finally allowed

[wilson the volleyball]

my mom finally said yes. well she said its my money so im gonna start a 10 gallon nano. i will hopefully be starting within the next month just picking up little things on the way. i plan on gettin a

-10g aga
-Hagen Ph 201 (or 101 and get 2)*
-heater (100w or 50w) we dont have n e of the ebo jager or n e thing at my lfs or they only one i saw was like 60$ and it was like 75w this one is made by thermal or sumthin*
-deep six hydrometer
- Test kit- Marine sea (no calcium i think) or Hagen master test kit for fresh and salt water(calcium included i think)*
-instant ocean salt(thinking of going big so i dont have to buy it for a while)
-caribsed aragonite sand(15lb)
-mag float(med or large)*

-still need lighting*(trying to go with easy DIY for cost.

i was thinking of keeping one or two false percs. or one false perc with bicolor blenny or some type of goby or royal gramma or other small fish*. also some snails (cerith, nassairus, margaraita stuff from lfs lol)and a shrimp(cleaner or sumthin else)*. i also plan on not having a skimmer, but do want about 15lbs or a bit more of LR> my lfs has Fiji at 9.99/lb and then the other lfs i went to had no prices and i forgot to ask lol, i might get a bit of base rock too, my lfs has this white stuff called reef rock,(its pure white in a box(dont know if its reall stuff or wat lol)corals i was thinking of keeping are mayb shrooms xenia polyps and mayb some ricordia, and zoos,.also sumthin with like tentacles or sumthin(n e ideas) no anenomes though

* means need suggestions lol
and i am also open to n e other suggestions u can give me


also for lighting i was tihnkig of getting a 1x 96 watt quad light. also would it b a lot more expensive to get a 15g, wat would i need.

 

[bhanson]

You might want to post this in the Nano forum. They will definanetly steer you in the right direction for your nano. Good Luck!

 

[Anonymous]

you should probably invest in a refractometer over a cheapy hydrometer...i dont like those seatest and deep six hydrometers...My opinion of course..i would start with a 20 or 30 gallon...wont be that much more expensive..obviously more sand and more rock..265 dollars(at championlighting.com) will get you a PFO horizontal pendant with 10000k true Ushio bulb upgrade...MH lighting of course..sounds kinda expensive but if you are gonna go with a quad light why not look into MH..You might be surprised at how you'll change your mind and want to "upgrade" the size of your tank..i started with a 10 and went to a 20...if i had more room in my apt i would have went a lot larger..that was my only drawback...10-30 gal, a med mag float will work...youll have to check mag floats specs though on the thickness of glass...You might want to invest in a skimmer too..for a small tank a bak pak 2r for roughly 120 without shipping or an aqua C remora roughly 160 w/o shipping...sounds expensive initially but will save you grief in the long run..these are my suggestions...Id hate to see you waste time and effort and money on a small tank only to maybe disappointed and want to go bigger...P.S. i did some really goofy things when i started this hobby which has caused me some grief hence me suggesting these things that seem a little more costly..Unfortunately i got some bad advise and i didnt know about this site at that time...HTH

 

[Dubge]

Look in your local want ads you might be able to find a nice used setup that is bigger then a 10 or a 15 or maybe someone in a local Reef club has something for you? Where are you located?
Also check out the for sale sections on a couple of boards. I find this one and RC to be the best 2 boards on the net.

My .02

Ray

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that you should go larger. In this hobby size does matter. Everyone wants a bigger tank. I would go with a skimmer too. Halides are da bomb for lighting. Since you are starting a fairly small tank, I would go with premium fiji LR for all of your rock. No base rock. I wouldn't get any of that white rock your LFS is selling either.

Louey

 

[Arch01]

Yikes! $9.99/lb of live rock is really high. If you go with the 20 you could probably order it online and it would cost you the same as you would have paid filling the 10 gallon from your LFS. And my guess is you could get a lot higher quality.

Alex
_________________
Andalucia Forum

 

[Dubge]

There is a place not far from me that wants 12.99/lb for cured live rock, I couldn't even see the rock because it was in a trash barrel

Ray

 

[Anonymous]

lol..ive heard it go for 19.99/lb...someone on RDO posted a thread on LR prices about 10mo ago..doesnt surprise me...

 

[J.Howard]

Boy, you're lucky you only had to ask mom. I had to buy my wife a Jeep so she couldn't give me any crap about how much I'm spending :x I agree w/ the majority here, you can get way more for your money going used or on line. I saved literally hundreds if not more by going used and got something bigger than I ever thought I could afford. Small is totally cool if you can keep up with it and that's what you really want.

 

[Anonymous]

You had to buy her a Jeep? Whoa!

I would also go with a bigger tank...imo a 30 or 40 gallon is easier to take care of than a 10 gallon...the more water volume, the more stable a tank will be.

Also, as Louey suggested, stay away from lfs LR...it's largely a ripoff imo. Try someone like Harbor Aquatics...its cheaper even with shipping costs, and oh so much nicer.

Finally, and I hesitate to even suggest this...but if you can get your mother involved in the tank, whether it's in the design of the rock work, or having her pick out a fish, or whatever...she's going to be more inclined to help you down the line when and if you need more/better equipment. Yeah...I'm a little shamed at suggesting this...but it works!

Good luck!

Chris

 

[wilson the volleyball]

im going with a 10 or 15, becuz of cost and movability. i might get a 15 depending on the dimensions of it. that lr price is alos canadian so if on the net it is say 5$ american it would b almost the same prcie and after shipping it would b more. and all those prices r in canadian just to let u know lol

 

[Anonymous]

if you are gonna go with a 10 or 15..go with the 15, actually go with a 20...if you plan on moving the tank ever, youre gonna find its not so easy to do..