10gnano Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 fts at 2 months I’ve finally decided to start a thread for my new 10 gallon build. Currently I have a ten gal that has been up and running for about a 17 months. The idea for the new tank came when I started to get a bad GHA bloom or at least I think it is GHA, have yet to completely figure out what it is. LFS couldn’t help and I have searched for hours and still no idea, but that is a whole other thing in itself. I tried everything to fix the bloom but nothing seemed to work; water changes, scrubbing rock, better CUC, adding a skimmer, and adding a canister filter for more volume/flow. The last thing I tried was adding different types of macro algae to the tank to fight off the GHA. This seemed to work, the only down side was the huge balls of algae floating around. This was not the visual appearance I wanted, so I came to the conclusion that I would add a fuge to my system. Know the tricky part, what kind of overflow system to add. I spent days online pondering over different options for plumbing. I keep the tank in my room so I wanted the quietest option possible; I finally stumbled upon the Bean Animal’s overflow. After researching a little further this is what I decided to use for my plumbing. Although this system may be a little overkill for a ten gallon I was very interested in it and wanted to see how it worked. So here it is… Equipment: 2 ten gallon AGA tanks Marineland 100 watt stealth heater CPR bak-pak skimer w/ venturi pump 24" Aquaticlife t5 HO 48 watt fixture (ati aqua blue special, ati blue plus) Korila mine power head Eheim Ecco compact 2000 pump Reefkeeper lite (basic) 20lbs of live rock (+ or - a few lbs) 15lbs mixed crushed coral and fine carrib sea sand Tom's aquilifter CUC: 3 cerith snails 4 astrea snails 1 emarld crab 1 xanthid crab (has red claws with red/white stripped legs, and sand colored body) 2 margareti snails 1 nassarius snail Corals: orange zoas Radio active dragon eyes Eye of Ra zoas Cabbage coral Green star polyps miscellaneous mushroom Ruffled ridge Orange monti Tri color tort (green tips, purple, blue base) red digi Pink with yellow tip delicate Acropora borealis Hodag's monti Purple polyp confusa green slimmer misc milli tubs blue zoas unknown brown with green eye zoas rainbow lobo Fish: Clown Fish (1/24/11) Tank with holes drilled. The Bean overflow design is a three drain system, but after careful consideration I had decided to only have two. Being that the tank won’t have much more than 300-500 gph running through it. The first whole that I cut went rather smoothly until I found out that I cut it way to small for the bulkhead to fit. This turned into an extra hour of circle motions to make the whole large enough for the bulkheads. This was a lesson learned for the next two. Tank with holes drilled. The Bean overflow design is a three drain system, but after careful consideration I had decided to only have two. Being that the tank won’t have much more than 300-500 gph running through it. The first whole that I cut went rather smoothly until I found out that I cut it way to small for the bulkhead to fit. This turned into an extra hour of circle motions to make the whole large enough for the bulkheads. This was a lesson learned for the next two. Plumbing attached to tank. All plumbing parts were made from pvc piping and fittings that I found at Lowe’s in there plumbing area. I couldn’t find any rubber gaskets for the bulkheads so I had to make my own. I found this square of rubber in the plumbing area at Lowe’s and cut some circles from it. Cost around $2. Snail guard added to coast to coast over flow, made from egg crate. I was a little hesitant to add this because I thought it would take away from the look but it turned out pretty well. I did end up painting it black so that it blends in with everything else, turns out it would have been a lot easier to paint it before hand. Here is one of the stands I tried out but wasn’t really happy with. I originally wanted to build my own. I did all the research had the wood cut, got a drill and some screws and put the thing to together. It was not a success, it came out all crooked. Turns out that the blade at the guy at home depot can’t measure and there blade makes cuts at an angle. I scraped that Idea and then bought a stand from Petco and added some wood pieces to it. I didn’t really like how this looked being I wanted to have a stand with doors to hide all the equipment. The stand that I decided to use, it’s a simple two door stand . I cut two holes out of the back so that I could run the plumbing and wiring through. Finally made the move into the new setup, Full shot of display and fuge. display on day 2. The cloudiness has gone down a lot, and corals seem to be doing good. While at the fish store I picked up a new frag, acropora borealis. I should of waited a few weeks before adding anything to the tank but I couldn't wait, and i got a pretty good deal on it. $15 for a 2"x2" piece about four branches. I'm not exactly sure what it is but it has a nice green purplish color on the base with a lighter purple moving up. The polyps on the base are a dark green and moving up they get lighter to a nice light green (kind of a neon color). I wish I had a camera where I could take some pics, besides my phone. Fuge on day 2. I ended up putting a large portion of live rock in the fuge so that the display could have a crisp look. The crabs are also housed in the fuge Link to comment
10gnano Posted November 30, 2010 Author Share Posted November 30, 2010 here are some pics of my old ten gallon. Link to comment
10gnano Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 FTS at 14 days Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 a pic looking down I picked up a new coral today, it's some kind of tri color tort not really sure what exactly. It has purple base then turns blue and has green tips. Does anybody know what this is? Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 I'm having some discoloration in my acro, I had originally purchased it at a faded color. After a week or so it colored up to a nice green/purple. I went on vacation for a week and came back to a faded coral. I tested water levels and everything was good except for the calcium was really low. I did a water change and got everything back to normal, it's been about a week and it hasn't started to come back to the nice green/purple color i started to like. Can anybody help me out with this. Link to comment
almost Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 what are you feeding your corals ? Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 I'm not feeding them anything, should i be? Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 8, 2011 Author Share Posted January 8, 2011 Anybody have any recomendations for feeding my corals? I was told that just dosing calcium was enough, but i guess not. What will feeding my corals do for them? Link to comment
Squared Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Do you only have one 24" fixture? If so, maybe you should get another, that could help with the color. Link to comment
zma21 Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 what are you feeding your corals ? He's feeding them light, their favorite food. Make sure your cal, alk, ph, and mag are all in check. How low was your cal? If it was super low, you should have slowly bumped it up. Nothing fast is good. edit: I personally don't believe you have enough light. 2 bulbs is ok but 4 bulbs would be great. Just my experience. Good luck. Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 8, 2011 Author Share Posted January 8, 2011 The cal was somewhere between 280 and 320, don't remeber the exact number tho. I did a water chang and added some calcium, which i do every time i do a water change. I think i bump it up like 40ppm with the cal addative so nothing to drastic. Ya i'm currently running the one 24" fixture. Ive been thinking of getting another but have been unsure on what i should get. I was thinking of the 24" 48 watt tek light, or i could just get another aquaticlife 24" fixture and link the two together. The only downfall to that is the aquaticlife bulbs are not that great so i would have to pay another $40-50 for bulbs putting me around $150 for a 48w fixture, a little pricey. Anybody have any ideas on a new light fixture, something in the area of $200-$250. Link to comment
SpringFever Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 He's feeding them light, their favorite food. This is a common misconception. Light is important, but it only provides sugar (glucose) based nutrition. That is not any more adequate for a coral, than it is for people. Instead, you need to also provide proteins (amino acids). This can be done in several ways, but from what I have read these are the two most common. First: if you have a heavy fish population, the excrement from normal fish feedings will often provide sufficient protein based nutrition to support SPS coral. A second byproduct to heavy fish population and feeding is that more fauna in your system are fed and reproduce, feeding your SPS with eggs and what-not. Second: low fish populations and subsequent low nutrient concentrations are supplemented with zooplanktonic foods. There is an important distinction between phytoplankton and zooplankton. The former is plant material which zooplankton feed upon, whereas the latter is a direct food source to your SPS coral. So both will work in the end, but zooplankton is, IMO, a more direct and efficient rout. At the bottom of my post I have listed one of several articles which goes into more depth on the subject. Read up on Wetwebmedia.com and adbvancedaquarist.com. Bob Fenner and several others do a much better job explaining this than I do. As to which food: I use a dry powder called Coral Frenzy and a refrigerated bottle of Oyster Eggs. There are many other options. A good way to get ideas is to look in the featured tank section here. Most people describe their feeding technique. I hope this helps! http://wetwebmedia.com/corlfeeding.htm Link to comment
reef-luva Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Light is important, but it only provides sugar (glucose) based nutrition. That is not any more adequate for a coral, than it is for people. Instead, you need to also provide proteins (amino acids). Dis' mon be speakin' da gospel ova' er... Link to comment
zma21 Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 While your post holds quite a few truths, this sentence is a very big stretch indeed. Read up on SPS tables of captive and natural metabolism. It is not uncommon at all for sps' to not only survive, but to thrive in low nutrient enriched waters and zones. That is not any more adequate for a coral, than it is for people. Link to comment
reef-luva Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 While your post holds quite a few truths, this sentence is a very big stretch indeed.Read up on SPS tables of captive and natural metabolism. It is not uncommon at all for sps' to not only survive, but to thrive in low nutrient enriched waters and zones. I agree, it was a broad statement, but so is the term "SPS". There are so many different types of SPS's, in many different parts of the world, living in different water chemistry, at different depths, subject to varied water temps, solar/weather patterns and subsequently have different needs, just like people. Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 8, 2011 Author Share Posted January 8, 2011 Thanks for the advice, looks like i'm going to need to do a little research on the issue. Link to comment
SpringFever Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 I don’t pretend to be an expert and, more importantly, I don’t want to hi-jack this thread. But… there is a difference between low nutrient and particulate zooplankton; you can and should have both situations simultaneously. The goal is to introduce particulate and remove it before it becomes dissolved nutrients, hence the current trend toward heavy skimming, mechanical filtration and carbon dosing. All of these techniques are aimed at allowing the aquarist to introduce more food without increasing the nutrient load. Again, I will let someone with a PhD do the talking for me: “There is a common misconception that "corals" are entirely autotrophic, "self-feeding"; that they derive all their nutrition from making it from sunlight, and absorbing it chemically from their environment. This is not the case. All stony corals are mixotrophic; using photosynthesis through using the production of autotrophs (internally symbiotic algae) and consuming other organisms that eat autotrophs and their predators (heterotrophs) for a good part of their nutrition. No stony coral is entirely photosynthetic.” He goes on to say: “Though your stony corals may survive on light and decent water quality alone; they will not thrive, grow very fast, or look their best w/o providing supplementary foods.” --Bob Fenner, from the article cited above IMO Stony Coral can live on light and water quality alone just like people can live on bread and water alone: malnourished, stunted, and prone to disease. To the OP: Lack of feeding probably did not cause the loss of color, but if you were feeding, it could have helped to reduce the effect. From what I have read, Alk and temp are primary causes of bleaching episodes (expulsion of zoo.). It sounds like you have corrected the calc imbalance. So I would keep steady, add more light, and decide if feeding your coral is right for you. I didn’t see any fish listed in your thread. Do you not have any? Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 8, 2011 Author Share Posted January 8, 2011 That was excellent article. After doing a little reading last night I found that the issue has some controversy, but I think I'm going to try feeding my corals. I currently don't have any fish in my tank, I might get on eventually but not sure exactly what. As for a light fixture does anybody have any recommendations? I currently have the linkable 24" aquaticlife 48w fixture. Link to comment
reef-luva Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Ya, SpringFever, good stuff...thanx for postin'... Link to comment
10gnano Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 I wandered over to the fish store yesterday while waiting for my roommate and ended up coming home with this guy... Some random pics... tank is at two months Link to comment
Clavius85 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Tank looks good. Working on setting up a 10g tank myself. Link to comment
Rehype Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 nice looking tank! +1 Love your scape Link to comment
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