My 10g Reef

I couldn't sleep. Here it is 1:30AM and I have to get up at 6 to get ready for work lol.

First, I epoxied the rocks a tiny bit just to make sure nothing gets knocked over easily. :-/ I don't like epoxy because it adds an unnatural color. Maybe it's just a peeve I have but this stuff is suppose to cure white. It seems to cure a really light blue color after testing so I knew to try to hide it out of sight. Due to low quality pics you probably can't tell thought.

Secondly, made a sort of HOB refugium for my cheato I am planning on getting. I am wanting to do pods as a secondary food source. This is more of a test for me at this point. I'm hoping to have a small pod farm in this thing. I know it is black but it blends in the back of the tank. Hope this works out. If not, I'm out a bit of cheato, two hours of time, and about a buck in supplies. Also if for some reason I decide it needs more flow I can cut a small hole in the side and butt it up against the powerhead and force water through it. Doubt that will be the case but it's a possibility.

Third, seen in the pictures are the two power heads I have gotten. Only two things left to come in: the filter and the lights. The light return label came today via snail mail and was used to send back the lights they sent by mistake. Now, I just have to wait for the new LED's to come in.

Since I don't have corals nor am I anywhere near close to having any because I want to do a FOWLR tank until the rock is established well, I may just throw a temporary light over it and start the cycle when I get the filter. Add live sand either at the same time or the next day.

I'm almost started... LOL

Anyway that's my update for the night and I think I will try to lay down again.

 

Today is the day that the filter came in. I couldn't sleep last night so of course I will be super tired the day it comes. Regardless...

I filled my tank with some saltwater I had ready. Tested out my powerheads and filter.

For the filter, I primed the filter and set everything up. Plugged it in and nothing happened. A few seconds later it just started working and I felt better instantly. The powerheads started right up with no problems.

I turned everything off and moved it out of my way and proceeded to add my live sand that I picked up. For one, I managed to get about 5 pounds too much of sand. :-/ I may end up trying to get some sand back out but I figured I will at least wait to give it a look and see how it ended up first. I want to make just make sure the bottom is covered well at least. I can't see anything in the tank currently but that was expected. The cloud has diminished some already so I think it will be cleared up in no time.

The new issue!

With all the flow I have going on (I need to find my digital camera or borrow one so I can get better pics up) I slowly watched my powerheads errode the bottom and create dunes of sand in the tank. I can add the flow adjusters to the powerheads which I may later to solve this or remove some of the sand as I said before. My answer currently ... point them a different direction.

Here are some fuzzy pics. I had to turn the light off on the tank because my phone just blacked out everything but the light in the tank. I set a 24" t8 fixture on top of it for now just to have light on it till my LED's arrive. I used clips on each side of the light to keep it from moving on top of the tank easily. Anyway... pics...

 

Nice setup. You'll have to give us a review of that little canister filter. I'm setting my 10g back up for a little while and that may be a good way to run some extra media.

 

A hour and a half later with the powerheads and filter running you can see a significant gain in clarity. So far I like this filter. I must admit, it came with some foam mulch stuff in a media bag and a enough ceramic bio pellets or something. I pulled them out and replaced the ceramic stuff with a bunch of small rock rubble and replaced the media bag with my own foam. Not sure if it was the best idea I ever had but it seems to have worked so far. Also with the design of the filter I am getting a sand build up with the rubble and I think it is also adding to the filtration. For what I spent on this filter I am pretty impressed so far. The only catch is the hoses have compression fittings but won't fit or work as so. I pushed the hoses down on the top of the filter without them and they are strong, hold, and don't leak. Just a heads up to anyone else looking at getting one in the future if you like what it is doing for me.

Below you can see the before image and a shot a hour and a half later.

 

I did the previous post before I fell asleep. I woke up this morning to a pretty clear tank. Most of what you see are bubbles on the glass and that I must need to clean the glass a bit better. The water is actually pretty clear.

I also sadly think I did over do it with the sand and should fix it as soon as possible. However, this could go either way. I will mess with it a bit later when I get back home after work and see if maybe I can try to level it out a bit and see how it looks. I probably only really wanted to use about 15 pounds of live sand but ended up with 20 pounds. I didn't want to waste it but I don't want to end up with what I could consider a DSB right now either. So I guess I will have to try and siphon some of the sand out tonight if I don't feel more comfortable with it later. :-/

Either way... Now, I wait.

 

Also, I wanted to add:

For those who were interested in my canister filter. There are some more imagages here on Marine Depot and I also found a person using it on a tank with some pretty clear pictures so you can see more of how it looks in action here. Also I wanted to add, the way the return part of it works, I use it to run water behind my rock wall so there is movement there as well. It is a tube with 6 holes in it and the water "jets" out of these holes.

I found this image to show how the water is returned to the tank. Mind you, mine is pointed down in the back of the tank so I don't see this. This canister could be set up to hold pretty much any media you would want from what I can tell. I like it so far.

The filter gets about 80GPH flow and my powerheads get about the same rate. Theoretically I am getting about 240GPH flow rate between the filter and the powerheads.

Sorry about all the links but none of these photos are mine and I don't want to take any credit away from the people who did take them.

I wanted to also add, the center divider that works like a baffle forces the water through a gap at the bottom of the filter, this baffle can be removed and you can fill the whole canister with media if you want to get real technical with it.

 

Very nice start!
I agree on the sand, its a bit too deep if you dont want a DSB. In that case you should take some out soon before the bacteria can settle in
How's the color in person? On the pics it looks a bit violet/pink.

 

The color in person is that generally everything is white. The hue has something to do with my phone camera. The lights are temporary for now but I'm hoping that my LED set up I have coming in the mail will look much better.

The sand I am using is this Live Sand I liked the look of it in the store so I picked up a bag. You can see the coloration of that sand and compare to the photo. The rock is pretty much plain white base rock as well.

 

looks good!

 

Looks great