My 10 gallon log (Pics)

[jmac4978]

Well, a few months ago, I started a 5.5 gallon nano. I've been battling algae blooms since the beginning and its finally gotten to me. I actually think I got the algae under control, but with such a small water volume, I'd rather have some room for error. So, my wife said I could have her 10 gallon FW tank. Its been sitting for weeks with sand and water in it but no livestock. So I syphoned out the water and took it over and will move a few choice pieces of livestock from the headache 5.5 gallon once it cycles.

I definately will use all the same equipment after a thorough cleaning. She'll take the 5 gallon and put some gold fish in it and be happy. After getting the water out, I had to remove the blue sand. I saved half of it and had to find a good way to get rid of the rest.... :rolleye1:

Let me just say, if you like where you sleep, dont clean out a sandy, dirty fish tank in your shower. I got about half way through before she noticed... :eek1: :mad2:

Anyway, I got some paint for the back. I'm a blue guy, so I got blue. Many of you are black, but its just not me. I used Krylon Fusion, its looks good and 2 coats dried in like 25 minutes total.

 

[jmac4978]

Filled 'er up with some Aragonite

Made some water

and started another ocean.

I put a little over 2 lbs of LR in and I'll head to the LFS tomorrow for some more.

So far my stocking ideas are:
1 - Lots of Zoos
2 - Lots of Polyps
3 - Goniopora
4 - Pulsing Xenia
5 - Green Star Polyps
6 - Hammer
7 - Might even try my hand at SPS eventually

as for fish and critters:
1 - Yellow watchman goby
2 - Some kind of a "neon" small fish
3 - typical clean up crew
4 - maybe something else to please the viewers

I've got to design and build a stand. I'm not sure if I want to build it tall so its one piece or a small cabinet that I need to set on a table or ledge. Here's the one I built for the 5.5 gallon, now for the gold fish.

Equipment I'm moving over:
1 - AC70 modded into a fuge
2 - HOB skimmer, forget the brand. Its middle of the road and good enough for me
3 - 2 small powerheads
4 - 70 watt MH (will have to build something to hold the light on top of the tank)
5 - heater/thermometer and various stuff that I wont use and will clutter the house.

If you're reading this, I'd like to say thanks. This log is basically for me, so I can keep a timeline, but please feel free to follow along and comment/suggest/flame as necessary. Updates will be scarce as I just started this tank today and will be a long time until theres much progress.

 

[amiricle]

nice tank so far! I was thinking of starting my own 5.5, do you recomend against it? Thanks a lot

 

[jmac4978]

Smaller tanks mean smaller room for error. If you're like me and you push off your water changes for a few days and dont do regularly scheduled maintenance, then go bigger. If you're a perfectionist and can dedicate the time for a long time, you'll do fine with the 5.5g.

 

[jmac4978]

Or you could do a 5.5 gallon with a sump, which will increase your water volume.

 

[paku]

Re: My 10 gallon log (Pics)

She'll take the 5 gallon and put some gold fish in it and be happy.

**Off topic **
I noticed you mentioned gold fish twice for the 5.5g. Just an FYI, each gold fish requires atleast 20g per fish. Depending on the speicies, even feeder goldfish can get as big as koi and as fat as a softball if taken care of. Maybe you can convince her of a 5.5g betta / ghost shrimp tank

** On topic **

Can't wait to see how your 10 comes along as I just started my own 10g nano.

 

[John Kelly]

Goniopora will not work in a 10g nano.

 

[jmac4978]

Goniopora doesnt work well in any sized tank, so I'll take my chances just like everyone else. Its really only grown well in one tank....in Waikiki, Hawaii because they constantly pump in Ocean water.

 

[sh0rtlilvietb0i]

wow, looks nice , im looking for some ides to start my own 10g (switching from a 2.5g) nano!

 

[Copacetic]

Nice work!! Can't wait to see the tank in a few months.

 

[pimp2daizzo]

Goniopora doesnt work well in any sized tank, so I'll take my chances just like everyone else. Its really only grown well in one tank....in Waikiki, Hawaii because they constantly pump in Ocean water

Not true i have a frined that has been keeping the same one of rthe past 7 years and he bring me babys every few weeks.

i live in atl georgia and there is no ocean near me.

 

[jmac4978]

Thanks for the kind words but there's much to be done yet. Goniopora is a coral that doesnt really like to be in man-made oceans. Therefore, its usually hard to keep there. There are people out there that, for whatever reason, have good success with it. But for the most part, we watch them slowly wither away.

 

[Agu]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8213584#post8213584 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pimp2daizzo
Not true i have a frined that has been keeping the same one of rthe past 7 years and he bring me babys every few weeks.

i live in atl georgia and there is no ocean near me.

He's the exception. If you have all those babies how about some pics of your tank with those gonipora babies ?

 

[John Kelly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8210434#post8210434 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmac4978
Goniopora doesnt work well in any sized tank, so I'll take my chances just like everyone else.

Then it is pointless to even wish you "Good Luck" on it because you are going to need a lot more than that. Maybe you will add some pics of your experience with it here in your log thread and keep it up to date so we can watch the progress?