10 gallon

[Fish_fanatic]

Hey everyone i have decided to go with a ten gallon tank. does a ten gallon tank need a protein skimmer?? it will have live rock and some live plants. it will have 50 watts of light plus natural sunlight. I was just wondering if I would need a protein skimmer on something this small.

Thanks

 

[malkore]

What do you plan to keep in tank besides live rock and macro algae (which is what I assume you mean by live plants)? a fish? just a shrimp or other inverts?

If its lightly stocked a skimmer shouldn't be needed, and in fact would be difficult to place on a nano tank.

I'm curious how you've got 50watts over the tank...what kind of lighting?
Hopefully one of the nano-reefers will chime in.

 

[Fish_fanatic]

sorry my mistake...40 watts using 2 PC coaralife bulbs. The tank will have one fish and some inverts.

 

[loganj]

I don't think you'll need a skimmer as long as you're willing to do regular small water changes. The primary function of a skimmer is nutrient export and you can achieve that with the water changes in a small tank without spending a ton of money on RO water and salt. 40 watts should be plenty as long as you don't add any corals that have very high light requirements. I had a 10g for a while with 36w and it did very well.

 

[panza]

I don't think you'll need a skimmer as long as you're willing to do regular small water changes. The primary function of a skimmer is nutrient export and you can achieve that with the water changes in a small tank without spending a ton of money on RO water and salt. 40 watts should be plenty as long as you don't add any corals that have very high light requirements. I had a 10g for a while with 36w and it did very well.

loganj, what happened to it.. i noticed you siad you had