New Here - 10 gallon setup questions

[kennyo]

Hi, I'm new to the board. Got here from suggestions of 2 members of pfish.net. Don't know there board names here, but they are ANDREW and CLAY at pfish. Anyway, they got me thinking that I want to set up a nano-reef. I plan to use a 10 gallon that I can get for 19.88 with an incandescent top and bubble filter. I want to get 10 lbs of live rock and use aragonite as my bottom substrate. I think the tank also comes with a 50 watt heater, but if it doesn't, I would get one. Since the top is incandescent, could I replace the bulbs with the 6500k curly flourescents that I've heard about here? Also, could I use an Eheim 2213 (116GPH) filled with live rock fragments as my filtration and for water movement? I would put the spray bar at about mid level horizontally across the back of the tank to get water movement throughout the live rock. What corals could or should I go with? Could I put a couple of Green Chromis and a firefish in there? Any help would or suggestions would be greatly appretiated.

[Aiptasia]

First, read through the FAQ section Kennyo and read up on everything. You can ditch the corner box filter. You won't need it. With a tank this little, its going to be hard to find a little skimmer for it, so i'd suggest using the "monaco" method (or the Jaubert plenum method) for your setup and just change the water often. This is a natural filtration process that will allow you to let the substrate sand and the Live Rock filter itself "in balance."

 

If you can upgrade your light to compact fluorescents, by all means do so. Incadescent lights won't work for most reef animals. Use one 6,500k bulb and one 7,100k bulb, if you can find them, in as high a wattage C.F. bulb as your hood will allow.

 

For water movement, ditch the Eheim and use two powerheads, such as aquaclear mini-jets, rated at ten tank volumes an hour (at or around 100 gph). Use one on each side of the tank with a wavemaster power strip to circulate water first one direction, then the other.

 

If you follow the jaubert plenum method, you can use an undergravel filter plate instead of egg crate material. Just cap off the riser tubes and cover with the screening per instructions. Once again, this should be in the faq, but if not:

 

Put the filter plate in the bottom of the tank. Get some fiberglass porch screen from a hardware store and cut two pieces that completely cover the filter plate. You do not want any sand getting through the filter layers. Anyway, put the filter plate on the bottom of the empty tank, put one screen on top of it and cover it uniformly with powdery fine sand (such as quartzite sand) or a finely powdered substrate (carib-sea reef sugar grade sands) to a uniform 1" depth. Cover with the second layer of screen, and add 1 & 1/2 to 2" of coarser aragonite sand on top (carib-sea seafloor special grade, aragonite, etc.). After that, get your live rock and put it in the tank, resting on the substrate with as few contact points from the sand as you can manage. Fill the tank with sea water and fire up the powerheads on the wave timer.

 

The Live Rock is then going to "cure" and the tank is going to go through its nitrogen cycle to balance itself. Read up on this in the FAQs as well as the test kits you'll need to monitor this reaction. The whole process takes from four to six weeks from tank setup to the reef being ready to accept corals.

 

You need to stick with low light loving corals, such as zooanthis, mushrooms, sarchophyton leathers, bubble, open brain, etc. corals. Just research coral species that are either from deep water or are recommended as easy corals from coral farms. You can begin adding small ones to your tank after the cycling period is complete. Add them one at a time and give the tank 2-3 weeks to adjust to the new bioload. Then add the next, and so on.

 

You're also going to need a janitor crew, consisting of snails and red legged hermits. Add them when you newly set up the tank with live rock, and they'll keep brown diatom algae, green algae and red slime algae blooms in control for you. I recommend the packs that GARF sells, www.garf.com. Ask them for a 10 gallon pack when you call.

 

Your fish inhabitant should be the last thing to add. I would go with a single fish, or none at all, in such a little tank. Pick something hardy, such as a damselfish, a blenny (bicolor, etc.) or a clown fish.