A total newbie's 10 Gal mini/nano reef W.I.P.

[Daniel Rodriguez]

So I began this hobby for myself a little less than a month ago on Feb 12, 2011. I have some experience in the difficulties and work involved in these types of ecosystems because my Dad had saltwater setup while I was in high school and it was the coolest pet I had next to our currently 24 yr old Amazon Blue Front parrot that we had literally from an egg (hatched Jan 6, 1987) ... anyway my Dad's tank was beyond awesome. We had a lion fish, 2 tomato clowns, a yellow tang, niger trigger, 3 shrimps (cant remember the types), a wrasse, parrot fish and the high light of the tank (to me at least. close competition between the lion and this) a snowflake eel that was something like 2 and a half feet long and probably a little bit thicker than your standard screwdriver at home. We had this set up for 3+ years until a very unfortunate paint accident destroyed his tank and he was just too demotivated to start over ...

Here we are 12 years later and I have this desire to have my own personal ecosystem to look after. I'm an animal lover in every sense of the term and since growing up and moving on with my life I have missed having a pet. I cant have dogs or cats (already have a household with 3 dogs) and the parrot being both 3000 miles away and my Dad's until he finally turns it over to me or my brother, I decided I would start a SW tank ...

The few pics that I will post (as I am new to actively participating in a forum and am having some trouble figuring out how to get the picture to actually show in the post and not line up as a link) are just to show some of the progress I've made so far.


This is about 3 days after set up. Live sand can be such a hassle. I will use a mix of crushed coral and sand in the future to help keep the sand clouds down. what you see there is minimal. Filter, heater, 15# of sand and 3# exactly of LR.


This is slightly over 2 weeks after set up. I added .9# of LR, 4 hermit crabs and 1 snail to be my "cleaning crew."



These things grew in those first 2 weeks.


This came with the purchase of .9 # LR.

So then came a point where I decided to buy 2 damsels because the guy at my LFS had told me that my water was perfect (8.3 ph, 0 ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) and I was having good salt/specific gravity readings ...

(I have reached max pics already. Also don't know how to place a picture in the actual post as opposed to having a link in its place ...any help? Here goes Pic #1 from my next post)

The Domino died over night. Zebra almost 3 days later. I had gone away for the weekend unannounced and suddenly. He didn't miss a meal. Maybe no lights. But there is a good amount of natural sunlight that hits my tank during the day. Either way I felt horrible.

(Here goes Pic #2 from my next post)

This is what my tank looks like as of say, 1am today. I did a water and filter cartridge change Sunday afternoon. I have added another .76# of LR and had picked up 2 new hermits. Like the numb skull that I am, I tossed the crabs in before the water change. Knowing full well that I wanted to really clean up the sand bed (easily 3" deep) and seeing how traumatizing it can be with the sand cloud and all in such a tiny tank. Needless to say, I watched one get cannibalized (I injured it in the process I think) and another got buried alive somehow (I say this because there was no sign of shell or carcass after everything settled into the tank) Lets just say I plan to be a lot more careful next time.

When the dust had settled I rearranged/stacked my live rock as according to some my tank looked too "plain". I like it now as I created a lot of nooks and crannies for when I can finally add something other than some hermits n snails. Here's what new life has flourished since this water change and addition of LR.

(Here goes pic #s 3 & 4 from my next post)

The hermit crab appeared from nowhere. He's not the guy that disappeared (it wasn't blue) and he did find a shell without a hole (thanks to a little help from moi) so as to not be dangerously exposed like that. And the 2 standard crabs (as opposed to hermit) I think have been in the tank since my 2nd LR purchase as Ive thought that maybe I might had seen something in a couple fissures and cracks in the stones but wasn't sure. Either way, I'm happy they joined the team. Oh, those polyps had been in the tank since the first purchase of LR. Just like the anemone looking mushroom.


Well that's it for now. I'm excited to a part of this amazing hobby. It makes me so happy to just sit and watch my tank and its just hermit crabs! I can't wait until I can support more complex life Anyway, I'm probably going to wait another 3 days or so (making it 5 days since my water change) before trying to see if a damsel will live. I know there's more to it than PH, ammonia, nitrite/trate levels but this is a work in progress and I cant risk getting anything that costs more than $5 until a damsel lives for a minimum of 4 weeks. I don't have good lighting yet either. Nor a good water flow throughout the tank (in my opinion and probably yours too if you were to come by and see the tank LoL). I have a really good generalized understanding of what I still need to do just to be capable of supporting a couple of actual corals and 1 or 2 nice (and small) fish. Then comes the more ridiculous tasks of monitoring calcium and all the other damn nutrients and water chemistry parameters. If I could only drive to the beach and bring back a few buckets of sea water and actually have it work ... (alas to dream LoL) I look forward to all the challenges this will bring.

[Daniel Rodriguez]

Here are the missing pics from this post ....

#1


#2

[Daniel Rodriguez]

reached some quota ... gotta figure it out. The 2 missing pics will be added at some point soon. Sorry to all who bothered reading this and wanted to see ...

[Matities23]

well welcome!!!!!
2nd.. dont buy damsel (they will stress the poop out of anything else u are planning to add later on)
3th.. do you clean around the tank? floor? how do u clean the glass? do you spray any perfume or chemicals around it?
Asking u bcz when a damsel doesnt make it... it never a good sing. next time you should try green/blue chromis. cheap and hardy.
hows the temp of the water? by the way.. dnt go with that stick on paper therm. get a digital one. Give us some more feed back about your ideas? are you planning to go with corals? or fish only? good luck!