10g Tank Build (CUC not doing well)

[patriot]

Hello nano reefers, came upon this fantastic site when I was researching ideas and equipment for my son and I’s first saltwater tank. Ive always wanted one and I figured now is as good of time as any.

Purchased so far
Standard 10g tank, marineland blowhole 100 HOB, 4 lbs dry rock, 50w heater, standard 6 chip led hood, 20b carib arag alive sand, 10 gallons salt water from my LFS, 5 gallons RO top off, microbacter 7, and BIO-Spira.

So today all we did dump the wet sand in, arrange the rocks which I should have bought more and spent more time playing with it, and fill tank. Pretty cloudy as expected and I imagine I will be adding more rock within a couple days to add to the appearance and functionality of the tank.

My son is three years old so as far as stocking the tank an Ocellaris clownfish is a no brainer, but as far as clean up crew, coral, and other fish I am undecided. Suggestions is what I came here for haha.

My shopping list in no certain order
1.) Testing kit
2.) Refractometer
3.) Aquallumination Prime LED Wifi
4.) Acrylic flat to top the tank
5.) Digital temp
6.) Cobalt Aquatics Neo Therm Heater

All that I can think of so far. As always comments and suggestions are highly encouraged! Thanks and enjoy!

[LylaPico]

Welcome to the hobby!

[LylaPico]

One tip I can offer is that when you do your rock structure, just make sure you leave at least an inch of space between it and all walls of the tank. It helps with cleaning, if you accidentally dropped a frag and need to retrieve it and catching unwanted critters.

[patriot]

Little update, tank has settled and I need a magnet cleaner and more rock. Wish I would've spent more time researching aquascaping before I started this. So this weekend I will be ordering the Kessil a160we over the one I mentioned above. I like the kessil for a few reasons;

they make their own LED's

simpler adjustment on spectrum and intensity

can add controller if I feel necessary

$40 more but I can justify the price

I will also be getting the magnet cleaner, Hydor Koralia Nano powerhead 240gph, and test kit.

Here is an updated pic

 

Ordered 3 lbs of dry fiji rock, 4 lbs of pukani, and jurassic gel 4540 reef adhesive so hopefully I can make this look more appealing.

 

[ericpaul80]

Good start. Welcome to the club.

[patriot]

So far the tank is almost cycled all the way so I put in astrea snail, turbo snail, as well as scarlett hermit crab and they seem to be doing fine. Topped off with a little RO water. I will post levels tomorrow. In the mean time I am playing with the new pukani and fiji rock I just recieved in the mail.

 

 

 

[LylaPico]

Those rocks look awesome!!!

[patriot]

Those rocks look awesome!!!

I know! They're from Bulk Reef Supply, shipping was pretty fast and the price was not bad at all. That is a mixture of pukani and fiji rock, I am really pleased with how they look, I will mess around with them more tomorrow, glue together, and get levels.

[patriot]

Got a new light today, coral life t5ho, came with actinic and 10,000k, i think it will be good enough to grow hardy corals, maybe zoanthids. Although if you guys could show where to get better 18" t5 bulbs because it's not blue enough for my liking. Also the cover that I have for it is hinged in the middle and it casts a shadow right in the middle of my tank you can see below, some ideas for that would be helpful as well.

 

Checked my parameters today

Ph 8.0

Am 0

Nitrite 0.50

Nitrate 0

 

I just added my clownfish a couple days ago, as well as did a 35% water change yesterday.

 

 

[patriot]

Okay went to a LFS that was closing down and was having super deals on everything, so I splurged and bought low light coral that I forgot the names of lol. Bought zoanthid, polyp star, mushroom and two other kinds. I acclimated them for hour and a half and them dipped them for 15 minutes. Also bought a RW4 thats pretty awesome I might say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still waiting on Current USA 18" 12,000k and 460 actinic bulbs to come in.

[patriot]

Corals opened up today.

Water parameters

Am 0.50

PH 7.8

Nitrite 0.50

Nitrate 0

KH 9

Calcium 400

Salt Salinity 1.022

 

Plan on doing a 30% water change tomorrow. Going to get a smaller syphon so its easier to suck the detritus out of the tank, the one I am working with feels like it was made for a 300g tank. Powerhead I added yesterday is working extremely well, it's on the lowest setting and on pulse mode. Any advice on getting my ph up?

 

 

 

 

[fishfreak0114]

Tanks looking good ?. Be warned, the star polyps can grow quite fast. You may want to isolate them on their own island

[patriot]

Tanks looking good . Be warned, the star polyps can grow quite fast. You may want to isolate them on their own island

Thanks for the info!

[LylaPico]

Yeah, mine are currently dominating my back wall.

[patriot]

Water parameters in tank

Ammonia .02

Nitirite .05

Nitrate 20

Calcium 370

Magnesium 370

Alkalinity 9.0

Salinity 1.023

 

From now on will be mixing my own water, tested LFS saltwater and ammonia showed up:(

Plan on using Red Sea Coral Pro, 1 gallon water change every two days. I figure that will do nothing but good for my tank.

 

Here are some pictures of the Current USA 12,000 and 460 actinic bulbs I finally got, as well as some coral shots with my iphone.

 

Eagle Eye Zoanthids I got a couple days ago

 

Not exactly sure what these are called, but they seem to be doing well.

 

If you can see in that little cave, my shrimp shed

 

Moved the eagle eyes today, and also mounted the green star polyp on their own rock.

 

Got this hammer yesterday, I do believe I need to move it up closer to the light, will check again tomorrow. I finally bought a timer for my lights because a few times they were left on for 13 or 14 hours, so now I haven them on a 9 and a half hour shedule, so hopefully will be seeing good results.

[mmorales]

Looks good. I have a very similar setup...thinking about switching my Korelia Nano for an RW-4...how are you liking thee RW-4?

[patriot]

Looks good. I have a very similar setup...thinking about switching my Korelia Nano for an RW-4...how are you liking thee RW-4?

If you have it on the lowest setting and pulse, it's perfect lol.

[patriot]

I do believe my scarlett hermit crab, turbo snail, and nassarius snail are close to passing. Hermit crab or a week has not been doing anything and hiding in holes, occassionally changing spots, but not active at all. Turbo snail I do believe turned himself over, and I don't think I turned him back over in time, because he hasnt moved in about half a day. Nassarius snail because I think I accidentally hurt him while sucking some of the sand during a water change. So will be observing closely next few days.

 

Tank parameters

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 20ppm not sure why this number is staying so high, I have done a 2.5g water change yesterday and two days before that

Calcium 430

Alk 11.8

Mag 1200

Salinity 1.026

 

Have done two 2.5g water changes with the new salt, I do suppose that I increased the nutrient levels to high and too fast. Would that be a reason why my clean up crew is not doing well?

[righttirefire]

Pat, try taking a little break. Give the tank a little time to mature... take 2 weeks off from adding anything. Just observe and maintain. You have a nice start. The new dry rock will need seed. The nitrates will need to be removed by water changes. It'll take time to learn the personality of your tank and the residents of said tank. I don't have hermets, so I can't comment on them. My nasserius snail likes to "jump" from my rock. Like 2-3" vertical falls and it survives so a little siphon won't hurt it. My turbo is hit and miss.

 

My suggestion would be maintain you water changes and tank observations.

[cindyp]

tank looks great! also, cleaning crew might be starving,

if you aren't feeding much in the tank? especially if some

of them are only algae eaters. i had same issues with snails

and because my tank is so small (8g) and i do weekly cleaning

and changes, i stopped buying cuc.

 

good luck!

[metrokat]

Water parameters in tank

Ammonia .02

Nitirite .05

Nitrate 20

Calcium 370

Magnesium 370

Alkalinity 9.0

Salinity 1.023

 

From now on will be mixing my own water, tested LFS saltwater and ammonia showed up:(

Plan on using Red Sea Coral Pro, 1 gallon water change every two days. I figure that will do nothing but good for my tank.

 

Here are some pictures of the Current USA 12,000 and

6 days ago your tank was still cycling. I'm rather surprised the animals survived it. The rocks and sand are totally clean, no diatoms, no pods, no tell-tale sign of life. This means the CUC which is there to "clean up" has nothing to clean and is likely starving.

 

RSCP is a salt for demanding SPS tanks - tanks that need high alk, high calcium. Even if you were to make this tank SPS dominant, till many months while the SPS grew to sizes that have a lot of alk/calcium uptake for growth - In a 10G tank a regular good quality salt is all you need.

 

I agree with others that are advising patience, please slow down.

[aviator300]

6 days ago your tank was still cycling. I'm rather surprised the animals survived it. The rocks and sand are totally clean, no diatoms, no pods, no tell-tale sign of life. This means the CUC which is there to "clean up" has nothing to clean and is likely starving.

 

RSCP is a salt for demanding SPS tanks - tanks that need high alk, high calcium. Even if you were to make this tank SPS dominant, till many months while the SPS grew to sizes that have a lot of alk/calcium uptake for growth - In a 10G tank a regular good quality salt is all you need.

 

I agree with others that are advising patience, please slow down.

I totally agree. I went too fast when i started also and it bought me tons of early headaches like starving CUCs, stunted coral growth, and worst of all a hair algae outbreak. All this (i believe) from adding life and coral within the first month the tank was up.

 

Now when i start a new tank, I don't even worry about checking parameters daily and stuff like that. I just start with live rock (or at least a piece of live rock to seed the dry rock) , let the system percolate for about a month, and then test to make sure the cycles complete before adding anything.

 

I'm not knocking anyone, but these folks who start a new tank and then immediately start testing every day to see if the cycles complete really give me a good chuckle.

 

Starting a great reef tank can be compared to raising a child. So much of their future depends on how they were treated in the first few months and years of life.