TankFabricator
New member
Howdy... you said you had a stack of 10 gallons... are there any flourescent light strips or fixtures that came with or where used with them?? If you have a couple or more, you may be able to save some money. I put together a little ten gallon for the cost of live rock and sand only. I never throw away any equipment, it can all be recylced or salvaged. Many of the cheap light strips that come with tanks have end-cap mounting space for either an extra bulb or an alternate angle of light. I had two classic fixtures laying around so I took them apart and combined the endcaps and ballasts into the same fixture. It was pretty simple since it already had mounting slots for a second pair of endcaps. Plus plastic is easy to work with. The light provides plenty of light for soft coral, and has even been enough to grow some lower-light sps. It doesn't create any noise, heat, and energy comsumption is low...... Now for filtration, I only use maybe about 5-10 lb. of LR and about an inch of sand... This is very efficient with a LOT of flow.... I don't know if you have any powerheads laying around, but don't be afraid of getting crazy.... I use a seio superflow, plus 2 older, weaker powerheads. It turns out a little over 1000g/hr, Crazy eh? The flow is awesome, and after cycling, the tank's nitrates where un-detectable for 3 months with a clown fish and a few hermits. Warning however, the sand went crazy for the first couple of hours, but it will all find places to settle. Some people use lots of LR, but don't forget that your working with a small volume of water, it really makes a difference to use that space. I spent about 20-30 dollars to get my 10g reef ready. That leaves extra spending money for livestock
