Bracod Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 I am new here, and am thinking about starting a 10 gallon nano-reef, I also have a lot to learn, so if you have any good advice for a kid who is just starting out with this (although I have experience in freshwater) please don't hesitate to share. What do you all think of this, suggestions? I am thinking this tank would have 15 lbs fiji liverock, 20 lbs seafloor reef sand. I thought a hagen aquaclear filter with no media could be a mini sump/powerhead, and maybie stick a mini submersable heater in there. It provides 100 gallons per hour output on low power, would this be adequate circulation? Heres the light I am thinking about (20.5" size) http://www.marinedepot.com/a_lt_pc_csl.asp...sp?CartId=#pcml Then I'll be getting a saltwater startup kit http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...d=6&pCatId=4863 What would be a good clean up crew for a 10 gallon nano-reef? I am thinking about this: Sand Sifting Sea Star Sea Cucumber, Tiger Tail 2 Scarlet Hermit Crab 5 Dwarf Hermit Crab 3 Turbo Snails Red Foot Moon Snail Can't the sand sifting sea star and the sea cucumber get huge? If so, would they get to a problematic size soon enough to have to worry about? Sorry about the long post, I hope I am going in the right direction. Link to comment
Bracod Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 sorry, I left out that the size is aqua clear 300 Link to comment
Toooloud Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 Well First, Welcome to the saltwater world.. Great way to start.. Small and easy to maintain.. cheap.. but you gotta really keep an eye on it.. the starter kit is great ideal.. for the 10 gallon, the sand and rock is good start.. What fish are you looking to keep if any? as for the Cleanup.. Sand Sifting Sea StarSea Cucumber, Tiger Tail 2 Scarlet Hermit Crab 5 Dwarf Hermit Crab 3 Turbo Snails Red Foot Moon Snail No Scarlets, as they get crazy, and will attack other hermits and snails, and do not use the Sand Sifting sea Star, or the sea cucumber as the Sand sifter will eat all the benifial critters in the sand bed.. and the Sea Cucumber well he will get big.. and they can be Deadly, Best for larger tanks, as if anything goes wrong and it dies.. it realeases all kinds of toxins.. eough to kill a 100 gallon tank if not caught.. so it would destroy the smaller tank. Link to comment
Rootsayia Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 Greetings and Salutations' welcome the the Nano world........ my only advice is "RESEARCH" lots of it....... Link to comment
Bracod Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 Thanks, do you think the aqua clear filter thing would work out? I hear 10 times the tank size is the correct water flow, so the aqua clear has an output of 100 on low, and it could go higher if needed. And, if I didn't have a sea cucumber, sand sifting sea star, or scarlet hermit crab, would everything else I have work out fine? Link to comment
Deimos Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 Ahh..the tricky question of flow. Just like the "5 watts per gallon" lighting rule..the "10 times per hour" flow rule is misleading. For instance..in my 29 I currently have: 2X AC 301 PH's @ 180gph each, 2X Rio 600 PH's @ 200gph each, 1X AC 200 HOB filter @ 200gph, and 1X CPR Bak-Pak 2R @ roughly 200gph. Totalled up that gives me 1160 gph on my 29 gallon tank, or roughly 40 times turnover per hour. This sound outrageous..but I've found it to be BARELY sufficient for my tank. For one..those are all "optimal" flow rates...which start to decrease the second after you clean the damn things out! lol Second of all..to get appropriate water motion in all the parts of the tank...I needed that many heads flowing at approximately that rate. Rate is also dependant on the species you plan to keep..both corals and fish. Flow is probably one of the trickiest aspects to reefkeeping..because it takes a LOT of tinkering to get it "right". My best advice is to go bigger/higher flow than you ever imagine yourself needing..and get adjustable powerheads/filters so that you can fine tune the flow once you get everything set-up. As for the cleanup crew...ditch the hermits...they have a tendency to devour any mollusc that they find belly up on the sandbed. Also..I'd go with 3 turbos..but also 7-8 Trochus snails (I've found these to be great cleaners..second only to Turbos and far better than Astreas or Margaritas)...you're on target with needing SOMETHING to clean your sandbed...but for that I'd go with something in the area of 4 Nassarius and 6-8 Cerith snails. I tend to run my tanks snail heavy (in the 29 I've got 10 turbos, 12 trochus, 2 red-footed turbos, 15 cerith, 10 nassarius, a few dozen random herbivourous hitchhikers, and 2 Queen conchs) but thats because I also tend to overfeed, over introduce nutrients, etc. You'll be able to guage exactly what you need by exactly how well the snails you have are doing at keeping the algae under control. If it starts to grow more noticably..add more..if its under control..you're good. The best advice is to read/research for several months before starting the tank up. This is a good place to start..but there are also a lot of other great places out there on the web. Don't be afraid to go to the library/bookstore either...there are a TON of great reefkeeping books out there. You'll start to see names creeping up repeatedly in articles/books...get to learn them and read everything by them...some I'm sure you've seen by now include Julian Sprung and Ron Shimek....read them, follow them, they're as close as we have to reef "gods"...lol. Read up..then do things properly. Hope that helps...anything else? Link to comment
Bracod Posted June 28, 2003 Author Share Posted June 28, 2003 So it would be better to have small powerhead evenly distributed rather than one big one? Link to comment
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