HELP
- Thread starter 15058
- Start date
Oh boy, where to start... Welcome to Salt Water! I guess we can start with size. Are you restricted to the ten gal, or can you go bigger (20, 30-50+ gal). Do you have a large amount of cash? Do you have time to do 10-20% water changes every other day or so? Can you check the water every day? Do you expect the tank to be done within a month? Do you have experience with fresh water?
Equitment: Skimmer ($100-600, i think), Lights (for corals $500), Tank itself($50-200), filter ($50-100), Sump (second tank near the first one, connected by tubes to the first one, with some extra stuff, $200), test set ($50-200),heater($50-100), power head($20-120). Live rock isnt really under equitment, but without it you will have a very hard time keeping a small SW tank ($5.99-12.99, advantage) Price will vary.
And now we get to the animals.
# Fish:The only nice fish i can think of that can live in a 10 gal would be firefish, and gobys. You couldnt get a Clownfish unless you upped the size to a 20 or more.
#Corals: need really good light, and at least 1 powerhead for current. Corals also need special foods, suplements, and addatives, and do not tolerate copper in any form.
# Anenomys: Need to be fed food, can eat fish, need good lights, need addatives, cant tolerate coppers, need mature tank, preferably around 9 months to a year old.
#Shrimp: Need a stable tank.
#Crabs/Hermints: Need food, can be bad to corals, are scavengers and will eat other critters if starving.
#Hitchhikers: Come in with live rock, can be problematic, usually good for tank. Problematic hitchhikers include (but are not limited to) Pistol shrimp(eat fish), glass anemone (can also eat fish, take over tank, kill with peppermint shrimp, usually), crabs (can eat fish, corals, snails), other (many others can be bad). Good fellas: Sponges and filter feeders (clean water in tank, can also tell you when you are overfeeding fish), Bristle worms (can bite, but also clean bottom and sand in tank. Will not hurt fish), small starfish (clean tank of food) other (many other good fellas can come in with live rock).
And now we get to the "what is live rock" part. Live rock is rock that comes from the ocean, complete with bacteria, corals, sponges, other, which filters your tank. Live rock is the tanks biological filtration. Very helpfull, stabalizes tank and starts cycle. Do not try to take live rock directly from the ocean, thats illegal, stupid(it could have pollutants in it), and danger use. You never know what could be hiding in it (fish that bite, stinging critters, large crabs). Its just safer and easier to buy it from the LFS.
The Cycle is when your tank has a spike of ammonia, then nitrates, then nitrites (or nitrites then nitrates, cant remember which comes first). The cycle WILL happen, so dont get any fish until it is over. Just go the the market and buy some frozen shrimp that you would normally eat, and put it in the tank. That will start your cycle as it decays. Live rock can and will help hasten the cycle.
The sand in your tank (if you get sand) will eventually become live sand, and will add to your biological filtration. Sand will take time to become live.
You will have problems, you will get hitchhikers, and it will take time and effort to get a SW tank running. Just remember that you can always ask for help from us, and that as long as you don't give up you will get your own tank up and running. Good luck and i hope this helped!
Equitment: Skimmer ($100-600, i think), Lights (for corals $500), Tank itself($50-200), filter ($50-100), Sump (second tank near the first one, connected by tubes to the first one, with some extra stuff, $200), test set ($50-200),heater($50-100), power head($20-120). Live rock isnt really under equitment, but without it you will have a very hard time keeping a small SW tank ($5.99-12.99, advantage) Price will vary.
And now we get to the animals.
# Fish:The only nice fish i can think of that can live in a 10 gal would be firefish, and gobys. You couldnt get a Clownfish unless you upped the size to a 20 or more.
#Corals: need really good light, and at least 1 powerhead for current. Corals also need special foods, suplements, and addatives, and do not tolerate copper in any form.
# Anenomys: Need to be fed food, can eat fish, need good lights, need addatives, cant tolerate coppers, need mature tank, preferably around 9 months to a year old.
#Shrimp: Need a stable tank.
#Crabs/Hermints: Need food, can be bad to corals, are scavengers and will eat other critters if starving.
#Hitchhikers: Come in with live rock, can be problematic, usually good for tank. Problematic hitchhikers include (but are not limited to) Pistol shrimp(eat fish), glass anemone (can also eat fish, take over tank, kill with peppermint shrimp, usually), crabs (can eat fish, corals, snails), other (many others can be bad). Good fellas: Sponges and filter feeders (clean water in tank, can also tell you when you are overfeeding fish), Bristle worms (can bite, but also clean bottom and sand in tank. Will not hurt fish), small starfish (clean tank of food) other (many other good fellas can come in with live rock).
And now we get to the "what is live rock" part. Live rock is rock that comes from the ocean, complete with bacteria, corals, sponges, other, which filters your tank. Live rock is the tanks biological filtration. Very helpfull, stabalizes tank and starts cycle. Do not try to take live rock directly from the ocean, thats illegal, stupid(it could have pollutants in it), and danger use. You never know what could be hiding in it (fish that bite, stinging critters, large crabs). Its just safer and easier to buy it from the LFS.
The Cycle is when your tank has a spike of ammonia, then nitrates, then nitrites (or nitrites then nitrates, cant remember which comes first). The cycle WILL happen, so dont get any fish until it is over. Just go the the market and buy some frozen shrimp that you would normally eat, and put it in the tank. That will start your cycle as it decays. Live rock can and will help hasten the cycle.
The sand in your tank (if you get sand) will eventually become live sand, and will add to your biological filtration. Sand will take time to become live.
You will have problems, you will get hitchhikers, and it will take time and effort to get a SW tank running. Just remember that you can always ask for help from us, and that as long as you don't give up you will get your own tank up and running. Good luck and i hope this helped!
10 gallon....ugh...ok reminder: the smaller the tank...the more difficult it is to maintain stability. It's actually much more easy to start off with a large marine tank.
Now to answer that question: You may be able to have A clown and something for it to host. There is not much room to do much. You could go zoos route and some xenia... but that is it.
Personally I think you are wasting your money but that is me.
To start:
You need liquid test kits and a Salinity Meter.
A heater.
Power head to move the water
bag of live sand
One big live rock or several med. ones.
Coral life makes a PC lamp that can sit on legs over the tank.
Good water source (never ever tap) From Marine fish store..or if you have a RO/DI unit for your house drinking water...that'll work to.
Again I would like to emphasize this is a waste I think. A tank so small with live rock and sand may actually be 7-8 gallon volume. To maintain a tank like this you have to not go over your bio load limits and at the same time frequently change water.
Like 1 gallon a day or 50%+ a week to maintain good water quality...the more bio load or feeding you may do will require you to change water more frequently.
it makes no sense to buy a skimmer...that a lone is expensive and if you are not able to go over 10 gallons to something more easy to maintain and get equipment for.... i dont recommend attempting a 10 gallon reef...
just too small for the costs and difficulty of keeping it stable.
If you really really want to do this no matter what and have some money to spend.
Look into Nano or Biocube tanks. They have some compact ones. And it has everything you need minus Rock,sand, heater. It looks better also.
Now to answer that question: You may be able to have A clown and something for it to host. There is not much room to do much. You could go zoos route and some xenia... but that is it.
Personally I think you are wasting your money but that is me.
To start:
You need liquid test kits and a Salinity Meter.
A heater.
Power head to move the water
bag of live sand
One big live rock or several med. ones.
Coral life makes a PC lamp that can sit on legs over the tank.
Good water source (never ever tap) From Marine fish store..or if you have a RO/DI unit for your house drinking water...that'll work to.
Again I would like to emphasize this is a waste I think. A tank so small with live rock and sand may actually be 7-8 gallon volume. To maintain a tank like this you have to not go over your bio load limits and at the same time frequently change water.
Like 1 gallon a day or 50%+ a week to maintain good water quality...the more bio load or feeding you may do will require you to change water more frequently.
it makes no sense to buy a skimmer...that a lone is expensive and if you are not able to go over 10 gallons to something more easy to maintain and get equipment for.... i dont recommend attempting a 10 gallon reef...
just too small for the costs and difficulty of keeping it stable.
If you really really want to do this no matter what and have some money to spend.
Look into Nano or Biocube tanks. They have some compact ones. And it has everything you need minus Rock,sand, heater. It looks better also.
What i meant by home rodi is those big super water filter things sears has...just huge but made for entire house.....super expensive ..but you never know who has a house with one built in =)
posting to clearify by what I meant by RO DI drinking water cleaner =p.... It may not be even RO DI...but just one extreme RO unit.
posting to clearify by what I meant by RO DI drinking water cleaner =p.... It may not be even RO DI...but just one extreme RO unit.
Honestly, you don't. You'll wind up killing a bunch of critters. Wanting a 10g reef tells me that you don't have room/money for a larger setup. If that's the case, you likely don't have the room/money for the equipment necessary to maintain a tank. Salt every month, food, test kits, coral food, all that stuff. Fishfriend exaggerated quite a bit with his pricing - 10g tank - $15, skimmer for 10g - $50, lights - $100 (assuming you don't get metal halides or something), filter - total around $50, you need 15 lbs of live rock at $4.99/lb., heater - $14, no need for a sump with a 10g tank. It would be nice, but again - space and money.
If you have the space, I would look on CL or at your local fish store. Sometimes they have special deals. In my opinion, I wouldn't get anything less than a 29g for a reef tank. This is from a humane point of view plus a practical one.
If you have the space, I would look on CL or at your local fish store. Sometimes they have special deals. In my opinion, I wouldn't get anything less than a 29g for a reef tank. This is from a humane point of view plus a practical one.
I have to agree with toejam, if you want a small reef tank I would recommend looking into an oceanic bio cube or a jbj nano cube.
They make them in varying sizes but as was mentioned before, without experience in testing and keep the water parameters stable, try to look at 29 gal at least.
The smaller the tank, the more deadly slight variations can be. with a larger tank, the small variations are diluted by the volume and so a larger tank is easier to keep stable.
They make them in varying sizes but as was mentioned before, without experience in testing and keep the water parameters stable, try to look at 29 gal at least.
The smaller the tank, the more deadly slight variations can be. with a larger tank, the small variations are diluted by the volume and so a larger tank is easier to keep stable.
Ok, just so you know, he sent me a PM saying:
" thanks for all the info i guess i have to start saving up my money"
so i think he wont be starting a reef anytime soon.
So now that we are done with that, we can talk on the thread and dont need to assume he has started a tank. When he comes back we can talk again, and give advice.
I should have probably posted that sooner.
" thanks for all the info i guess i have to start saving up my money"
so i think he wont be starting a reef anytime soon.
So now that we are done with that, we can talk on the thread and dont need to assume he has started a tank. When he comes back we can talk again, and give advice.
I should have probably posted that sooner.
