*NEW TO SALT* please help me out

[jdruff8]

hi, i keep fresh water tanks with african cichlids and discus and want to do a salt. i wil use my 10 gallon after i sell the convicts in it. I want a pair of clown fish and either, coral, live rock or an anenome, which i prefer. Wil this fit in a 10 gallon? and how should i set it up? what type of lights should i have? The hood on it is fit for a 29 gallon. Please tell em the supplies i should get. please help thanks.

 

[Guest]

10 gallon salt tanks are for more experienced reefers. If you do a water change and your new water is not perfect. you have almost no buffer water to stabilize or help dilute mistakes. If you do want to go through with it. I recommend 25 lbs live rock, a 55 watt 50/50 PC. since its only 10g you should purchase your life rock and live sand. (use the calculator for depth) through it in the tank and let it sit for a month to cycle with the lights off. (weekly taking out the rocks and scrubbing off any dead Organic compounds.) As far as everything else I recommend just browsing the forums. You prob will only be able to keep 1 fish in there.

supplies

Nitrogen cycle test kit
synthetic salt
water dechlorinator
Heaters
pc lights
LR and maybe live sand.
Powerhead for water agitation
Hyrdrometer.
Lots of extra buckets to mix and store water.

 

[fishfreek]

Honestly a 10 gal will be more work than you think. If at all possible I would suggest at the very least a 20 gal to start with. The reason is water quality. Larger volume of water = more stable water quality. The 10 gal will need daily checkups to make sure salinity is ok as well as ammonia and temperature. A pair of very small clowns would be ok but nothing more as far as fish. These clowns will also outgrow the 10 gal.

Anenomes should only be kept in a mature system with LOTS of light. For a 10 gal tank I would be talking at a minimum of 55W of PC light.

 

[reefobsessed]

Welcome..... Salt is a whole new ball game from fresh. My friend has a fresh with over 25 fish in a 50 gallon and doesnt even own a test kit. I have over 200.00 in test kits alone and test my water at least every 4 to 6 days. I had (oops had ) 6 fish in a 45 gallon and was over stocked.

Salt is a very time consuming but very worth while adventure. I would suggest reading up on it for a few months before you jump in. I think they say the average cost for salt is 20.00 per gallon. I say it more like 50.00 per gallon.

The time differences are 1 hour per night ( a newby will average ) to his 1 hour per week.. Hope that helps...

Note: Not trying to scare you off but nothing happens fast in a reef except a tank crash.... See my prior post if you want more details on that one...