10 Gallon Reef Tank

feathers212

feathers212

Member
I was just looking through my pictures since I started my tank at the beginning of January. I'm so pleased with how my tank has developed over this time. I just wanted to share and get some comments/feedback. Enjoy!
I started with the Berlin Airlift Skimmer. It did a fabulous job, but it has to be in the water. With such a small tank to begin with, it wasn't going to work. So I switched to the Rio Nano Skimmer, which has been doing a great job as well.
I have 80 watts of PC's (Current's Orbit w/ dual actinics, dual daylights, and two white lunar LEDs).
From the beginning
12 pounds LR, watermelon mushrooms:

Added Kenya Tree, Star frag, and a mushroom colony:

Added plate coral and yellow polyps:

To the present
And today, I added the brain and the branched frogspawn (grapes):

I was finally able to find a yellow watchman goby at my LFS today, but he's kinda camera shy so far. He likes all of the caves and overhangs created by the LR.
I also have 1 emerald crab, 3 zebra hermits, 5 nassarius snails, and 3 small turbos. They did a great job in the beginning when I was hit with a big algae bloom. And I believe that I have several mini brittle stars that were hitch-hikers in the mushroom colony rock....they haven't come fully out of the porous rock, but I see their arms/legs waving around in the current.
Anyways, I'm just thrilled with the way my tank has turned out!
:jumping: :cheer:
 
nanokid

nanokid

Member
love ur tank specially the plate coral! How is ur plate coral doing anyhow. I wanna get one for my tank sometime and i just want other ppls opinions on there and how theres are doing.
 
feathers212

feathers212

Member
Originally Posted by blueram
hey...your tank looks great. What fish are you getting for this tank?
cheers
I just got the yellow watchman goby (he's tiny). I want to get a pistol shrimp in hopes that they pair up. Then I think I am going to take the clown from my boyfriend's tank. That would be all that I plan on putting in this tank.
 
feathers212

feathers212

Member
Originally Posted by NanoKid
love ur tank specially the plate coral! How is ur plate coral doing anyhow. I wanna get one for my tank sometime and i just want other ppls opinions on there and how theres are doing.

Plate coral is doing very well. It's been in the tank since last Saturday. Seems that it is happy with where I originally placed it. Up close enough to my lights and gets moderate flow. Every 3 days I spot feed all of my corals with Cyclop-Eeze. My polyps love that stuff!
Anyways, here's a top view of the plate coral:
 
feathers212

feathers212

Member
Originally Posted by jhebi
you should put your plate and brain on the substract...nice tank!!!!

I had originally wanted to put the plate on the sand, but both it and the brain need strong light and medium flow. I only have 80W PC's. No MH's yet. So I'm afraid that putting them lower in the tank would not provide them with adequate lighting. Besides, the plate will start to move itself if it is not happy with its location. As far as I can tell, it hasn't budged an inch since I placed it.
Also, I have limited space on the sandbed. I don't want to overcrowd the bottom and have nothing at the top of the tank. For now, my only spending would be on small frags.
 
demartini

demartini

Active Member
80w should be fine for the plate coral to be on the sand bed. I have one in my 14g with 48w on the sand bed and its doing great. They recommend putting them on the sand bed because their tissue can be damaged easily.
 
feathers212

feathers212

Member
I'll have to look into it a little more. I may be able to move the polps over to the left of the tank and put the plate where the polyps are at right now.
I'm not sure if I would be able to move the brain to the sand as well. I think it would start to be too crowded then. I liked all of the open cave areas that I have on the bottom. I'm hoping that once the goby gets bigger and less shy, that he would use these a lot more. My zebra's already spend a lot of their time in the cave on the left. I wouldn't want to block it.
 
azreefgirl

azreefgirl

Member
Both the plate coral and the brain coral should be placed in the sand. This is exclusively where they are found in their natural environment. From everythng that I have read, they will eventually die if they are left on the rock due to lack of food provided by the sand and from abrasions from the rock.
 
feathers212

feathers212

Member
Thanks for the input. I ended up moving both to the sandbed:

Tank as of 5 minutes ago:

I also went to a smaller power head cause the flow was a bit too much across the bottom of the tank....my goby was surfing the current earlier.....gliding from one end of the tank to the other in the current alone.
Looks like the bank account needs to stay open a bit longer for this tank, cause now it's all bare at the top and needs something bigger than just small frags :thinking:
 
feathers212

feathers212

Member
I caught my goby being social and was able to get a picture of him:

He is tiny....only a little more than an inch in length. Hopefully he'll some out more often so that I can get some better pics of him.
 
reefboy12

reefboy12

Member
he looks like he is just sitting there saying "hey ma whatcha up to" hahahahahahah I love the tank specialy the plate and brain......you should get some leathers for the top portion they open up big and they are cool looking also if you get a leather like a toadstool or a fiji they might make a good host for the clown you might add......JMO......
-Kevin
 
feathers212

feathers212

Member
Originally Posted by reefboy12
he looks like he is just sitting there saying "hey ma whatcha up to" hahahahahahah I love the tank specialy the plate and brain......you should get some leathers for the top portion they open up big and they are cool looking also if you get a leather like a toadstool or a fiji they might make a good host for the clown you might add......JMO......
-Kevin
lol.....it does seem like he is saying that....right now he's sitting on a shell watching me. As for the leathers, I was looking at some today. I think that is what I would like to do in one of those top two spots. Gotta look into them a bit more and figure out what I want. That would be great if the eventual clown would host.
 
24#1

24#1

New Member
watch out that kena tree,i have one in my 12 gal and it grows fast,its gotten so big i have to move it or frag it dont want to cut it but have to do something it is taking over my tank,but it looks great all opened up.
 
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