My new 10gal

[Shoreliner11]

Its been a while since I hung around here on a regular basis. Well, I finally got a tank up and running again. Its been almost 2.5 years since I got rid of my last tank while I spent 5 months in Australia (GBR is arguably a little better ). After that I was finishing up college at UW, which left me no money. Now I'm out of school, got a job at NOAA and actually have a little bit of money. So here's my new 10 gal tank.

Equipment

Tank
10gal AGA w/ built in overflow (take a look at pics)
- there is a black acrylic insert I glued into the back of the tank

Sump
10 gal AGA w/ built in baffles for refugium

Lighting
2x36w power compacts (from ahsupply.com) w/ bulbs from hellolights

Return pump
Magdrive 3 (which is running at about half capacity right now)

Skimmer
CPR Bakpak 2 with 2 airstones

I also wired in 5 outlets including one switched and all running through a GFCI. Learning wiring was interesting and a little frustrating, but glad I did it.

The furniture was made by my father and I. I'm going to buy doors soon, so for now, its open. The stand is big enough for a 60 gallon if I want to upgrade and structured to do so. The inside of the stand is primed, painted, caulked, and will hold at least 5 gallons of water if spilled (most likely more).

I do have some planned projects such as automatic top-off system that I'll fill with kalkwasser and use to drip at night to replace evap. I'm going to more or less use this DIY guide http://www.melevsreef.com/plumbing/auto_topoff.html. I'll keep the thread updated with the tanks progress. I plan to keep mostly sps with a couple softies mixed in. The light is surprisingly bright for its size and the sps will be at a max no more than 10 inches from the light itself, which should do fine. Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to look. Here's the pics.

full setup

plumbing

more plumbing

lights

side of tank showing overflow

sump/refugium

wiring

more plumbing

Thats about it thus far as far as equipment goes...now for livestock.

 

[Shoreliner11]

The first fish I got were 2 neon gobies. I tried to get 2 who were paired up, and although they liked to hang around each other at the store...they can now only tolerate the others presence. I assumed they were tank bred...but you know what assuming does. They didn't take to frozen food very well, so I had to get some live brine from work. Here is me feeding them with the lights turned out and a dive light shining in. This way the brine nauplii don't go straight to the surface and stay near the bottom instead.

the nauplii - maybe a mm long or so

 

[Shoreliner11]

And finally last week I got my last 2 fish. A firefish and a masked goby. I know most are thinking that the tank is overstocked but with my refugium and skimmer, I should be fine. I've run a similar bioload in the past in a similar setup, though I know every tank is different. Anyhow, here are the beauties.

I also got some Pavona maldivensis at bluesierra when I picked up the firefish and goby.

Thanks for looking.

 

[El Salvador]

Great work

And finally last week I got my last 2 fish. A firefish and a masked goby. I know most are thinking that the tank is overstocked but with my refugium and skimmer, I should be fine. I've run a similar bioload in the past in a similar setup, though I know every tank is different. Anyhow, here are the beauties.

I also got some Pavona maldivensis at bluesierra when I picked up the firefish and goby.

Thanks for looking.

I love all the hard work you done with such a little tank. I like how you took your time to make everything clean and nice.
Great job.

 

[Snowboarda42]

Yeah you sure have put some work into that system! I like the white underneath and its kind of cool seeing a 10G with a sump.

 

[Krish]

Cool little setup! I like it!!

 

[burning2nd]

WOW dUDE your 10g totaly pwn's mine..

thats a tight little setup, very very nice,

 

[Shoreliner11]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. This week I'll have some new coral additions to post some photos of.

Aaron

 

[young_skywalker]

great lookin setup...well done