Dino Rock: Brian's 10G Reef

[Brian da lion]

Hello Everyone,

 

Feels good to be back! I doubt anyone remembers me but I used to be active on this forum back in 2004-2006 in my early teens. I'm all grown up now and am jumping back in with a 10 gallon reef as a project for myself and my 3 year-old son (Don't worry, it's being kept in my office, which locks). A lot seems to have changed in the hobby since my last tank in 2006; I'm working hard to get back up to speed! My Current setup is:

 

Equipment:

Waterbox 10G Rimless Tank

Hipargero 30W LED

AC70 HOB Filter

Eheim Jager 50W Heater

Fluval Sea CP-1 (256 GPH)

 

Rock/Sand:

12-ish lbs Carib-Sea Life Rock (plus a 1-lb live rock from the LFS)

13-ish lbs live Sand (special grade aragonite)

 

I set everything up last night, and my son pointed out that the aquascape looks like a dinosaur (or turtle, you be the judge)! Not looking to do anything too crazy with this; aiming to mainly keep it as a "flower garden" polyp reef (Xenia, Anthelia, GSP, Clove Polyps, Pipe Organ, maybe some Mushrooms and Zoas). Livestock-wise, I'm planning on:

 

Pair of Ocellaris Clowns (my wife and son are big Finding Nemo fans)

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Pair of Porcelain Anemone Crabs

5x Blue leg Hermits

5x Astrea Snails

3x Cerith Snails

3x Nassarius snails

 

Super excited to get back into the hobby! I'm very open to advice/feedback; been out of the loop for a long time, so please let me know if anything seems off or can be improved. I live in NJ and will be buying most of my stuff at Absolutely Fish in Clifton and Ocean Gallery in N Plainfield, would love any suggestions on other good aquarium stores in the state (I work in sales so I can go anywhere). Cant wait to share the progress with the Nano-Reef community!

[Clown79]

Nice set up. Looks great and does look like a dinosaur🙂

 

2 things that definitely changed, lighting and no more trying to achieve 0 nitrates and phosphates.

[gena]

Congrats on the return!  I totally get the enthusiasm.  I wasn't out for as long as you, but it is a great feeling getting back into something you were once very passionate about.  This is going to be a big hit with your 3 year old!  I'm going with a turtle...so cool :).

[Brian da lion]

Week 1 is in the books. Got hit with a big algae bloom starting on Thursday; went to the fish store this morning and picked up the cleanup crew:

 

4 small Astrea Snails

1 med-large Astrea Snail

1 Trochus Snail

2 Nassarius Snails (I think? They have dark shells and are much larger than any i've seen. I will get a better pic next time one emerges from the sand).

4 Blue Leg Dwarf Hermits

2 Scarlet Reef Hermits

 

Tank is sitting at a stable 77.1 degrees and everyone seems to be active and happy. Will probably let this ride for a week or two, then start looking into shrimp. The store also didn't have any Cerith Snails, so I'll pick up one or two once I find some. Would it be feasible to have both a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp and a group of 3 Anemone Shrimp, or would I run into trouble with aggression?

 

Also, I would really appreciate any tips/resources on taking better tank pictures with an Iphone. I feel like the shimmer effect from the LED is messing with the picture quality a bit.

 

Thanks!

[Brian da lion]

Better pic of one of the “Nassarius” snails that were sold to me. I did some reading and looks like it might be an Ilyanassa snail. Are there any significant downsides to keeping these in a nano?  They seem to be doing a good job turning over the sand bed so I’m leaning towards just keeping them. 

[ninjamyst]

Love it!  Glad to see more people using this light.  So much cheaper than Kessil and AI and perfect for nano.  I use it over my frag tank and zoas are doing great.  I only wish the mount is more adjustment.  What setting is your light on?  I usually go 80% blue, 10% white.  If I can mount it higher, I would go 100% blue, 10% white.

 

Your scape looks great too!

[Brian da lion]

1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

Love it!  Glad to see more people using this light.  So much cheaper than Kessil and AI and perfect for nano.  I use it over my frag tank and zoas are doing great.  I only wish the mount is more adjustment.  What setting is your light on?  I usually go 80% blue, 10% white.  If I can mount it higher, I would go 100% blue, 10% white.

 

Your scape looks great too!

Thanks! Yeah, I’ve been really enjoying the Aqua Knight. Looks nice and clean, has great output/shimmer, and overall seems to be a great value. I’m mostly looking to keep Xenia/Anthelia/Branching GSP so it should be more than enough for what I’m looking to do. 
 

I actually prefer a little less blue in my lights, so I’ve generally been doing 90% White, 10% Blue. I’m sure that might quickly change once I get some corals in there though haha. 

[Murphs_Reef]

4 hours ago, Brian da lion said:

Better pic of one of the “Nassarius” snails that were sold to me. I did some reading and looks like it might be an Ilyanassa snail. Are there any significant downsides to keeping these in a nano? 

What makes you think it's not a Nass? It looks like one to me. 

[Brian da lion]

9 hours ago, Murphych said:

What makes you think it's not a Nass? It looks like one to me. 

I was just a little thrown off because I had never seen a Nassarius Snail this large and with this dark of a shell before. All of the ones I’ve seen before have been much smaller and have either a white or cream-colored shell. Either way, these are doing a great job on the sand bed and don’t seem to be bothering anyone, so I’m happy with them. 

[Murphs_Reef]

Alps forgot to say, lovely rock layout you have. Will be lots of great places for coral 👍🏼

[Brian da lion]

1 hour ago, Murphych said:

Alps forgot to say, lovely rock layout you have. Will be lots of great places for coral 👍🏼

Thanks! My biggest struggle has always been keeping my hands out of my tanks and resisting the urge to rearrange haha. Going strong so far!

[Murphs_Reef]

I do it all the time. People say you shouldn't but....

[gena]

On 8/21/2021 at 7:47 PM, Brian da lion said:

Better pic of one of the “Nassarius” snails that were sold to me. I did some reading and looks like it might be an Ilyanassa snail. Are there any significant downsides to keeping these in a nano?  They seem to be doing a good job turning over the sand bed so I’m leaning towards just keeping them. 

I'm not familiar with the Illyanasa snail, but I do remember (and just googled it to confirm) that there is a look-alike to the nass snail, called a whelk, that isn't a desirable reef tank inhabitant.  Here's a link.  Just make sure what you have doesn't resemble the whelk.

 

https://www.melevsreef.com/articles/whelk-versus-nassarius

[Brian da lion]

Well, that didn’t take long. The tank had its first death today. I turned on the light this morning to find one of my “Nassarius” snails on the remains of one of the scarlet hermits (out of the shell). I’m not sure if it was the snail, or if it was one of the blue hermit crabs (I’m suspecting the latter). I removed the remains, and tested the water. 
 

The levels in the tank are throwing me off a bit. I have the SJ Wave 6-in-1 strip, and the API ammonia test kit. When I tested the water, my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all showing zero. This strikes me as odd, as I have already had a large algae bloom and have six snails and four hermit crabs in the tank, all producing waste. 
 

is there something that would explain this?

[ninjamyst]

Both of those test kits qr inaccurate.  After your tank has cycled, there's rarely a need to test for ammonia or nitrite.  The test kits that do matter are nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity, and calcium.  Salifert is a pretty popular brand.  As for your nitrate being 0, that's normal when there's visible algae.  The algae is consuming the nitrate.  

[Brian da lion]

Good to know, thanks! I was just a little thrown off by how quickly the tank cycled (two weeks). Then again, I did use 100% live sand for the sand bed and a combo of Liferock and live rock from an established tank. I will look into getting the Salifert tests. 

[Brian da lion]

Dumb question, but should I be good to start adding coral?

[ninjamyst]

Cycling a tank is for fish and inverts.  People often mistake that tank needs to be cycled before adding corals.  That's false.  Coral would definitely do better with a stable tank but they don't actually produce ammonia.  Fish produce ammonia and hence you need to cycle a tank to turn ammonia into nitrate.  Think about reef trade shows where frag tanks are up and stocked with hundreds of coral frags with no tank cycling.  Given you added CUC and they are mostly alive, you can add cheap easy soft corals like zoas.  Don't go adding LPS and SPS yet.

[Brian da lion]

Great, this tank is going to be almost 100% softies. Looking to get some Xenia, anthelia, and branching GSP to just let run wild. 

[gena]

15 hours ago, Brian da lion said:

Great, this tank is going to be almost 100% softies. Looking to get some Xenia, anthelia, and branching GSP to just let run wild. 

Yay for softies!!!!  I have never been able to locate anthelia anywhere but online.  If your LFS doesn't have it, you could try looking on FB marketplace.  I added it to my tank...one of my favorite corals.  I have branching GSP too.  Between those three, I'd add xenia last.  I think it's the most sensitive of those three.  

[filefishfinatic]

On 8/13/2021 at 1:42 PM, Brian da lion said:

Hello Everyone,

 

Feels good to be back! I doubt anyone remembers me but I used to be active on this forum back in 2004-2006 in my early teens. I'm all grown up now and am jumping back in with a 10 gallon reef as a project for myself and my 3 year-old son (Don't worry, it's being kept in my office, which locks). A lot seems to have changed in the hobby since my last tank in 2006; I'm working hard to get back up to speed! My Current setup is:

 

Equipment:

Waterbox 10G Rimless Tank

Hipargero 30W LED

AC70 HOB Filter

Eheim Jager 50W Heater

Fluval Sea CP-1 (256 GPH)

 

Rock/Sand:

12-ish lbs Carib-Sea Life Rock (plus a 1-lb live rock from the LFS)

13-ish lbs live Sand (special grade aragonite)

 

I set everything up last night, and my son pointed out that the aquascape looks like a dinosaur (or turtle, you be the judge)! Not looking to do anything too crazy with this; aiming to mainly keep it as a "flower garden" polyp reef (Xenia, Anthelia, GSP, Clove Polyps, Pipe Organ, maybe some Mushrooms and Zoas). Livestock-wise, I'm planning on:

 

Pair of Ocellaris Clowns (my wife and son are big Finding Nemo fans)

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Pair of Porcelain Anemone Crabs

5x Blue leg Hermits

5x Astrea Snails

3x Cerith Snails

3x Nassarius snails

 

Super excited to get back into the hobby! I'm very open to advice/feedback; been out of the loop for a long time, so please let me know if anything seems off or can be improved. I live in NJ and will be buying most of my stuff at Absolutely Fish in Clifton and Ocean Gallery in N Plainfield, would love any suggestions on other good aquarium stores in the state (I work in sales so I can go anywhere). Cant wait to share the progress with the Nano-Reef community!

go to european aquatics. id consider getting a couple bubble tip anenomes for your clowns and porcelain crabs. id do 4 or get 2 and let them reproduce until you have 4 for your porc crabs

[filefishfinatic]

18 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Cycling a tank is for fish and inverts.  People often mistake that tank needs to be cycled before adding corals.  That's false.  Coral would definitely do better with a stable tank but they don't actually produce ammonia.  Fish produce ammonia and hence you need to cycle a tank to turn ammonia into nitrate.  Think about reef trade shows where frag tanks are up and stocked with hundreds of coral frags with no tank cycling.  Given you added CUC and they are mostly alive, you can add cheap easy soft corals like zoas.  Don't go adding LPS and SPS yet.

you dont HAVE to cycle a tank to add anything necessarily. i added fish on day 1 with no nutrient spike. using bottle bac you can instantly add fish ime 

[filefishfinatic]

On 8/21/2021 at 2:39 PM, Brian da lion said:

Week 1 is in the books. Got hit with a big algae bloom starting on Thursday; went to the fish store this morning and picked up the cleanup crew:

 

4 small Astrea Snails

1 med-large Astrea Snail

1 Trochus Snail

2 Nassarius Snails (I think? They have dark shells and are much larger than any i've seen. I will get a better pic next time one emerges from the sand).

4 Blue Leg Dwarf Hermits

2 Scarlet Reef Hermits

 

Tank is sitting at a stable 77.1 degrees and everyone seems to be active and happy. Will probably let this ride for a week or two, then start looking into shrimp. The store also didn't have any Cerith Snails, so I'll pick up one or two once I find some. Would it be feasible to have both a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp and a group of 3 Anemone Shrimp, or would I run into trouble with aggression?

 

Also, I would really appreciate any tips/resources on taking better tank pictures with an Iphone. I feel like the shimmer effect from the LED is messing with the picture quality a bit.

 

Thanks!

are those snails painted?

[Brian da lion]

1 hour ago, filefishfinatic said:

are those snails painted?

They're not painted; their shells have a slight green tinge. Funny how it shows up as fluorescent green in the pictures haha.

[Brian da lion]

Picked up the tank’s first two corals today:  A frag of pulsing Xenia (sorry gena, didn’t see your note until after I bought it haha) and a frag of GSP. 
 

The plan is to let these more or less run wild; I love the grown-in look that a lot of softie/polyp tanks have. Anthelia is definitely trickier to find than I thought it would be, but I’ll keep my eyes open. 
 

I was thinking about getting another invert this weekend, maybe an emerald crab. I plan to get a pair of porcelain anemone crabs down the road, would the emerald crab cause any problems with that?

 

I was also looking at shrimp, and it seems like the prices have really skyrocketed since I last had a tank. Skunk shrimp are going for $35-40 and fire shrimp are going for $45-50. I remember them being like $20 and $30, respectively. Are there any shrimp species that are still reasonably priced? I saw peppermint shrimp are still $10, might just go with 1 or 2 of those. 
 

thanks!