Josh's 10 gallon Build

[bauder1986]

So after much thought, time, money and effort I decided to start a tank journal. Now this isn't a overly fancy tank in terms of gadgets. I started this tank with simplicity and silence in mind, since this tank is in my bedroom after all. Now most tank journals start with a run down list of what is going in it for livestock. What is going to be used run it. What kind of stand is being used. Well, sorry to disappoint, I don't plan on doing that until later.

Instead, I'm going to tell a short story of this tank and how it came to be. I got into the hobby about 8 months ago. I started three years ago in freshwater, ending my freshwater hobby with two 55 gallon tanks and a 33 gallon tank and somewhere around 80 fish. When I got into saltwater, I got rid of every single freshwater tank that I had and gave all the fish away. So I impulsively got rid of $3000.00 worth of freshwater stuff to start at ground level again :lol:. Dont get me wrong, I'm still twitching from it haha.

My first saltwater tank was a 45 gallon used petland livestock tank with dual overflow with 1 inch bulheads. I bought a simple used sump for it, along with a Sedra KSP-7000 for a pump. I got 16 lbs of liverock at first to start the cycle. And for lighting, I used a 36" Corallife dual PC fixture with one crappy actinic and one true white. First coral in that tank was GSP, Hammer Frogspawn and Xenia. First fish was a yellow damsel given to me by my roomate Terry. So, for first tank running on a budget, I thought that I was doing pretty good. I built a simple but majorly over killed stand for the tank, and by over kill I mean 2 x 6 frame:razz:. And that was my first tank, up to the point where I woke up at 3 am to find the silicone seals on the tank fail and the sump cracked and about 40 gallons of water on my bedroom floor with a blown circuit breaker! :cry: So I tried fixing it, and it just wouldnt work. Say the least, Terry got back his fish along with a bunch of coral, LR and a pump which I sold to him.

I didnt get another tank for 2 months till I got this ten gallon. This tank was given to me by the LFS because they wanted to be rid of it and I wanted to start another tank. I looked at this tank and thought that it would be the perfect little frag tank to start growing coral for a bigger tank. So I took the tank home, cleaned it, bought a Corallife 150 watt MH for it and slapped together a filter canister for it with 2 lbs of LR for cycle and seeding and this is what I got.

5221
5222

So I stuck with that for a while, added more LR here and there. and got some coral finally!

5223
5224

And then I moved the tank into my room. Then went to Calgary to meet up with Simon (simplycoral) and got more coral!

5225

[bauder1986]

And some more from Simon.
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/nipples.jpg

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010840.jpg

So I ran with that for a while. Everything went very good, very healthy coral growth. But the canister filter was way to loud for me to be able to sleep peacefully at night since the tank was sitting on the ledge above my bed. So I wanted to go back to Calgary and get a Koralia Nano fan and maybe a frag or two.

So I went to Calgary with Terry and met up with John (lobsterboy) at his place to take alook at his SPS tank and ended up buying some Digi.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010809.jpg

Then we got to talking and John told us about Coral Vit, LPS Amino Acid and all that nice stuff that you can dose your tank with for coral growth. So Terry and I decided to try it on our tanks and we then went down to Red Coral Aquariums and met up with Doug(fishytime)

That store was one of the coolest little saltwater store I have been to yet! There were so many corals to choose from and so many toys to buy :biggrin:. Anyways I bought 3 zoo frags, a large zoo colony, a colony of blue pom pom xenia, a Koralia Nano fan (the original reason to go to Calgary) and got some of that Coral Vit, LPS Amino Acid and Pohls.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010841.jpg

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010839.jpg

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010806.jpg

So I got rid of the canister filter, got some frags and no I'm running a silent, sumpless system with great results.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010805.jpg

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010834.jpg

Say the least, Im pretty happy about where this tank has gone so far. And now I need a stand! Well I'll post that later on tonight once the stain dries :biggrin:

[BlueAbyss]

Looks really good. I love the simplicity you've gone for, it really works. The blue xenia is going to look great once it settles in.

[Reef_surfer]

I hope you dont use Rickards to do the water changes lol:Banane35:

[bauder1986]

Looks really good. I love the simplicity you've gone for, it really works. The blue xenia is going to look great once it settles in.

Thanks for the compliment! Simplicity was my mission. No sump, no protein skimmer no noise! I just wanted the tank to do its own thing naturally. The blue xenia is settled in, its just that it has moments through out the whole day that its cranky about something. But when its happy it looks pretty good, I just have to have the camera at the ready then lol.

I hope you dont use Rickards to do the water changes lol:Banane35:

Lol thanks reef_surfer! Yah no, Rickards is for my personal water change:smile:

[elitesurfer]

Lol thanks reef_surfer! Yah no, Rickards is for my personal water change:smile:

Lmao.
Tank's looking good. Consistent water changes is all that 10 gallon will need. :)

[bauder1986]

Lmao.
Tank's looking good. Consistent water changes is all that 10 gallon will need. :)

Actually, no. I have had this tank running for almost 5 months now and its weekly to bi-weekly water changes. I have next to no bioload. My perameters are Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Ph: 8.1 to 8.3 Salinity: 1.021 Calcium: 420 ppm to 440 ppm Alkalinity: 6.5 to 7.6

Those are the parimeters for the last 3 months. They fluctuate in those ranges. Coral growth and color is great. Also I havent had an algea spike in about 2 months. I might be just lucky, but this tank seems to be able to function with out massive amounts of water changes.

[simplycoral]

Looking good Josh..:biggrin:

Keep the pictures coming. Always good to see how some of my siblings are getting on :wink: Looks like you're taking good care of them... :biggrin:

Simon.

[fishytime]

Simply beautiful :biggrin:

[bauder1986]

Looking good Josh..:biggrin:

Keep the pictures coming. Always good to see how some of my siblings are getting on :wink: Looks like you're taking good care of them... :biggrin:

Simon.

Thanks Simon, the frags that I got from you are doing great! Some of the healthiest looking corals I've ever had. Oh and I still promise you that once that Octospawn is ready, Ill frag a good piece for you as well!

Simply beautiful :biggrin:

Thank You Doug! Like I told you, one of the reasons why I am in this hobby is the beauty that can be created through it!

[bauder1986]

Now like I promised, I built a stand and a canopy for this tank. I spent the last three days working with these tools

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010904.jpg

So I had a damn good idea of what I wanted for a stand. I wanted something with a mixed Victorian / Venician style to it, but with in a budget and something that I can do myself. Now Im not a journeyman carpenter like Doug. But I sure try haha.

Now for a frame I decided to use an old friend of mine....My old 45 gallon stand, thats right the one built out of 2x6's. Terry was using it for his 30 gallon starfire cube but he suddenly got different ideas and gave it back to me....I wonder what he has planned actually hmm.

So this stand was slightly modified for Terry's cube, he had a 3 inch deep square cut into it to set his cube into to hide the base of the tank. and with the styrofoam leveler it really was only 3/4 inch deep. That cut out that Terry did was perfect for my tank, it was 20" wide and so was my tank!.

So thats the story on that stand now for pictures!

The beginnings of the canopy
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010855.jpg

More beginnings, but with the night lights one so cool!
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010856.jpg

FTS of the beginings.
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010853.jpg

And after I got the trim on with stain
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010896.jpg[/IMG
][IMG]http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010897.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010898.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010892.jpg

I designed the stand to let me remove the front panel to store stuff underneath, dont mind the mess, I just moved in haha
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010891.jpg


Oh and did I mention that the bulb in my Corallife MH went on me...Yah crazy, so I needed another bulb and terry decided that he didnt have a use for this 150 watt K2 Viper at the moment, so he let me use it till I got mine running again! He is a pretty nice guy eh! Gives me my stand back, loans me his MH. haha Thx Terry!
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010895.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010894.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010893.jpg

And the FTS of the finished product!
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010901.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010900.jpg

[bauder1986]

And another FTS of the pretty stuff :lol: Dont mind the ****y looking corals, they had no light for most of the day.:sad:
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010899.jpg

But yah, I'm pretty proud of what I managed to pull off here. I spent $775.00 on this tank already with the intention of spending another 100 on another Nano fan, some hammerhead frogspawn and an actinic PC fixture to combo with the MH. Oh yah and a canopy cooling fan sometime soonish. The cooling fan isnt really a big worry, my temp only goes up 2 degrees in a full light cycle, but it doesnt hurt to be safe, right?

So final run down on what I have:

Coral:
Digitata
Frogspawn / Octospawn
Blue Pom Pom Xenia
Gorilla's Nipples
Fire and Ice Zoos
6 other types of Zoos

Hardware:
1 Korelia Nano
150 watt heater
150 watt MH K2 Viper / Corallife
Cleaning Magnet

Dosing:
Weekly:
Iodine
Strontium/Molybdenum
Calcium

Every two days:
Phytoplankton

Every three days:
Coral Vit
Phols
Amino Acid LPS

Feed the Frogspawn Mysis shrimp every night, or try to keep up on that habit haha.

Building supplies came from Home Depot, 80 bucks worth of trim, 4 bucks worth of hardboard, 12 bucks in stain and brushes and 8 bucks in glue.

So yah thats what I can build I guess, honestly I'm surprised that it turned out this good, Im not the best at cabinet making.

[Boomboy]

I dont think you should be dosing anything, it can easily throw that tank out of whack if you do weekly to by weekly water changes that should be enough. i think you should raise you salinity slowly to 1.024-1.026 around that range. in your pictures your zoas were really scretched out. and your xenia still isnt happy from your recent ones same with your frogspawn. they are not expanding like they should. everything is going good. just keep it simple with tanks this size. also i dont think you need to feed phyto in the tank either or any of those other ones. changing 2 to 3 gallons a week will be plenty to keep the parameters in check. you wanted to keep it simple anyways though right.

keep up the good work man.

[bauder1986]

I dont think you should be dosing anything, it can easily throw that tank out of whack if you do weekly to by weekly water changes that should be enough. i think you should raise you salinity slowly to 1.024-1.026 around that range. in your pictures your zoas were really scretched out. and your xenia still isnt happy from your recent ones same with your frogspawn. they are not expanding like they should. everything is going good. just keep it simple with tanks this size. also i dont think you need to feed phyto in the tank either or any of those other ones. changing 2 to 3 gallons a week will be plenty to keep the parameters in check. you wanted to keep it simple anyways though right.

keep up the good work man.

ok Ill give it a shot, ill do a water change tomorrow to raise the salinity up a point. I do however want to keep dosing my coral vit, phols, and amino acid LPS, but maybe a little less often. the frogspawn is all the way out now, ill get a photo of it. But the xenia is still not that happy but i think that it is because of the higher light intensity. Xenia is usually a low light coral.

I found that the gorilla nipples reached out ever since i introduced them into the tank, they do that in my buddies tanks as well, we have more than sufficient lighting, i think it be more of a characteristic of them. the other zoo colonies have a really short reach but fully spread heads. My digi's polips are always out, not all the way out but none the less they're out.

But yah, ill start relying on the water changes for calc, iodine, strontium, molybdenum. Ill maybe stop the phyto but i seem to have great results with the zoos on that, and i dose really small amounts of everything as well. I am very careful with my dosing because i know how easy it is to throw a tank out of whack.

Thanks
Josh

[bauder1986]

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010905.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010906.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010907.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010908.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1010909.jpg

[simplycoral]

Looking Good Josh :biggrin:..

Those Gorillas Nipples are definitely reaching for the light. They don't have that characteristic in my tank. Maybe try moving them a little closer to the top to see if they relax.

If the Xenia is retracted this is normally a good indication that something is out of whack. Xenia is very sensitive to PH swings so maybe a good idea to test the PH at different times during the day.

S.

[bauder1986]

alright, ill move the gorillas actually i might move everything around to accomadate everything better. Ill test the ph through out the day.The strangest thing is that everything has great growth, color and good polyp extension. hmm.

[bauder1986]

Ok, so I aquascaped my tank to better suit the needs of my corals, and I took the bulb out of the K2 viper MH and put it in my CoralLife fixture, which has much superior reflectors and heat dispation. Im getting better lighting, appears that the zoos have settled down quite abit since then. I guess I have to somehow match Simons lighting with his breeder tanks but that will take time:razz:

So Im took advise from all those that gave it, Im slowly raiseing my salinity to 1.024 from 1.021. One day and im up one point. I double checked my ph and guess what Simon, you nailed it on the head, 8.0, so Im slowly raising that as well, got it up .1 and the xenia is starting to smarten up!

other than that, ammonia is at .40 ppm, and nitrates are at 15 ppm, but i suspect that came from stirring up everything in the tank in the aquascape so im gonna let that settle down. If I do have any algea beakout my two snails got it covered like with every other piece of algea that tries to spring up.

Now heres a question for you folks, I'm sitting at 460 ppm calcium and 12.88 alkalinity which is pretty close to my prefered 440 ppm 10.80 alk. I was wondering if you guys see nothing wrong with that range. I see good growth, color in almost all corals, with xenia being the exception, so I think Im in the right, but let me know if im not.

Im going to let my water changes do the work for Iodine, strontium, molybdenum and most of the calcium but im still going to does the coral vit, amino acid LPS and Phols stuff carefully. I already see good results with the zoos and the digi on that.

anyways just thought Id let you all know, give me thoughts, opinions, and maybe a few good jokes.

Oh yah, I eventually want to retrofit a actiinic fixture into this deal thats under 20" in total length. Help me out by finding ideas/merchants. Thanks folks.

[bauder1986]

Alright people, update time. Sorry but no FTS right now due to cranky Octospawn due to salinity raise. So I spent the last couple of weeks raising my Salinity and getting my coral used to the idea that there well not be as much dosing from now on. To say the least, the zoos are starting to accept the changes but the ones that everyone expressed concern for are not settling down, the gorilla nipples are still reaching for the stars even though i reaquascaped and brought them higher. I switched the bulb from the K2 viper back to my Corallife fixture due to superior reflectors and still, the gorilla nipples want to reach high.

K so i say WTF do they want??? they are still healthy looking, color is good, they open all the way up every day but they still reach.

Other than that, I am waiting for the Octospawn to relax and then ill have pics up. Oh and Simon, you should see that Frogspawn, wow does it ever reach:biggrin:

[ElGuappo]

Is that enough flow???? in my 10 i started with a K1 then added a nano. i am moving my 10g into a 15 G (easier to get lights on) and will be using a k2 and k1. just my 2 cents. also i dont see any surface agitation. IME does wonders.

when zoas reach its usually a low light issue , but with 150w halide i woudnt say this is the issue.

[simplycoral]

Alright people, update time. Sorry but no FTS right now due to cranky Octospawn due to salinity raise. So I spent the last couple of weeks raising my Salinity and getting my coral used to the idea that there well not be as much dosing from now on. To say the least, the zoos are starting to accept the changes but the ones that everyone expressed concern for are not settling down, the gorilla nipples are still reaching for the stars even though i reaquascaped and brought them higher. I switched the bulb from the K2 viper back to my Corallife fixture due to superior reflectors and still, the gorilla nipples want to reach high.

K so i say WTF do they want??? they are still healthy looking, color is good, they open all the way up every day but they still reach.

Other than that, I am waiting for the Octospawn to relax and then ill have pics up. Oh and Simon, you should see that Frogspawn, wow does it ever reach:biggrin:

If everything looks healthy & happy; keep up the good work. No point trying to fix something thats not broken:wink:..

S.

[Funky_Fish14]

Great job! It looks good and definitely simple! Keep up the good work!

Chris

[bauder1986]

Alright, I have gotten lazy lately in keeping this thread updated, so here goes it. Grab a coffee and a quick smoke because this is gonna be abit of a read.

It has been some couple of weeks since I started to raise my salinity, lower my dosing, and find some freaking way to make the gorilla nipples and the octospawn happy. Well, I did it. The damn things are happy now.

So I ended up raising the salinity up to 1.024 which seemed to make everything happier. But I still hade problems with the octospawn being so damn sensitive to everything. And to boot I had some heat issues from the light and canopy mix.

So first thing first, I had to fix the heat issues right away because Terry had the intention of storing his coral in my tank will he did a tank transfer from his 90 gallon tear down to his 30 gallon starfire cube(some of you have seen his tank) So what I did is added a fan bolted to the canopy facing outward and made sure that there was about 8 feet of power cord for it for whenever i want to get my grubby fingers into the tank. Well that solved the heat issue for the day time

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020385.jpg

And then I aquascaped the tank to better suit the light demands of some corals. and that seemed to work in making the gorrila nipples happier. They dont reach that much anymore.

And then I did something that I promised myself that I would not do on this 'Simple' Tank setup......I added a protein skimmer.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020377.jpg
Good thing to because my nutrients were starting to go through the roof which was increasing the phosphates which in turn was increasing that annoying green crap everywhere. Well with the protein skimmer on there I now have clearer water, lower algea growth and a very happy octospawn.

But with the extra piece of equipment I have extra noise for the night time and as some of you know, that tank is in my room so I had to unplug the protein skimmer and the fan at night. That got old after a few days so I set up the protein skimmer and the fan on a timer with the lights so I only have that noise during the day time which isnt that bad. And dont worry, surprisingly the protein skimmer fires up succesfully every morning.

Now enough chatter and more pictures like you guys want.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020389.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020387.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020383.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020382.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020381.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020380.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/duey123/Josh/P1020379.jpg

[bauder1986]

Oh yah and for a little experiment I put a bit of carbon into the large particle filter on the protein skimmer just to increase the water clarity. K I think thats it for the updates.

[bauder1986]

well I did it finally, I made my first frags ever! I made four 10 - 20 head frags of my fire and ice zoos. Now what Im going to do is watch these buggers heal and attach to the frags rocks. In probably a month or so I may be interested in trades for zoos and such.

[the marine apprentice]

and a freebie goes into my cube... sweet

[bauder1986]

and a freebie goes into my cube... sweet

That's right dude. In a month or so though. I want to maximize their chances of survival and growth.

[bauder1986]

Well it looks like my first set of DIY frags of my fire and ice zoos are doing good. Who would of thought that fragging zoos would be so easy.

[fishytime]

makin that first cut is always the hardest:mrgreen:.....zoanthids are actually pretty dang tough

[bauder1986]

makin that first cut is always the hardest:mrgreen:.....zoanthids are actually pretty dang tough

yah but I found them no tougher than GSP actually. Its actually kinda cool how the zoos are interconnected, made it easy once i got an edge off of the rock.

[bauder1986]

I want to trade off that digi, its not exactly what i want in that tank. Its tough as hell and grows at a good pace.

[bauder1986]

Well today's little project for the tank blew the 'simple' out the window:razz:

So I had this little hang-on filter unit kicking around looking somewhat useless, and I thought that something that usefull looking useless is not good.

So I fixed it up, cleaned it up and got it running, added some substrate and stole some cheto from Terry's 25 starfire tank(hehe he wont know about that till he gets home or reads this on his blackbery) and built me a little hang on refuge....cool

Other than that, everything is looking good, ill get pics tomorrow morning for all of yah that like stories with pictures.

[bauder1986]

Uh oh....I have a tank move that i have to do tonight from the old home to the new home....hope everything goes good folks.

[bauder1986]

Oh no!!! I have to leave my tank for awhile to go out to work!!! I hope that my roomates prove to be reliable enough to do water top ups.....:sad:

[bauder1986]

Hey people, guess what, I went shopping. And im still going to get more. So here is some pics for you people....

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1020763.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1020766.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1020768.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1020770.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1020774.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1020777.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu172/bauder1986/P1020767.jpg


Now for those that read, I've been gone from home for abit and when i came back I had an aptasia problem and a half on my hands, so I decided to get a peppermint shrimp for the problem from Big Al's from Edmonton (thanks Terry for picking that up for me) Lucky for me the guy is taking care of the problem for me due to the aptasia slowly dissappearing....but the little guy is camera shy as all hell.

And then I went to Cow Town.....and spent money....at every fish shop there haha. The Acro, the coco worm, and the blastos are from Red Coral (watching the last bit of the hockey game there with Doug in a Saltwater Store was epic :smile:). The new large colony of zoos is from AI (watch out people, looks like Randy is looking to set up frag packs for online purchasing...exciting) and replaced my crumby blue fan with a shiny new Korelia Nano from Big Als down there (first time seeing the shark tank....so cool)

And tomorrow im going down to Simons place to get some more goodies and god only knows what else haha.

Oh and Im going to be upgrading very soon. so keep on hitting New Posts for a new tank thread haha.

[bauder1986]

Alright people, two days ago I went to Cow Town and bought stuff from Simon, Greg, Red Coral and Riverside.

And today I got bored and built me a tank out of acrylic at Grizz's shop. So yah, pics will come tomorrowish haha

[freezetyle]

how much of the KZ additives are you adding?

[bauder1986]

I stopped using them, i just increased my water changes because in a tank that small it pretty much does the same thing. Mind yah the dosing did help things come along nicely but in a small controlled environment such as this, I find just as much growth and polyp extension now than then.

[bauder1986]

:biggrin:well i finally finished changing everything over from this ten gallon to my new 20.5 gallon acrylic DIY cube. So im gonna finish up this tank thread and start a new one

[The Grizz]

:biggrin:well i finally finished changing everything over from this ten gallon to my new 20.5 gallon acrylic DIY cube. So im gonna finish up this tank thread and start a new one

Well get on with it would ya already :twised::twised:

[the marine apprentice]

ya josh like come on git ur ass in gear haha

[bauder1986]

haha easy guys, im gonna wait till the morning that way it goes up when everybody can see it, not at 1 in the morning when the pages start to refresh.:razz:

[simplycoral]

Come on then! Where are they :lol:

S.

[bauder1986]

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=62284 this is the new tank because this tank is now done....thanks for tagging along everyone hope you enjoy the next tank thread .