W-mart 10g Ultimate configuration

[Flon18]

So ive been reading and looking and im sorry to have people repeat them selfs cus im sure this is on the site some place. (it is in little spread out pieces but)

W-mart 10g what would you do with it. Light, hood, Water flow, Fuge, Dill it??????

Power filter, HOB or both?

Some kind of light bar on a glass hood or build a hood with what ever light you suggest plus fan?

Refuge, HOB, Dril overflow, Baffle or none of the above?????

Suggested size power filter, Gallons per Hour, Number of outlets for good flow in this shape tank.



Handy with tools and such. so whats gonna give me the best platform to make this tank a success?

3 side viewing small side to the wall.

Since Im sure this is a common question links to other places would be helpful



Hey great site looking forward to learning from you. Thanks

 

[Ritsuko N]

Check out this link here for some ideas. I did just such a tank for al intents and purposes.

This is a tank I set up at the begining of the year. I wanted it to be as cheap as possible but still turn out to be a nice tank in due time. It was geared towards getting newbies in the game for minimal cash out lay and demostrate how it could be upgraded in increments as more funds became available and as husbandry skills improved and more challenging corals were under taken. While not everything in this tank is aquacultured all but a couple of things were. All the rock except a couple of plum sized pieces were sun dried rock and not harvested from a reef. Almost all corals were aquacultured items from Garfs 10 for 100.00. The sand was dry sand seeded with Garf Grunge Plus. The inverts including the Waratah Anemone were wild caught though. Again this system from start to finish was designed to be a minimalist type set up that anyone can easily duplicate with basic knowledge and frugal shopping habits. Its been one of the easiest and most enjoyable tanks that I have had over the last 5 years that I have been in this hobby.

The pictures of this tank are kinda crappy and dont begin to even do this tank justice. While I have gotten some nice pics of individual corals and poartical tank shots getting a nice full tank shot for somereason has been a real challenge.


http://aquatic-terrors.com/forums/index ... opic=12770

Hopefully this gives you some ideas to run with or inspires something better...

 

[Flon18]

Good stuff thank you. any were i could improve on this design by spending a little more......Where would the money be well spent if there was some extra. Other than coral.

Thanks for the quick responce

 

[Ritsuko N]

As I mentioned in this article I would start out with the Nova Extreme light fixture instead of the cheesey 15 watt light right from the get go.

If you are aspiring to do SPS corals and have your ducks in a row I would suggest a 70 watt 14-20k halide retro from www.hellolights.com . It uses just a slight bit more electricity but provides well over twice the amount of light. LPS and SPS corals would do excellent under such light. Heat shouldnt be any more of an issue with this tiny halide anymore so than other lighting options provided that its about 6-8 inches above the tank.

On an SPS tank a skimmer would be beneficial. You can get away with very frequent water changes but after a little expirementing I am warming up to the idea of a skimmer on a Nano Reef. The down side is there are few skimmers on the market that work and that are compact too. If you can find a HOB skimmer thats small compact and actually works it might be a good addition. I played around with the Berlin Airlift skimmer and was really suprised by its performance. Dont get me wrong this is not the most effcient skimmer on the market, its bulky and takes up precious space inside a 10 gallon tank but isnt so obtrusive on a 15 or 20 gallon tank. It works good enough to rate being used on a 20 maybe 25 gallon Nano but beyond that there are much better options.

I suppose if you got an acrylic tank you could drill it add a couple of bulkheads and then add a sump. Such a set up is pretty extreme on a tank this small but you could do it and it would be a nice addition.

To be honest with you...except for the lighting options I would spend my extra money on some really choice live rock or some really impressive cherry picked sundried rock from Macro Rocks. Instead of just getting some nice corals I would look at possibly spending a little more and getting some of the more choicier examples of what ever corals it was that I wanted to keep.

Right now I am strongly considering an above the tank refugium and do away with the skimmer I am currently using. I have a spare 3 gallon acrylic tank thats doing something next to nothing, but just havent got all that motivated. I had one on a 135 gallon SPS tank I had and it was pretty awsome, both visually and to the well being of the tank it served. Thinking about just doiing it on a smaller scale this time and see if its worth the trouble.

If you got long arms and deep pockets there are a gazillion ways you can go. Pick a direction and steadily but surely press on forward.

 

[Flon18]

So this is what im thinking. 10g over a 10g fuge. Drill the top ten at the surface and plum from there to the fuge. Question is why would I need a bulk head for an over flow or if I drill at the waters surface is this fine. Thinking one inch pipe with a grate over the opening.

Next question for this set up what power filter to pipe water back to the top tank. GPh and brand if you know of one. Lift is only 6 inches plus were i plum the water back into the tank. the tank will be viewed from 3 sides with one short side against the wall, Ill drill the short side for the overflow. will there be enough flow with out dead spots if I drill both the in and out on this back short side. Do i need multiple entrys into the tank to eliminate dead spots. If I need to have water put into the tank at lower points are there reliable oneway valves available.

Awsome stuff so far thanks guys

 

[Flon18]

one more question


Sump design..... Goals with the lower tank are to increase volume, hide heater and pump, grow c.....(plant that starts with a c), allow it to grow alge. any thing else needed w/ ample LR/LS In top tank. So I see just a tank with a light, heater pluming in, power head pluming out........

Are there goals Im missing that need to be designed in.

Will there be a bubble problem, Ive read about this and the placement of baffles or bulkheads to reduce them....suggestions?


Im trying to do my homework and Ive read so much it all gets blurry. thanks

 

[TimSchmidt]

As far as bulkhead usage they provide easy points to start putting in plumbing and give a more stable point for water to either enter or leave. You may just do fine with a maxijet 1200 for a return pump with 6 inch lift. If you have the top drilled to take water out and the bottom for the return I think only a nano koralia would be nice to give a more erratic water flow. but then again it will depend on the rock setup and so on as far as dead spots go. For baffles I just made a mistake and was shown a more efficient method use three baffles and make sure the water has to go over, under, over with a one inch gap between and beneath. Hopefully reefman posts the same picture he did in my thread. Other wise look in the "not so nano" section for my 55g thread and see his sump there. My bubble problem is from my skimmer and my placement of said skimmer.

 

[reefman23]

This one?

Jesse

 

[Ritsuko N]

Yep, that would be a great sump to have on a system, just not sure your going tobe able to cram all of the above depicted features into a 10 gallon tank as a sump, but there is a lot to be said about determination and creativity and I would never under estimate either!

The sump above can be hooked up in a number of ways...

One method which requires that the bottom of the tank be drill will have an internal over flow box. A good example of this is illistrated in the link below and is one of several various styles on the same theme. Typically a second hole will be drilled as the return water will be plumbed though here as well. Many will install a Durso stand pipe to elemante the gurggling noise of water as it drains from the tank.

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/ ... erflow.htm

Then there is the HOB style over flow boxes that use the siphon principal such as the CPR Overflow Box. This style of over flow box doesnt require holes to be drilled which is an added plus for many glass tanks as they are more difficult to drill and will often times involve tempered glass especially on the bottoms of tanks larger than 55 gallons. The link below shows this...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=3642


If I have to drill a tank inorder to add a sump I will often use a method commonly used on frag systems. You use a bulkhead fitting to get the water out and then plumb the return water back to the main tank using a spray bar fashioned from PVC pipe thats been drilled with holes to "inject" the return water back into the main tank. I like this route as it doesnt take up as much space as a internal over flow.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=4013

and

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=4082

All three work the method you use is up to you.

 

[Flon18]

but do i need baffles at all in the sump.....will there be a bubble problem if I dont. Im thinking keep it supper simple no baffles one pipe that goes in and a power head going out. stick a heater in and plants and be done....


I dont see the need for bulkhead in the top either, if i can drill and plump high enough..

Hey thanks for all the help you guys are great.... and Im sure ill be having more questions

 

[TimSchmidt]

If you use a skimmer in the sump there could be a small problem but you won't really know until you do it. I am having a bubble problem but I think I know the source of the issue, my skimmer. Small sump and a really active skimmer (with poor baffling). I guess you don't REALLY need a bulkhead but I honestly think that they add to the structural integrity, after all we are drilling holes in glass/acrylic.

 

[reefman23]

How do you plan to plumb a piece of pipe to the tank without some sort of bulkhead?

Jesse

 

[TimSchmidt]

Tons of silicon? :lol:

 

[Flon18]

I plan on drilling with a dremil, threw the i inch rim of the tank. My plan is to have the threw hull fitting (i work on boats) skewed onto a semi circle on the rim. It will have to extend above the tank if i need to trim any of the fitting to make it look nicer ill do it with a dremil. or iff I made the hole to low, dam the bottom of the fitting to make the water level higher. and sure silicone.

Ok well I ordered the MH 70w fixture and balast+ colloing fan. Bulb choice? I hear I can t go with elcheapo on ebay. It will be yellow. I want greens and blues to pop. any sugestions on bulbs. 10,14 or 20 as well?


Also ordered the maxi jet 1200. Ill plum over the weekend and getit set up and ready to cycle in a week. Very exited. Thanks for all your help....

 

[reefman23]

My favorite 70 watt lamp is the 14,000k Phoenix. It can me kind of tough to find but last I checked myreefshop.com sells them.

Jesse

 

[Flon18]

how bad are the $25 14K on ebay really ...My rational is that its gonna need replacing eventually and its a long process of collecting and cycling everything. So why not burn threw a cheap bulb first and by the time its ready to be replaced the tank will be ready for a new bulb too.

Talk me out of it and ill spend the extra money... I went with a small tank nothing would have to be half assed.

next problem. Live rock....... my LFS doesnt have what I would call high quality. theres nothing living on it. Im sure its poris but I expect they bought dryed rock and are cycillig it them selves. I would like better stuff any one have any sugestions onling oir otherwise.

 

[TimSchmidt]

The only thing about a cheap bulb is the possibility of the spectrum not being as good as a quality bulb. No clue about live rock, I got lucky and my LFS had some interesting looking rock. Nothing on it, but it life and has been cycled quite well before I got it.

 

[Ritsuko N]

First off if the 14K bulb is 25 bucks I would be like asking some major questions. First off I would be leary of the color spectrum being very good if usable at all or there is some defect in the bulb and they are being liquidated for clearence to make room in the garage or warehouse for something that "really" does work. Not alll halides will fire on just any ballast. There is pulse start, probe start, HQI and then there are elcetronic ballast. If it does work as advertised then great you got a good deal if it dont then you got a 25 dollar paper weight. I really would recommend buying something as expensive as halide lights from a reputable dealer like say for instance www.hellolights.com or some place simular. They are reasonably price and great quality and there wont be much of any "suprises". Just a suggestion...

You got a couple of routes you can go if the rock at your LFS s#$%s that bad...

1. Go on line and order it and pay the over night shipping that its going to take. 45 lbs should cost you right at about 5.00 a pound by the time you include fedex over night shipping. But I have a nano and dont need 45 lbs...your right you dont. You can order smaller boxes with smaller pieces of rock and gamble that they will send some nice porous well shapped pieces just the right size. I think www.liveaquaria.com has a box of socalled "Nano Rock". I herd that www.premiumaquatics.com gets some really good reviews on various forums on thier rock and you can buy it by the pound I believe. Cost is still pretty steep.

2. You could get some sun dried rock from www.marcorocks.com for 2.00-2.39 a lbs like I did and after adding 4 lbs or so of Garf Grunge Plus from www.garf.org to the substrate drop the rock in and set back a couple of months and watch the dead rock come alive. I now have various mini feather dusters, worms, truncates and sponges growing on my rock now. It took a little while for things to take a hold but I had more patients than I did a desire for instant gratification or fun dollars. Granted some people just cant wait that long and I understand and respect that but this is none the less an option. The upside to this idea is there is no pest algae, apitasia, mantis shrimp or all those other nasties that you sometimes get when buying Live Rock at the LFS or trans-shipped from an on line dealer.

In fact I like this idea so much I have a 55 gallon tank set up as a "live rock vat" with about 60 lbs of rock in it now "marinating" so that when I need to set up another tank or run into a local noob that needs a scoop of live sand or some live rock to seed their tank I can sell them some and finance my habit or at least defray the cost. While thats not really feasable for many for someone like me thats always setting up new tanks and projects its a life saver and a great short cut to a nice tank on the cheap!

These are just a couple of options. Whether you take up one of them or not is up to you.