New 10 gal AGA Nano - Day 2

I like how deep you have your sand bed so far. But I don't like the black specks in the sand. The black specks make it look kinda messy. I like the LR it looks like a combination of two differnt kinds. How many pounds of LR did you put in? And where did you buy it from?

The sand was in fact a choice. I have and like all black gravel in my freshwater tanks, but had heard that is very tough to keep clean for saltwater. I did notice that the sand kind of went down in layers (I scooped it in a cup at a time after the rock was set up), the black seems to be lighter than the white even though it was purchased mixed together. I will try stirring it to make it more uniform.

I have twenty pounds of live rock. 15 pounds from one LFS; that didn't look like enough, so I bought 5 more pounds at a different LFS. It's not as colorful as I would have liked, but I'll give it time. I do like the openness of the structure; hopefully my critters will too when I start adding them in a month or so.

yeah the critters should love it for sure. It almost looks like you have 5 pounds of fiji stacked on 15 pounds of some kind of manmade tonga branch lol. I love it. By the way what are you using to light it all up?

Glad you like it, I'm happy the way it turned out so open. The first store's rock isn't advertised as manmade, but that one large piece (which is almost the whole right half of the structure and has two holes through it) does definitely look different from the rest. It actually has much more coralline on the back side, but this side was definitely better for the structure.

And the second five pounds is indeed fiji, the first 15 wasn't labelled as anything in particular. The first store has a large live rock tank (probably six feet square and two feet deep) but they were fairly picked over, with only large and small pieces (no midsized ones).

The lighting is two screwin 50/50 Coralife 20 watters. This is a standard 10 gallon incandescent tank and hood from Wal-Mart. I know it's not the highest light possible but I am on a budget and am willing to keep to low to mid light requirement corals for this first reef tank. The good thing about being on a budget is that it will FORCE me to add things slowly.

Now all you need to add is a little moon light some where lol. Great find on the screw in lights. I thought at first that I saw a shadow in the middle of the tank and now at least I know way it's there. Are you going to set up another 10 gal. to use for your sump? OR just run a canister filter modifed into a sump.

Maybe moon lights down the road a bit. Any recommendations?

I'm not planning a sump at this point. I may do the Aquaclear HOB thing at some point, but I'm trying to do without at this point.

This waiting thing is hard! Life is starting to appear though, I spotted several feather dusters and pods over the weekend.

3/4 watt moon light will light it up. They only set you back about 30 dollars. But on the plus side you get to check out all your night life in the tank. Big als online also has a new timmer made by coral life that looks awfull inviting. if you like diy projects get your self some plexi glass and save a bunch of cash by building your own back of the tank sump. mine is 8 inches wide and 15 inches long and 10 inches high. But with pexi glass you can build any size that you want. Works great for storing tank heaters, and it gives you more water volume to work with, so there is less of a chance of your 10 gallon crashing on you.

nice rock work!