Any thoughts

[Ray1214]

My 14 soon to be 15 year old son is about to have a birthday. He has been dying for a nano reef tank. He figures with a nano reef, he will limit himself to what he can and can't have. He is going major low budget (I gave him a 50 dollar guideline last christmas). He finally figured it out and with patience this is his idea.

Supplies he currently has access too. (Free)
1. 10 gal aga tank (Like new)
2. 20 gal high aga tank (used for growout, refugium, sump, scratched, hold water fine though)
3. Lee's Counter Current Protein Skimmer. (Used one but works fine in a sump. )
4. Marineland Powerhead (the penguin one with the filter, usta be mine but I didn't feel like it was enough flow at 160 gph plus the filter thingie was hard to hide)
5. 10-20 lbs of homemade argocrete.
6. Oystershell/southdown/caribsea aruba shell mix (about 50 or so pounds)
7. The 10 gal tank is acting as a calurpa refugium and already cycled with a 2 inch or so sandbed.
8. 60 Plant grow incandescent light in a Repti fixture.
9. 55 Watt AGA Power Compact (23.5 inches).
10. A DIY Overflow with hoses.


This is his plan: Build a stand that will accomidate his 10 gal tank on top with a 20 gal sump. Empty the 10 gal tank into the 20 gal. The Skimmer is rated for 30-60 gallons so it will not fit in a 10 gal tank without destroying a ton of space. However it does fit and is currently in the 20 gal sump.
Make a 4" DSB in the 20 gal tank. He will have to purchase a insump pump to pump up to the 10 gal and use the overflow. He will have to buy a 100 watt or so submersible heater and we can build him a return spraybar easy enough.
We are mounting the incandescent lighting fixture to the top of the inside of his stand and using an alternating lighting sequence.
My wife and I have already pegged out what will be fragged and already spliced some "Shrooms" for his first corals along with about a pound of live sand and a live rock from each of our tanks. I figure the refugium is already cycled (I am growing calurepa and gracileria in it and it only has 5 hermits, and a turbo snail and about 3 astrea snails. I will add 10 nassiurs snails). But may go through one again as I add the 20 gal of water (going from10 gal to 30 gal volumne) and the extra sand toincrease the sand bed.

Out side of 5 astea snails and 5 hermits he wants a pair of neon gobies (my wife and I have aobut 10 between the two of us), a rainsford goby, and possibly a bicolor pseudochromis or a strawberry pseudochromis. He figures that with a pair of cleaner shrimp the livestock will help maintain his tank free of pests.

One other possiblity is that he may run a powerfilter as polisher like I do on my sump every so often.

Any thoughts? (the 10 gal will have 55 watt pcs)

Ray

[MegaDeTH]

You may want to find some base rock rather than argocrete rock, by the time you figure in sand & cement mix, it comes close, not to mention the curing time required for aragocrete rock.

Not sure if anyplace around has base rock though, even dry limestone will work well.

[Ray1214]

Mega,

I have about 50 pound or so of ArgoCrete curing in garbage cans as we speak. I made it in January so it should be about ready. I am doing a Saltwater Cure right now. When GARF mentions that temperature helps speed up the process, they are so right. I am using a heater aimed at the garbage cans and they are in the last 2 weeks (I double the curing time to be safe) of the Saltwater cure almost ready for my prop tanks to start with the coralline algae. (I cure mine for 6 weeks of Freshwater, then 2 weeks of saltwater). My plugs (i use ice cube trays) are already complete but I cured those in a different tank and use half a cube in my sump since it seems to be an awesome way to buffer my main tank.

Ray

[MegaDeTH]

I actually cured a some small plugs in the tank after an initial 2 week fw cure, my tanks always seem to have a depressed ph, so the cement helped a little.

Is 8 weeks really enough? I had some 12 months and it still kept the ph in the tank elevated, I finally tossed it.

[Ray1214]

I think so, Garf recommends at least 4 weeks. I haven't had a problem with the 6 week old plugs at all. I am guessing I will find out. So far I have only added about 5 pounds or so at a time but I currently have at least 20 pounds of argocrete in my tank with about 35 pounds of live rock. I have been dosing calcium rather heavily (working that 500 ppm limit) but so far no ill effects.

Ray