Richie's 10 gallon nano build with refugium

[richtrinh82]

I got into this hobby by pretty much taking care of my brothers 150 gallon tank. It is a great tank with a lot of live rock and a has become a fairly stable ecosystem and i took the knowledge of that tank and start an 10 gallon nano tank.
my goals for the 10 gallon nano tank was to make it a strictly a reef tank and at most 3 fish (clown gobi, clown fish, and a blenny). I made a DIY refugium with another 10 gallon tank which filters about 5 gallons of water. I added bio balls to the first chamber, live rock/sand/some plants/inverts to the second chamber and a bubble trap with a pump in the last chamber.
In the tank right now is about 10-15lbs of live rock. I am rehabbing some green star polyps, purple mushroom, candy cane coral frag, and a orange/blue ricordea. Also I recently purchased a green ricordea, umbrella mushroom, hammer coral frag, and a bunch of inverts/snails from SWF. I purchased a coral banded shrimp from ***** and experimented with fragging leather corals from the main tank.
From this point forward, i want to learn more about water quality. right now the water quality seems to be okay. I just learned the importance of changing water on a regular basis (nitrates were super high in the 150 gallon tank) I want to pick up a few zoa's and some ricordeas as well as 2-3 fish. check out the pictures below and if you have any questions, let me know...

Full Tank View

Refugium

 

[richtrinh82]

here's an update of how my tank is doing.
first, the sump was working well until the pumps started to become inconsistent. the problem with the pumps were that i had one pump taking water out of the main tank to the sump and one from the sump to the tank. these pumps were causing excess heat and consequentially it caused my tank to spike in temperature.
note to all, build an overflow mechanism prior to adding live rock/fish. i'm using a hang on filter now with live rock inside to help filter the water. i stopped using the sump and plan on using it for a larger tank or a new build instead.
i also had issues with the heat. the tank has 1 jet, 1 outside filter box, one heater 50w, and 1 150gph pump. the pump itself was generating almost as much heat as the 50w heater so it increased the water temperature to 80 degrees. i decided to tkake the heater out of commission for the time being. my room temperature is around 76 degrees so the water temperature should not fluctuate to drastically.
since the last update, i have picked up 2 clown fish, one psuedo cromis (sp). 2 orange mushrooms, 1 pink zoa, 1 blue zoa, and 1 orange/blue ricordia.
i lost a mushroom i was rehabbing, and one green mushroom i picked off of swf. anywas check it out. i'd like some input if possible.

 

[nissan577]

looks great man. but i think you are in your limit on your fish. so the 2 clowns are great. also the aquascape is amazing and the frags are super!

 

[richtrinh82]

thanks, i'm at my limit. i have 2 clown fish and 1 psuedo cromis. i have a solid clean up crew, approximately 5 hermit crabs and 6 snails. I just picked up a viper clip 150 mw mh light. its pretty sweet brings out a lot more color and i think the coral likes it a lot.

 

[nissan577]

wow 150w for a 10g!

a 70w wouldve been good. but maybe you will upgrade bigger the tank later on. also keep the light high like that it wont burn your corals. now you will be able to keep sps in your tank! congrats! but check you calcium and alk to make sure you can keep the sps.
a perfect cal and alk for sps are:
Cal: 450-500ppm
alk: 8dkh
ph: 8.3ppm
trates: 0ppm
phosphate: 0ppm
if you have those good you are ready for sps!
can you take pics as well?

 

[richtrinh82]

yeah sure i'll take some new pics soon. the light is extended to about a foot off of the rim of the tank. i hope it has enough space to vent all that heat the mh. I got the 150 in hopes to upgrade my tank to a 15-20 gallon long tank. i'll do a little more planning for the tank so that i can put utilize the sump i built for the 10g. I just have to get an overflow box of some sort to put in the 20gallon long tank.
i put my heater on a timer. it runs opposite of the Lights so hopefully the tank wont overheat when the lights are on. this morning my temperature was at 76 degrees (not sure if its accurate b/c i've gone through 3 different digital temperature guages and each say something different. my non digital conventional thermometer says its around 76.
also whats a good light schedule? during the day i know that the tank will get some normal day light from the windows. i currently have the lights come on around 5pm and turn off around 11pm.
Anyone know of a good clip on moon lights?

 

[dustyboy316]

I didn't read the thread yet just looked at the pic, but adding a refugium to my 10 g is something I would very much like to do.
Can you get more pics of it please?
Also great tank, exactly what I want mine to be like. Just need to finally get those PC lighting I've wanted for awhile.
Thanks for the pics though, here's mine just in case you were wondering.

 

[redsea]

AWESOME TANKS BOTH OF YOU!

 

[richtrinh82]

thanks, but i'm still having some problems. THe lighting is great. i keep it high and it seems like the tank inhabitants are liking it. I have to do a weekly water change now bc the sump is out of commission. Dustyboy, you sohuld consider drilling some holes prior to setting up your tank. there aren't any inside/out overflow boxes for 10gallon set ups. so drill that hole and set up your overflow if your serious about setting up a refugium for your tank.
i had the smaller clown fish die on me last week. i dunno why it died but it just croked with in a day. now my other clownfish is acting real funny. i did a water change prior to the smaller clownfish dying.
any thoughts?

 

[nissan577]

whats your water levels?

 

[dustyboy316]

Originally Posted by richtrinh82
http:///forum/post/2949435
thanks, but i'm still having some problems. THe lighting is great. i keep it high and it seems like the tank inhabitants are liking it. I have to do a weekly water change now bc the sump is out of commission. Dustyboy, you sohuld consider drilling some holes prior to setting up your tank. there aren't any inside/out overflow boxes for 10gallon set ups. so drill that hole and set up your overflow if your serious about setting up a refugium for your tank.
i had the smaller clown fish die on me last week. i dunno why it died but it just croked with in a day. now my other clownfish is acting real funny. i did a water change prior to the smaller clownfish dying.
any thoughts?
Ahh ok, well in that case I'll look into it when I upgrade. I'm thinking if I do upgrage I'll juyst get a 29 biocube and I'll make a refugium in one of the chambers.

 

[richtrinh82]

Originally Posted by dustyboy316
http:///forum/post/2949444
Ahh ok, well in that case I'll look into it when I upgrade. I'm thinking if I do upgrage I'll juyst get a 29 biocube and I'll make a refugium in one of the chambers.

yeah my i would do that if you can't build/drill holes. i personally like the 4:3 view instead of the box look for a tank. the greeks and romans had the right aspect when it comes to rectangular shapes.
anyways, this morning my fish were definitely not doing well. it looks like my psuedo cromis is not going to make it. i moved both fish (clown and cromis) to the main tank's sump and hopefully they can make a recovery in more treated water. i'm going to do another water change. i'm thinking my levels were put out of wack by the fist clown fish that died. I didn't notice anything wrong with the corals that are in the tank, but i dont know exactly what happens to corals when the water levels are not perfect. do they shrink up or start to use their defenses?

 

[richtrinh82]

Originally Posted by dustyboy316
http:///forum/post/2949444
Ahh ok, well in that case I'll look into it when I upgrade. I'm thinking if I do upgrage I'll juyst get a 29 biocube and I'll make a refugium in one of the chambers.

yeah my i would do that if you can't build/drill holes. i personally like the 4:3 view instead of the box look for a tank. the greeks and romans had the right aspect when it comes to rectangular shapes.
anyways, this morning my fish were definitely not doing well. it looks like my psuedo cromis is not going to make it. i moved both fish (clown and cromis) to the main tank's sump and hopefully they can make a recovery in more treated water. i'm going to do another water change. i'm thinking my levels were put out of whack by the first clown fish that died. I didn't notice anything wrong with the corals that are in the tank, but i dont know exactly what happens to corals when the water levels are not perfect. do they shrink up or start to use their defenses?