10g mini-reef?

Smaller tanks are a bit more challenging as water quality can shift pretty quick. Also, the addiction sets in pretty quick with SW so if it bites you, you'll outgrow a 10-gallon in no time and end up buying equipment twice after you upgrade. My advice would be to go as big as your willing to go up front.

1. Depends mainly on what you want to keep. A softy reef would be the least amount of equipment with a mainly SPS reef (wouldn't recommend for a 10 gallon and a new reefer). A successful reef tank has good lighting (would recommend LED or T5 due to the size of the tank), good water flow and clean water (made with 0 TDS RO/DI water). A good protein skimmer will certainly help but frequent 1 to 2 gallon water changes (one, preferably twice per week) should keep things in line.
2. Corals, shrimp, snails and crabs, micro stars, worms, tube worms, lots of others (research compatibility and risks before you buy)
3. Yes but I would limit it to 2 very small fish. Options include a small blenny, small watchmen goby (and a pistol shrimp to pair up with), clown goby and a few others. No clownfish and certainly no tangs or angels. The fish should be small and fed sparingly unless you add water volume through a sump or add some type of protein skimmer.
4. Again it depends on what you want. If you have to buy everything new and have nothing but the tank I would probably set aside $500 to start. You may be able to find some deals on craigslist, etc but unfortunately this is not a cheap hobby.

^^^ Everything he said. I've had a 90g reef going for a couple years and decided to try my hand at a Finnex 4g nano and it was a serious pain to keep going with such a small volume of water, I had live rock some frag's i got from my main tank, a goby and a shrimp in it, after 2 months of having it up I moved everything into my main tank, I have a Betta living in the 4g now. In the process of setting up a 29G with 20g sump now which will be more manageable.

i have a 10g mini reef. Biocube 14, retrofitted lights with 2x panorama led and 2 additional actinic led strips, doing chalices, montis, some acros, and zoas
All it needs is a 1/16 hp chiller for bad days =)

Q1. what kind of equipment would we need? Biocube, led upgrades, heater (skimmer), sand, live rocks, salt.

Q2. what kinds of inverts. can we put in this tank? Shrimp: Harliquin, sexy, pettersons, cleaners, yellow head coral band shrimp, peppermints. Snails: cerith, bumblebee, nasarrious, trochus.

Q3. are there any marine fish that could be put in this tank? maybe a pair of neon gobies and 1 other sall fish like a geo hawk, yellow assessor, mandarin. yasha hasha, flaming prawn goby, etc

Q4. how expensive is this going to be? I'd say maybe $800 to $2000 when you finally finish (about 6 months of spending) and how good your craigslist skills are

well i have a 10g up and running without my abundance of life the epuipment was only 300 maybe a little more

i'm running with an led 18 inch stretchable light strip with a 75 gal bio wheel filter (i like the extra push)
and as well i use a nifty little device i found i found a mini canister filter its pretty cool

that alone is around 250 to 300$
then the little things you know glass top and some other stuff maybe 30$
then you'll have to spend a pretty penny on your live rock and crushed coral (or live sand but crushed coral helps your ph)
as well as the salt mix of your choice and your stabilization chemicals

all i will tell you is you'll need to keep an eye on your salt density a smaller amount of water has a deffinate change with the smallest amount of evaporation

and with such a small tank dont bother with a heater well with any sw tank you should really find a cooler if the temp gets over 72 degrees

in my tank i have 2 shrimp i forget what kind a good size bristle worm (i keep at least one around to keep things clean)
and a bristle (lol i mean brittle) star fish as well as a few snails and there is still room

Here's an LED mini reef in a biocube 14

i had one, too hard to maintain the water chemistry

(following here with great interest, as the OP's question is essentially my own as well.)

What sort of testing kit and equpment is needed to maintain the water quality often mentioned above? In particular I see API makes both a "saltwater" and a "reef" test kit, which is better or is there in fact any difference between the two in elements tested for? And is the simple (cheap) mechanical specific-gravity tester good as long as you are careful with the temperature?

XanAvaloni said:

(following here with great interest, as the OP's question is essentially my own as well.)

What sort of testing kit and equpment is needed to maintain the water quality often mentioned above? In particular I see API makes both a "saltwater" and a "reef" test kit, which is better or is there in fact any difference between the two in elements tested for? And is the simple (cheap) mechanical specific-gravity tester good as long as you are careful with the temperature?

Click to expand...

The two test kits test different things with an overlap between the two.

To the OP, I set up a 14 gal aqua pod and in less than 1 yr I was taking it down and putting up a 29 gal bio cube from CL.

I didn't make the change due to difficulty, but do to wanting more.

In my opinion, nano reefs should be the person who has had larger reef tanks and sees a tiny spot in the house that looks like it wants to host a SW tank. Not the person that says I have always wanted a SW tank maybe I should try with this small tank I have sitting around empty.

I have never seen greech post bad advise so, I personally listen when he posts something.

Side note, the bio cube is less than a year running and now have a 40 breeder and the bio cube running. Once you start, you will want more. Go as big as you can with your first one. You will fit more in it and wont need to set up a second one as soon.