Scott's DIY 10 Gallon Nano Build

[needmorecowbell]

Great! that is sooo much cheaper than a chiller lol.

 

[Shark_Bait]

Been watching this thread. Great work. Very inspiring to all those who have heard 10 gal sw cant be done!

 

[scottayy]

Been watching this thread. Great work. Very inspiring to all those who have heard 10 gal sw cant be done!

Wow, thank you! Feels good to be inspiring LOL! I think the trick to a nano or pico system is an auto-top off (or dedicated daily top off) and dedication to weekly water changes.

I thought this build was going to be super easy since I had a year experience with keeping a SW tank. But it was a different setup and I guess each tank will present it's own unique challenges. It has been a lot of work.

Can't wait to get some coral in this beast! unfortunately it'll be another month or so.

 

[TigerBarbs]

You could put mushrooms in since they're hard to kill lol. Let's see a full tank shot!! You havent done one in a while.

 

[scottayy]

I caught the shrimp building a cave last night. Everytime I moved my phone close to the glass he would shoot back into it though, so no pictures.

He has built two more caves. It's very cool how they build them.

Also have some algae growing. I'm still experimenting with feeding and water changes so I guess it's too be expected.

I'll post a FTS tomorrow! Nothing exciting to look at though lol.

 

[SirensEye00]

I know im late on the whole keeping the tank cool thing, but would ice cubes be a totally bad idea? I mean, say you took the time to clean the water, and dedicate 1 or 2 trays to 'tank water', and just drop a few cubes in when it got hot. I don't know. Im still new at this but thats just the idea that popped into my head lol.

 

[needmorecowbell]

most people do that during an emergency, like a heater going crazy or something

 

[scottayy]

Pictures as promised. Nothing exciting yet but I still enjoy staring at it. Lots of algae.. which I expected. Rocks had been outside for about a year, a lot of the equipment was used, and my pc fans blew dust in the water. I'll probably do 50% weekly water changes for a while until it starves off. I've got some green algae, brown algae, and cyano. I also have some neon green coralline algae and maybe (hopefully!) a few purple spots.

 

[needmorecowbell]

hey, with a 10 gal, thats not that bad.

 

[scottayy]

Well I'm now on the market for a new light for this 10g. My replacement marineland LED light now has 3 LEDs in the back right corner that aren't working.

 

[needmorecowbell]

that stinks.. look into panoramas!

 

[scottayy]

Will do!

Here's a video of my severe algae lol. I can't tell if the bright green stuff is coralline or not. I know SOME of it is.. but I don't know how much. Or if the purple stuff is coralline. I know the stringy stuff is cyano but some of the bright purple spots are not stringy.

I just did a 60% PWC on tuesday.

 

[BHead707]

Just read all 26 pages of this thread. and i must say very nice job and im planning on doing a diy build here soon and seeing step by step processes really helps

 

[scottayy]

I'm wondering if I want a single panorama pro led module or two.

I can get a single 19W 12 LED fixture (8 12000k, 4 445nm) - that would be about 6W of actinic power.

Or I can get two and have one of them all 12000k and the other all 445nm.

Or I can just get a single 445nm module. Wonder what that would look like?

Any input appreciated.

 

[scottayy]

Any advice on the lights?

I finally caught my shrimp out of his cave.

 

[needmorecowbell]

love the pistol shrimp! sorry, dont know much about lighting.

 

[Austin.b]

Any advice on the lights?

I finally caught my shrimp out of his cave.

The pistol shrimp is sweet!! Is he pretty loud?

 

[Gboy66]

The pistol shrimp is sweet!! Is he pretty loud?

Mine is really loud lol. Cool tank scott!!

 

[scottayy]

Thanks!

He's not loud. Though once when he was building one of his caves, i'd hear a click and then the sand move. I'm guessing that was him snapping his pincher and making a stream of water move the sand.

Honestly most of the time I can't tell he's in there.

 

[scottayy]

Foster & Smith is letting me return the malfunctioned led system, crediting the $ to my account, and replace it with a different lighting system.

Best. customer. service. ever.

I am going to get one of these:
Aquarium LED Light Fixtures: ecoxotic Panorama Pro LED Modules

The 12000k/445nm combo one. And a reflector and wall transformer.

If I want more coral growing power in the future I will order an all 445 nm one.. and it will be connectable into this one.

Hopefully I have good luck with this one. Haven't had too good of luck with LEDs so far.