10 Gallon Nano

[nubsauce2010]

Started my 10 gallon nano today. will post pics tomorrow after the sand fully finishes settling it is almost there only about 15% cloudy. thank you everyone for the help on my beginners discussion thread. getting ready fro ym cleanup crew hopefully monday as the rocks i got were already fully cured and it was real ocean and live sand. my lfs only sells fully cured rocks which is nice and the pieces i got were beautiful fiji pieces imported 3 months ago .

 

STOCK LIST:

2 clownfish

1 scarlet hermit

1 blue leg hermit

1 red leg hermit

1 star polyp (disappeared atm looking for it)

1 xenia

1 favia

1 torch

2 acan

1 radiocative zoas

1 eagle eye zoas

1 candy cane

1 leptastrea

1 condy anemone

1 cat's paw sps

1 chalice

1 paly

1 other sps

 

EQUIPMENT:

1 maxijet 400

1 aquaclear 20

1 quad t5 ho 18" with 2 actinic 2 10000k bulbs

1 aquaeon 50 watt heater

[nubsauce2010]

here is my rock structure might be adding a few more pieces not sure yet in a week or 2 i will be getting my quad t5 light fixture so i can get ready for corals i cant wait wish cycling didn't take so long but what can you do

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126123058@N04/14913219325/

[Smithjm5]

here is my rock structure might be adding a few more pieces not sure yet in a week or 2 i will be getting my quad t5 light fixture so i can get ready for corals i cant wait wish cycling didn't take so long but what can you do

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126123058@N04/14913219325/

If you click on the downward arrow with a line under it on the right side of the picture and click view all sizes and then choose a size picture you can then right click on it and select copy image you can then paste it onto your forum posts.

 

Like this haha

[nubsauce2010]

ok i think i got it now thanks for the help i plan to start posting each week new pics let me link the pic too lol.

think i got it now thanks a bunch

[Smithjm5]

No worries, took me a week to figure that out lol

[nubsauce2010]

here are the lights i am getting they seem like a steal to me i hope they work great ill be ordering them on payday wednesday can't wait http://www.ebay.com/itm/291117768655?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[messias]

Nice aquascape you got there!

 

Now about the lights...If you already ordered them, then there´s not much left to do, but I would re-think that lighting solution. You can probably get a LED PAR bulb that can fit any E26 socket, for just a few buck more...

It´s not that it won´t work... but you can get much better color than that single 10000k

[Smithjm5]

I agree with the above statement, I'd either get a par bulb or you could check out the reef breeders nano, I had too at one point it has really nice color their just kinda of loud with the fans but if you can put up with it they are not bad lights. or for a little more the reef breeders value fixture is really nice for the $$

http://reefbreeders.com/shop/nano-lite/

[nubsauce2010]

I agree with the above statement, I'd either get a par bulb or you could check out the reef breeders nano, I had too at one point it has really nice color their just kinda of loud with the fans but if you can put up with it they are not bad lights. or for a little more the reef breeders value fixture is really nice for the $$

http://reefbreeders.com/shop/nano-lite/

the lights are 4 t5 high output (double the light of standard t5)bulbs not one so i can use 2 full spectrum 2 actinic blue which i plan to do i have 2 full spectrum bulbs already from my freshwater planted tank i asked my lfs and they said with the 2 blue and 2 full spectrum that for my tank it would be pretty high light and should be fine for most lps like i plan to have i do not plan to have any sps which require intense light.

[Smithjm5]

the lights are 4 t5 high output (double the light of standard t5)bulbs not one so i can use 2 full spectrum 2 actinic blue which i plan to do i have 2 full spectrum bulbs already from my freshwater planted tank i asked my lfs and they said with the 2 blue and 2 full spectrum that for my tank it would be pretty high light and should be fine for most lps like i plan to have i do not plan to have any sps which require intense light.

Well as long as you change the bulbs you should be okay

[nubsauce2010]

thanks i actually double checked with my lfs and they showed me some pictures of someone doing the same thing with the 4 t5 ho bulbs and he is doing an sps tank using 2 full spectrum and 2 actinic blues and his corals have already started showing noticeable growth after only 4 weeks i appreciate the feedback but i feel like it will be sufficient and i might go all full spectrum if the corals dont grow noticeably enough the blue actinic is mostly for the ocean look and i always did feel like full spectrum looked better i do know that the full spectrum bulb i have were in my 40g freshwater tank and my plants grew so fast i had to trim every 2 weeks to have room for my fish lol so fingers crossed

[nubsauce2010]

question how much water should i change every 2 weeks? or should i change some every week? i know with freshwater it i change 10% every 2 weeks is it same with saltwater?

[nubsauce2010]

here is the tank now ignore the lighting my new lights will be here on tuesday or wednesday i just have the stock hood lights on atm

and here is another picture showing where my last rock will go my lfs has a real nice rock covered with some zoas that i plan to get since it is only 50 bucks can't wait for the tank to cycle so i can get it

[Smithjm5]

My tanks a little under ten gallons and I do about 2 gallons every week, but have gone longer than that and it's been fine. It'll depend a lot on your bioload. So at first when you don't have much in the tank you could probably do fine with every two weeks.

[kirbaay]

i do a 2 gallon water change on my tank every 2 to 3 weeks

[nubsauce2010]

thanks was not really sure lol i take a sample of my water to lfs tomorrow for a full cycle test to see how it is doing will post an update then

[nubsauce2010]

just did a water test for amonia nitrite nitrate amonia was a little high but not real bad nitrite at about 3mg/l and nitrate at about 15 mg/l cycling starting off nicely

[nubsauce2010]

water test again nitrates were at a whopping 40 golly me so high ammonia at 1 (also real high) nitrites only .5(Something just doesn't seem to add up with this one lol)? lights and tank cover will be here wednesday cant wait to get it set up. also thinking of getting the coralife nano protein skimmer for a little more punch any thoughts?

[nubsauce2010]

acclimated a molly and put him in to help with cycling seems to be doing ok took a while to adjust to the current tank he was in was not as strong of a current

[apneaAddict]

The T5 lighting should be fine for anything including easy sps. I have purchased from that seller on ebay several times and I was extremely happy. I didnt look at the specs but I have had problems in the past with good T5 bulbs not fitting the pin spacing in those fixtures which forces you to buy cheap bulbs that just wont cut it or you have to modify the unit. Your tank is going to look 100x better when those new lights come in.

[Halo_003]

I have that light actually. The stock bulbs are able to support some corals. Soft and LPS work nicely. It's not that pretty though. The major issue you will have is the difficulty of sourcing good 18" bulbs. Believe me, I know. I wish I'd gotten the 24" one instead for that reason. I've found coralife 18" bulbs are decent. My current setup is 1x stock white, 1x stock blue, 2x coralife actinic which are like a purple blue color.

 

I would strongly recommend cutting a hole in at least one end cap. The plastic ends will almost perfectly fit a 40mm fan inside. All you need to do is cut a circular hole and maybe remove a small plastic tab. Then you just need to supply 12v power to it which is no problem. You can find a 40mm fan on Newegg or amazon.

[nubsauce2010]

ty for the infos one other question what should my flow be with my maxijet in powerheadlike mode it is at 500gph and the flow seems extremely high is it? should i get a nano powerhead when i switch my maxijet to sump mode on monday/tuesday? i am making a sump/refugium out of an old 5 gallon tank it will house heater protein skimmer and macro algae as well as a filterfloss section that then goes to carbon followed by sponge before macro algae then refugium with just sand followed by a return section the molly had to go back to his reg tank the flow was way too much for him to handle hence my asking what it should be

[nubsauce2010]

I have that light actually. The stock bulbs are able to support some corals. Soft and LPS work nicely. It's not that pretty though. The major issue you will have is the difficulty of sourcing good 18" bulbs. Believe me, I know. I wish I'd gotten the 24" one instead for that reason. I've found coralife 18" bulbs are decent. My current setup is 1x stock white, 1x stock blue, 2x coralife actinic which are like a purple blue color.

which coralife 18" bulbs i am only finding t8 18" bulbs not t5

will these ones work?http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coralife-Colormax-T5-Fluorescent-full-spectrum-light-Lamp-for-freshwater-aquariu-/360963368239?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item540b17e52f

[Halo_003]

 

I have that light actually. The stock bulbs are able to support some corals. Soft and LPS work nicely. It's not that pretty though. The major issue you will have is the difficulty of sourcing good 18" bulbs. Believe me, I know. I wish I'd gotten the 24" one instead for that reason. I've found coralife 18" bulbs are decent. My current setup is 1x stock white, 1x stock blue, 2x coralife actinic which are like a purple blue color.

which coralife 18" bulbs i am only finding t8 18" bulbs not t5

 

 

I can't find them online but one of my LFS carries them.

[nubsauce2010]

I can't find them online but one of my LFS carries them.

so maybe after theese burn out or i save money go with the 24 one since bulbs are readily available? or should i go to led? oh and i only plan to do lps and zoas lol i am not a big fan of sps i might do a leather but not sure yet i do know for a fact i plan to get a lime tip torch a hamer and at least 4 different zoas and a frogspawn along with my anemone and clown fish i think will be a good matchup for at least a while till i get a 40l which will be fitted with a proper sized unit i have to move first before i can get the 40l though