So my new Cadlights 9g came in and I'm excited to get my first reef tank running. I had a FOWLR 50g setup about 15 years ago and thought thinking big but starting small was the way to go. I've been lurking for about 3 months so far, but now is my chance to contribute

My plan for my first reef tank is as follows

9G Cadlights
50w Hydor submersible
15lbs Hatian live rock (cured) from Tropicorium - some great corline encrusted stuff
15lbs Aragonite #0 for 2" base

Tropicorim had a rubble deal so I got 10 lbs of live rock rubble for 11.99 so I have more than I need but it gives me some options for the scape. I checked everything over pretty carefully before placing my large pieces and had my first hitchhiker (a small crab) climb onto the towel where I had the rock. I've noticed some trails in the sand already so there are some other things I'm sure to find soon. I've had a HOB running to clear the water with some fiber fill for filtration. So far 0 ammonia, Ph is low ~7 (using Instant Ocean Reef salt). I did a 30% water change last night.

I was contemplating pulling out some of the live rock ... will I kill it if I store it unheated (70deg)? I was planning on putting a pump in the bucket to keep water circulating but I don;t have an extra heater.

I'll post pics once I'm home tonight.

First reply! I have a cad 22, you won't be disapointed. If theres one thing i'll say for keeping nano reefs it's this: Invest in good equipment, you'll have a hard time justifying it in the short term but if you're in the hobby for keep's it's 100% neccesary. Plus, good equipment always lasts, is always reusable and if you get out of the game you can usually sell it for at least 80% of the price you payed. Good luck man, i'll check in when theres more to see!

Me and my kids have been so busy being sick that I have not had a chance to post an update or pics lately.
Latest update on the tank is as follows

Tank has been running for over a month now and doing well. The livestock is as follows

2 Turbo snails
5 4 small hermits (One done in by my Choco Star)
3 2 Nacarrius snails (One done in by my Choco Star)
1 Chocolate chip star 4"
1 Red Firefish
1 Emerald crab (Nickname: Crabby Cakes)
1 Ocellarius Clown (Found Nemo on the carpet Sunday morning )
3 sm brittle starts that I have seen

Tank currently has had a pod explosion and everything is doing well. I've been doing a 10% water change about every third day and water chemistry is looking good but PH has been somewhat low (8.1). Salinity is around 1.023.
I started feeding my star pieces of raw shrimp twice a week which he's loved and its keept him away from everyone else. The little guy has quite the appetite. I've upgraded the lighting to 37 watts of PC last week and previously I had experienced some of my coline algie dying back but that has subsided with the light upgrade. Next up is a more robust top to prevent jumping.

I've been getting a pretty good surface film lately. For filtration and water movement I've been using a (200gph) HOB with some floss ocasionally and a Maxi-jet 600. Any recommendations to improve the filtration? Should I think about some type of surface skimmer. As I said in the previous posts my params look fine. Any suggestions?

A surface skimmer will help, definitely. and can't wait to see pictures!

Here are my current picsClick to view attachment

those turbo snails look huge in that tank and when you get some frags they will knock them over if your tank is clean and you do water changes get ride of them and get ceriths they do a good job and you never see them other than that looks good start with some simple zoo's and some lps good luck and have fun

get a korilo nano wave maker cheap 30$ and will get the job done for water movement

Yeah the turbos are huge suckers. I bought them as a package and figured that when I start adding coral I'll be in for trading them and the star. The turbos cleaned the tank up in a major way after my first bloom though. Thanks for the tip on the wave maker. I've been thinking more about filtration and water movement lately and I think a skimmer is the first on my wishlist.

The last couple of days I've found two of my large turbo snails on their backs. A couple of days ago one was on a rock in the centr of the tank so I know it did not fall from the glass. This morning I found one upsie down on the sand. Is this typical? I did a 50% H20 Change this weekend so water quality should be very good (I typicall get mine tested at my LFS). Any ideas. Is this normal?

Tank looks great. Sometimes snails just tip over and fail to right themselves. I've found that if you find them soon enough, you can tip them back over without any problems.

Scaping looks lovely!

Thanks! Its all I have to look at now.
Lost my firefish to the carpet . Just found him

Any brilliant ideas on how to keep a glass lid attached to a tank? I want to rest my light on it since using the legs for the light and the top are mutually exclusive. I'm concerned about the safety of this though. I do have everything GFCI protected but my 2yo is an unpredictable force of nature.

If you rest the light directly on the glass top, it would get incredibly hot. I would either keep it the way it is, or find an alternative method of keeping the light suspended above the glass top. I personally prefer topless tanks...

I had been running an 18 watt fixture previously with it resting on the glass and saw about a 1 degree temp rise from that. (79 to 80 degrees). With the light above the tank now the temp is actually staying at 78degF without the top. I'm running it as FSnOWLR (Snails Only With Live Rock since my fish jumped) now so temp is not as critical but I'm planning to start adding some coral now that I'm comfortable with the setup.

I could never keep turbos alive, they would die after 3-5 days. I dont know why and the LFS doesnt either. They are very sensitive to temp changes, SG changes, alk changes etc.

I love the scape. It's very creative.

Sorry about your fish. I keep dreading my clowns and blenny jumping but they havent so far.

My wife just called and said the snails are "sleeping". All three of my turbos are on their back. I did an H2O change on Sunday. I'll have to get an H2O test done tonight. Bad week for the cube!

Like I said, I never could keep any kind of turbos alive in my 10G. The LFS never found any problems. Some of them are just extremely sensitive to temps. If they are dead and you dont want to try again then try a different type of snail.

I was planning on replacing them / trading them in for something smaller. They are reduculously huge for the tank if you look back at the pics I had. Something smaller would work better in my tank for sure. This kind of validates my go slow approach. Maintaining a 10G is hard! Temp has been stable as usual (without having constant monitoring its hard to know for sure) and my H2O change went as it usually does. Mixed for 6 hours prior to the change. Just put a refractometer on the list for Christmas.

Hats off to all those cool pico owners out there.

No experience with turbos, can't help you there. What I can tell you is that I love my dwarf cerith and Florida cerith that I picked up from reefcleaners.org. They do a great job of keeping the tank clean, and as someone else stated, I rarely see them. Another great snail is the astrea. Mine have stayed away from my coral and they eat constantly. Never had one tip on me. I'd look at picking up some cerith, astrea, and nass snails (if you don't have em).

Your scape looks awesome. It's going to look even better covered in coral!

Well I am not saying your temp was swinging but I have read alot about people having to acclimate turbos for a couple of hours to get them to survive any length of time. I just dropped my first ones in and they died within a day or two. I acclimated the next 2 for an hour and they dies in 3-4 days. I then got Mexican Turbos (smaller) and they died in 4-5 days. Those are the only things that died in my tank. Cerith snails are good but alot slower than turbos. You would probly have to get about 8-10 of them. Also if you can get stomatellas they are pretty fast but I never see mine on the glass, just the rock (ask Pismo about them).

I got my refractometer from Ebay for about $30 and it was the best investment ever. Well one of them at least lol.

Either the turbos joined the Branch Dividians or some param is getting out of whack for them to all go at once. I have had the turbos for about a month now and they were doing fine and seemed as happy as a turbo could be until now. I'll probably get a mix of smaller replacements ceriths and stomatellas. I have 4 Nacrassus now that are doing a great job down in the bed.

I made the leap and did a buy it now on the refractometer... Merry Christmas to me!

Hurray! I love Ebay!

Ceriths are great for the glass and the stomatellas will go to town on your rock. They make a great team .

My CUC now is
4 Nacrassus
4 Small hermits
1 Lg turbo
1 Emerald crab

Algae is starting to build some so I'm planning on picking up some stoms and ceriths this weekend. Any suggestions as to the number of each?

I ended up plucking two out of three dead turbos from the tank. My Nacrassus had already strated munching on one of them so he was good and gone. The other I moved around and left for a while and he never moved so I ditched him. I have a third one that looks like he's a survivor. He was up on the glass yesterday although not very active.

10 ceriths should be fine for a 10G and probly 4 stomatellas (those guys are fast!)

Surfing Craigslist Sunday I came across a 12G JBJ Nano less hood for $20, so I picked it up yesterday. The back chamers have already been modded and the RH chamber is the largest now. I cleaned it out last night and there is only one scratch on the lower left side which looks like it will fall below my sand. Mods start tonight...

My thoughts

- New back wall with toothed surface skimmer on left and right. Center return with 1/2" Y'd loc line

- Chambers
Left: Media rack
Center: Via Aqua 306, Heater
Right: Fuge

- Rimless

I already have the Via 306 (500gph) and Its probably too big for the tank, but I might as well give it a shot. Flow will be choked through the bulkhead and loc line. Heat is my only concern with it.

Any other suggestions?

Sounds like a plan. $20 is a great deal too! Pics?

Picture of the JBJ Project tank... still planning what to do.

I just saw this thread -- nice looking 9g CAD tank. I bought one too but am not as far along in the project as you are. With Christmas just around the corner my aquarium spending money needs to come down the chimney on Christmas morning

Tagging along to see how this tank turns out.

I did an H2O change on my tank last night and had the lights out for a while after. I went to check it before going to bed and found a hitchiker I could not identify immediately. I'm thinking its a bristle worm but I don;t know their behavior well enough to know for sure. By the time I got my camera out it was long gone.

Its was centipede like. Moved very quickly over the rock and was translucent white. Any ideas. Do bristle worms move that fast?

prob could of been a bigger amphipod which are good so no worry

I definitely have some bigger amphipods in my tank, but I don;t think that was it. It was longer and more worm like. I checked out http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html but could not find a great match. The body had more distinct segments and it was about 1" long.

Are bristle worms quick?

Stomatella in the house. I could not find any to buy and the closest (worthless) LFS didn't even know what I was talking about. Anyway I found out that I have a couple that made it past my cycle. They are fast.

Also I saw "smoke" presumably spawn coming from my Cerith's is that likely?

Some latest pics from my tank..

ANY idea what the green stuff is on my rock?
Click to view attachment

My newest tank inhabitants.. a pair of percs!
Click to view attachment

That green stuff is probably is a sponge or tunicate of some sort, my best guess

I'd probably say sponge as well. Its starting to look something like this with a few pores in it.
Click to view attachment

The pores seem to have some extension to then so it may be a tunicate but we'll have to see how it develops. No special care going on to this point but they seem to have grown almost overnight. Hopefully they continue to thrive.

Hitchiking Xenia starting to spread
Click to view attachment

I'm starting to realize that these are not xenia and instead some hitchhiking worms. I have more tubes growing on this piece of rock and they are all sprouting heads. Have to wait to get a picture until they get bigger. Any advice on what to feed them if they are? Will they just filter feed on leftovers or should I target something to this rock?

Good looking tank