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el_ote's 10 Gallon Tank


el_ote

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From an original tank of 5.5 gallons to 10, 20, & 40, I'm back to a 10 gallon.

11-3-18

20181103_164200_zpsnl3nwne4.jpg

 
Equipment:

Fish:

  • 1 Clownfish
  • 1 Bicolor Blenny
  • 1 Yellow Watchman Goby

Inverts:

  • 1 Randall's Pistol Shrimp
  • 1 Fire Shrimp
  • 1 Squat Lobster
  • 1 Halloween Hermit Crab
  • 2 Emerald Crabs
  • 1 Hermit crab
  • 1 Red Bubble Tip Anemone

Corals:

  • Zoas and Palys
  • Devil's Armor Zoa
  • Nuclear Green Paly
  • Purple Death Paly
  • Captain America Paly
  • Pink Zippers (I think)
  • ClovePolyps
  • GreenStar Polyps
  • Orange Ric looking Mushroom

 
Thanks for stopping by.

 

10-16-18

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Hi el_ote,

 

I too had a 10 gallon, but has since failed. Hence, I'm closely following threads on here relating to 10 gallon nano systems, to learn more before I re-start.

 

Are those green hair algae growing on your live rock?

 

How are your nitrate levels?

 

And, what happened to your previous tank(s) that made you downgrade?

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hi NaCl H20

my biggest issue was not sticking to weekly water changes. one skipped became two became three...

Then the GHA took over and it became a REAL battle. The rocks i have are the ones i was able to clean the most of GHA before transfering. there is still some on there, but im scrubbing it off at water changes and its also dying off on its own.

My best advice is dont ever skip a weekly water change! Also, dont over stock or over feed.

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Added a CurrentUSA TrueLumen Pro 12" Actinic to my fixture. I love the color being added and my couple of mushrooms are really opening up now. I may just end up gutting the fixture and mounting some more of these inside.

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  • 1 month later...

Still kicking. 

 

20171024_201433_zps200cgiev.jpg

 

SB Reefs Nano Sprite. i really like the light, but the white is very powerful, i have it set at just on or it overtakes the blues

20171024_201409_crop_489x318-244x159_zps

 

Bad FTS, i still havent figured a good Android photo app, or how to tweak the photos. Any Mac or Linux Mint program suggestions would be appreciated.

20180106_203303_PerfectlyClear_zpsrf5idl

 

A few frags from Infinite Aquariums. forgot the names

20180106_203312_PerfectlyClear_zpsw6peve

 

My BiColor Blenny

IMG_20180109_200805_768_zpsd0dlkb52.jpg

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  • 3 months later...

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Full tank shot. ATO is doing pretty good. I added the brs 1.1ml doser for all and am only going to be doing 1 minute a night since my useage is pretty low, but by the end if the week it drops more than I want. I switched out my reservoir for the Voss water bottle and am using a smaller one for the alk. I think they look cool. 

20180414_132153_zpsbh4w4vfo.jpg

Hope to get a green bta and want the alk stable. Maybe a rock flower anemone and an anemone porcelain crab. 

 

20180307_184404_zps2xgfxlxv.jpg

 

Picked this guy up a few weeks ago. Love the coloring

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4 hours ago, Lorekeeper said:

Looking good!

 

That clown is pretty close to full grown, no? Looks huge in that tank!

Thank you!

 

     Yeah, I have had that clown since i started with my 5 gallon. 6 years ago now. wow, it sounds so long ago, but feels like only yesterday. Been looking at her and thinking i might have to take her to the tank at the office. It's a 40, but i dont want to get rid of her. 

 

After all this time, i think i am just now barely getting the hang of my tank. 

 

Bought a refill for my Red Sea Pro test kit, i hadnt realized it was over a year expired. tank tested ok at 9.1 dkh where i thought it was 7.0. No wonder i was having such a hard time getting an easy reading.

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1 hour ago, el_ote said:

Bought a refill for my Red Sea Pro test kit, i hadnt realized it was over a year expired. tank tested ok at 9.1 dkh where i thought it was 7.0. No wonder i was having such a hard time getting an easy reading.

I'm so glad they changed the alk test kit, it was so hard to read before. 

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59 minutes ago, Red_Blenny said:

I'm so glad they changed the alk test kit, it was so hard to read before. 

Yeah, I noticed the colors were different along with a new "too much" color. Was looking for an updated YouTube video to make sure I was still doing it correctly, raising the plunger to the top marking not the liquid, same as before, but the refill had no instructions so I assumed it was the same.

 

Also picked up a Duncan coral from the lfs and a hammer from my office tank Friday. The hammer has been less fluffy than at work, but the Duncan opened up after a feeding with reef roids. 

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Welp... Not 3 hours after saying that I'm getting the hang of this reefing thing my doser decides to come on and not turn off! I woke up to an alk snowstorm with no water on hand and no chance of doing anything till after work. 

 

I make up two 5 gallon jugs of mix and get home to do a water change! 

 

Here's a pic of the tank I came home to, forgot to snag a pic in the morning. 

20180423_172541_zpswuu2ex1w.jpg

 

I tested alk after the 1st water change and it was off the charts. After the second water change, the alk came in at 11.2.

 

My clown and blenny are ok. The fire shrimp and emerald crabs started moving after the first water change, but I'm still worried. The snails flipped themselves over after the second water change. 

 

Man this sucks...

 

Where's that thread about learning from your mistakes?

  • Sad 3
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Just about a week and a couple water changes later and the tank looks ok. Not too bad, but a scare for sure. Think I'm going to keep my alk higher than I had it previously. The duncan I got just before the alk dump is looking better at 10ish dkh than the 8ish I had it at. 

 

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3 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Glad to see it is back on track @el_ote, doser malfunctions can be devastating. 

Thanks! yeah, i am now only putting in the container as small an amount of the alk as possible, and i am also diluting it to 50% strength with rodi so i can limit the amount of another accidental overdose. I figure i can just do twice as much running time and keep my parameters as close to stable as possible. I also moved my timer to a location not as likely to get knocked around when i play with the tank.

  • Like 1
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On 5/1/2018 at 6:27 AM, Type-H20 said:

Cool tank.  Still running the SB Reef light?   Hope the tank has more ups than downs - will be following along.

Thanks! yeah im still on the SB Reef light. i like it a lot more now that i have it hung up higher. I emailed them and asked their recommendation on height for my tank and was told 12 - 14" above the water line. and i also just now dropped the intensity down to the least amount to get the right color i want. i may or may not have been cooking my corals. those palys just seem to stretch no matter what i have it at.   

On 5/1/2018 at 4:30 PM, Lorekeeper said:

Glad to see the tank alright!

 

Nice save.

Thanks! welp, i may have just made another save this morning. Today, i heard my brs 1.1 ml pump going (i changed the time to when im awake just for this reason) and decided to wait out the timer. Sure enough, the SOB never stopped. AGAIN the timer got knocked into the on position. had i not sat there to watch it, it would still be running and i'd get home to another alk snowstorm. no more cheapo amazon timers, it'll be manual dosing until i can get a reefkeeper going. I will probably just dose my water change water to 10.0 dkh and be done with it for the week. i have so few corals anyway. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/6/2018 at 10:15 AM, Lugmos12 said:

How did you get rid of all that algae?

Sorry Lugmos, didn't see this post when it came in. For the hair algae, I took my rocks out and splashed hydrogen peroxide. It took two doses each rock and I only did one at a time, but it worked out very well. I also siphoned out as much sand as I could and rinsed, rinsed, and rinsed with tap water then soaked in h2o2 water mix for a bit then rinsed a couple more times. Been good since.

I may have to spot treat a bit more, but it's not too bad.

 

On another note I'm pretty sure I lost my acans from the alk overdose, I was trying to heal them up, but they just kept shrinking. Some of my zoa's never really opened back up, I changed my flow direction hoping it is that. I reduced my light intensity and gradually brought it back up to about 1/2power blues and just on whites, but nada. I was worried the sbreefs light was too strong even after raising it 14" above the waterline as per their recommendation... Le sigh.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I'm stuck wondering what's going on with the tank, my zoas and clove polyps are staying closed a lot of the time. I have done some big water changes since the alk dump, I am keeping alk at about 9 - 10. I heard the emeralds may be bugging them, but I haven't seen them in there. 

I am thinking my clown may be trying to find a host in each colony. I have seen him/her rubbing up on my Duncan but nothing else.

My lights are hung high and at the lowest intensity which puffed up my Duncan and torch, but has had no affect on the z's and P's...

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Also deciding between my aquarium apps... I like both for different reasons and can't choose... 

Screenshot_20180612-131509_zpsjukhpdc1.p

 

Screenshot_20180612-132507_zps2xc7hlgm.p

 

I like the photos of the aquarium note, but I like the style and ease if the aquarium logger... 

 

Edit: I also have my replacement filters, di resin, and ro membrane for my RODI unit coming in this week. Hopefully this helps my phosphates! I've also cut down feeding a lot since changing to pellets from leftover flakes that went EVERYWHERE.

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