FTS:

Rastas:

Nightmares:

Rainbow Pocillopora:

Meteor Shower:

Ricordea Florida:

It is quite popular to have some kind of fuge or sump connected to your aquarium so that you can keep the equipment out and grow some macro algae in there that both keeps the appearance of the tank simpler and keep the nutrient levels low. Best way is to drill the display tank (DT) and pipe it to the refugium/sump (fuge), however my tank is already setup so I didn’t want to take everything out just to drill it. So I decided to build my own hang on back fuge. The volume is about 5gallon and I can move all my equipment in it to keep the tank look simpler. Also I can grow some chaeto in there and add a skimmer.
So here is the initial plan:

I ordered some plexiglass and started bending, cutting and gluing:

Test fit:

Finished:

I added a single baffle for now just to have a small compartment that will act as external overflow and a big compartment that will actually hold the rock and algae:

Another test fit:

Then I had to do the skimmer box that sits in the DT:

Testing the hangs::

Drilled some 3/5″ holes and put everything together:

Little pipe from the pump in the small compartment:

Everything came out really good. I added 5lbs of LR, some chaeto and the sea lettuce algae that I had in my tank.

Now I have to do a top to reduce evaporation and make some kind of lights. More on that when the parts come

Here is what the tank looks like 45 days after I filled it up with water. I’ve added an auto top-off system and changed the HOB filter with a modded AC50 with some macro algae for nutrient export.

One of the clowns got sick the second day I got him. I treated him with formalin baths and pranzipro and it looks like it is getting better. Time will show… The skunk shrimp molted twice so far! I thought that didn’t happen that fast…

Well the cycle is going full speed ahead. Ammonia has been 0 for a few days now I have to wait for nitrites to go to 0 and nitrates to drop. As you can see there is plenty of algae growth for the last two weeks and it is getting time to add the cleanup crew. However it will probably be at least one more week before I can add them.
For CUC I’m thinking:
1-2 dwarf blue legged hermits
1-2 dwarf scarlet reef hermits
2-3 Cerith snails
2-3 Nassarius snails
2-3 Nerite snails
2-3 Astraea snails

These 10-15 little guys should be enough for my 10g tank.

Last I’m planning to ad a skunk cleaner shrimp and a pair of perculas.

I’m probably not going to be able to have an anemone, even though I’d really love to. I have not decided on corals yet either. Will see..

After I finished the hood of my tank last week, this week the rest of the hardware arrived, along with the live rock and live sand. On Monday I got my RO/DI system. At last we have pure clean water and don’t have to buy Brita filters. Thursday I got two boxes. One with the thermometer, heater, refractometer, two Koralia pumps and tests for Ammonia, Alkalinity, Calcium, Nitrate, Nitrite and Magnesium. In the second box I had my uncured live rock. So I had to fill the tank and setup the rock in it. Yesterday I got my live sand as well and now the the aquarium is arranged with all the hardware and live stuff in it:

After I finished with that I spent some time to test the water:
Ammonia: 1.25
Alkalinity: 2.97
Nitrate: 1.0
Calcium: 460
Magnesium: 1430
Nitrite: 0.1

Now I have to wait for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite to go to 0 (2-4 weeks) and then I can start adding some more life to the system! Stay tuned.