10 gallon saltwater

[Kenn]

Hi im looking to setup a 10 gal saltwater tank i have an eclipse hood 50w sub heater, and a minijet 404 powerhead. what other equipment would i need to keep a fish only tanks of 1 or 2 clowns, and are there anyfilter improvements,etc to be made. Also should i remove the filter cartridge and biowheel? what is the best substrate? finally do i need live rock sand

 

[loganj]

I had a tank very similar to what you're talking about. It used an Eclipse hood with dual lights. I wouldn't use the bio wheel or the filter cart. I used mine for a carbon bag once in a while. I would put no less than 15 lbs (20 would be better) of LR in there. I like the CaribSea Aragamax or Seaflor reef sand. You could do a DSB but I think, in a 10, nitrates wouldn't be too hard to manage with water changes. I wouldn't put more than one clown in the tank.

 

[yv1]

i read in a book that saltwater tanks should be am minimum of 20 gallons......is this just whats preferred or can i also set up a 12 gallon marine tank??? keep in mind this will be my first tank.

p.s. sorry to bastardize your thread

 

[kribbz]

the book may be outdated. because previously we knew little about reef tanks and how lr and ls worked within the tank. it has only been recently that nano reefs have become poplular. i would say as your first tank i would definatly get the BIGGEST tank you can afford. the reason i say this is because it allows you to screw up a little more simply because there is alot more water volume. with a 12 gallon it is going to be very difficult to maintain pristien water quality for a newbie. just my opionion.

 

[fishfreek]

The reason we suggest a larger size tank is because its proven that larger size tanks have more stable water conditions. A 55 gal tank will be much more stable than a 10 gal tank for example.

The reason is there is over 5X the volume of water. Water temperature rises slower, ammonia levels increase slower, etc. There are many conditions to monitor on saltwater like temperature, salinity, ammonia, alkinity, nitrite, nitrate, PH just to name a few.

We are not saying you CANT do a 20 or 10 or even smaller tank to start out with but what we are saying is that you WILL have to monitor your tank alot more than if you started out with a larger tank.

For example in saltwater tanks when water evaporates it leaves the salt behind. Thus as the water level i nthe tank lowers the salinity increases. To bring water levels back up we add freshwater to the system to replace wat is lost. Failing to maintain proper top off schedule on a small system can cause your SG levels to fluxuate greatly leading to stress on the fish and corals inside the system.

Also a common problem with any one new to saltwater is overstocking the tank. Saltwater fish are naturally more agressive and take more room per fish than freshwater. This is partially because their natural habata includes the largest body of water known to man. There is also less oxygen content in saltwater. Going with a small tank is really going to limit your fish selection and quantity of fish greatly. For example one of my saltwater tanks is 20 gal and it has 1 maroon clown in it. If I added any other fish they would surly be killed before sunset. This guy attacks your hand when its in the tank.