Need Help Getting Started!!!??!!

[bleedinorange]

I have an existing 10 gallon tank I bought a long time ago and used it for freshwater fish. Now I am really excited about doing a nano reef!!!! I would appreciate any advice, I have the following questions:

 

1. What kind of filtration?? I currenty have a wet filter that came with my kit. Can I use live sand with this filter? Is an undergravel system with powerheads better and if so why?

 

2. Lighting - I currently have a hood that mounts over my tank with two 25 watt max. tube sockets. Can I buy some special lighting for them and if so where? I heard it is not good to cover the aquarium due to the limitation of oxygen exchange in the tank? how do you guys feel about that?

 

3. What should I stock my tank with regarding livestock and sand?

 

4. Is it harmful to your walls to put your tank near them, just something I heard.

 

Thanks in advance

[MGXsport]

Heres some answers to help you.

 

1. I believe everyone here is for the 1 pound of Live sand (LS) per gallon and around 1.25 pounds of Live Rock (LR) per gallon. This provides great filtration with using the life that is on the rock. You can go a step further and use a refugium with sand and macro algae that can continue to filter during the night if you keep a light on it while your tank lights are off. You can search for more information about fuges in the refugium discussion forum on this board.

 

2. For lighting I would recomend getting a better lighting setup that has a higher output so you can keep more corals later on. I am not great in this subject so maybe someone else can help you on this.

 

3. You have had Fresh water before so I believe you know about cycling your tank before you add any livestock. For the sand your answer would be in number 1. Get it when you start the tank with some rock and let it cycle the tank for a few weeks before you decied to add anything in.

 

4. I believe you are asking about the walls in the house, so I think it wouldn't do harm. I have two fresh water and a brackish tank along the same wall for around 10 years and it hasn't done any damage. It may depend also of how much water evaporates and that gets blown to the wall. Something I have never heard of and I would think I would have heard more if it was a major problem.

 

Hope this helps some until more advanced reefers can go into deeper explanations.

[bleedinorange]

For my lighting replacements, since I have 25 watt max medium sized sockets, what do you guys think. Click the link below

 

http://www.petmeister.com/item1874.htm

[MGXsport]

You could get what I got and just get a new light fixture. I ordered a 20" 1x96 watt one from www.hellolights.com . It is nice because of the fans get some of the heat out.

 

Also from what I think you have as a light fixture is a florescent tube sockets and that coralife looks like it goes into a standarded incadescent socket. Not sure though more research could help.

[bleedinorange]

I have two 25 watt incandescent sockets. Like you said I would really like to buy a new fixture but I am trying not to spend much money ($100) on lighting.

 

Do you think the mini compacts would make my tank too hot??

[phenom5]

orange,

as far as filtration MGX covered it pretty well. 1-2 lbs live rock will be your filtration. i'd add the majority of my sand using reg. dead sand, and seed it with some live sand. do a search on substrates as some will work well, others won't. can't remember but i think you want to stay away from silica based sands because they won't support a live sand bed. other then that just make sure you have a lot of water movement in the tank. 10x-20x turn over per hour depending on what you want to keep.

 

lighting...MH/ PC combo= best....powerquad 96W=good...something other then what you were looking at= better. check out champion lighting, marinedepot.com, and hellolights.com. for what your looking to do i'd say look for the coralife PC hood that runs a 96W 50/50 bulb. do not go cheap on your lighting or you will regret it. don't by into the claim that their 10W PC is like 50W, its not.

 

what should you stock your tank with? well...what you like. i'd put together a dream list of everything you want and start researching...give you something to do while you tank cycles...then you'll figure out pretty quick what you can and can't keep. look at gobies, blennies, grammas, dottybacks, there are some wrasses that stay small, clowns, chromis. stay away from tangs, angels, larger wrasse species, sea bass, groupers, basically stuff that gets big and need a lot of swimming space. beyond fish, well that's up to you and your lighting. i's look at soft corals, polyps, mushrooms...but like i said, depends on what lights you get...

 

HTH