check out PICS of my 10g SPS nano
 

I have never posted a pic of my 10g SPS dominated nano and now that it doesn't exist anymore I figured I would share. I upgraded to a 30 cube with halides, everything is looking even better now. This tank was running for several years like this: 130W PCs, lots of SPS and zoos, with a blue maxima and some softies thrown in here and there. Let me know what you think! I would also love to share about the setup if anyone has any questions.

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/fishtank/10g%20reef/10greefJuly2007.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/fishtank/macro/birdsnestmacro2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/fishtank/macro/IMG_2116.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/fishtank/top%20down/IMG_2139.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/fishtank/others/IMG_2114.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/fishtank/others/harlequinserpent.jpg[/IMG]

Wow, crowded.

I love it.. the corals grew in quite nicely, despite it's small size.

Looks like it could be a much larger tank. :)

talk bout crowded! i love the tank how it looked.. any pictures of the new tank you placed all of that into? and your xenia is blooming quite nicely doesnt seem to over take the tank as i see some other pictures, looked like u knew how to trim em back eh hehe

Yeah, the xenia I made sure just grew on the back wall and nowhere else. Here is a pic of my current tank with all the stuff from the 10g in it plus a little more LR, few more new acros on top and another maxima.

[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/fishtank/30%20cube/30cube12-07.jpg[/IMG]

WOW :eek2: :eek2: :eek2: really nice aquascaping everything in there makes it alot nicer!

Awesome tank. Sorry but did I hear you right when you said that you were running PC's and keeping SPS under it? How did that work out? It seems to have been going okay. But did you have any problems?

Yes, I did keep all of that SPS under 130W PCs. I had pretty good growth out of most of the stuff, although things have brighten up more and grow a bit faster under MH now. Also, I attempted to keep acros at one point under the PCs but they all would brown out and grow very little. The exception was the Nathan's green millipora that grew pretty well, but was pretty brown the entire time.

The bigger problem with SPS in a small tank IMO was Ca and Alk issue. It is tough to keep these guys high in such a small water volume. I used kalk water as my top off and got my alk under control late in the game with Kent alk (just recently started using Randy's two part, great recipe, wish I had in sooner).

it was ok he had a 10 gal with 130 watts, thats 13 watts a gallon. i think iv read somewere that sps only need 9 watts per gallon? i think.

Oh okay. So if I run 2 55W PC's over my 10 gallon I would be able to keep SPS and clams?

If you are going to go out and get a fixture for a 10g, I would say go with T5s for a small tank. When I started out T5s weren't really in style then and not many people had experience with them. Probably the way to go now a days though (if you can't do MH, which in a small tank is sometimes not feasible).

However, there is a lot more to keeping SPS and clams than lighting, so just throwing a light on a 10g is not going to reproduce my results ya know. I am just stating this given this forum has a lot of newbies on it, and don't want to give anyone false impressions.

Well yeah I know. I'm just saying assuming all my other conditions are right and I have some good flow would the lighting from 2 55W PC's be enough to keep SPS and clams.

probably, but no acros and no croceas and if you have a maxima, keep it up high.

I see. I might just go with the PC's and then hang a 70W MH somewhere above.

watts per gallon is not a good measure of light...pretty much obsolete...

you want to look at the lux and par of the bulbs you are using...there are many threads about this...

ER EDIT....BTW very nice looking tank...that birds nest is going nuts......

Wow nice, can we have more details about the system?

Wow great tank! Love it!

wow!!!!...for a minute there, i didnt think i was lookin at a 10 gallon....until i noticed that royal gramma

Really great tanks! What do/did you do for nutrient export and what do you do for feeding- especially for the gorgonians. Your corals looks very healthy with great polyp expansion!

very nice. wish mine looked that good

More 10g system details:

Having that big of a skimmer was my only nutrient export really
No sump, just a AC110 HOB filter that I mostly use to house a lot of the equipment. I had a coralife superskimmer 65 in the fliter sideways, so the intake pump was in the AC110 and the outflow flowed out into the tank. In the summer I also had a iceprobe chiller sitting in there which kept the tank 80-82. A 100W heater kept it at 80 in the winter. Here is a pic of the skimmer/filer setup
[IMG]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/richandres1/misc.jpg[/IMG]

I almost never did a water change in 4 years (maybe to top off after I dripped some corals or sold a bunch of frags, or if things were going wrong (which was rare)), I just used kalk water as my top off (almost 1/2g per day in the summer, did have a pH spike but never saw any ill effects from it even on the sps). I also used Kent Nano Reef two part daily. Towards the end I was using Kent Superbuffer to keep the alk up, but still had problems keeping it up. My parameters on avg were as follows:

salinity: 1.025
pH:8.3
alk:6
Ca: 380
Mg: 1350
Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammo, Phos: 0

I only fed my two fish (royal gramma and sixline) twice a week or so. I switched over to mysis after the first year from Formula 1 as I found this was a big source of phosphates. Most corals were grown out from frags, although there are a few wild colonies in there.

dude for a ten gallon that tank is awsome

Thanks! The only reason I ever kept only 10g was because I was moving around a lot and it was nice to just drain a little bit out and pick it up and put it in my trunk. Money wasnt really the issue, so I could pack it full of a lot of coral and buy the best equipment.

It would be funny when I put SPS frags up for sale on my club forum and guys with like 200g tanks would come over to pick the stuff up and be like "wow, I can't believe you can keep all that in there!" haha. I am glad everyone likes it!

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11365046#post11365046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stevelkaneval [/i]
[B]it was ok he had a 10 gal with 130 watts, thats 13 watts a gallon. i think iv read somewere that sps only need 9 watts per gallon? i think. [/B][/QUOTE]

watts per gallon is a very old and unreliable way to determine light requirements. back in the day when only a few types of light were available, then it was a little more acurate.

it all depends on what kind of light, what spectrum is used, how high the light is, and how you take care of the water chemistry.

when i started, i went with the watts per gallon and failed. i was useing 6 wpg on my 10 gal.

i mean, you will have the same results with a 150W halide over a 10 gallon as you would over a 20g long. or even a 40 gallon cube thats only 12 inches tall. depth of water is also a big deal

sorry, wpg is one of those things that bug me, sorry to hijack, mess with the thread.

Very Nice!!!