Options for 10 gallon

[pkremer]

Hello there! I have a 10 gallon aquarium that I have empty and I have been dying to start dabbling with saltwater. I would love to have a larger aquarium to play with, but I am extremely pleased with my 38 gallon freshwater, have quite a few fish I want to keep (raised all of 'em from tiny little things...how do you get so attached to fish?), and the 10 gallon is all I have right now.

Eventually, I want to have a setup where I can have a Picasso (Humu Humu) Triggerfish...don't worry! I won't stuff him in the 10 gallon...I mean for down the road!

For right now though, I was hoping somebody could give me some ideas on a good way to start out. I am fairly knowledgeable with freshwater, and have a little experience with it, so I am not completely new to the hobby, but have never tried saltwater before. I know that with a 10 gallon, I will need to take extra care and be extra vigilant to make sure the water level stays constant so the salinity stays constant.

I have thought about getting a little bit of live rock and getting 2 clownfish to start with, or maybe some green chromis to get started with. I know there are many out there who are good at "nanotanks," and was hoping to tap your experience? Any ideas or tips on what I could do to get started? Down the road, a larger aquarium may be an option, but it's just not a possibility right now.

Paul

 

[Wooster]

you could do a fishless cycle with raw coctail shrimp from the mart, which can save you from many potential headaches.

one of the reasons that you will have to be vigilant regarding to water quality is that you cannot really get an effective protein skimmer on a 10 gal. and especially if you end up with corals in there you have to keep on top of water changes because of the potential nitrate buildup without a skimmer.

2 o.clowns would work, no more than that at all, but they should do well in there. how much rock are you talking about being "a little"?

 

[pkremer]

I'm not really sure yet. This is why I am glad to have the ability to ask people with much more experience than I have. The LFS people do try to be helpful, but many of them don't actually have a saltwater aquarium, and don't have a lot of personal experience.

I was thinking enough rock to have a little display, something for the clownfish to hide behind or inside. I am not going to mess with an anemone because I have read 1) those should only go into an established tank, and 2) most tankbred clownfish won't use them anyway. As far as how much, it doesn't need to be anything fancy. What do you recommend?

And what do you think tank maintenance would be like on a 10 gallon saltwater? Daily topoffs and weekly water changes? Or a little more intense than that?

Paul

 

[Wooster]

one of the great things about saltwater is liverock. having enough, at least 1 pound per gallon, would be necessary in order for the rock to be an effective biological filter in your system, ideally you would have about 1.5 to even 2 pounds of live rock per gallon to fully exploit its benifits.

I have 2 o.clowns in my tank without an anemone and they are doing perfectly well

as for the maintenance, its not that the maintenance can be more intense than that it is more on the lines that if you forget to do the maintenance the consequences will be more intense, the big difference in a smaller system than in a larger one is that when things go bad they go bad very rapidly.

 

[noteworthy]

I read a recent artictle/post about anemones in captivity. Seems they live a rather horrible life in an aquarium. Maybe 2 years as on average but in the ocean they live to see three generations.

Clowns do not need anemones.


Heres the post:
http://aqualinkwebforum.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/6286080522/m/6316090522

Scroll down to the 8th post which is by biogeek! .. Very Lengthy

 

[Guest]

I dunno. I encourage individuals who are interested in the SW hobby. It is very rewarding. I just don't encourage that sized tank. I know you have a plan for a bigger one in the future. I'd say just keep that 10G as a hospital tank for a SW. Or maybe a sump or refugium for at least a 29G SW tank. 10G of water is just a bit unstable for me IMHO. I would't try to force a SW water in such a small tank.

 

[K Dub]

My QT tank is a 10 Gal. I keep it running at all times and have had 0 probs. (It stays in my sons room and every fish we get, he gets first) I put 5 lbs. LR and have a hang on spill over return filter with some bio-media and carbon and 1 small powerhead with an attached filter on the intake. We have no substrate. and keep 4 turbo snails in it for algae surface cleaning. Also makes water changes easy because we can vacuum the bottom easily because no substrate. Daily water top offs are necessary and keep an eye on your PH with some buffer in the top off water. Has been great so far