10 gallon

P

Pikmin

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May 20, 2008
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Hey! I have a 55 freshwater tank and i caught my dad looking through the pretty salt water tanks at my LFS. He alluded at my gutting my algae infested 10 gallon FW tank and replacing with with a mini reef.

Plus that god **** planet earth had on shallow oceans and it was SOOOO PRETTY! And i also have a very close family friend who had a 55 gal salt water tank before a prolonged power outage caused things to malfunction :(

Anyway, main question time...

If I were to set up a 10 gallon marine (beginner) tank, what...

Eqipment would i need

Would play sand be okay as a substrate? I read crushed coral = bad and i have it in my 55 FW tank, no problems.

Lighting is i biggy i think, how much?

Live rock is a word i have seen thrown around, too. What is it?

I am a HUGE fan of living plants, so in this case, i would like coral. Any suggestions or tips for what i should do? I also do region specific tanks, so if you recommed a coral, can you tell me what area of the world it is from, too?

Lastly - Fish, I don't really mind what kind, as long as they will be okay living in the 10 gallon and are compatable with the coral.


Sorry for asking so many questions, if i talk my dad into doing this, I don't wanna mess anything up. I want the best for my fish :D

thanks in advance everyone!
 
Before you do anything else, you need to research a bit.

10 gallon would be a nano reef not mini, but that's not important.

I would not recommend such a small tank as a first endeavor into saltwater. The smaller the tank the less margin for error.

Fish only with live rock would be best way to go for a first tank.

2 main reasons:
Stability biologically with the live rock
Low cost to start up compared to a reef

You could upgrade your gear as you can afford it (I sense that you have limited budget) or convince your dad to do so.

ahsupply.com is a good source for light kits and is pretty inexpensive.

Crushed coral is absolute no for saltwater tanks. Aragonite or some other marine sand is best.

Ask lots of questions. That's how you learn not to repeat other people's mistakes. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask.
 
20 gallon better?

and i have been browsing this section for a bit now, trying to absorb as much as i can XD

I have $100 on me at the moment, I am saving up so i can get supplies and start cycling (do you need to cycle saltwater, too? lol)
 
Yes, you do need to cycle saltwater and no you can't used the cycled crushed coral from your freshwater to cycle it. The bacteria in saltwater is different from that in freshwater.

20 is better, but is still small. I'd go bigger though. What is in your 55 freshwater?
 
the bigger the better with saltwater. i could not stand having an 8 gallon tank as my first salty, quickly upgraded to 46 g

i kinda jumped into saltwater, made a lot of rookie mistakes. reaserch and experience assure success

and fyi, corals not a plant :)

i saw that planet earth, drove me nuts :D
 
I am not touching my 55 gallon XD Everything finally cleared and got happy again lol

2 angels
7 neons
4 hatchet fish
farlowella
5 coryc cats
2 snails
planted

lol

The best i can try is a 30 or 40 gallon, which i can get by guilt. Seeing as my sister took it for a hampster :lol:
 
I wouldn't use a tank that was inhabited by hampster, maybe it's just me but I don't know what chemicals were/are in there and I'm pretty sure some can e absorbed through the silicone. Although I could be completely wrong.

I wouldn't be too concerned with starting out with a 10 gallon although you will be limited on your fish selection (1-3). It's good that your on a tight budget when starting a tank because then your forced to be patient. With $100 I would get sand $15-$25, 10lbs or more of live rock $40-$80 depending on how much per pound, and a power head $20-$50 depending on which one, then fill it up with water and wait a few weeks and research as much as possible before buying something else.

Before I forget, don't use tap water doesn't matter if it's dechlorinated or not (usually has phophates or other chemicals that cause nasty algae blooms).
 
10 gallons is a great start for a nano tank. I currently have a 10g softy reef. Before you start do plenty of research and decide what you want to keep. I would recommend keeping mushrooms, zoanthids, xenia and ricordea first before you step up to harder corals. The most expensive thing you will need to buy is the lighting. I recommend going with T5's, power compacts are good but metal halides should come later. The next thing will be having plenty of natural filtration ie sand and live rock. I would put 15 pounds of live sand and at least 10-12 of live rock(the light and this will be most expensive purchase) Also you want to make sure you have a good amount of mechanical filtration. PLEASE PLEASE do research before you buy anything....You will save so much money. Be patient as well thats a huge key to success. After you add the LR/LS wait at least a couple weeks before you add a Clean Up Crew ie hermits, snails, shrimp. Look in the classifieds and on ebay for good deals on used equipment. You might want to try nano-reef.com there is alot of info strictly on nano tanks
 
IMO 10G is a little hard to do for a first SW tank. Not saying you or anyone can't do one, it is just at the point where it becomes more of a pain in the *** to keep maintained vs enjoying it. A 10G tank goes for $10, while a 20G goes for $24.99 at Petsmart. I would definately go for the 20G. Good light choices for a 20G for corals if you go that way, and enough water to make it somewhat managable like not being required to do daily FW top offs. Also more options for fish to put in the tank. On a 20 you could go 2 days without much worry on topping off, on a 10G I say it is required to keep the tank topped off daily to keep salinity stable. Any equipment you would buy for a 10G usually works fine for a 20G as well, so not really any price difference in equipment cost other than the $15 more for the tank initially.
 
I do agree with you that going with the 20 would give you more options. I was just stating that a 10 in not impossible. If you do decide go for a 20 Long, you will be able to keep more fish because there is more surface area. I agree with Ace on the fact that a larger tank could be better. Just make sure that you spend the money up front on lighting and equipment, its worth waiting a couple extra months to save a little more. Please trust me on that.
 
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