Advice on 10 gallon livestock please?

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ArtsyAxolotl

Aquarium Advice Newbie
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Jun 12, 2016
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First of all, Hello! I'm new to the forum and was looking for some help deciding on what to add to my 10 gallon nano. :)

I guess I can give you some background on my process so far. This is my first time working with a nano, so I'm trying to take my time and learn as much as I can before making any decisions. I'm currently figuring out cycling with cured live rock. I purchased about 13lbs of fully cured live rock and have been letting it cycle for about a week and a half. I saw the nitrates rise via feeding the empty tank, but nothing else. No ammonia, no nitrite. Supposedly that's because the rock is fully cured, so that would have been good to know, haha. I then tested to make sure the tank is cycling by adding 1ppm of ammonia; sure enough, the ammonia dropped today and the nitrite rose.

Hopefully, if all goes well, I should see the ammonia and nitrite drop off the chart and I can do my water change to get rid of that pesky nitrate. and please, let me know if I'm incorrect about any of this; I want to learn about the hobby and make sure that I'm doing the best I can and I always learn best from others with experience rather than books or articles.

Anyway, I'm close enough to finishing cycling that I want to start thinking about tank inhabitants. My main goals for the aquarium were, at minimum, to have a pair of clownfish. They were my late grandfather's favorite animal and he would have loved to have had some. I plan on getting 2 ocellaris clowns, and that would be it for fish as I know 10 gallons for a pair of clowns is pushing it.

Additionally, I love nudibranch and I would love to add a lettuce nudibranch... at some point. I know they're very sensitive so I want to wait until I have a bit more experience with the hardier fish before I try one of them.

As for clean up crew, I was thinking about a few snails, one or two crabs, and a shrimp, although I'm not totally sure what types are good for beginners and for nanos, or in what combination. In terms of specific species, I'd really like to get a green emerald crab. Maybe a Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp for the shrimp and nerites, ceriths, or turbos for the snails; unless someone here has a better suggestion.

Corals I'm still learning about. I love torch corals, so I'd like to have just one of those. And I'd love some kind that has that "classic" "branch" look, although I'm not sure how many have that without being SPS, and I'm not nearly ready to dive into that realm! Zoas are kinda a no brainer as far as I've read; they're gorgeous and fairly hardy as far as corals go.

Maybe a piece of macro algae like halimeda. Haven't done any reading on marine plants yet, though.




And this post got so long so fast. Sorry about that :p


My tentative plan at the moment is to get the clownfish pair first, then once they've settled a bit I'll start getting a clean up crew. The crew would probably be something like 5 snails of various species, a pair of scarlet legged hermits and/or the green emerald, and then once those have settled I'll start getting corals and shrimp. Does that seem ok? Or should I get them in a different order?


any advice on how these things work together or species I left out, or really just anything for someone new to the nano hobby would be amazing. I'd really appreciate any help, and if you made it this far I appreciate you surviving my wall of text xD
 
One thing that will unfortunately not work out for you is the nudibranch. Nudibranch are very specialized eaters, and they only eat usually the one thing that they look like. In this case it is hair algae. A 10 gallon tank simply won't be able to keep up with the dietary demands of such an animal.
When it comes to plants in saltwater, you don't really need to go and spend money on putting them in. Macro algae will come on your live rock and grow.
In general though, a 10 gallon tank should be OK with what you are planning for a pair of clownfish. This said, it depends on the type we are talking about because most can easily need a larger tank. A pair of ocellaris clowns though can do well in a 10 gallon tank without issues, but in general will probably be the only two fish in the tank.
 
I'm really getting quite a lot of conflicting info about the lettuce nudis. The lettuce variety seemed to be the only ones sustainable in captivity, but like I said, I'll be waiting to even consider adding one, as I know I have a lot of research to do for them. Of course if I end up not being able to keep one, that'll just have to be how it is.

Glad to hear the clowns will be ok.m they were my only plan as far as fish go. Someday I'd like to get a bit bigger setup so I can try some different fish but for now I'm restricted with space.

Thanks!
 
If you're looking for branching corals there are definitely some easier species of dos that you could try. Montipora digitata and Birdsnest are pretty tough to kill. Same with poccillopora


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avoid turbo snails, they get huge and knock stuff all around.
don't even consider any nudibranch until the tank is at least a year old, but then again they are another animal that has no business being sold for the aquarium industry as 99% of them will die quickly in captivity.
The more colorful ones often have such specific diets that only experts with live sponges and stuff should even attempt to keep them.

I'm sure that sometime you will think about an anemone for the clowns, again, wait at least a year-18 months before adding one.

Coral you can actually begin adding once the tank is cycled because they add little to the bioload.
The clean-up crew you should wait a bit, especially any sand dwelling critters like nassarius snails or sifter starfish as there will not be enough "food" in the gravel bed to sustain it.
In a large established tank a dyeing snail isn't even a blip, in a ten gallon it could tip the balance.


ps. the folks at the lfs will most likely tell you everything will live fine, always understand their motivation is profit, not necessarily the well being of the critters. ;)
 
Oh those corals are gorgeous and just what I was looking for! Definitely going to read up on those, thank you!

And thanks for the advice about the turbos. I didn't know that they got big and clumsy :p

I have thought about an anemone for the clowns, although I was under the impression that keeping a nem in a 10 gallon was rather hard.

In fact, speaking of anemones for clowns, would a clownfish be ok by itself in the aquarium with nothing else? Right now I don’t have anything at all. Just a freshly cycled tank. It seemed like most people put fish in first so I was going to get the clowns, but will they be alright without any sort of anemone or coral? The tank just seems very bare and rocky at the moment and I don't know if that's me being a human that wants to "decorate" lol

My plan for corals is to add a coral every 2 weeks - one coral per paycheck. That way they have time to settle in and I can monitor the water quality between additions, and also so I don’t break the bank with coral purchases haha.

The clean up crew info makes a ton of sense. When I get my clowns, should I get some sort of cleaner shrimp with the fish to pick up anything the fish doesn’t eat? Or should I hold off on that as well until the fish settle in?


and I hear what you guys are saying about the nudis. I was expecting to wait well over a year for one, if not simply because I’m so new at the hobby. I wasn’t even considering the colorful ones. Just the lettuce nudi specifically. But as I said if I can’t have one that’ll just have to be how it is. I don’t want one to suffer just because I like looking at it.
 
If you get red slime algae, margarita snails are amazing. Zoas will survive almost anything. And anemones I agree with above, except for rock flowers, they are pretty easy to take care of


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