I introduce to you Smith's Ghetto, a 10 gallon reef tank, located in my office, done on the cheap. Although the tank is in my office two of my office mates are involved and helping out, Pat "Betta" D and Brenda "Salt Guppy" S.
The tank is a 10 gallon AGA. Two Maxijet 400's for movement. A cheapo HOB filter for chem filtration (as needed) plus a bit more flow. Lighting is a scorching 40w provided by two screw in 50/50 power compacts.
And so it begins....
We had a side table thing at the office that was exactly as wide as a 10g!
I found some base rock at a local pet store, purchased ~6# for ~$9. The tubular piece is a limestone core collected from one of my job sites.
I added the leftover aragamax sand that was not used in setting up my AP24. I also purchased another round of base rock, this time from my LFS. Not sure on the #s but it was only $5!
I added in the new base rock, plus some live rock giblets I had in the back of my AP24. Here is the sandstorm after addition of water...
Fast forward 2 weeks with the only action being me "feeding" the tank to promote cycling. Here is a shot showing the addition of the second MJ400...
At this point I tested the water and liked the readings. I decided to try some "canary" coral both to test the water quality and the intense!! lighting.
They made it! Zoos opened up and the mushroom expanded out to a normal size.
With this success 6 hermits were added, one blue, four red, and one scarlet.
Here is the scarlet having trouble getting up after falling...
My wife, with the aid of Pat, made a nice skirt for the stand, which we forgot to iron!...
Current inhabitants are the hermits, zoos, mushrooms, and a cabbage leather. All seem to be doing quite well under the less than spectacular lighting.
I want the tank to mature some more before adding any fish. Undecided on type of fish, maybe a couple gobies, maybe a damsel, maybe a tang...I kid, I kid!!
On the coral side I have three more small frags of zoos and a small frag of yellow button polyps all from my AP24 to bring. I should be adding those this week.
I've tried to keep this tank low tech and cheap. So far around $100 has been spent. My only regret is not going ahead and spending ~$100 on a 96w Coralife Quad Tube CF Strip Light.
Welcome to the Ghetto!
The tank is a 10 gallon AGA. Two Maxijet 400's for movement. A cheapo HOB filter for chem filtration (as needed) plus a bit more flow. Lighting is a scorching 40w provided by two screw in 50/50 power compacts.
And so it begins....
We had a side table thing at the office that was exactly as wide as a 10g!
I found some base rock at a local pet store, purchased ~6# for ~$9. The tubular piece is a limestone core collected from one of my job sites.
I added the leftover aragamax sand that was not used in setting up my AP24. I also purchased another round of base rock, this time from my LFS. Not sure on the #s but it was only $5!
I added in the new base rock, plus some live rock giblets I had in the back of my AP24. Here is the sandstorm after addition of water...
Fast forward 2 weeks with the only action being me "feeding" the tank to promote cycling. Here is a shot showing the addition of the second MJ400...
At this point I tested the water and liked the readings. I decided to try some "canary" coral both to test the water quality and the intense!! lighting.
They made it! Zoos opened up and the mushroom expanded out to a normal size.
With this success 6 hermits were added, one blue, four red, and one scarlet.
Here is the scarlet having trouble getting up after falling...
My wife, with the aid of Pat, made a nice skirt for the stand, which we forgot to iron!...
Current inhabitants are the hermits, zoos, mushrooms, and a cabbage leather. All seem to be doing quite well under the less than spectacular lighting.
I want the tank to mature some more before adding any fish. Undecided on type of fish, maybe a couple gobies, maybe a damsel, maybe a tang...I kid, I kid!!
On the coral side I have three more small frags of zoos and a small frag of yellow button polyps all from my AP24 to bring. I should be adding those this week.
I've tried to keep this tank low tech and cheap. So far around $100 has been spent. My only regret is not going ahead and spending ~$100 on a 96w Coralife Quad Tube CF Strip Light.
Welcome to the Ghetto!
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