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New 10g FOWLR Tank - Setup Log and Questions!


nowinsight

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Hello Nano-Reef.com!

 

I'm nowinsight, coming to you from Los Angeles, CA. Bit of a background on me and fishkeeping. I grew up as a kid watching my dad keep freshwater fish. As a child, I had exposure to African cichlids, mollies, guppies, catfish, plecos, you name it! A couple of years ago, I decided to start fishkeeping as well and started a freshwater 10 gallon that eventually moved to a 20 gallon. I've recently decided to try my hand at saltwater, starting with the older 10 gallon I have and spent countless hours reading up on saltwater fishing keeping.

 

I wanted to start a log here at nano-reef and keep you guys in the loop, as well as ensure I'm following sound logic and heeding the advice of everyone on this forum. Although I haven't been a member of this community for a long time and spent more time lurking, I'm excited to talk to everyone here and listen to everyone's feedback on this new nano FOWLR setup!

 

What I have so far for my 10 gallon nano:

Standard 10 gallon

Aquaclear 20 (reused from freshwater but cleaned out)

Hydor Koralia Nano 425 powerhead (flow between this and the aquaclear should be good!)

Eheim Jager 75W (set to 78°F)

15 lbs dry rock (from reefcleaners. actually only put in about 12 lbs)

10 lbs live sand (Carib-Sea aragonite brand)

Standard hood and flourescent light (50/50 flourescent. FOWLR, so no upgrade needed!)

4-stage Value Plus RO/DI System (from bulkreefsupply)

Refractometer (bought from amazon, I forgot what brand)

 

 

My stocking plans include:
10 gallon CUC (from reefcleaners)

2 juvenile ocellaris OR 1 juvenile ocellaris + 1 firefish goby (undecided still!)

 

 

THE BEGINNINGS: Starting the Cycling!

I drew 10 gallons of RO/DI water from my new setup I purchased from bulkreefsupply and mixed in some Instant Ocean (IO) salt mix to 1.026 and kept it heated at 78°. I received my dry rock on Tuesday, 3/11/2014, so I immediately went to my LFS and picked up a piece of live rock (actually a cluster of 4 large dead barnacles) to help my cycle going!

 

I got home and rinsed all the dry rock I got from reefcleaners and made my rockscape. Then I put in all the live sand and started to fill up the tank with my RO/DI saltwater. I put in my seed live rock, poured in 35ml of BioSpira, turned on everything (except for the light) and let it run!

 

Here's how it looked the first night after I put everything in:

SDEamGL.jpg?1

 

The next day, I decided my rockscape was no good. I rearranged and felt a lot better about how it turned out. What are your thoughts?

qJpmXxO.jpg?1

 

Yesterday (3/13), I did a water test and minimal ammonia, so I dropped in about 8 pellets of fish food I purchased in anticipation of getting fish (New Life Spectrum Marine Fish Formula). From my freshwater fishkeeping experience, I know that I need to make sure ammonia goes up and check on nitrites and nitrates and make sure they rise and then fall.

 

Here's how the tank looks today. I turned on the light just for this photo, but the light has been kept off. Heater, HOB filter, and powerhead have been left on the entire time.

HiFcMcM.jpg?1

 

I plan to add CUC after the tank cycles, give it week or two, then add my fish! Here are test results from today:

1oOLRG1.jpg?1

 

It is hard to see in the picture but here is where I think the values are:

pH: 8.4

Ammonia: 0.50 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 5.0 ppm

 

Here are my questions for you experts at nano-reef:

1. How long do you guys think it will take to cycle this tank?

2. I plan on keeping the foam in the Aquaclear with Purigen after cycling. Recommendations on this setup? (Currently have carbon in there for cycling)

3. I plan on doing weekly 10% water changes using IO with RO/DI water. Sound solid?

 

I appreciate your checking out my setup log and taking the time to provide feedback. REALLY looking forward to this!

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1. Cycle for a marine aquarium is the same as freshwater, take it slow and give the tank proper time to cycle.

 

2. I'm not a big fan of foam or sponges in a marine tank. Running purigen or chemipure would be beneficial. Or simply turn the filter into a mini fuge if possible.

 

3. That should be fine, just keep bioload low.

 

Good luck. Nice aquascaping.

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noobofreefs

1. Cycle can be anything from a week to 2 months...everything is different. Just be patient and continue to monitor your parameters

 

2. Sponges/foam can be okay, but you need to be diligent about changing them out as they are known to harbor nitrates.

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Thanks for your feedback. I have a followup question.

 

Now it's been almost 1 week and I'm not sure where my tank is in the cycle. I added fish food two days ago and this morning, but still no detection of nitrites, just nitrates. Ammonia seems to be going down consistently and nitrites as well but not nitrates. Here's a picture I just took (it's upside down because it was easier to align to colors that way!) Where do you guys think I am in the cycle? (It's confusing to me when you know that your tank has cycled)

JvzIDRE.jpg?1

 

In person, the colors look more like below:

Ammonia: between 0 - 0.25ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 5 - 10ppm

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Is it possible for my tank to cycle without going through an algae bloom (cloudy water and/or purple coraline forming on dry rock)? If so, maybe my cycle is completing soon because I started with "live" sand and some live rock as well, and that means I can add the CUC soon.

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noobofreefs

Your cycle is not finished. It is finished when your ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is preferably <5. You just put this together a week ago, give it time.

 

EDIT: Since you asked about algae bloom, you want to look for diatoms (just Google pictures). Coraline is unrelated to your cycle.

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Cameron6796

People who add live sand and live rock will have their cycle start faster but not necessarily have it be any fast just wait till everything is zero some times the test kits may say u have .25 and you may have 0 so just wait a week or two if everything else stabilizes but ammonia is still reading .25 then it may be in accurate.? CUC once your stable and really slow maybe buy a hermit or two first because without enough food, diatoms, algae the CUC will starve also reefcleaners is really generous and will almost give you more ten you will ever need good luck this looks cool

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I know it's only been a little over a week, but do you think the combination of Bio Spira + 10lb live sand + 2lb live rock + reefcleaners base rock (no organics and no leaching phosphates) could lead to a really quick cycle?

 

I put in a good amount of fish food in the tank last night. Let's see where it's at after I get off work. What do you guys think about going against the grain and picking up the clean up crew AFTER getting fish? I feel like if I get a clean up crew right now, they will all starve! It's a pretty clean tank right now!

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Alright guys, I think this tank is cycled. It's weird that I didn't need to go through a diatom or algae bloom!

fveKunv.jpg?2

 

I'm planning on going to my LFS on Saturday, but I will continue to feed this tank food and check parameters before I pick up any livestock!

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drop some ammonia source (food pellets, tiny bit of shrimp or straight from ammonia bottle) and see what the readings are next day to make sure your cycle is complete. I'd do so.

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Alright guys, I think this tank is cycled. It's weird that I didn't need to go through a diatom or algae bloom!

haha dont you worry, itll happen,

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drop some ammonia source (food pellets, tiny bit of shrimp or straight from ammonia bottle) and see what the readings are next day to make sure your cycle is complete. I'd do so.

 

I have been feeding my pretend fish with food pellets for the past couple days to be extra sure that the cycle is complete. Let me continue to feed the tank with more flakes. haha

 

Alright guys, proof that I'm feeding this tank a source of ammonia. Just dropped in a really good amount of flake food at 9:15pm PST.

deOSisR.jpg?1

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I'm 95% sure ammonia will be at 0 when I get back from work and test the water. I will post again later today with results. Hopefully we will all agree that the tank is ready for actual life form other than bacteria. :D

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Oh by the way, a fellow LA reefer here. What's up?

 

Where are you located? I'm in Culver City. (BTW, the reef in my avatar is not my tank. It's from downtown disney)

 

 

I will post again later today with results.

 

Results are in:

FWxFVmm.jpg?1

 

Looks like Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrates = 5ppm (stable at 5. I'm thinking a water change will help drop this even further)

 

Alright guys! I will update again when I get my juvenile clowns!

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Today, I stocked my 10 gallon nano FOWLR. This hobby is addicting, and I'm already thinking about how to add coral to my tank. I already know that I need to upgrade my lighting from the standard 15W T8 50/50 Reef Sun Flourescent Light. But this post is not about corals, it's about adding livestock!!!

 

I went to my LFS and they had a lot of clowns but none of them struck my gf's fancy. We ended up going to Petco in our area and there was 1 juvenile ocellaris that my girlfriend KNEW was the one we had to take home. Since we didn't want to run the risk of aggression, we decided to do the ocellaris and a firefish goby. It was perfect as the firefish I picked wasn't too big but was still larger than the clown. Large enough so that the juvi clown can't mess with the firefish! Awesome.

 

I picked up some frozen mysis shrimp as well for variety of food for these fish. (My girlfriend unfortunately named the clown Nemo, but I named the firefish Ember.)

 

Here's a picture of my drip acclimating the two fish!

z5WdU4M.jpg?1

 

They look great waiting to adjust to my tank's parameters!

2mHwycx.jpg?1

 

After drip acclimating, they went into the main tank! Here's Nemo.

MlZb5Ex.jpg?1

 

Ember was really shy and I almost thought he/she jumped out of the tank already when I took a Youtube vid, but here's them together!

Full tank shot!

8261GC9.jpg?2

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Looking great. Do you think it's weird to nods while seeing your clowns up and down like that? I know i do that all the time LOL :P

 

I think it's very peculiar. I've never seen ANY fish other than this clown that is just constantly and endlessly swimming.. Is this normal?? Even at night when my goby is in its cave under a rock, this clown is swimming. It kind of worries me.

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So PETCO has their $1/gallon sale on right now, and I got tempted to pick up a 20 gallon long.

 

I'm thinking about transferring this 10 gallon into the 20 gallon and making the 10 gallon into a sump for a total of 30 gallons! I think that would be best!

 

I've been trying to find information on how to do the plumbing from the standard 20 long tank. Is there some kind of overflow solution I that's available for my situation? I know I should have an overflow to let gravity take water down into the sump, but how does that work on the standard Tetra/Marineland glass tank?

 

Also, what LED lighting would you guys recommend for a mixed reef? I realize that I don't want to buy a "standard" hood and lighting for the 20long if I'm going to do a mixed reef tank in the near future. Buy once, cry once right? (I couldn't find a solid recommendation using google for a LED fixture for a 20 gallon long.)

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I say do it. I'd have at least a 30G DT if my dorm room didn't limit me to 10G. I'd say take the time and do it right, meaning I'd say make your own external ghost overflow box, and then do a bean animal drain system. Can't go wrong with that and it safes space in the DT.

 

Ghost overflow:

 

 

Bean animal drain:

 

http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx

 

Looks good so far, I like the footprint of the 20L, but the 29G is good too with the added volume.

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Is there somewhere I can check out prices of the ghost overflow? I'm curious how much the setup will be. Also, I read the beginning of the bean animal drain article, but have to read it in further detail to really digest the material on there.

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I decided not to do the sump and drill anything. However, I am still looking for good lights for a mixed reef. I am holding on purchasing hood/canopy/lights for the 20L because I don't want to waste any money if I'm going to upgrade anyways. Any recommendations?

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