10 gal reef

[rexxx]

8O i currently have a 10 gal reef and i basically want to find out the limitations of this sysytem.Now im a beginner so i dont want to put in any animals that wouldn't thrive in the system so my ?'s are as follows........

1.What lights are needed for this system right now i have one 50/50 and one blue atinic regular flouresants on the tank .Would that be enough to keep some soft corals alive (i want to keep it low budget so what are the limitations with flouresants?

2.i have over 15 lbs of fiji live rock in it .TO much? to little?

3.i have 2 power heads and one hang on the back filter for chemi-pure and circulation....again thoughts on filtration.

4.im keeping the live rock and sand as bio filter. So how much sand and arogonite do i need. Right now i have about 6lbs live sand, and 5 lbs aragonite

ive begun adding kalk and trace elemements(iodine,strontium)

and if so can anyone recomend some good corals for this sytem i dont want a ton just a few to give the tank some motion....thank you for your time......brian

 

[Anonymous]

In my 10 gallon nano, I am keeping 3 varities of mushrooms, 2 differnt star polyps, 2 differnt leathers, Xenia, yellow polyps, frogspawn, open brain, Blastomussa Merletti, and Montipora digitala.

For lighting I use 5 13 watt pc's retro fitted into a canopy, 2 actinic, 3 7100K. I initially used a LOA 65 watt 6500K light, but go tired of the yellow color it produced and now can do the dusk/dawn thing. I found someone who sold the lighting really cheaply ($5/each for the ballast, $3 for the end caps, ect.) so it wsn't a big investment at all. Just depends on what you want to keep. Using your current lighting, mushroom, star polyps, some low light leathers should be fine.

Live rock, I have about the same ~15 lbs, so you should be ok there.

Filtration, I use a Skilter 250, with the media removed. It provides minimal protein skimming, but the best thing for nano's is frequent water changes. For water movement, besides the Skilter, I use 2 Rio 90's.

IMO, I don't think a sand bed provides a great deal of benefit for a nano. Ther ejust isn't enough surface area for it to be effective. I have about a 3 inch bed of SD sand in mine. And as far as trace elements, I use Tech A & B for calcium/alkalinity and use water changes for the other elements.

Just my 2 cents, HTH.

 

[MadMorf]

In my 20G I've found the most difficult thing to control is temperature.

I know from being a diver that temperatures on the reef are not constant and can fluctuate fairly quickly, so it doesn't bother me too much.

I just let my tank float at room temperature, whatever that might be.

Others, maybe including yourself, may be more concerned about temperature stability.

 

[slojmn1]

In my 7g nano I run two mini jet powerheads for circulation, I have a small mini Aqua Clear hang on the back filter with a small piece of filter media in it to catch detrius. I clean it often and replace it once a month. I do water changes of about 40% every week. This seems like a lot but this little tank is going strong now for 5 months. Hardly a success story but a great beginning. Interestingly enough I have had no water temp problems since I put a different heater in the tank. The first one fried things a bit and I lost my fish. My temp stays between 78.4-79.8 on a hot day. I keep the tank in one of the coolest rooms in the house but I am planning on building a canopy and putting in better lighting with a couple very small fans for cooling if neccessary. I run the CSL smart light retro kit at 28w, I think. Your live rock sounds about right. I have about 10lbs in my 7g. I have about a 2" SD sand bed and it has worm trails in it but does not appear to work anything like my sand beds in my larger tanks. There just isn't enough surface area or so it seems. As far as additives, I am adding B-Ionic, 5ml. every day to every other day. I have never measured my parameters in this tank. I guess I should soon :lol: I just can't seem to keep fish alive. The first fish died in the heat caused by the heater, the second one died about 3 days after putting him in the tank, couldn't figure out why. Weird...I plan to try once more and if the fish does not make it I will take that as a sign that this tank is suppose to be fishless. I currently keep five different types of mushrooms, candy coral, blastomussa merleti, red brain, zoonathids, and a sun polyp coral. All very healthy and happy.

 

[Lunchbucket]

i haven't posted on reefs.org for many many many months. i post on reefcentral and use the nano and SPS forums a lot.

anyhow as for you question you can max that thing out w/ coral but i would only do 1 fish!! keep the bioload low w/ little fish but you can add a TON of coral.

heck i am doing mainly SPS on my 10gal tank w/ great success!!

email me if you need/want more info
Lunchbucket

 

[HuBu]

u can get 2 - 13W PC from ahsupply.com for $15. then buy 13W 50/50 at hellolights.com for $5/each. they are having a sale right now. if i were you, dont go cheap on the lights plus this whole hobby takes time. you gotta have patient, so youll have time to buy something good. then wait til u can save enough money for something else. plus if u can get to trade frags with ppl, its the cheapest way to get corals. just search the forum man. there are more BBs. just search for them.

 

[Reef Fever]

One word of caution: What you are doing is playing with fire, like trying to eat just one Lay's potato chip or smoking crack "Just once to see what it is like"!

I set up an "inexpensive" 20 gallon tank with 2 15 watt lights to experiment with a few mushrooms. It turned into a powerful reef system with 110 watts of Compact Fluorescents, one 15 watt blue actinic, $700 worth of coral, 40 lbs. of live rock, who know how much sand and snails and hermits.

Since then, I have setup a 10-gallon tank for bugs and sand, a 20 -gallon long growout frag tank, and I am converting my 75-Gallon Oscar tank and booting my Angelfish out of a 20 for the sump.

It's MADNESS, I tell ya, REEFer MADNESS!!!!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

One word of caution: What you are doing is playing with fire, like trying to eat just one Lay's potato chip or smoking crack "Just once to see what it is like"!

You got that right.

My 10 was just going to be a frag tank for my 55, now its a nano reef and I am in the process of setting up a 180. It never ends. :twisted:

 

[HuBu]

same here. started a 10 gal with 2 - 36W PC and about $200 of stuff for the tank. moving on up to a 29 gal tank this Aug. just spent more money on lighting for the 29 set up. 2 - 175W MH ballast , i have to sell the 36W PC bulbs to get 2 - 55W PC bulbs, buy 2 175W MH bulbs. definitely get more rocks and sand. and thats just the standard stuff man. corals and fishes will cost even more.

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

Sent you an email.

Dennis