10 gallon stocking (First tank)

[CapnWreckz]

Currently cycling my first aquarium, a 10 gallon HOB setup.

Equipment:

AI Prime 16HD
Aquaclear 30 with sponge, carbon and biorocks
Eheim Jager 50w heater
Hydor Koralia 240gph powerhead
10lbs Caribsea Dry Liferock
10lbs Caribsea live sand

I understand that a small tank isn't optimal for a beginner but I have a small apartment, one day I'd definitely like to upgrade. In the meantime I'm planning on doing 25% water changes weekly.

Anyway, I'm making this post to ask for advice regarding stocking the tank once it's done cycling.

Originally I wanted to do an occelaris clown pair and Yellow watchman with a pistol shrimp, but I've been getting varying feedback. Some people say that it will be overcrowded, other people say that it will be fine so long as I keep an eye on the parameters and keep up with regular water changes.

I don't plan on adding them all at once, most likely I would add the clowns first, then later on the goby and shrimp if everything was going well.

Do you think it would be alright as long as I am deligent?

[seabass]

 

11 hours ago, CapnWreckz said:

I understand that a small tank isn't optimal for a beginner but I have a small apartment

My first reef tank was a 7 gallon office nano.  I ran a HOB filter on that too.  People used to make a big deal out of the difficulty of running a smaller tank, but we've proven that it isn't that much different than keeping a larger tank.  It should be relatively easy to keep a ten gallon tank.

 

 

11 hours ago, CapnWreckz said:

I'm planning on doing 25% water changes weekly.

In the past, we often recommended doing large weekly water changes.  However, now, we see more people recommending just replacing the water lost during weekly maintenance when siphoning out detritus (which is often much less than 10%).

 

 

11 hours ago, CapnWreckz said:

Originally I wanted to do an occelaris clown pair and Yellow watchman with a pistol shrimp, but I've been getting varying feedback. Some people say that it will be overcrowded, other people say that it will be fine so long as I keep an eye on the parameters and keep up with regular water changes.

10 gallons is a little small for a pair of adult clownfish.  I'd probably stick to one until you get a larger tank.  It's pretty easy to add a mate at a latter date.  It's more about the space than the parameters.

[Tired]

You'd make things a little easier on the bio-load if you picked a smaller shrimpgoby, like a yasha haze or an antenna goby. You'll want to get a candycane pistol shrimp anyway, as they're smaller and need less room to burrow, and they're best paired up with smaller gobies. A bigger goby could still work, if you're dead-set on one or it's the only shrimpgoby species you can get.