Basic 10 Gallon Nano FOWLR Desk Setup

[LifeIsGreat]

I'm setting up a real basic 10G nano FOWLR tank for my office desk. Just finished putting together the rock work. I'm going for a bit of a cave-like theme. The back pane is totally covered and the sides are 3/4 covered with rock. I put a couple of arches in to add interest. The rock looks real busy in the photos, but in person it is simple and the aquascape has a nice appearance of depth. I'll probably go with a shallow sand bed after the rock has freshwater cured for a couple for months.

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...and the top-down view. The pics make the tank look half full of rock, but in reality I only put about 2 gallons of rock in.

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This is my first time trying this kind of live rock - it is about 40% empty space by volume, with a ton of intertwined tunnels all throughout. I'm experimenting to see whether it is an ideal pod breeding ground or a detritus factory.

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I had this old terrarium laying around unused, so I decided to seal it and use it as a display refugium for the 10G nano. The refugium tank is 6.6 gallons. I'm just hoping it has enough bracing to hold back 6.6 gallons of water I will be doing a 5 inch deep sand bed with some greens above it. I'll probably experiment with silica sand to see if it feeds the diatoms in order to boost the pod population enough to feed a pod eating fish of some sort.

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Testing the new seals on the refugium. No leaks

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The sand I ordered arrived: EarthEssentials Quikrete play sand. The grain size is nice and fine, mostly sub-millimeter. Looks like the sharp edges are rounded off. Most people won't like the color, its the brownish stuff. They could have branded it as Canadian Sunrise Gold Reef Sand and sold it for $50 a bag, but as play sand it was $7 per 18kg.