10 Gal. Nano... 2 days old!

[Tigerlily]

After researching and planning for months, I've finally put it all together... Here are some pictures of my nano. I just added the rock on Sunday (the water and sand were put in a few days before). Here are the specs:

*10 gal. AGA & glass hood
*21 lbs of figi live rock (cured from local LFS- took 15 minutes to get it home and in the tank)
*10 lbs aragonite sand
*Coralife 96W 50/50 light strip
*Moonlight from Captive Reefs (Thanks Darin!)
*2 Azoo 180 PH
*CPR 18.5" Aquafuge
*2 Ebo 50 watt heaters
*For Christmas... an air stone driven skimmer that will fit in the fuge.

My rock has lots of pods, a couple tiny feather dusters and a limpet! That's all I've seen so far...

I did my first tests last night:

Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates: all 0
Calcium 450
pH 8.1
kH 9.6
Alk 3.43
Salinity 1.022 (will be topping off with salt water to get that up to 1.025)

I think that's it. I welcome all suggestions comments etc. I am especially interested to hear your suggestions about PH placement and aquascaping.. Well, here's the pictures. Thanks for your help and advice!

 

[loganj]

Sounds great! My experience with my 10g tank, using rock from the LFS that was well cured, was that I didn't really have a cycle. I added a small clown after about a week and never saw the slightest trace of ammonia or nitrite. Sounds like you have a good setup.

 

[Tigerlily]

Pics of the fuge...

 

[Tigerlily]

Pics from the sides...

 

[Tigerlily]

Loganj... that is exactly what I am hoping for! No cycle. I am going to measure again in a couple of days, and if I don't get any ammonia readings in a week, I'll do exactly what you did and add a small clown! I can't wait!

 

[captivereefs]

Looking very nice! What going in it?

 

[Tigerlily]

Thanks! What is going in it? Zoos, lots of zoos! Also, a handful of snails, a clown and a shrimp or two. As for other corals, I don't know. There isn't a lot of space, but I do have a lot of light so my options are pretty open as long as the frags are small... I'm going to take it slow and do a lot of research.

 

[reefrunner69]

 

[Electrobes]

man thats a lot of freakin' light.. won't that fry the corals???

 

[Tigerlily]

Nah. Actually that's a pretty commonly used light set up on 10 gal. nanos. I've spent some time researching on nano-reef.com and a lot of the experienced people there either have the 96w unit on their 10 gal tanks or recommend them to newbies like me. Some of those people even say that they are thinking of switching to even stronger MH lighting!

Edit: Also, the lights aren't heating my water at all. I was a little concerned that they would, especially with the glass hood (have to keep curious kitty paws out of the tank!) but my heaters run a lot to keep my water at 80.

 

[mrmarine]

that is going to be 1 great looking nano-reef

 

[An t-iasg]

Tigerlily, that looks great! I was wondering how your tank was coming along the other day. What's going in the fuge? I can't wait to see pics of your zoos and the clown!

 

[Tigerlily]

Thanks everyone! (I'm so excited about this tank! )

What's going in the fuge?

I am planning to put a macro algae in there to help with nutrient export. Don't know what kind yet. That's my next research project. Any ideas to get me started?

 

[An t-iasg]

Well, www.liveaquaria.com has some neat-looking marine plants. It doesn't say how big some of them will get, though. In the descriptions it says if the plant can go in the aquarium or the refugium. I like this one:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=26&pCatId=1478

 

[biotoxin]

any reason for having 2 heaters?

 

[An t-iasg]

I wondered that too -- also, are they in the fuge? That's the way it looks in one of the pictures.

 

[cj10488]

2 heaters are commonly used on most ppls SW tanks.. Its a backup just in case one stops working you aren't SOL

HTH,
James

 

[tkos]

That all sounds great!! Keep updating us with pictures as the tank progresses.

 

[Tigerlily]

Yes, like James said, the two heaters are there to back each other up. They are in the fuge (to keep the main tank looking cleaner), and since there isn't a lot of room in there to put a large one, I wanted 2 to make sure the temp didn't vary, and now if one quits, my temp won't fall too much.

An - thanks for that link. That is a really cool looking plant! I hadn't thought to look there for pictures and descriptions of macroalgae.

Thanks for all the comments guys, and I'll keep you updated!