get some fish for the kids, so I told her that I would take care of it. I decided that I didn't want a freshwater tank since that is a long stretch from the 120 SPS tank I had a couple of years ago. After a lot of thought I decided that I was going to setup a small clownfish tank for my kids. My main requirements this time around would be that it can't have MH or I would pack it with SPS , and that it had to have a surface skim. Here are some pictures of my creation.
The tank straight from walmart.
Here is the original surface skim plans that I had, which changed since I didn't like how agitated the surface was.
* Painted the back black and added an overflow. This was a test to see how well the overflow performed.
Here is a picture of the tank while it was starting to cycle. I added dead sand, live water and live rock which I acquired from a local reefer. You can also see the heater in the overflow which keeps the tank at 78 degrees. I have a bag of carbon sitting on the maxijet900 that serves at the return pump for the entire system.
I picked up a standard 10 gallon hood from walmart, painted the underside white and put in a couple of coralife 20w 50/50 bulbs. They were fairly inexpensive and contain ballasts on the bulbs.
I put a piece of plexiglass over the tank to help keep the moisture out of the hood/bulbs. I left the portion over the overflow open so that I can still get some gas exchange. Downsides to this approach would be that feeding entails me just dumping their food into the overflow and letting it get sucked up and spit out into the tank as opposed to just dumping it in the tank.
Finally, here is the entire thing in action:
Since this setup is skimmerless I change 2-3gallons of water a week.
Please let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.
SPECS:
10 Gallon tank/hood/stand from walmart
(2x) 20W Coralife 50/50 self ballast bulbs
Maxijet 900 "Return Pump"
15-20lbs live rock
1.5" Crushed Coral and sand substrate
Home-made acrylic overflow
1/2" plumbing
50W heater
2-3 gallon water changes weekly
Small bag of carbon changed out monthly
Background:
My wife wanted to get some fish for the kids, so I told her that I would take care of it. I decided that I didn't want a freshwater tank since that is a long stretch from the 120 SPS tank I had a couple of years ago. After a lot of thought I decided that I was going to setup a small clownfish tank for my kids. My main requirements this time around would be that it can't have MH or I would pack it with SPS , and that it had to have a surface skim. Here are some pictures of my creation.
The tank straight from walmart.
Here is the original surface skim plans that I had, which changed since I didn't like how agitated the surface was.
* Painted the back black and added an overflow. This was a test to see how well the overflow performed.
Here is a picture of the tank while it was starting to cycle. I added dead sand, live water and live rock which I acquired from a local reefer. You can also see the heater in the overflow which keeps the tank at 78 degrees. I have a bag of carbon sitting on the maxijet900 that serves at the return pump for the entire system.
I picked up a standard 10 gallon hood from walmart, painted the underside white and put in a couple of coralife 20w 50/50 bulbs. They were fairly inexpensive and contain ballasts on the bulbs.
I put a piece of plexiglass over the tank to help keep the moisture out of the hood/bulbs. I left the portion over the overflow open so that I can still get some gas exchange. Downsides to this approach would be that feeding entails me just dumping their food into the overflow and letting it get sucked up and spit out into the tank as opposed to just dumping it in the tank.
Finally, here is the entire thing in action:
Since this setup is skimmerless I change 2-3gallons of water a week.
Please let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.