UNS 10g 45A tank build

[reefchi]

I just wanted to share my 2 and half year journey so far. I've meet some really genuinely nice people on here who are local to me. When I started I never thought there was really a forum for other local reefers in Chicago or nearby area. I wished this site was a little more active since a lot people on here are local to me compared to some other forums. For that reason I'm sharing my tank and post what are my daily struggles and what changes I would like to do. Hopefully get some advice. I'm hoping to start my next build this year since I was extremely lucky enough to have a local reefer give me a 25G AIO as my next build.

When I started I purchased a really small nano tank UNS 45A 10G AIO tank at my LFS. I know everyone tells you to get a big tank as a beginner and every LFS tried to sell me a 60G or more AIO. I just didn't want to get something so big then realize I didn't like the hobby or didn't have enough time to truly keep up with the maintenance. My goals were to understand water chemistry, how maintain a reef tank, what to look for, how to properly make corrections when things go out of wack, and mostly figure out what I truly liked in terms of corals and equipment. Even though people say its a lot harder on such a small nano tank I still went with it. I figured if I could do this and understand things well enough, then I would have enough knowledge to feel confident when upgrading to a bigger tank.

I started with dry rock & dry sand. I also did a fishless cycle with traditional ammonia and live bacteria. This is after it got cycled and I added my first pair of fish




First coral ever purchased lol a standard mushroom (paid WAY too much for that damn coral, newbie mistake) and added a few snails when there really wasn't much algae lol






Towards the end of the first year I got some dinos and some nasty golden algae. This lasted for a several months. I tried H2O2 and a temp uv light. I think what helped a lot was adding some live rubble and small piece of live rock along with some clean up crew. This is when I understood the importance of balancing Nitrate and Phosphate and its affects. I basically bottom out on both of them. I think I did feed for several days as I was traveling for work.








This how things are currently looking at now. I ran into another green film algae issue due to low imbalance nutrients but got them under control after feeding more. This is probably my biggest issue. I need to stick to a feeding schedule that will help my Nitrate and Phosphate stay in balance. Work in progress.

 

[Fish_wiz2]

Welcome! Great little tank you have there, I have the same exact tank but for freshwater, my only gripe is the overflow has no emergency so when the sponge is dirty it can really overflow.

Are you city or burbs?

 

[reefchi]

Thanks! I’m on Northside of Chicago but visit the Schaumburg area a lot.

I agree I think the overflow area isn’t the greatest compared to other tanks I’ve seen.

 

[Sawdonkey]

Nice write up and nice tank. Looks like it’s getting pretty mature. Hit me up if you want some corals for the low cost of $0. I’m also on the North side.

 

[reefchi]

Thank you!

Once I redo my aquascape I will. You can really tell its such a newbie aquascape since its just an arch lol which doesn't have the best area to mount frags. I plan on just taking out the rock and breaking it then rearrange it. I didn't want to put new live rock pieces and possibly deal with a mini cycle. I assume I shouldn't have any major issues by just taking it out and breaking right.

 

[Sawdonkey]

Thank you!

Once I redo my aquascape I will. You can really tell its such a newbie aquascape since its just an arch lol which doesn't have the best area to mount frags. I plan on just taking out the rock and breaking it then rearrange it. I didn't want to put new live rock pieces and possibly deal with a mini cycle. I assume I shouldn't have any major issues by just taking it out and breaking right.

I would not touch that arch! I don’t think you can improve on it much because it’s perfect for your tank. It will look awesome when covered corals.

If anything, I’d just move corals around according to light needs. Move the goni and leather down to a couple of small rocks in the sand and make room for some SPS high up.

 

[Mjl714]

Nice work, reef is looking good.

 

[Chase_The_Reefer]

I would not touch that arch! I don’t think you can improve on it much because it’s perfect for your tank. It will look awesome when covered corals.

If anything, I’d just move corals around according to light needs. Move the goni and leather down to a couple of small rocks in the sand and make room for some SPS high up.

I agree with sawdonkey, cover it with corals and it will look amazing

 

[reefchi]

Sounds good. I'll try that approach and relocate some coral towards the bottom and free up the top for some future corals.

 

[reefchi]

• Water Parameters:
  • Nitrate:5-15ppm​
  • Phosphates at .1-.2ppm​
  • Alk: 8.5-9.1dkh​

This so far has been working for me even though my phosphates are on the higher side and some consider it "dirty"

• My weekly maintenance
  • I try to test Nitrate, Phosphate, and Alk every week. When I don't have time, I'll at least just test for Alk
  • Clean glass every 2-3days depending how on how dirty the glass gets
  • I use ESV salt. I do about a 2g water change every weekend, but sometimes I go with 1g if my nitrates and phosphates are close to being low.
• Feeding:
  • I'm aiming to feed frozen twice a day, but only every other day of the week. I'll substitute frozen with pellets on a few days to mix it up

I've thinking of dosing All for reef just to practice keeping Alkalinity stable and consistent until I do a water change. Based on my monitoring I've noticed my alk drop slowing every day until a water change. It drops about .5-.7dkh in total for the span of 5days so I would say about ~.1 a day. The tank is mainly a LPS/Softy tank with only one monti cap sps.

Is it recommended to clean out the back chamber of a AIO? Where I have a bag of media? There always seems to be green film algae growing since the light is always hitting it. I read somewhere that it should just be left alone. Is that true?

 

[reefchi]

Here’s a shot after a water change. Nothing impressive compared to what others on here have. As you can see I have a Goni that got bleached from putting it too high up. It may not recover based on how it looks like.

Next weekend I’m going to rearrange the corals. The plan: I’m going to go with moving my biggest leather in the center and have the lower parts of the rock covered with hammers/frog and gonis and keep the top for future SPS like Sawdonkey mentioned.

 

[Fish_wiz2]

I'd personally skip AFR if your demand is that low, just be consistent on water changes. Also your levels are fine, I run the same and have some colonies of SPS that do well. More important is stability than chasing a certain number.

Also, I'd only vacuum the back chamber of detritus, algae will grow back quick so nothing to worry about there.

 

[reefchi]

Thanks for the input. So if I start the week at 9dkh and it gradually drops everyday, and by the time I need to do my water change, it's at around ~8.4 or 8.5. Safe to say a .5-.6 jump after a water change should be considered fine?

Sounds good, I'll just vacuum the top layer algae in the back chamber, next time I do a water change.

 

[Fish_wiz2]

I'll swing .5 a day when my SPS are sucking it all up. So .5 a week is a walk in the park and in my opinion you should be fine.