Setting Up A 10 Gallon Aquarium

I have had a cheap little 10 gallon glass aquarium sitting in a closet for months and months now. The only reason for not setting it up sooner is that the cost of the current tank limits everything else. Finally I took the plunge, I bought the basics while trying to keep cost down. My idea or plan for this tank is to keep it predator free, kind of like a refugium but without the macro algae. Hopefully creating a healthy population of micro fauna I believe I lack in my 75 gallon reef. For this to have the best beginning I wanted to go with a deep sand bed. Down the road some way I will probably create a metal halide canopy using components from my Odyssea fixture but for now I am using sunlight and supplementing with two Coralife 50/50 Mini Compact Bulbs mostly for the color.

I began with a 10 gallon tank, not drilled or anything. I will be targeting for low flow, low to medium light corals.

I bought two bags of CaribSea Arag-Alive Aragonite Reef Sand totaling 40lbs for a good beginning of a deep sand bed.

I bought 10lbs of Gap Island Live Rock, brought it home in a bucket of saltwater. Nothing was out of water for any length of time. I think this rock looks amazing and it is easy to create arches and such because of the structure of the rock.

I added the live sand, then I placed a bowl on the sand into which I poured the saltwater. This way cloudiness from the sand being stirred up is kept at a minimum. I used about three gallons of tank water from the 75 gallon reef and mixed roughly seven gallons of fresh mixed saltwater. Aquascaping came later since at this point I could not see much of anything in the tank.

Filtration and flow will be provided by this Penguin 330 filter. I hear a lot about the issues with nitrates people experience with any kind of wet/dry filter, but since my plan is to have corals which thrive in saltwater with a higher level of nitrates and dissolved organic matter [i]DOM[/i] I feel this is a great product for what I am doing. It is quiet, efficient and provides a good flow in this size tank.

Here the filter is turned on for the first time.

Initially I used a floodlight I used to have over my refugium, I later changed this to two 50/50 bulbs.

This is the final aquascape, I wanted the rock to be clear of all sides making cleaning easier. Currently I have seen a few bristle worms, various feather dusters, different pods and some snails.

Now comes waiting, I think I will be moving my Yasha Hase Shrimp Goby and its buddy the Randall's Pistol Shrimp to this tank at some point. I am also wanting a Yellow Clown Goby.

Here is a picture of how the tank looked with two 50/50 fluorescent bulbs.