Introduction/Setup

In early May there was a major catastrophe in my daughter Maya's goldfish tank. In a short time, Tiny, Speedy, Archie and Fuschia had died. Our family needed to turn a devastating situation into a positive opportunity. Now that we had the space, Maya and my wife Cindy encouraged me to start a reef tank again.



I gave up my 6 year reef keeping hobby in 1999 because I wanted to focus my attention and dedication on my newborn daughter. Now that Maya is 11, she is at the perfect age for us to start a reef tank together. I truly loved managing a reef tank and watching it grow. I can't wait to get into it again and share the hobby with Maya. So we begin our adventure of creating an indoor reef ecosystem.



My first reef aquarium, in 1993, was a 10 gallon soft coral and invertebrate tank with only one fish, a Black-Ray Goby.  I wanted to limit additional food and waste production in the tank and create a natural self-contained ecosystem.  Lower cost was the reason I went with a such a small tank, but it turned out to be a great size for many reasons. 

Back then, I did constant research and was aided by Rick Oellers, owner of my local reef store.  I was an avid reader of "Freshwater and Marine Aquarium" magazine and was inspired by Julian Sprung's articles. I learned about the Berlin Method of using live rock for biological filtration and Joubert who had success with deep sand beds.  Combined with protein skimming, it was a simple and efficient system that proved successful.  I did well keeping a Tridacna clam and Pagoda hard coral, but eventually the reef outgrew the 10 gallon and I moved it to a 30 long.  Because of the additional space I was able to keep more hard corals including Staghorn Acropora and several more fish.  A lot has changed since reefing in the 1990's, particularly making the hobby easier on the environment, but I am confident that my method will still have great results.

The Setup:

• 10 Gallon tank.
• 1   Power Head.
• 2 Coralife 20 watt, 50/50 self balasted compact flurescent bulbs. 
• A standard aquarium hood for incandescent bulbs.  Painted white on the inside, modified heat shield to protect the longer bulbs and extra holes for ventilation.
• Light timer.
• Eheim Jager submersible heater.
• Small hang on the back filter with bio material (no carbon or sponge filter).  I was planning to use my CPR Aquatics BakPak protein skimmer, but it turned out to be too loud.  Eventually, I will modify it to make it quieter, but for now the live rock and good circulation should work just fine.
• 10 pounds of Fiji Premium live rock.
• 2 pounds of Tonga Fused Branch live rock.
• 2 pounds of Caribean Shelf live rock. (All of the rock was aquacultured and well cured.  I initially wanted to get uncured rock because of the additional creatures, but I was assured that this rock was well seeded.)
• 2" bed of Aragonite sand.
• Tropic Marin salt.
• Kalkwasser to provide calcium and raise pH.  Higher pH leads to calcifaction which is good for the reef and coralline algae growth.
• Reverse osmosis water.

We will see how it turns out ...

-JFW