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Kimberly's 10g


Kimberly63

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Kimberly63

Well I'm exhausted! Just spent a crapload of money so I could finally upgrade my tank. Here are the specs:

 

Equipment:

10g AGA tank

20" 80w Orbit

12lbs or so of LR

About 10lbs of LS

AquaClear 110 filter (mod later for refugium)

50w heater

2 small pumps that I'll upgrade later

 

Livestock:

Ocellaris clownfish

 

pom-pom crab

2 blue-legged hermits

1 bumblebee snail

brittle starfish

 

green and pink birdsnest SPS

strawberry patch monti

pink rim monti

lilac monti

green monti

red monti

orange monti digita

 

orange crush acan

acan lord

open brain

maze brain

hammer coral

frogspawn

 

blue snowflake polyps

daisy cloves

GSP

orange, purple, and pink Ricordeas

green Yuma

14 various Zoanthids

green mushroom

feather duster

 

I took a trip monday to the lfs to LOOK around :) and got talked into an orbit fixture for $159. I also bought a bag of black sand because I planned on using it in my upgrade tank for awhile now. Last night I took a trip to Walmart and bought a 10g tank for $12 and some spraypaint (I couldn't believe I was carded for spraypaint). I had a 20g but I didn't want to upgrade that large yet so I returned it for an AquaClear 110 that was originally $75 but after my return it was only $40. Today I spraypainted the back of my tank and decided against the black sand because i figured that black sand might absorb heat and that I might not like the total dark look. Plus it gave me an excuse to go back to the lfs :) I had to get a couple more lbs of rock anyway.

 

Fresh coat of paint:

painttank.jpg

 

Orbit light - ooooh la la:

orbitbox.jpg

 

 

The sand I ended up getting was a pain in the butt. It was extra dusty and I had to run the filter for awhile because it wasn't settling. The bag of sand even came with a separate bag of liquid to make the dust settle. weird.

 

addedsand.jpg

 

addedsand2.jpg

 

sandsettle.jpg

 

So I added the sand and filled the tank halfway with water and waited for the dust to settle and ran the filter. I mainly wanted to get the rock in there that I bought so I wouldn't have any die-off. THEN the stress of moving everything over. I floated the corals for a few minutes and plunked them in. The temps matched almost exactly in the two tanks so I didn't worry that much. Then I transferred about 4g of water from my old tank, then transferred my fish over. It's been a few hours and he's still okay - just a little stressed-looking but still kicking (swimming?)

 

Anyway the tank is a mess - I am so exhausted from working on this all day that I couldn't bear to arrange everything. That'll be a whole other day. I'll let my corals adjust before I shock them again. :)

 

The light is so bright that it's shocking the corals so I turned on the moonlights. They look very blue in the picture but they aren't blue at all in person - just white.

 

moonlight.jpg

 

The only thing I'm having issues with is the AquaClear 110 filter. When I was running it to clear my tank cloudiness, the flow was so powerful that it made a huge sand crater right in the middle of the sandbed. Not sure what I should do about that :huh: The size of it would make an awesome fuge but I can't have it blowing all my corals and sand around.

 

In a day or two I'll post pics of my rock work. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. :)

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Might be too much drop flow for your 10gallon.

 

I had a similar situation when I stuck a Maxi Jet 1200 in my 10g with a semi DSB.... it looked like the middle east in my tank. I had to do a flow reduction detuning to it.

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Kimberly63
Might be too much drop flow for your 10gallon.

 

I had a similar situation when I stuck a Maxi Jet 1200 in my 10g with a semi DSB.... it looked like the middle east in my tank. I had to do a flow reduction detuning to it.

 

Is there a way I can adjust the flow of the pump? I've turned it down as far as it can go.

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Nice setup, looks like a good upgrade.

 

Go to your LFS and get a replacement impeller for a smaller AC model, or shave yours down (I'm sure there's threads on here about it). Also, if you're going to stack rock up against the back glass, the flow should deflect off that and leave your sand where it is. Fine sand can be a PITA - I have to be careful how I adjust the two MJ1200s in my 29g, and they're in the top corners of the tank!

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Kimberly63
Nice setup, looks like a good upgrade.

 

Go to your LFS and get a replacement impeller for a smaller AC model, or shave yours down (I'm sure there's threads on here about it). Also, if you're going to stack rock up against the back glass, the flow should deflect off that and leave your sand where it is. Fine sand can be a PITA - I have to be careful how I adjust the two MJ1200s in my 29g, and they're in the top corners of the tank!

 

 

Thanks! I'll do a little research and see what I can figure out. A lot of people use this particular filter so I'm sure I'm not the first person with this problem :) I went a size up from sugar-grain sized sand and it's still blowing around like snow in there. :lol:

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starfish609

I just looked at your old BC8 thread - nice clean looking tank and I really liked the rock work. Can't wait to see what you'll do with this one.

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Kimberly63
I just looked at your old BC8 thread - nice clean looking tank and I really liked the rock work. Can't wait to see what you'll do with this one.

 

Thanks! :) well I hate to brag B) but my rockwork I did today does look pretty sweet. Although now that I have a ton of rock and more sandbed space, it looks pretty bare.

 

my water is still sorta cloudy from the sand so I plan to get my AC110 modded tomorrow then add some floss and clear up the water and take a bunch of pics. Plus I have a huge soapdish of chaeto in the display which isn't very attractive :)

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gulfsurfer101

Is that a sunpod or are those just pc's housed in a current sunpod shell. Sorry for the question but it's late and my eyes are tired.

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Kimberly63
Is that a sunpod or are those just pc's housed in a current sunpod shell. Sorry for the question but it's late and my eyes are tired.

 

It's just a pc - 2x40w. It's actually a Current Orbit fixture. Wanted to go with T5s but I'm waiting for current to come out with a smaller fixture.

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gulfsurfer101

It looks just like the sunpod from the side veiw. I just recently put together a ten gallon about two months ago and am still working on the perfect light for that tank.

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captianshellnutt
Thanks starfish! This is exactly what I needed!

HI! I am preparing to build a 10 and that AC 110 mod was very nice. Good luck with your tank, I look forward to following it

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Kimberly63
HI! I am preparing to build a 10 and that AC 110 mod was very nice. Good luck with your tank, I look forward to following it

 

I haven't modded it yet, but I plan to cut down the impeller blades to reduce the flow. There's a LOT of flow that comes out of it and it really blows the sand around. I also need to go get some silicone sometime today. :)

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Kimberly63

Okay - really crappy FTS but I figured I'd post one anyway. A lot of the corals aren't glued to the rocks yet so they're just sitting in the sand for now. I think I'm happy with the rockwork so I'll probably leave it. :D

 

fts.jpg

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Kimberly63
That is a GREAT looking little tank!

 

Thanks! that means a lot. :blush: Kinda looks like it's way bigger than just a 10g.

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gulfsurfer101

I was just thinking the same thing out loud. It hardley looks like a ten gallon. Looking good so far, is that an easter basket fuge, ghetto is the way I also roll. lol.

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Kimberly63
I was just thinking the same thing out loud. It hardley looks like a ten gallon. Looking good so far, is that an easter basket fuge, ghetto is the way I also roll. lol.

 

lol it's actually a suction-cup soapdish I bought at walmart. :lol: worked great for keeping coral frags up off the sandbed if they weren't glued yet or ones I wanted to sell. :) I even have the easter grass in there.

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gulfsurfer101

Pretty samrt thinking, here's some pics of the gheto'ist ten gallon I've ever put together.

ghettoreef1.jpg

 

It has a small copartment

ghettoreef3.jpg

ghettoreef6.jpg

on the right side of the tank that is about three and a half inches wide the width of the tank.

It is the only part of the tank with substrate and I glued a peice of black plastic screen that latches over it so I can put fresly disected shrooms and not have to worry about moving my rock around to find them.

I had everything in this tank just lying around except the sunpod. I recently sold that and retrofitted and 42 watt pc canopy.

I told you ghetto was how I roll. This tank cost me around ten dollars to start and that is just including the gas and price of water. I don't even know why I started it, I just got tired of looking at unused junk in my understairs closet. It looks so much more congested that yours but I'm not going for pretty with this one.

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Kimberly63
Pretty samrt thinking, here's some pics of the gheto'ist ten gallon I've ever put together.

ghettoreef1.jpg

 

It has a small copartment

ghettoreef3.jpg

ghettoreef6.jpg

on the right side of the tank that is about three and a half inches wide the width of the tank.

It is the only part of the tank with substrate and I glued a peice of black plastic screen that latches over it so I can put fresly disected shrooms and not have to worry about moving my rock around to find them.

I had everything in this tank just lying around except the sunpod. I recently sold that and retrofitted and 42 watt pc canopy.

I told you ghetto was how I roll. This tank cost me around ten dollars to start and that is just including the gas and price of water. I don't even know why I started it, I just got tired of looking at unused junk in my understairs closet. It looks so much more congested that yours but I'm not going for pretty with this one.

Lol - hey at least it's up and running. Best $10 spent that I've ever seen :P

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Hi Kimberly! :)

 

Pretty similar to my old 10g setup I had (before upgrading that tank to a 10g custom AIO). Exept I used a 40w Satellite fixture and an AC30 instead. Can't wait to see the progress of this new tank, good luck as always! B)

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Kimberly63
Hi Kimberly! :)

 

Pretty similar to my old 10g setup I had (before upgrading that tank to a 10g custom AIO). Exept I used a 40w Satellite fixture and an AC30 instead. Can't wait to see the progress of this new tank, good luck as always! B)

 

Hey thanks buddy! Setting up a regular tank is way different from an all-in-one (and more stressful) :) but I'm glad I upgraded. I have a lot more room and I love it! Definately going to get another fish (something small though) once everything settles.

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Kimberly63

Well there was a tragic death in my tank yesterday. Let me start by saying that my torch coral I got has been nothing but trouble from the beginning and it stung 3 of my favorite corals with a little damage. Well that was one of the main reasons why I upgraded my tank because of it's long tenticles of death. My clown seemed like he was going to start hosting it and would sleep above it at night so I didn't get rid of it. Well I had it in the back corner on the sandbed away from my other corals until I could figure out what to do with it. Well I came home yesterday and I see pieces of the torch coral all through my tank. I look to where it was and it's gone. Here the tenticles got sucked into the back of the pump I had placed several inches above it and the tenticles were both caught inside and/or ripped to shreds. I felt bad for it but it hurt so many corals in my tank that I was going to get rid of it anyways.

 

 

Also I'm having an issue with my light fixture and the lid of my tank. Since the legs are somewhat short on the fixture, I'm having issues lifting the lid up do to stuff in the tank. The easiest thing to do it seems is taking the fixture off the tank every time I need to open the lid and it's such a pain. The only solution I came up with would be to hang the fixture but I have drop ceilings. Not sure what I should do. :huh:

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Sorry to hear about your torch. I'll eventually put one in my 40 but I know I have to be very careful with regard to placement.

 

As for your light, you could make a stand from pipe or pvc that the light could hang on. I've seen variations on several tanks here.

 

Pardon my lack of paint skilz:

2564870985_0a646921b4_o.jpg

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