New to Salt (need Ideas for 10 gallon)

justintoxicated

justintoxicated

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Dec 19, 2005
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Hi, I have a 10 gallon tank I want to do something with. It has a nice plastic hood and neon light.

I was reading about fishless cycling but would need some recomendations for a good filter or 2, maybe an rugf and something else? I know good filtration is important and seems even more important for salt water.

I was thinking it would be nice do do something different like sea horses and a small fish, or maybe a starfish and some snails or things like that. my LFS has a TON of really cool small creatures but I want to make sure they can live in harmony and in a 10 gallon tank.

Also I would be interested in doing plants, but I don't want to get myself into anything too complex just because a fish looks cool.

Also my LFS sells clean salt water by the gallon would it be a good idea to buy this instead of creating my own durring water changes?

Thanks for any suggestions on Plants, Creatures, etc that would be ok for a beginner.

I had newts and frogs in this tank before but they got moved to a much larger aquarium/terrarium.
 
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You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want.

If I were to set up a 10 gallon tank, the foundation would be about 15 lbs of live rock, plus a lot of circulation. Either a few powerheads, an HOB filter, or both with keep things moving nicely. The rock will be your biological filter, so there will be no need for a UGF or RFUGF.

Sandbeds are more subject to debate. In a tank that size, an inch or two or either live sand or fine aragonite would serve as a place for small critters to live. Others might suggest either no sandbed (aka barebottom, BB), which will be good for siphoning off detritus, and yet another option would be a deep sand bed (DSB) with a minimum of 3" of sand. In a DSB, so the theory goes, hypoxic conditions can exist, allowing for the conversion of nitrate to N2 or NO, which bubbles off as a gas. For a 10 gallon tank, I have no strong feelings about it.

There are some marine plants, actually macroalgae, that are quite easy to keep. You will probably need to upgrade your lights to power compact, VHO or T5, though.

Once the tank is cycled, there are a lot of relatively easy invertebrates, like snails, hermits, and shrimp, that would be a good start. One or two very small fish will be OK, but it would probably be easier to focus on the invertebrates, macroalgae, and maybe even some easy corals like mushrooms.
 
mogurnda said:
You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want.

If I were to set up a 10 gallon tank, the foundation would be about 15 lbs of live rock, plus a lot of circulation. Either a few powerheads, an HOB filter, or both with keep things moving nicely. The rock will be your biological filter, so there will be no need for a UGF or RFUGF.

Sandbeds are more subject to debate. In a tank that size, an inch or two or either live sand or fine aragonite would serve as a place for small critters to live. Others might suggest either no sandbed (aka barebottom, BB), which will be good for siphoning off detritus, and yet another option would be a deep sand bed (DSB) with a minimum of 3" of sand. In a DSB, so the theory goes, hypoxic conditions can exist, allowing for the conversion of nitrate to N2 or NO, which bubbles off as a gas. For a 10 gallon tank, I have no strong feelings about it.

There are some marine plants, actually macroalgae, that are quite easy to keep. You will probably need to upgrade your lights to power compact, VHO or T5, though.

Once the tank is cycled, there are a lot of relatively easy invertebrates, like snails, hermits, and shrimp, that would be a good start. One or two very small fish will be OK, but it would probably be easier to focus on the invertebrates, macroalgae, and maybe even some easy corals like mushrooms.
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Thanks for the input, what is an HOB filter? You would not recomend a canister filter everyone seems hooked on those? So Maybe an HOB and 1 powerhead?

Is the tank too small for all Anemones?

my LFS has a ton on inverts, from slugs to cucumbers. They even have small starfish.

Can anyone recomend me a good specific filter? and Heater? Also will I be able to see the tank contents well if I change the bulb in there? I figure I would have to do this already, but most of the tanks I looked at in the LFS (Strictly Fish) had 2 bulbs and my lid only takes one.
 
If you only plan on fish, lights are not important, anything will work. If you want to make the jump to coral, then new lights would be needed.

A filter is not needed, all it does is create nitrates. The live rock will do all the filtration that you need. Skip the filter and invest in a good skimmer instead.

Jen
 
jenghes said:
If you only plan on fish, lights are not important, anything will work. If you want to make the jump to coral, then new lights would be needed.

A filter is not needed, all it does is create nitrates. The live rock will do all the filtration that you need. Skip the filter and invest in a good skimmer instead.

Jen
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Thanks, what do you mean by a good skimmer? Filte still sounds like a really good idea to me.. I don't care if it costs a bit extra as long as it keeps the fish happy and water clean. I was thinking about a Canister filter, what is the difference between this and a HOB? I hear canister is overkill but it would be nice to have it outside of the tank right?

As far as lights, Do I change the flourescent light I have or do I need to keep this one as well as add an aditional one on a timer? If so How would I do that? The lid I have now is made by topfin I believe.
 
Thanks, what do you mean by a good skimmer? Filte still sounds like a really good idea to me.. I don't care if it costs a bit extra as long as it keeps the fish happy and water clean.
Click to expand...

Check your LFS and ask them what skimmers they have and that you need one for a 10g tank, so make it sized for like a 30 gallon.

As far as filtration, they are saying you dont require a filter, saltwater works alittle different than fresh.

You will be doing water changes probably 2-3 times a month (more at first of course) with a tank that small, so the water will be fine looking, just siphon the stuff off the gravel when changing water.

Live rocks (check your LFS) will help keep polutants out of the water by means of bacteria, a natural filtration method, so no need for a filter and small snails, crabs, fishes will keep maintanance up for you on leftover food etc. .

if you want plants or mushroom anemones you probably want to upgrade your lighting to a Power Compact "PC" lighting for good growth. I doubt you would be able to care for larger ones in such a tank, check your animals you want out and make sure they are all HARDY animals that can deal with alittle stress. In a 10 gallon water conditions can change VERY fast so this is why you need strong animals, especially if your just starting out.
 
Mahlhavoc said:
Check your LFS and ask them what skimmers they have and that you need one for a 10g tank, so make it sized for like a 30 gallon.

As far as filtration, they are saying you dont require a filter, saltwater works alittle different than fresh.

You will be doing water changes probably 2-3 times a month (more at first of course) with a tank that small, so the water will be fine looking, just siphon the stuff off the gravel when changing water.

Live rocks (check your LFS) will help keep polutants out of the water by means of bacteria, a natural filtration method, so no need for a filter and small snails, crabs, fishes will keep maintanance up for you on leftover food etc. .

if you want plants or mushroom anemones you probably want to upgrade your lighting to a Power Compact "PC" lighting for good growth. I doubt you would be able to care for larger ones in such a tank, check your animals you want out and make sure they are all HARDY animals that can deal with alittle stress. In a 10 gallon water conditions can change VERY fast so this is why you need strong animals, especially if your just starting out.
Click to expand...


Wow this forum is a great help, thanks for everyones advice. After doing some research last night, combined with opinions from eeryone on here, I decided that this tank would probably be better used as a support tank for my main tank, and for growing food. I would still like to do a saltwater tank setup in the future and will remember everyones advice. However It sounds like I would be much better off with a larger tank for a salt water setup.
 
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