Bredler's 10gal Saltwater Debut!

[bredler]

The end of the lurking has arrived!!! Here it is, gang.

 

Okay, this is my first saltwater tank, been doing heavily planted tanks for 3 years and FW in general for 10. Decided to go nano reef for a couple reasons:

 

-I live in a dorm

-I don't have the money to stock a larger reef with corals

-I like the scale of small tanks

-I already had a light fixture/filter for it

 

Hardware:

 

- 10gal ADA

- 50W adjustable heater

- Koralia Nano Powerhead

- Sattelite USA 40w PC w/10,000k/420actinic bulb

- HOB Whisper20 Filter

- Turkey baster

- API test kits

- IO salt

- Distilled water

- Swing arm hydrometer (I know, I know, but it's precise enough to match my salinity for water changes *note that's precise, not accurate*)

 

 

I've got some basic ideas for it too. So far in the tank is:

 

- 12lbs Fiji LR

- (2) blue leg hermits

- (1) mexican red leg hermit

- (5) snails of some sort...

 

That's all the official stuff. Hitchhikers include:

 

- (3) black and white feather dusters

- (1) neon orange and red feather duster

- (1) deep red feather duster

- (1) black and white bristle star

- (an army of) copapods

- (another army of) amphipods

- brown macro algae

- bristleworms

- some sort of bivalve

- a sponge that croaked

 

Every time I look at the tank, I'm blown away with the new stuff that's coming out! The LR has been in the tank for about a week now. The cycle seems to be going pretty well. I had a steep ammonia spike, then a nitrite spike with declining ammonia, then a nitrate spike, and now everything is at zero. The pH started out around 8.2, then when I added LR it went down for a bit to 7.9 and now it's back up to 8.3. I'll be adding some really hardy stuff at the end of this week if the parameters still look good each day until saturday. I've been testing every day and keeping a log with notes too.

 

Everyone says that I don't want star polyps...but they're mistaken. Weed or no, they look really cool...and cheap to boot!

 

Potential Stocking list (corals and coral-like animals):

 

- Star Polyps

- 'Shrooms

- Zoanthids

- Ricordea

- Toadstool

- Undecided LPS

- The largest anemone I can afford

- some sort of rare SPS

 

(note, two of those were to incite a comically nerdy reefer rage)

 

Undecided as to fish for now, I'll add those last anyway.

 

Enough with the talk, here's the pictures!

 

 

FTS: (I'll be adding a thin layer of sand this week)

 

 

One of the blue-legs

 

 

Unidentified Snail

 

 

Feather Duster and coralline growth

 

 

 

What say you, reef-keeping public?

[midna]

Looking good! Fiji is good stuff and I like the way you've laid out the rocks.

[Captain]

nothing wrong with star polyps or other fast growers. You may want to seclude them to their own little island if you dont want to constantly keep them in check, but either way their a good choice to start out with.