My cheap 10g build

[Doberman13]

Tank started April 21

10 gallon standard tank

Aquaknight LED (probably 40%)
Jebao tw-10(30ish%)
Aquaclear 50 hob w/ skimmer attachment
Two black snowflake clowns
Tailspot blenny
Fire shrimp
2 blue hermits
1 red(scarlet?) Hermit
Ninja star snail, 2 trochus

List of corals

Birdsnest
Hammer
Pulsing xenia
Forest fire Digi
Seasons greetings Monti
A type of acropora?
Mushroom
A plate coral?
Dragons eye zoas
Jungle juice zoas
Utter chaos palys
A type of palys?
Aussie Elegance coral
Rock flower anemone

Everything's doing real well except for my forest fire did she that fell over while I was gone for 2 days.

I tried using a rubberband to attach the xenia to the skimming attachment and it split in three pieces and now it is on one of my largest rocks.

I am planning on getting a 30-60g in the next month or so. Then turning this into a QT/Frag tank.

I would love any brutally honest comments or advice.

I don't have an attachable camera filter yet but I'm playing around with different camera apps/filters. I'll post some more photos tomorrow with a new digital filter I like.

 

[Doberman13]

This is my Aquaclear 50 refugium. I have a light used for a 10 gallon planted tank I pulled and taped to a wooden stand I built in about 15 minutes. I used poly filter and chemipure blue in the filter already so the poly filter acts as a screen to prevent the chaeto from getting into the tank.

 

[ZapataInc]

That's cool. Good job.

 

[Anthony king]

Like the diy fuge

 

[Tanster2]

The photo of the hammer, that's a ton of cyano there my friend. Might wanna vacuum it out and check the params if it still looks like that.

 

[Doberman13]

The photo of the hammer, that's a ton of cyano there my friend. Might wanna vacuum it out and check the params if it still looks like that.

Yea I let it get out of hand thinking it was just another diatom bloom before realizing it was cyano. I'm doubling my water changes. I don't have a vacuum that is strong enough to pull it out so I've been removing it by hand. I would like to get some hard line air tubing and make one that has a lot of suction. That one picture was from about two weeks ago. I increased low from the powerhead to about 50% I was told that it could be too much for this small tank but My fish and coral seem happy.

 

[Tanster2]

Yea I let it get out of hand thinking it was just another diatom bloom before realizing it was cyano. I'm doubling my water changes. I don't have a vacuum that is strong enough to pull it out so I've been removing it by hand. I would like to get some hard line air tubing and make one that has a lot of suction. That one picture was from about two weeks ago. I increased low from the powerhead to about 50% I was told that it could be too much for this small tank but My fish and coral seem happy.

From my limited experience in the hobby, I've found that there's usually 2 reasons cyano grows, one being too much excess waste from food, and the other being a faulty light.

It's pretty common in newer tanks. I had it in mine when I started the hobby, but after improving filtration/lighting, and feeding less I've not seen a trace in ages. Hopefully you'll phase it out soon!

 

[lmm1967]

Yea I let it get out of hand thinking it was just another diatom bloom before realizing it was cyano. I'm doubling my water changes. I don't have a vacuum that is strong enough to pull it out so I've been removing it by hand. I would like to get some hard line air tubing and make one that has a lot of suction. That one picture was from about two weeks ago. I increased low from the powerhead to about 50% I was told that it could be too much for this small tank but My fish and coral seem happy.

The increased flow and doing very regular (and consistent) water changes should get rid of the visible cyano. I believe using non-treatment / non-chemical methods helps prevent future issues. I have had issues with Cyano in 2 tanks anytime I have used automatic feeders with pellets. The last time it happened - I got it under control with increased flow, more skimming and aggressive water changes. This past time we went on vacation and had to use the automatic feeders - we came home to NO cyano bloom!

 

[Doberman13]

I agree, I did not want to end up using chemiclean or anything else besides good husbandry. It's much better with the chemipure blue and increased flow. hopefully the refugium will help even more. The refugium has only been up for a week so time will tell

 

[Mom2Many]

I love small tanks! This is wonderful!!

 

[Doberman13]

Everything I've read and heard was it was hard to run a hob refugium. Pretty much all I've done is stuff some small bio pellets(came with the aquaclear) and some chaeto in the stock media basket. I seeded some of the pods that I won from the Heisenberg aquatics weekly drawing. I made a stand out of some scrap wood and mounted a 10g tank LED light. Within a month I am pulling golf ball sizes of chaeto out. Hopefully this will still run as a QT tank.

 

[Doberman13]

Forgot to post photos

 

[camellia]

Nice!
You may consider increasing the depth of your sand bed to help with the good bacteria. There’s quite a bit of research on the different depths of the sand beds.
IMHO if using sand, start with 1.5 to 2”, inevitably you’ll loose some as you vacuum.

 

[Doberman13]

Thanks this tank has been since broken down and everything moved over to a 22g drilled tank. There is another thread for that one. I need to update it soon

 

[Grey.E]

Beautiful tank