10 gallon tank set up

[neon_hybrid]

My roommate has a 5 year old daughter who wants "nemo". I dont want another clown in my tank, and have been thinking of setting up her a tank in her room. I would be the one taking care of the tank, but I was walking through walmart, and saw they have a 10 gallon tropical fish tank with heater, lights, and fliter for like 30$. Every saltwater tank I have seen has a sump, but I know for a 10 gallon there is no need for it. Would I be safe putting about 10 lbs of argonate substrate in the tank and 1 large peice 8-10 lb live rock in there for her? If I cycle the tank, it should work right? I was thinking of taking an existing peice of live rock from my tank an put it in this one, as well as take about 5 gallons of water from my tank, and 5 gallons of new salt water. If it comes with the heater, and the lights, and I do the LR, substrate and water, is there anything else I will need? I dont want to run a skimmer, either...

 

[MikeyB]

From what I have heared it sound like a nano tank minus the coral. You might want to get a power head for water movement they are very cheap and would help alot in gas exchange. You will need to keep up on the water changes butI dont see no reason it wouldnt work.

 

[electrikat]

A clown needs a bigger tank generally. A 20 probably doesn't cost much more. You don't have to have a skimmer or a sump on anything smaller than a 20 or so. Yeah it's great for water quality but with that small of a tank it's just too easy to do frequent water changes. We have a maroon clown in a 20 with a very good filter and about 25 pounds of base and live rock and the water stays perfect. Plus your tank will cycle faster if you use water and filter media from your main tank.

 

[neon_hybrid]

Will I actually have to cycle the tank? I am assuming that becuase I am going to use an existing peice of live rock, I shouldnt actually have to cycle the tank. I should be able to put the LR in there, an fill it with salt water and it should work right?

 

[JPloman]

You still need to cycle it.

 

[electrikat]

You are going to have an ammonia spike. I used water, cc,filter media, and lr from my main tank and still had to go through a mini cycle of about 9 days. Keep an eye on it for a few days before buying fish and it will save your daughter some heartache.

 

[neon_hybrid]

Since I am using existing media which already has the benificial bacteria, will I still need to add a fish (or dead shrimp) to cycle it? I was hoping just by putting the LR in there, I wouldnt have to do that...

 

[klam]

A perc or ocellaris clown will do good in a 10g. Joyce Wilkerson states in her book that a 10g will house a pair of clowns just fine.

Definately get a small powerhead that is rated for around 100/gph. You probably won't need a stronger power head since you will be having only a fish and maybe some inverts

 

[electrikat]

You can cycle with live rock only. Even if you didn't have the other tanks bacteria as a starter.

 

[klam]

Even if you use existing media your tank might still have a mini-cycle. It would be safe to wait maybe a couple of days and test your tank before adding the clown. No need to add the raw shrimp or the fish for the cycle

 

[neon_hybrid]

Even if you use existing media your tank might still have a mini-cycle. It would be safe to wait maybe a couple of days and test your tank before adding the clown. No need to add the raw shrimp or the fish for the cycle

This is what I am hoping for......Im gonna watch the amonia levels, to see what happens. Im going to do this as a surprise, but it will be originally set up in my room....

 

[tinman]

The filter in that kit your talking about at walmart sucks. I have a ten gallon SW set up and have got away with not having a powerhead by using a HOB filter rated for a 20-60 gallon. I have it sitting right in the middle on the back wall of the tank and it produces perfect current to the whole tank. I used a skilter 250 but I would say the regent 20-40 filter that sales for $30 at walmart would be just as good. Also the kit at walmart has Incandlescent lights. If it were me I would peice my own kit together.

tank-9.99 walmart
heater - 13.99 walmart
filter(regent stated above)- 29.99 walmart
Flourescent hood - 19.99 walmart

alittle more expensive, but I started my sons barb tank in one of those kits. Within 6 months the only peice I was still using was the tank.

just my 2 cents

 

[ellisz]

I use a whisper power filter as a fuge and a minjet ph for my 10 gal.

I also used LR and LS from my existing system and saw no real cycle. I have only had corals in it though.