ten gallon fish suggestions

[egrape]

hey guys!

I am starting up a ten gallon and I am so excited! i am grabbing ro water tomorrow, and I know it's a ways in the future but I wanna start thinking about fish. I want something with personality. since I am seriously limited on the number of fish, it's gotta be something that speaks for itself you know? I really like the bicolor blenny and falco hawkfish? would either of these work? i am afraid the blenny might be a little to big. if I got one of these two do you think I could eventually add something else that's small? if so like what? I definitely want to avoid too much overstocking.

this is my first saltwater tank that I hope to take to college with me in the fall that's why it is a ten gallon... also another hypothetically stupid question does it matter if I adjust the ph before or after adding salt to the water? also, what kind if water changes are we talking here? I have read about anywhere from fifty percent every two weeks to ten percent every two weeks to ten percent every day. what do you do for maintenance?

thanks in advance everyone!

 

[tonedogz]

You really can't put very much in a 10 gal. tank. Fire fish, clown goby, small damsels thats about it.

 

[Riverhawk]

In my 10gal i have only a 6 line wrasse and a small midas..nothing else..falco hawks have a min tank size of i believe 30 gal.. And he would eat any crabs/shrimp in your cuc.... I would go with maybe the blenny or a couple of the smaller gobies...look at liveaquaria.com and then the heading nano fish and youll get an idea of what wiuld fit in your tank..but youre looking at maybe 2-3 SMALL fish for a 10 gal...and no tangs..no matter how small!

 

[Riverhawk]

Oh water changes..i usually do 1.5 -2 gallon change every week...i dont use a skimmer...also use lots of live rock but make sure to leave room for swimming..

 

[egrape]

haha yeah I am only thinking two fish max. I do like six lines a lot, do you have any aggression problems? and the Midas is good too? I am
big fans of those two fish. are bicolors similar personality and size wise? yeah good point on the hawkfish... they are cute though

thanks for the water change info, that's probably what I will aim for. and good link too! I saw that earlier when googling but I am more looking for firsthand experience on what works and doesn't, which you gave me

BAHAHA don't worry about the tangs haha I know enough not to become subject to the tang police

 

[Riverhawk]

Ive had the 6 line for 2yrs..no problems at all with nastiness..blennys a good guy too..no squabbbling key is to make sur you have plenty of hiding places for them... Thats what usually starts the "case of the meanies" as my bro call it...

 

[Riverhawk]

Also..there is no such thing as having too many reference books.... It pays to have books to go to..i have several on fish coral and i picked one up at a used bookstore on nems last week...

 

[egrape]

thank you so much for the info! very helpful I filled the tank today and I am letting it run with the power head overnight to check salinity and ph tomorrow. if those don't need adjusting in goes the live sand tomorrow evening!

 

[Rybo]

Goby and shrimp pair. Tons of personality and so very interesting to watch. Plus doesn't add a ton of shock to ur tank all at once.

 

[egrape]

I do like gobies and shrimp thoughts on a royal gramma?

 

[tonedogz]

They are great fish for your tank

 

[egrape]

yay! could I also put a tail spot blenny in there? would they fight?

 

[Pisces3473]

You gonna do any corals?

 

[egrape]

I was planning on it. are those not reef safe?

 

[Pisces3473]

Corals are what make it a reef. You hadn't mentioned specifically, so I was just curious what you had in mind for corals.

 

[egrape]

oh haha well I have no clue. I know I am sticking to soft corals. and I really would like to eventually acquire a clam. but easy stuff. I have the reef bright lights, the ones with double the led output, so lighting isn't really an issue, especially in such a shallow tank haha.

 

[egrape]

what would you suggest?

 

[obscurereef]

All the suggestions for fish are cool. You mentioned you want to keep soft corals which usually require low-medium light and clams need a lot of light so maybe it's not the best to get the clam unless you have proper lighting. What is your lighting anyway? Zoas, mushrooms, duncans, leathers are all pretty easy and hardy.

 

[egrape]

thanks for the reply on the fish i dont know for sure what i want to go with but the replies i have gotten have been very helpful!
as for the corals I have the reef brite xtreme high output led which is supposed to be quite powerful. would it be bad to put those soft corals in a high light condition, or will they just adjust? thanks

 

[obscurereef]

Is it dimmable? Certain LEDs like yours can grow practically any coral so I've heard. Meaning you'd want to put soft corals and LPS at the bottom to the middle and SPS (if you ever got SPS) towards the top. It depends how high/dimmed your lights are. Just experiment.