LockeOak
New member
Hello everyone, I recently moved 1000 miles and have spent some time over the last couple of days rebuilding my 10G tank. Now that I've moved I've rethought the tank a bit and I'd like some opinions. It ran for about 8 months in its original form, pretty standard configuration:
Original:
10G AGA
Aquaclear 300 hang on back refugium mod w/chaeto
15 lb. live rock
20 lb. live sand (1 1/2" - 2")
2x65W PC lighting
Maxijet 600
Mixed reef, zoanthids/mushrooms/frogspawn/SPS
Ocellaris pair
Cleanup crew (ceriths, nassarius, 4 hermits, turbos, peppermint shrimp)
The tank went pretty well, never lost any corals and had growth from the SPS even under the PC lighting. Colors weren't great though and near I had fought (and mostly won) battles with cyanobacteria.
The tank is now up and running in its new location. All of the livestock are being kept by a member of the (formerly) local reef club who will ship them to me when I'm ready. I moved the live rock and sand in a 5G Home Depot paint bucket with a plastic sheet over the sand to prevent dislodging it, taking care to keep the bucket in an acceptable temperature range (72-83F) and constantly aerated by a battery-powered backup pump. The sand and rock stayed in the sealed bucket for 2 weeks between breaking down and rebuilding the tank. I consider the move very successful, some zoanthids I didn't have time to remove from the rock survived and opened within 2-3 hours of putting them in the tank, the chaeto in the bucket is looking quite healthy and there was little to no smell. Even the hitchhiking Xenia appears to be recovering quickly, I've already spotted the array of starfish, brittle stars, amphipods, bristle worms etc. alive and well.
My new housing is different in that I have an east-facing window and air conditioning. The air conditioning will make it much easier to manage the tank temperatures, but even more exciting is the sunlight through the window. I've set up the tank directly in front of it, it receives about 3 hours of direct sunlight a day, slightly obscured by the refugium. Something I've noticed is that since I haven't put in the sand yet, the tank is *extremely* bright in the sun, the sunlight bounces off all the glass surfaces (including the bottom, rocks sit directly on glass) to illuminate the whole tank. Even the rock undersides get lit pretty brightly, it looks like they're floating. It looks awesome and has made me think I should just go with a bare bottom tank, both for aesthetics, simplicity in maintenance and hopefully more brightly illuminated and faster growing corals. It will also make moving the tank, rearranging rock, etc. much easier. The sand wasn't deep enough to function as a deep sand bed anyway, so I shouldn't lose any nitrogen fixing functionality. So, my questions:
1) Anyone else out there running a tank with natural sunlight exposure, with or without supplemental lighting? Has it made a difference with coral growth? I plan on keeping my PCs and using the sunlight as bonus.
2) Anything I should be aware of about running a small bare bottom tank? I think the aquaclear pump should be enough to blow most detritus off the bottom and hopefully suck it into the refugium where it will settle until I siphon it. I don't skim but do a 15-20% water change weekly. Bioload will be the same as above.
3) How will this change the biodiversity in the tank and what I can keep? Obviously sand-sifting gobies and the like are out, but can nassarius snails survive without sand? Do any desirable microfauna require it?
Thanks everyone, I'll try to get some before and after pictures up soon.
Original:
10G AGA
Aquaclear 300 hang on back refugium mod w/chaeto
15 lb. live rock
20 lb. live sand (1 1/2" - 2")
2x65W PC lighting
Maxijet 600
Mixed reef, zoanthids/mushrooms/frogspawn/SPS
Ocellaris pair
Cleanup crew (ceriths, nassarius, 4 hermits, turbos, peppermint shrimp)
The tank went pretty well, never lost any corals and had growth from the SPS even under the PC lighting. Colors weren't great though and near I had fought (and mostly won) battles with cyanobacteria.
The tank is now up and running in its new location. All of the livestock are being kept by a member of the (formerly) local reef club who will ship them to me when I'm ready. I moved the live rock and sand in a 5G Home Depot paint bucket with a plastic sheet over the sand to prevent dislodging it, taking care to keep the bucket in an acceptable temperature range (72-83F) and constantly aerated by a battery-powered backup pump. The sand and rock stayed in the sealed bucket for 2 weeks between breaking down and rebuilding the tank. I consider the move very successful, some zoanthids I didn't have time to remove from the rock survived and opened within 2-3 hours of putting them in the tank, the chaeto in the bucket is looking quite healthy and there was little to no smell. Even the hitchhiking Xenia appears to be recovering quickly, I've already spotted the array of starfish, brittle stars, amphipods, bristle worms etc. alive and well.
My new housing is different in that I have an east-facing window and air conditioning. The air conditioning will make it much easier to manage the tank temperatures, but even more exciting is the sunlight through the window. I've set up the tank directly in front of it, it receives about 3 hours of direct sunlight a day, slightly obscured by the refugium. Something I've noticed is that since I haven't put in the sand yet, the tank is *extremely* bright in the sun, the sunlight bounces off all the glass surfaces (including the bottom, rocks sit directly on glass) to illuminate the whole tank. Even the rock undersides get lit pretty brightly, it looks like they're floating. It looks awesome and has made me think I should just go with a bare bottom tank, both for aesthetics, simplicity in maintenance and hopefully more brightly illuminated and faster growing corals. It will also make moving the tank, rearranging rock, etc. much easier. The sand wasn't deep enough to function as a deep sand bed anyway, so I shouldn't lose any nitrogen fixing functionality. So, my questions:
1) Anyone else out there running a tank with natural sunlight exposure, with or without supplemental lighting? Has it made a difference with coral growth? I plan on keeping my PCs and using the sunlight as bonus.
2) Anything I should be aware of about running a small bare bottom tank? I think the aquaclear pump should be enough to blow most detritus off the bottom and hopefully suck it into the refugium where it will settle until I siphon it. I don't skim but do a 15-20% water change weekly. Bioload will be the same as above.
3) How will this change the biodiversity in the tank and what I can keep? Obviously sand-sifting gobies and the like are out, but can nassarius snails survive without sand? Do any desirable microfauna require it?
Thanks everyone, I'll try to get some before and after pictures up soon.
