First tank - 10 gallon cube

[gkr]

Hey Guys - just started my first mixed reef tank, a 10 gallon Waterbox cube AIO. I'm 2 weeks in from cycling with Fiji live rock. I cycled the tank mainly just with the rock, but I did add a few food pellets every other day, and added some nitrifying bacteria a couple times about 4-6 days in.

 

Equipment

Stock pump

Aqua Illumination Prime HD LED on the rigid aluminum mount

Cobalt Aquatics 50W heater

Tunze basic ATO 

inTank media basket in chamber 1 with a sponge, Chemipure Blue, and activated carbon from the stock setup (Plan to switch to Seachem Matrix soon)

Tunze Comline DC 9001 Protein Skimmer in chamber 2 (Just set this up 24 hrs ago, so far it looks like its doing ok. It has already produced a ligher brown skimmate)

I have an Aqua Illumination Nero 5 powerhead on the way. I just hope it's not too overpowering on the lowest setting for this tank. 

 

I was really torn on a skimmer. I originally figured water changes are very easy on a small tank, and should prove highly effective if done on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Then I talked myself into skimming. We will see how the skimmer does and how often it looks like I need to do water changes once I fully stock the tank. 

 

I added my clean up crew today - 1 Emerald Crab and 1 Peppermint Shrimp. I've got a lot of algae so they'll be busy for several days.

 

Plan to add 1 or 2 Clowns, or maybe 1 Clown and a Goby or Blenny. Still haven't decided because the more research I do, the more interested I get in other fish. 

 

Still don't know what I want to do with corals. I love zoanthids, would like an anemone, and some relatively easy LPS. I'm just going to take it as slow as I can and see what works best. 

 

Here are some pictures below, and I will try to post updates!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SliceGolfer]

A Tailspot Blenny has tons of personality and will help clean up lost food and algae growth 

[Sancho]

Looks awesome 👍 I’d definitely get a bigger Tupperware container though 🤗

[gkr]

27 minutes ago, Sancho said:

Looks awesome 👍 I’d definitely get a bigger Tupperware container though 🤗

Haha yeah I will eventually get something bigger in there. I just didn't want to set myself up for a major overflow with a huge top off reservoir. 

[WV Reefer]

58 minutes ago, gkr said:

Hey Guys - just started my first mixed reef tank, a 10 gallon Waterbox cube AIO. I'm 2 weeks in from cycling with Fiji live rock. I cycled the tank mainly just with the rock, but I did add a few food pellets every other day, and added some nitrifying bacteria a couple times about 4-6 days in.

 

Equipment

Stock pump

Aqua Illumination Prime HD LED on the rigid aluminum mount

Cobalt Aquatics 50W heater

Tunze basic ATO 

inTank media basket in chamber 1 with a sponge, Chemipure Blue, and activated carbon from the stock setup (Plan to switch to Seachem Matrix soon)

Tunze Comline DC 9001 Protein Skimmer in chamber 2 (Just set this up 24 hrs ago, so far it looks like its doing ok. It has already produced a ligher brown skimmate)

I have an Aqua Illumination Nero 5 powerhead on the way. I just hope it's not too overpowering on the lowest setting for this tank. 

 

I was really torn on a skimmer. I originally figured water changes are very easy on a small tank, and should prove highly effective if done on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Then I talked myself into skimming. We will see how the skimmer does and how often it looks like I need to do water changes once I fully stock the tank. 

 

I added my clean up crew today - 1 Emerald Crab and 1 Peppermint Shrimp. I've got a lot of algae so they'll be busy for several days.

 

Plan to add 1 or 2 Clowns, or maybe 1 Clown and a Goby or Blenny. Still haven't decided because the more research I do, the more interested I get in other fish. 

 

Still don't know what I want to do with corals. I love zoanthids, would like an anemone, and some relatively easy LPS. I'm just going to take it as slow as I can and see what works best. 

 

Here are some pictures below, and I will try to post updates!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks great so far. 😊

[Sancho]

4 minutes ago, gkr said:

Haha yeah I will eventually get something bigger in there. I just didn't want to set myself up for a major overflow with a huge top off reservoir. 

Almost had the exact set up including the belkin power strip on my cad 8....except I had a proper ATO reservoir 😂

[gkr]

Here’s an update with a couple pictures. I’ve added a handful of frags and a couple ocellaris clowns. So far everything is doing very well. Just feeding and testing water trying to get a feel for what is too much food in the water. 

[EG2020]

How did you manage to suspend the Tunze skimmer in the middle chamber? I have the same setup, however I cannot get the skimmer to stay up as the magnet won't hold.

 

your tank looks great by the way!