CR's 10 gallon Journal

Dont use a glass top. You just need a bigger heater to get the temp at night to stay in the 78-79 like it does during the day.

 

Topless is always the way to go and mini tanks are so much fun. Thank you for your service and keep us updated on the progress!

 

I'm not looking to pimp this tank out with all the latest and greatest reefer toys, but I do want to make this a really cool tank. I don't have plans to upsize tanks anytime soon, but I'd like to be able use most of the same gear when I do eventually go larger.

Here's a tentative list of gear that I would consider adding/upgrading for this particular setup:

AI Prime HD
Smart ATO Micro
Ecotech mp10qd
ReefKeeper Lite Basic

Additional options, thoughts, and comments would be appreciated

 

comment wise:
I have the mp10 qd its fantastic
I just got the AI hydra and it is amazingly bright and easy to setup and program with lots of color combinations

Good start
cheers

 

I have 2 clowns in a 15g- they are fine. They don't swim around a lot. Nitrates sit at 5. When I had 3 fish in the 15g- the nitrates were higher.

I have 1 fish in my 10g

Damsels- such a shame they are so pretty yet come with such tempers.

What heater are you using? I use the eheim jaggers and so far they are very accurate. Sometimes they need calibrating but my temp is stable at 78-79....hubby likes the apartment cold too but no drop in temp.

A topless tank is better than covering it.

 

I'm using the AquaVia 50w and still having issues with temp swing. Used the same heater in a 20L with no issues, but this one just doesn't seem to cut it. Temp peaks out at 81 with the T5's on, but drops down to 76 with the AC cranked up and the lights off. The other thing that bothers me is that I have the thermostat set to 86 so maybe I got a dud heater?

I'm considering the Eheim Jager 75w, but the AquaVia 100W is about the same length (just over 10.5 inches)

The Eheim seems to have a better means of calibration though...

 

Tank is still cycling, but the ammonia is reading zero again. I've got some nasty brown gunk growing on the sandbed so things seems to be moving along nicely. Upgraded the heater to a 75w eheim and it's working much better. Got a nano flipper to get rid of the glass gunk. Most importantly, I upgraded the two bulb t5 to an AI Prime with gooseneck mount. Still trying to figure out what settings to use but I have it set at 17k at 40% and really like the look so far. Kind of hard to judge with just white rocks....

 

I've noticed a slight high pitched buzzing in the AI Prime when the white channel isn't at 0 or full power. After a little reading it seems like this is kinda common. It's not terribly noticeable, and to be honest my aquaclear makes more noise, but it's still a little disappointing. On the bright side, at least there's no jet powered fan noise like JBJ Unibody I had a couple years ago!

 

Tested my water this morning. Ammonia = 0ppm, Nitrite = 0ppm, and NitrAte = 5ppm. The big drop in NitrAtes has me scratching my head. I thought a water change would be necessary in order to reduce the NitrAtes. I do know that NitrAtes can be released as nitrogen gas, but I've read that that's not really possible in closed systems like a reef aquariums, especially smaller nano tanks. Started with dead rock and dead sand then tossed in a raw shrimp and about 1/2 a cup of sand from a friend's well established tank. Anyone mind chiming in with their thoughts on my cycle? I feel like it went extremely fast as the tank is only 22 days old...

 

did you remove the shrimp at any point?