10 Gallon Nano Tank Diary

[slowleak]

Ok, i had a 10 gallon nano that lasted about 6 months till Gustav hit us.

Yesterday i decided to start another nano.

I want to do a day by day diary of how this tank goes, so i can get help with it. Last tank I did everything wrong

Here goes:

10 gallon tank
10 lbs live sand
150 gpm powerhead
basic lights (fowlr for now)


today the water is really cloudy. i have no filter in the tank, since i plan on adding my live rock tomorrow.
Is a filter necessary? i thought i read somewhere one was not needed since i am doing live rock. any other constructive criticism is greatly aprriciated!

 

[seffieuk]

No, filter will not be needed if you are putting in live rock

back to the salty side

Make sure your tank is up to temp. and SG before you put the LR in

Seffie x

 

[slowleak]

thanks seffie! i know about the cycling and SG and all, just wanted to make sure about the filters. i cant wait untill tomorrow to get this going!

 

[Ahoy89]

Ooh great a new diary, make sure you post some photos of what you're doing too!

A powerhead onto live rock is your filtration

 

[slowleak]

got it! im goin to bed now so i can get up early to go to the new LFS!!

 

[slowleak]

just got back from the LFS with the LR. bought one 8.8 lb piece of "engineered" rock with some caves and all built in and 3 smaller pieces of "natural" LR to finsih it off. im not sure if i like how it looks with the 2 different types of LR, but the girlfriend likes it so i geuss thats all that matters now LOL

 

[Trod]

Photos Please always love a new set up

 

[slowleak]

photos to come on friday! i have to work for the bext 48 hours so no time to take pics. when i left the house this morning the water was super clear, i cant wait to get home and see if its done its cycle! if so, time for CUC and maybee a fish or 2!

 

[Xebadir]

*shakes* no it wont have cycled yet....your bacteria from your real live rock will need to colonise...and it will probably take 2-3 weeks for the tank to properly cycle depending on the freshness of the LR. But it is worth while checkin your water parameters to see how the cycle is going.

 

[Trod]

photos to come on friday! i have to work for the bext 48 hours so no time to take pics. when i left the house this morning the water was super clear, i cant wait to get home and see if its done its cycle! if so, time for CUC and maybee a fish or 2!

Sorry, but no way will it be ready for CUC or fish, you have a lot of testing of water to do first, if your LR was cured then you may be ready for CUC in week or 2.

Test for
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate

 

[seffieuk]

well, although everyone is mostly correct in their assumptions, it really depends on your lr, if it's lr from an established tank and it is out of water for a matter of minutes you may have little or no die off, hence no cycle. However, if you are buying from further away or a lfs, internet, then you will get die off and as stated above will take a while

Seffie x

 

[Xebadir]

True but in this game its wise to wait a week just to ensure thats the case. Also given he is using some engineered rock which is not live time to seed the tank from the LR may take some time to ready itself for the bioload. But I do agree that if rock is from an established tank (a few months at least), and has minimal time out of water/withou circulation that a cycle will not likely happen. Personally given the cost of marine creatures id rather be safe than sorry.

 

[slowleak]

ahh here's the thread!!

my rock that i started off with came from another tank that was running fine, and the rock i bought was all cured rock from the LFS. they gave me a styrofoam tub and they put water in it for me for the ride home, which was only about 20 minutes. so far i have 4 snails, 2 hermits, 4 damsels and a chromis. i had 5 damsels but the other ones thought he was tasty and ate him up. sorry for the late reply, i just found this thread. pics to come possibly on tuesday, i wont get to go home till then. (dont worry the girlfriend takes good care of the fishies too!)

 

[Trod]

You can track your thread, click on the options tab and you can choose your subscription option, instant, daily or weekly then you won't lose it again

Look forward to seeing pictures

 

[lou 123]

On a tank that small, cant you just use a power filter in replacment of the protein skimmer?