[Six-line Wrasse]

Hey folks!

By now I know most of you are probably wondering what my experience level is in reefkeeping and, well, I've decided to show you all with my latest project: a 10 gallon reef.

As for right now my equipment is as follows:

7 ~ 8lbs. of premium Figi live rock
10 lbs. of oolitic aragonite sand
1x MJ900
1x MJ600
1x 50W Jäger-Eheim heater

It's nothing special right now. I don't even have lighting for it. So, as a DIY project this may or may not be testing. I plan on building a canopy and stand soon. The canopy will most likely house a 70W DE MH and supplemental HOT5 bulbs, all retrofit, of course.

As for further filtration I'm thinking of adding a AC110 HOB on the back (since you can't see it due to the paint) and DIY'ing it into a surface skimmer and refugium.

So, as of right now it looks like this:



The picture is crumby because I resized it from 3000x2000 to 650x433. Even with it resized the forums still reduced it further, haha!

[RyanG]

Looks good, 7 watts per gallon? Ouch.

How long has it been cycling?

[Six-line Wrasse]

It's been cycling for roughly 2 weeks. The rock was mostly cured and all, it's just coming down to when I get time to add stuff to it.

The primary light source for my tank will be retrofitted MH so I doubt the W/gal. rule applies. Also, with the supplemental lighting coming from HOT5 actinics, I doubt there will be many SPS or clams that won't thrive under my lighting. I would have to bump up the flow for SPS, but I'd imagine it would be doable.

I think I need a little more sand as well. It doesn't seem to cover as thick as I wanted and I'm nervous about my aquascaping. I may redo it all during this coming week or weekend.

[Krazy]

I had a standard 10 gallon tank like yours with a 150hqi over it, SPS did amazing !! so did the algae, I think it was to much light

70watter should do MUCH better then the 150hqi I had

[Six-line Wrasse]

That's my concern. I don't want to over do it with the lighting otherwise I'd DIY a 150 or two 70s on there. I still may go with the 2x 70W DE MH and make one 6,700°K and the other 20,000°K to balance out the yellow from the 6,700°K bulb. I just think it will be too much, hence why I will use HOT5 actinics.

[blind1993]

well i think u should get about 10lbs more of lr and make a live rock wall that would look amazing

[Six-line Wrasse]

I'm going minimalist so that when I get coral frags attached to live rock I have room.

[ry77]

planning to run a skimmer?

[200g+guy]

the light setup you have sounds great
what do you plan to put in it?

[blind1993]

yea i want to know what corals ur going to put in it

[Six-line Wrasse]

I'm thinkin' LPS/SPS. I've always been fascinated with SPS, primarily due to their broader range of colors. So, this 10 gal. will be my first SPS-dominated tank.

Also, this may change to a 20 Gal. long now that I was offered a pre-drilled tank w/ a internal overflow. That would be ideal consider it it longer and allows for more corals/aquascaping.