Our Life With Corals: 2012

November, 2012 -18 months

The tank looks fantastic! It is very stable and is growing much faster than I anticipated! I am pleasantly surprised that it is doing so well with such little work or intervention. Keeping it simple is really paying off. Here is a summary:

Size: 10 gallons.
Age: 1.5 years.

Lighting:

2, 36 watt Compact Fluorescents. 1 combo 10000K/DeepBlue and 1 DeepBlue (380-450nm).
11 hours per day.

Filtration:

15 pounds of live rock.
2.5" sand bed.
CPR Bak-Pak protein skimmer with BioBale. To reduce noise, I use a wooden airstone instead of the venturi. The skimmer is probably overkill for a 10 gallon tank.
No filters, carbon or other chemical filtration.
I keep a package of PolyFilter on hand in case of emergency.

Parameters:

Temp: 78 degrees (F)
Salinity: 1.024
pH: 8
kH: 8-10 (This is the only test that I use on a regular basis)

Circulation:

Zoo Med Power Sweep Automatic Self-Rotating Powerhead. It is perfect for creating 'waves' in a small tank.

Water changes:

One gallon every 4-5 weeks (when stable).
Tropic Marin Salt.
Reverse Osmosis Water (Kent Marine, 2 stage).
I never filter or stir the sand bad.

Additives/Feeding:

Kalkwasser - 3/4 teaspoons per gallon of RO water and drip solution in AM to makeup for evaporation

Kent Marine Nano Reef Calcium and alkalinity supplement: 10 drops each part on a semi-consistent schedule.
Feed with flake, pellets and frozen brine shrimp: Target feed the corals once a week or so.

Livestock:

Acan	Aussie Acan Candy Stripe
LPS	Candy Cane Blue
LPS	Green Favia Brain
LPS	Hammer Coral Branching
LPS	Favia Brown/Green
SPS	Orange Montipora
SPS	Green & White Montipora
SPS	Acropora
SPS	Bright Yellow Scroll Coral
SPS	Pavona Coral
SPS	Pink Stylophora
SPS	Green Tipped Birdsnest
SPS	Electric Green Hydnophora
Mushroom	Purple Mushrooms
Mushroom	Green Hairy Mushroom
Mushroom	Bumpy Red Mushroom
Mushroom	Striped Blue Mushroom
Mushroom	Metalic Red Mushroom
Soft	Gold Capnella
Soft	Toadstool
Soft	Pink Pulsing Xenia
Soft	Metalic Green Star Polyp
Soft	Striped Pulsing Xenia
Zoos/Palys	Brown Palythoa
Zoos/Palys	Whammin Watermelon Zoanthids - Zoanthus sp.
Zoos/Palys	Caribbean Long tentacle Palythoa
Zoos/Palys	Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoanthids
Zoos/Palys	Yellow Colonial Polyps
Fish	Ocellaris clownfish
Invert	Red Leg Hermit
Invert	Peppermint Shrimp
Invert	Fan Worm
Invert	Sea Cucumber
Invert	Small Brittle Star
Invert	Nassarius Snail
Invert	Peppermint Snail
Invert	Margarita Snail
Invert	Large Tonga Nassarius Snail
Invert	Banded Trochus Snails