My 10 Gallon Reef Project??

[dcombs44]

That's probably what I should do...........

However, the silicone around the glass plate is holding.........There's plenty of room behind the tank for me to work, so I may wait until the first water change when the water is drained and then pop the glass off and redo it.

I'll probably test the water again near the end of the week. Going toward St. Louis this week, so if the parameters have settled, I may pick up some cleaners......But, with the lack of algae, I'll have to be sure and pick up some nori and such as to not starve them out.

 

[dcombs44]

Went ahead and tested the tank at lunch today to see where we stand.

No ammonia reading, 1 ppm nitrite, 20-30 ppm nitrate, pH 7.6-7.8 (still no lights)

Shrimp is starting to visibly deteriorate.

Water is a bit yellowish. Plan on adding carbon during first water change and running a poly pad prior to stocking just to be safe. A bunch of my equipment spent time in the garage and such after the move, so hard telling what it came in contact with. Figure trying to pull out the heavy metals will be a nice insurance policy.

 

[dcombs44]

Tested nitrite again today for grins. Still holding strong at 1 ppm or thereabouts.

Didn't test anything else as it doesn't really matter until the NO2 takes a dive.

 

[dcombs44]

Tested NO2 again today. Still looks to be about 1 ppm, but not as evident on the color scale, maybe a bit lighter.

This is day 8 with a nitrite reading.

I haven't done anything as far as flow in the display. I played around with both a maxi jet 1200 and a maxi jet 600. Both looked huge and ugly and splashed water out of the tank.

I'm getting pretty good flow with the return, but I'm not sure it'll be good enough.

I've got a mini-jet that I had used on my phosban reactor, but it's difficult to mount with its crappy suction cups. Still weighing options, but I do have a couple dead spots.

Need to fiddle with the sump plumbing a bit too. May try to knock these issues out on Sunday.

 

[dcombs44]

Thinking I'll pick up a few more things in the coming weeks.

It appears that my PFO ballast is a pulse start ballast. I'll probably pick up a Ushio bulb since they are pulse start specified. I've read that probe start bulbs can cause fires on pulse start ballasts.

Also may pick up a koralia nano. May be my only option for decent flow without a huge powerhead in the tank.

 

[dcombs44]

Just seeing if anyone is still hangin around out there.

Summer times are busy times huh?

My tank is still doing its thing on standby. Hoping I can find some time to give it some attention and get things going.

Haven't tested in a couple weeks, just keep topping off and letting it cycle. Probably need to add some food or something to keep the bacteria working.

 

[panaboy95]

i am here tank is doing good but i have been mega busy at work and boy scouts are keeping me hopping this summer

 

[dcombs44]

Planning on buying a Zoa pack tomorrow while I'm in St. Louis. 10 frags for $90 or something like that.

Needing to make a water change tonight and make sure parameters on in check. I've yet to make a water change, but I know my cycle is hard at work. Tossed a piece of shrimp in a couple days ago, and it has already been consumed.

 

[lcashman]

any updates?

 

[dcombs44]

Interesting. I posted this morning, but it's not showing up.........

I bought the zoa pack from Gateway Aquatics/Zomania in St. Louis last Thursday. All is well. Got a decent variety of colors. Probably 70 polyps in total with blues, greens, pinks, oranges. The blues and pinks are faint, but got some bright greens and oranges (eagle eyes) and some solid bright green. (Not sure the name)

Also got a phosban reactor running with some carbon. Plan on putting in an order with Premium Aquatics in the next couple weeks for:

1) Food
2) Iwasaki 15K 175 W lamp
3) Magnesium Supplement
4) Magnesium Test
5) Selcon

Then I'll take a look at what critters to get. I have no sign of algae in the tank at all, so I'll have to be choosy with my inverts. Probably only get omnivores/detrivores, since I don't want to provide food specifically for them if I don't have to. Probably going to go with a couple small peaceful gobies for fish. Just not sure which ones yet.

Suggestions?

I'm thinking maybe a couple clown gobies or a hector's goby or something.

I'll try to post some pictures this evening, but the tank room is dark, and the blue from my current light drowns the colors out in the pictures. I need to invest in photoshop so I can edit RAW images, but I'm too cheap.

 

[dcombs44]

Also, I started dosing B-Ionic 2 part yesterday. Funny, recommended dosage is only 2.5 ml per day. pH is low at about 7.8 and dkH is a bit low too at just below 9. Ca is about 420, so I'll stick with the recommended dosage for now and test in a few days to see if I need to back off or add to the dosage.

It's just a few drops in the cup to dose. I bought the small kit of B-Ionic, so with no stony corals, I'll be using these jugs for years.

At the moment, I'm not feeding the tank at all. I figure, I'll keep the parameters pristine, keep up with water changes, swapping the filter sock and carbon, and let the zooxanthellae feed the zoas. With absolutely no sign of algae in the system, I almost hate to introduce unnecessary nutrients if I don't need to.

Nitrates are showing 0, with no algal growth, so.........I'm pretty pleased that my cycle is strong enough to convert the NO3 to Nitrogen Gas. I had been shadow feeding the filter with chunks of shrimp, and it would just devour them in no time. Then, my test shows no nitrates, and I hadn't made any water changes. Pretty cool.

Anyway, I may pick up another phosban reactor too to run GFO in just to cover my bases, but for the moment, all is well. Nearly every polyp of zoanthid is open during the lighted hours. I put all the frags on the bottom of the tank in the sand bed to help acclimate to the light. They were under daylight T5 in the shop, so I figured I'd give them some time to adjust to the halides. Photoperiod is only about 4.5 hours a day right now. I'll slowly bump it to 8 hours or so over the next few weeks.

 

[lcashman]

Sounds like you're off to a great start!!

Are you looking into any in tank circulation (koralia or others)?

 

[dcombs44]

Are you looking into any in tank circulation (koralia or others)?

I've been considering a Koralia Nano, but I can't decide. The circulation from the return is pretty good, but I'm not sure if it's good enough.

If I blow the sand off of the rocks and such there seems to be complete coverage in the tank, but I'll just have to see. May be worth holding off on my order until I get a better feel. Then I can add a powerhead to my order from Premium if I need to. I suppose I'll really find out when I start adding my waste and food and such. If I have algae patches forming then I'll know I need more flow.

As for the zoas, they seem pleased with the flow so far......

What do you think Leland?

Also, what about fish for the 10 gallon? Any thoughts on my plans above?

 

[dcombs44]

Also, I've been looking at the options of expanding my controller in the future.

Particularly, I've been wanting to add pH monitoring, salinity monitoring, float switch control, and another temp probe. Plus, I'd need another 4 slot power strip.

To add this to my Reef Keeper Lite that cost $99, it'd cost $365.
I'm thinking I may be better off to buy another RKL for $99 and call it a day. I can keep manually testing pH and salinity, and I'd have the flexibility of another temp probe for QT and water changes, and I could just run my current ATO through the RKL just allowing it to only run for short bursts as to not flood my tank in the even of a switch failure.

Then I'd pay about $250 less.

 

[dcombs44]

Here's about as good as I can do with no photo editor. Shots are taken w/ aperature of 5.6 and maybe slightly underexposed. No editing has been done.

 

[lcashman]

I would add a bit more flow to the tank. When you add fish, you'll add waste and it will collect if there is not enough water movement in the tank.

Looks like the zoas are loving the tank!!

As for fish....I'm in agreement with you. Stay with the smaller colorful fish. You could look into some of the barnacle gobies or smaller blennies.

 

[dcombs44]

Lost power here for over 8 hours yesterday. Thankfully, we got a rain that knocked it out which cooled it off by 20 or so degrees. We'd been seeing temperatures of 100+ for weeks. If something else had caused the power outage, we'd have had major problems with the elderly and such.

Our house only got to 82 inside. When the power came back on, the alarms on my ReefKeeper were sounding, so the tank got at least to 84 degrees. I did my best to keep it stirred and aerated. Luckily, it's in the basement, so it stayed cooler down there.

Didn't look like I lost any of the zoas, so the beat goes on.

I probably will add a koralia nano to my list. I can always use it for something if it doesn't work out in the display.

 

[cjae74]

Just reading and catching up on what I missed, as for your fish choices, I had clown gobies in a 10 gallon open top tank and they are big jumpers, I lost 3 of them. I have always been a big fan of the small gobies and blennies. You just need to be careful most of them are jumpers. I am a big fan of the shrimp gobies and pistol shrimp, they are always interesting to watch and a good choice for a 10 gallon.

 

[dcombs44]

I'd considered a shrimp goby and pistol shrimp.

I guess I'll have to find a way to jump proof my tank if I go with clown gobies. I've seen people using black plastic netting and plastic framing from window screens, and it looked pretty clean and hidden.

On a side note, the zoanthids are feeling the affects from the power outage last week. They got pretty warm since I wasn't home to tend to them. Checked parameters at lunch today. No nitrates, pH 7.8, SG 35 ppt.

Got some water mixing for a 2 gallon water change tonight. Hoping that will lift their spirits.

Another question.....I've heard that mushrooms will "trumpet" or "bell" based on too much or too little lighting. Is this the same with zoas? A few of them seem to have a handful of "trumpeted" polyps.

 

[dcombs44]

Couple quick pics