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"Dropout" 10g Reef


Makena95GT

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Lurked for a few weeks, time to post.

 

This tank has been running for almost a year now, was originally a 20H. I had it in the aquatic science classroom at a high school. When school let out for the summer I went to pick it up and well, lets just say don't trust high school kids to take care of a tank, even for a grade.

 

I ended up just giving up on the 20H and happened to have a clean 10g at home, so I bucketed everything but the sand and took off.

 

So for the first few days it was bare bottom. And hideous. It had a HOB filter and a Fluval Nano with spraybar underwater to help with flow.

 

Oh, then I broke the powerhead and had to glue it back together so I can no longer point it. The HOB got sand in it and broke so I trashed it. But hey, no mini-cycle and everything was all fine and dandy. Aside from the student murdering my zoas and paly. So I bought a rock o' zoa for $20. It was very displeased with me for a few weeks.

 

There was a day when I felt the need to come home to check on the tank on my way to work. And low and behold emergency. The spraybar on the Fluval Nano popped off and it was shooting water straight up out of the tank. If I hadn't stopped by, it would have completely drained. I just shut everything off and went to work for 7 hours. Came back and everyone was fine. Glued the spraybar back on and they got a free water change.

te7yzu5y.jpg

 

Not but a day later my nem decided to roam and got sucked into the filter. Half of his body/foot was up in there. I shut it off and he got out with no injuries whatsoever, awesome. Rookie mistake on my part for not using pantyhose.

 

So I go buy pantyhose. Cover filter intake and powerhead. Done. Bought more corals and just let things settle.

 

Oh hey then the nem wanted to move to the back of the tank because I moved my lights so the brighter one was closer to the back where the corals were. And proceeded to cheese-grate himself THROUGH pantyhose into the filter.

 

I cut him out and let him be. He freed himself after a day of breaking his own tentacles off. So I trashed the filter and gave up on having a filter in the tank. Not worth the trouble. He healed up nicely and ate around 3 days after his accident. Even with nubby arms he makes it work.

 

I then built a water bottle filter to hold a small bag of carbon and Phosguard. I was using tap water to make my salt water before I recently just gave in and decided to buy saltwater once a week. Not too bad of an expense considering the size of the tank.

 

 

Anywho. That's the story of my "new" tank. Which will get to move with me across town on the 27th. WHOO!

 

Stock:

Osc. Clown

1 Watchman Goby

1 Pistol Shrimp

5 Blue Leg Hermits

2 Astrea Turbo Snails

1 "IDK" Snail

1 Long Tentacle Anemone

? Brittle Stars (Hitchhikers)

 

Candy Cane Coral

Green Toadstool

Green Bay Packers Zoas

True Red People Eaters

Cinnamon Grandis

 

15lb 'live' sand (That I ended up rinsing in freshwater, murdering it mwaaaaahahahah)

Aqueon circulation pump

Old raggedy heater that has never failed me but has no way to tell what temp you set it at, just a knob that works backwards than normal heaters

water bottle filter

14" power compact light

30" T8 actinic light (found at work, brought home)

 

uzu3y5av.jpg

 

 

I plan to upgrade to a PAR38 LED bulb but def need more info on those and what would work for this tank. It's s standard 10 gallon. 20 x 12 x 10



uduny7am.jpg

Super blurry FTS About to take a new one now that I see how big a fail this one was.

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:welcome:

It doesn't look too bad considering all that it's been through. You can look at coral compulsion or ecoxotic for the par38 bulbs. It would be enough light, but you would be better off with 2 par 30s to avoid having really dim areas on either end of your tank

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:welcome:

It doesn't look too bad considering all that it's been through. You can look at coral compulsion or ecoxotic for the par38 bulbs. It would be enough light, but you would be better off with 2 par 30s to avoid having really dim areas on either end of your tank

 

Thanks! It def could be a LOT worse lol

 

I'll look into the PAR30s

 

The only other thing about them was the wattage of each bulb etc. Wasn't too sure what to go with considering wattage doesn't mean too much, but it still kinda does, if that makes any sense.

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I have one of the coral compulsion par30s on my 2.5 gallon pico, so you can look at that and see if you like the color. Two of those would allow you to keep almost any coral that you wanted to in that tank (SPS up top), and LPS and softies everywhere else. I wouldn't worry about the wattage... it's an old way of thinking about the lights we put over our tanks. The old WPG rule really only "works" with the giant fluorescent bulbs of the 90s. If you buy a brand name PAR30 or PAR38 you'll be able to grow anything and they all have about the same power consumption.

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Is this your first reef?

It was a year ago. As a 20 gallon as stated. Thankfully I didnt run into too many crazy parameter swings outside of my begining couple of weeks. It started off as more of a FOWLR and evolved into a reef when I brought it home mid May :3

 

back when I had that huge short spined urchin he ran over and ate half of my Candy Cane Coral. Thatbwas also the day I took him to the LFS with that big ass thin striped hermit. And well.. it nommed half the corals head. It left the "mouth" intact though. Mind you this was a few weeks ago. I honestly dont think its healing or getting worse. Just... living. It still stretches its tentacles out at night. But every so often its "mouth" will be GAPING open.

 

Idk.. ive never had a CC before this dude so no experience. Think itll bounce back?

 

je2abuhy.jpg

This pic taken right after I was bugging it gently scrubbing algae off of its wounded area. So it was kindof upset. Ill get a better pic in the morning when it doesnt look so pathetic.

 

I mean it was a cheap frag but if it can be saved id love to keep it

 

 

*Posting this here to keep my log updated as well as another area of forum that might have higher traffic to help*

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