Starting a newbie 10g saltwater

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iJohno

AC Members
Jul 28, 2010
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Hi guys! so I am over freshwater since all my fishes died :/... sad part is not sure why they died, they were pretty healthy :/.

Anyways, Saltwater.
  1. How to start off the process?
Live sand
Live rocks

  1. What kind of lighting?
I currently have an aqueon full florescent lighting that it came with, but not sure if I should upgrade
  1. What kind of filter? canister or HOB?
  2. Do we need a wave maker? or power head.
I want my future stock to have coral, shrimps, and clown fish.
Once I get the gist of everything Ill start to go to a 55g+ saltwater
 

fish-n-chips

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Oct 29, 2008
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Real Name
C.J.
I'm of the school of thought that a person should start bigger since the increased water volume is more forgiving to any swings in parameters or potential errors by the hobbiest.
Having said that, if you lost all your freshwater fish, they were not healthy.Something was off in that tank. Saltwater is less forgiving than freshwater(IMO) and this indicates to me that saltwater would not be a good idea at this time and attempting to go SW in such a small tank is not the best way to "cross over to the dark side".
I'm not trying to sound mean or anything but I would stay away from saltwater if I lost everything in a freshwater tank.
 

RNeiswander

Bunned
Nov 27, 2010
1,100
2
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SW Ohio
Hi guys! so I am over freshwater since all my fishes died :/... sad part is not sure why they died, they were pretty healthy :/.

Anyways, Saltwater.
  1. How to start off the process?
Live sand
Live rocks

  1. What kind of lighting?
I currently have an aqueon full florescent lighting that it came with, but not sure if I should upgrade
  1. What kind of filter? canister or HOB?
  2. Do we need a wave maker? or power head.
I want my future stock to have coral, shrimps, and clown fish.
Once I get the gist of everything Ill start to go to a 55g+ saltwater
If you have a 55 now, I would start with that.

If not, a ten will work, you will just have to keep up on water changes and top off water.

A bag of either dry sand, or the wet "live" sand will work. 1" to 1.5" sand bed will be ok.

A few pieces of live rock and some dry rock will work.

You may need a power head, no wave maker.

As far as lighting, you'll need more than what you have. And there isn't many options for ten gallons.

Clowns are too big and active for a ten.




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GMYukonon24s

AC Members
Feb 9, 2008
343
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MICHIGAN
I agree with fish-n-chips. I'm not trying to be mean or say I'm a expert because I'm not which I've never did saltwater but I look at it as freshwater being easier than saltwater. Which like you said your fish all died and you don't know why. I think that I would want to be successful at freshwater and than move to saltwater because most likely when you go to salt if something does happen you'll lose alot more money. Plus having a 10g has to be hard because like above said the small the tank the less forgiving it is.
 

the wizard

Is it really Niko's fault?
Jan 28, 2010
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David
Setting up a SW to keep corals is going to cost a bit to upgrade equipment over what you already have. it would be wise to try to understand what happened to the FW.

How long had you been keeping fish? What kind of test kit did you use and how often did you do water changes? What size tank? Was it the 10? How many fish and what species?

In order to be successful it would best to understand what happened we can't learn from our mistakes if we don't know what they are.
 

Slappy*McFish

Global Moderator
Staff member
Feb 18, 2002
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Raleigh, NC
A 10g saltwater system (especially a reef) should be avoided by beginners. I'm not saying you wouldn't be able to accomplish it, but it will require a lot more attention and care than a larger tank. Start with the 55g and when you get the gist of it, take on the 10g. ;)
 

TL1000RSquid

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Apr 6, 2011
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NY
I'm with everyone else I'd suggest starting with the 55g, or a 40B at minimum.

I have a 10g running right now only because the 20 I was originally using sprung a leak, everything in it will get moved again when petco runs the next $1 sale back to a 20, maybe 29.

For a 10g you'll need about 20lbs of sand, 8-12lbs of rock. Your current light is useless for a reef, I'm running 96 watts of light on my 10g, x4 T5HO, could get away with less since it is a 24" fixture originally for the 20g. 20" 72w x3 T5HO fixture would work. HOB Filter I would suggest atleast an Aquaclear50, a 70 or 110 would be good as well, in it I would run ChemiPure Elite, and Purigen, along with a clump of cheato macro algae and a clip on light. Wavemakers are nice but not a must, a circulation pump is needed though, the Korelia's are nice and fairly small. I would also suggest a skimmer, AquaticLife mini 115 is cheap and works ok for nano tanks.

Again I suggest starting bigger it'll cost you less in the end, when you decide to upgrade your going to have to buy new lighting, skimmer, etc again.
 

ThatNewFishGuy

AC Members
May 4, 2010
327
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I would suggest you just setup your 55 with saltwater, rock(live and dead) and let it run for a solid month or two. This will "cycle" your tank. In this time you wont even need to worry about water changes(just top off with RO/DI water). Also during this time you can thoroughly research salt water aquariums. If you say that your freshwater fish were healthy, it sounds like the tank was the problem. Take it from me, I know firsthand how costly it is to make mistakes in salt water tanks-they are far far less forgiving than freshwater tanks.

Like Squid already said, if you start with a 10 gal, you'll just end up re buying all the equipment for the 55 gal, which is really what you want since you want clowns. And in saltwater, the smaller the volume, the less forgiving so for someone new to saltwater tanks its like someone trying to bench 300 pounds their first time in the gym.
 
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