Finally pulling together my first reef

[Sinibotia]

This is just a 10 gallon standard I'm setting up as a nano reef. Going to stock it with easy softies to start, a shrimp goby and pistol shrimp, a couple motile inverts. For now it's just got an emerald crab, a few hermits, and a certith snail. I just got the light in today to round out my equipment. Here it is, the blank canvas:

 

[KrisReef]

Looks like you are off to a great start.

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

Sounds like a good start.

 

[Sinibotia]

Got my first corals!

 

[Sinibotia]

5 months in

 

[Sinibotia]

5 months in

 

[eXact iDip®]

Cool setup! Let us know if you need help with testing your water

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Looks good.

5 months on a 10 isn’t always as easy as people think. Make a mistake in a 180 it is more foregoing, 10 not so much. Keep up the good job.

 

[Sinibotia]

Long update and some questions! 6 months of moderately successful reefkeeping! Let's start with the good!

Neon green sinularia has grown! I'm thinking about cutting off a small piece and seeing if I can get it to attach somewhere else because I really like it.

Originally I had this piece on the sand bed because I wasn't sure what it would look like or where to put it. After falling in love with the looks and a burial by a careless pistol shrimp, I've moved it up to the rocks where it's spreading!

Not sure everyone would call this good, but I love GSP and it's spread so much I've had to move things out of it's way.

This leather is practically fist sized. It's beautiful and I've moved it so that its base is leaning on the rocks. Anybody know a better way to encourage them to grow onto the rockwork?

This white toadstool has gotten a lot taller and spread out some. I'd like to maybe move it back to give it room to spread out. I really want to see this coral turn into a monster!

Here's a little baby ricordea!

Now for the more mixed results:

The ricordea has been slowly shrinking and I don't know how to fix it. It's torn a few babies off its foot and one has attached and grown a bit.

Unlike the other zoas, the green zoas havent spread much. One has been umbrella'd for over a week now, the rest are always partially or mostly curled up.

Finally the bad:

The green birdsnest is all but dead. Yesterday I cut the dead skeleton off leaving the only live part, a dime size patch of polyps on the base of the plug. If anybody has any ideas to save it I'm all ears.

Unfortunately I lost the firefish to jumping. I'm still considering putting one more fish in but I dont know what, I'm open to ideas.

Other than that all of my critters are thriving! I even added a peppermint shrimp a week ago who has obliterated an aptasia problem that was starting to crop up. Tons of pods and hitchhiker snails too. I see the snails spawning frequently!

I do think I've discovered the big issue. My bag of IO started clumping and I didnt think anything of it. Well, I tested for the first time in a while and my alk and calcium were down to 5 and 340... could explain the birdsnest... I'm bringing the numbers back up by dosing and I've got a new bucket of salt on the way.

Full tank shot, brand new look!

 

[Sinibotia]

Does anyone have any thoughts on putting a pink streaked wrasse in here? The tank has quite a few pods. The idea of a possum wrasse was shut down pretty hard by some members on here, but I'm getting the sense from what I'm reading that a pink streak might be a better fit. Would I need more rockwork?

 

[Pbh-reef]

Following - I have a 10 too! What equipment are you using for light and circulation?

as for the wrasse question you can see my answer in your other thread but basically I say go for which ever one you like

 

[Sinibotia]

Following - I have a 10 too! What equipment are you using for light and circulation?

as for the wrasse question you can see my answer in your other thread but basically I say go for which ever one you like

Hey thanks for following! The light is a Luminie Pixie 30, and the flow is a combination of an aquaclear 50 being run as an HOB fuge, and a Koralia 240.

 

[Pbh-reef]

Cool- I like the idea of a nice less expensive softy tank

 

[DeniseAndy]

Great job. Looks great. I love softies. I have had sps, lps, mixed, gorg and I love my softies the best. Movement, texture, colors, ease (of most). Ricordeas can be finicky. Sometimes they just do not thrive. Not sure why. Nutrients is usually the key. They like a lot and also less light.
The zoas are also dependent on types. Some love light, others do not. Most do like nutrients too.
The green neon leather you can frag, but may want to wait a bit longer. Just cut off one of the branches (small one) with razor blade or sharp scissors. Then block between rocks until it attaches.
My white toadstool go to be over 16" around before I lost most in a tank move. I still have some and it is growing now. Yours looks good.
No trick to getting them on rocks aside from putting rocks around them and hoping they attach to them.

Any fish can jump in such a small tank. May want to consider a cover. Just a clear mesh with screen door frame materials work great.

 

[Sinibotia]

Great job. Looks great. I love softies. I have had sps, lps, mixed, gorg and I love my softies the best. Movement, texture, colors, ease (of most). Ricordeas can be finicky. Sometimes they just do not thrive. Not sure why. Nutrients is usually the key. They like a lot and also less light.
The zoas are also dependent on types. Some love light, others do not. Most do like nutrients too.
The green neon leather you can frag, but may want to wait a bit longer. Just cut off one of the branches (small one) with razor blade or sharp scissors. Then block between rocks until it attaches.
My white toadstool go to be over 16" around before I lost most in a tank move. I still have some and it is growing now. Yours looks good.
No trick to getting them on rocks aside from putting rocks around them and hoping they attach to them.

Any fish can jump in such a small tank. May want to consider a cover. Just a clear mesh with screen door frame materials work great.

Guess I'll wait on any fragging til things get bigger! Do you think I should move the ricordea? There are definitely spots in the tank with less light but I don't want to make it *worse* by messing with it. My nutrients tend to be around 0-0.25 phosphate(API kit so somewhere between), and around 10 nitrate.

I do have a glass lid, dang firefish just managed to thread the needle But I've fixed the gaps now.

Gonna wait for the right moment to add a new fish. I think I've definitely settled on a pink streaked wrasse, but I'm going to wait til I can get one in person and see it eat first, or order one one that's already been quarantined. Quarantine for my fish isn't an option for me, no matter how much I'm forced to be in my own quarantine right now ;Dead

 

[DeniseAndy]

Fish manage to do that. I have had them escape and I could not figure out how. Crazy.
I would move the ric if you can move whatever it is attached to. Lower in the tank. Otherwise, see how it does. Could split and/or recover.

 

[Sinibotia]

I managed to move the ric, sort of. It's still not attached but hopefully it's in a better spot now. Ticked off most of my other corals in the process...

 

[Sinibotia]

Look what came in the mail today...

Never fed my corals before. Had a lot of fun watching. Primarily this is part of the attempt to save the birdsnest. But seemed like every coral in the tank wanted some!

Oh, and thank you @Pbh-reef for the suggestion in another thread to look at Quarantined Marine! They ended up having a pre quarantined pink streaked wrasse ready to go, it's on the way!

 

[Sinibotia]

Welp... the wrasse was DOA. That almost turned out to be a blessing, as I got a full refund, and then yesterday we lost power until just an hour or so ago. The goby jumped while I was hand pumping the tank with the power out... he was alive when I put him back but I haven't seen him since last night. Corals seem to be slowly recovering from the temp drop and the rest of the inverts seem to be still kicking too.

All in all a rough two days for me and the tank. I see why they say bigger tanks are easier

 

[Sinibotia]

Well, the good news is the goby is alive and seems to be doing ok! He was watching out for his shrimp buddy today. Most of the corals seem to have come around as well, but the birdsnest is definitely gone for good. I think I'm going to stick to softies with this tank, and when I set up a bigger reef in the future I'll focus on SPS. But now I have a spot for an LPS or some zoas! I'll post a pic of the empty spot, I'm open to ideas of what to put there!

 

[Billldg]

Keep up the GREAT work. I envy the reefers who choose a smaller tank as it is much harder than a larger tank to be successful. People think that a smaller thank is easier, but in reality it is much harder to keep everything stable.