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CHUCK'S COLLEGE NANO REEF


chucktdbm321

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chucktdbm321

Well its been 3 years since i started a new tank... I had a 15 gallon that matured from a ten gallon that was over three years old. Long story short the 15 was too much to move back and forth and eventually crashed due to overfeeding of the tank while I was away. Im bringing the ten gallon back with a very simple aproach and I'm very excited to start it up!

 

Tank Specs

 

10 gallon tank 20x10x12

 

7lbs of premium figi dry rock

 

Lighting- DIY 12 3w Cree led (6rb 4nw on dimmers 2 True Violet 3w ) 1 3w Cree NW for fuge light

 

Filtration- AC50 w/ only chaeto no media

 

Circulation- Mp 10 ES

 

Heater- Aqueon Pro100w

 

Controller- ReefKeeper lite w/itemp, ph probe, and floatswitch for ato

 

 

FTS: 9/14/2011

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FTS: 12/7/2011

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FTS: 1/21/2012



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Why did overfeeding your sister crash the tank?...Sorry, I had to.

 

How does having the MP10 on your back wall seem to effect the tank? Also what are you planning on keeping?

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sogreedy23

Looks good what are your stocking plans for it? I tried my vortech on the back wall once too: what you'll find is theres a loooot of flow right in the middle and on the sides it will be nice and calm. This would be cool if you planned on having SPS right in the middle, then lower flow softies or LPS on the sides. In the end, I don't have any SPS or any high flow coral so i stuck with the regular and put it back on the long way. Depending on how you plan on your coral placement, this may be something to consider.

 

Are you keeping it BB, or adding sand at some point later? I like the simple scape and open area though, lots of possibilities for coral placement.

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chucktdbm321

overfeeding the sister is good one lol...

 

I absolutely love the mp10 on the back wall Because i have a tunnel of very high flow that wraps around each rock as I planned and i have one dead spot directly in the middle. This is perfect since i plan on keeping it BB for ease of moving and clean up. Also this dead spot will collect detritus right there and i can easily suck up with some airline tubing.

 

Planning on having a lot of sps on top and middle, with some lps on the sides, and filled in with palys and zoas. But overall, mainly sps and zoas like my 15 was. Im still quite curious of this dead spot because its calling my name to put a nice show piece lps in right there like a plate or open brain of some sort. Cause in theory all the food and what not should end up right in its mouth lol. But once again who knows I might do something else.

 

Im really like everyone's tank with minimal rock and loads of coral and this is where this tank is going. One thing that i've been thinking about is doing a coral color scheme. Which i really haven't seen in many peoples tank so I think that would be a very unique thing.

 

As far as livestock goes. I'll do no more than 4 snails, no hermits, possiblility of a shrimp but unlikely. I'd like to do another clam cause they are just too cool (really don't like how much calcium they suck up though). And im really thinking no to fish for now but I might have to get something to control pods again.

 

The tank has 7lbs of dry rock from BRS. This is my 3rd time order from these guys cause they have awesome prices and you can tell them the exact size of the pieces you would like too! So i highly reccomend them for any kind of dry rock.

 

 

 

Tonight I got a gallon of water from a very established tank and a small rock covered in coraline. I also will be adding seachem stability to help kick start this tank!

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with more LR and LS it can help your tank with the biological filtration which can help with your overfeeding problem.

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chucktdbm321
with more LR and LS it can help your tank with the biological filtration which can help with your overfeeding problem.

 

^ This is not my problem, I had to leave the tank back at home because It was too much of a hassle to bring back and forth and there. So when i was home my sister over fed the tank. I am a firm believer of less is more when it comes to LR and LS is out of the question with moving the tank freaquently. Thanks for your consideration though

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chucktdbm321

I will be adding seachem stability for the first week of the tank and then only adding water for the evap and then testing the params on the end of the 2nd and 3rd week.

 

Im thinking I will do a 2 gallon water changes every week for the first couple months and then see how my calcium consumption and other params do throughout the week. Right now I am thinking I will rely on only waterchanges but I might go back to a 2 part again. I will probably use amino acids and Vit C as well. But for now the wait begins

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chucktdbm321

I also scraped a lot of live coraline off and put in the tank along with one left over snail. It would be really cool if the coraline starts spreading already because of this. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

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chucktdbm321

Im so use to just fragging my old corals and water changes. I haven't got a new piece of coral for almost a year! Im really considering this color scheme idea. So far I want lots of very red corals and obnoxious greens. So some slimer frags for sure and hopefully some nice setosa (sp?) and maybe some nice monti cap peices. I wanna stay away from the usual pinks and light blues because once the coraline sets in those colors seem never stand out very much. I think some really yellow coral would be very cool too I use to have these LA lakers that were as yellow as the crayon but they got a fungus but i think a lot of those would really pop. Basically im trying to avoid the usual tank look of everything blue and pink and purple. My goal is to be able to easily see colonies from across the room with the corals I pick B)

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chucktdbm321

Well the jager isn't operating correctly and since i bought it online i can't return it since i opened it. The problem with it is it isn't heating the tank high enough at all. I played with the calibration and had that it should be 8 degrees higher than what the dial read and had the dial set to 84... The tank temp never got over 74!And even worse it said it was getting to temp by turning off its light. Not sure whats with this i guess i just got a bad one. I also replaced a stealth heater and was able to buy a 50w Aqueon pro (not my first choice but its what Petsmart had) and it seems to have the same problem I set it to 80 and heater turned its green light meaning its up to temp and the tank is at 72?! Obviously thinking it could be the thermometers problem so i got another reliable glass thermometer and read exactly the same. This a ten gallon tank and is a cool basement with an average ambient temp between 68-70. So i really don't understand whats the problem. Its a ten gallon that needs to be raised ten degrees. All of the online guidelines suggest a 50w should be fine but nope. Of course i never had this problem with my good ole recalled stealth

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chucktdbm321

took back the 50w today and trying out the 100w Aqueon Pro hopefully this works lol. Or else i'll have to go back to the 200w hydor theo that is works very well just kinda an eyesore and a power drain...

 

However, can anyone chime in here? Would 200w draw the same wattage if its barely on compared to a 50w if it always has to run?? I feel the 200w would actually be better?

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chucktdbm321

Its a TOP FIN aquarium and it was 12.99 at Petsmart lol. If you have the change for go with the marina style 10 gallon comes with a real nice black sillicone and already rimless.

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chucktdbm321

Tank is all done cycling and im getting a little more color on the rocks each day. I put my frag rack that i made back in the tank I also have a ball chaeto from the last tank that had a some pods on it. Im sticking with the 100w Aqueon Pro. I really like this heater because it keeps the tank at a steady 78 degrees and has a nice light that turns green when it is at temp and red when it is heating. Plus its all black and it is easily hidden.

 

Going a little crazy with the krylon Fusion... I spray painted the back and bottom of the tank. I also did the intake tube of the filter and i will also being doing the chaeto container too. The frag rack is already painted but its black too lol and is temporary for now. This way the back of the tank will not look as nearly as crowed all the attention will be focused on the coral.

 

I also added my first frags a couple days ago i got a frag of radioactive dragon eyes, some very green GSP that will be limited to its own small rock on the bottom, and a small frag of nuc greens. here's a pic of the dragon eyes

 

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chucktdbm321

Thanks, im probably going to stop by a friends house this weekend and pick out some corals that I would like frags of and then he'll let them heal for a couple weeks and then i'll pick them up!

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chucktdbm321

Picked out some corals that will follow the color scheme nicely in the tank can't wait to see'em. Also did my first water change with this tank and i got all the debri from the rock during cycling and piled the rocks against the glass and wow do i like the scape lol! I took a quick pic to show you guys, I would change the placement of several things in the tank as it is pictured the Mp10 would be on the side flowing towards the structure and the frag rack as i said is temporary. But really like how hidden the heater is and the paint on the intake tube really turned out nicely. But what do you guys think? this scape looks bad ass to me. I think i like it a lot more than the other one.

 

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chucktdbm321

eh not feeling this scape so much now lol. Im really having a hard time finding exactly what i want with this scape i might just go back to what I originally had

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lakshwadeep

The overhang idea is nice. Try keeping the rocks off the glass for stability and ease of cleaning. The original scape is okay, but a little too symmetrical. You might try a large island (possibly with an overhang) and small island.

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chucktdbm321

Yea i understand where you are coming from. I really don't like the rock on the glass for the two reasons you mentioned but with having it BB its quite easy to clean and it gives a lot of space so i might have a scape using the glass still. I really like the overhangs as well. I'm still messing with ideas i want with this tank as far as the scape goes. Right now i have two islands that are touching basically together with two overhangs all on the right side with flow coming from the right. I'll take pics with more scapes. But i might end up doing what i did with my last tanks and get the diamond bit out for the dremel and some aquamend

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chucktdbm321

big update coming for the 1 month mark. actually have some stuff in there, scape is re done, new heater, and ideas up in the air

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  • 2 weeks later...
chucktdbm321

Update: Corals still not all plaed on rock so no FTS for a little sorry lol. Making a fuge out an AC70 and not the traditional way. Basically was given half these corals for free from fellow members other corals i got extremely cheap. Basically im blessed with good connections here lol. Here are some coral shots that i took with my point and shoot.

 

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More pics!

 

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looks cool. everything is on a frag rack getting acclimated i take it? I am running a 10 gallon also (an AGA style). Its amazing that your previous 10 ran for 3 years! I wish mine makes it that far haha. I'll be following this build :)

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