10g Office Nano Upgrade

For anyone that saw my 2.5g office pico I started last year It ran somewhat smoothly for about 3 months or so and then over new years I went out of town for a week and came back to an empty tank due to a failed ATO and a lot of evaporation. I salvaged what was left and moved everything into a 10g nano that has been running for 3 months now and so far it's doing great.

FTS with daylight bulbs only.

FTS with daylight and actinic bulbs on. It looks a lot more blue here than in person.

The LED Fixture and aluminum frame I made for hanging it.

I used Dennis's idea with the American DJ Power Strips and it's awesome for turning stuff on and off when it's time to do a water change. I've got the ATO set up as well using this pump and reservoir as well as a float switch and timer for operation. Holds about 4 gallons and needs refilled about once a week or so. I'm going to build a skin to go around this metal stand to make it look like a wooden one with a door.

Side Shot.

Tank is stocked with two clowns, an emerald crab, 1 nassarius snail, 3 astrea snails, Xenia, Green Start Polyps, Mushrooms, Zoanthids and a Kenya Tree. I plan on adding a shrimp, Monti Cap and a few Gorgonians next. Tank has been running for almost 3 full months now and the coralline algae is coming on strong and my parameters have been perfect so far. I've been at:
pH = 8.3
Am = 0
Ni = 0
Na = < 5
Ca = 360 - 400
Kh = 7-8
Salinity = 34-35 ~ 1.025
I dose with SeaChem Reef Carbonite and Reef Complete twice a week each as well as once a week with Reef Plus.

Looks great! I didn't know that had happened to the pico. After that, I probably would have wanted to up the volume of the tank as well. Good luck with it!

Cool tank!

Very nice... good job. :)

chichimom79 said:

Looks great! I didn't know that had happened to the pico. After that, I probably would have wanted to up the volume of the tank as well. Good luck with it!

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Yeah...luckily just about everything survived. The only thing I lost was a ricordia frag. Some of the coral was in bad shape but all has recovered.

Everything seems to be doing great now except my green star polyps. You can't see them in the picture because they are closed up which is about an every other day occurrence. Some days they are wide open and look great and some days they stay closed. I haven't quite figured out why yet.

Looks great :)

Hey guys! Haven't shared any updates in a while and I got a couple new pieces yesterday including my first SPS coral.

Here's an updated FTS at about 18 weeks. I actually snapped the FTS before I added the 3 new corals so it's a little different.


Here's a cool pic I snapped of one of my clowns and xenia. They don't host it but they definitely like to circle it and hang around it.


Here's a new coral. The guy at the LFS called it a green slimer but I don't think that's what it is. When the polyps go inside the stony part of coral is not round but they are flat branches. Any ideas what this might be?


One coral I've always wanted (one of my favorites) is a Monti Cap. I found this little frag that had both green and red on it so I went ahead and picked up it. I hope it does alright but I'm probably going to be very impatient with the growth. I love these things when they're big!


Finally, I added another GSP. I have two different types of GSP does anyone know the difference? One has a white base and short polyps and the new one has a purple base and longer polyps. I'm familiar with the purple version but had never seen the white one before. This is the only one that hasn't fully opened up yet but looks like it's trying to today.


Thanks for looking!

The one he called a green slimer looks like a hydnophora. Very pretty. I have the encrusting variety.
Good luck with all of your new pieces :D

Very nice additions and it is coming along nicely!!

Thanks Guys! Chichi I just looked online and thats exactly what it is! Thanks!

SigEpLucas said:

Thanks Guys! Chichi I just looked online and thats exactly what it is! Thanks!

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Glad I could help!

Tank looks great!

Nice pick ups. Tank looks great. Are you sure the 2nd one is a GSP and not a WSP?

Thanks guys, Anthony, I still think it's some type of GSP and now WSP. When I looked online at WSP they had very white polyps and still seemed to have a purple base. These polyps are still green like a GSP but they are smaller and have a white base instead of purple. The guy I bought them from said they were just an Indonesian GSP, but he's just a guy that sells corals from his basement so I'm not sure if he really knows or not.

Ah lol, gotcha :p.

So it's been way too long since I've been on the site or posted any updates but I am in the process of building a new system for this tank so i thought I would share. 1st of all this is almost 2 years old now and the tank was doing fantastic for a long while. Great looking rock, coral growth and water quality but about 4 months ago I switched over to water from a new LFS and it killed my tank. I didn't realize the RO quality was bad and the salinity was way too low. Shame on me for getting lazy and not checking! Didn't take more than a month and hair algae took off bad and coral health went way down! Here are some shots right after the switch when algae started. I wish I had some from right before!









Here are some shots from today after I removed a ton of algae, scraped everything, did a vinegar soak this weekend on some powerheads and heaters and changed half the water with some new good red sea coral pro I made at home. I won't even share the in between pictures because the tank looked horrific.







As you can see there is still some algae and corals aren't looking too hot. This prompted a few things though. I got this new BRS RO/DI unit that I've desperately needed forever. I can't believe how easy it was to get up and running and the water is perfect. Can't believe I didn't get one sooner. It should pay for itself in a year just on my little 10g system. Plus I'm using some good salt!









Now the exciting part. I'm going to take down the 10g and replace with a 20g and use the 10g for a sump. I'm not going to get fancy with the sump/fuge I'm just going to use the tank for added volume and throw my current rock/light/etc in the bottom and start over up top. I'm building the stand, drilling and installing an overflow and I'm going to try and create a nice rock structure up top pre-drilled for coral plugs and cement it all together. I'll try to update as I get finished but here's what I have so far!













Needs some sanding and I plan on filling the holes and using a dark stain. I'm also working on straightening out the opening and building a door. Will post more pics soon! Thanks for looking!

Stand is starting to look really nice.

Thanks, still need to find the right trim and figure out what I'm going to do for a door. I've already dry fitted all the plumbing as well I'm just waiting for my holesaw bit to come so I can drill the tank.

Looks nice! I am going to make all my doors removable by using embedded rare earth magnets. Just a thought of you decide you don't want to hinge it. You only have one so it will be no biggy whatever you decide to do.

That's a good idea. I was thinking of ways to use a door without hinging so I would be really interested in pics if you get that worked out. I was thinking of using some type of cabinet clips on both sides for the same effect. Something like this. Also, are you using pre-made doors or are you going to make them yourself?