10 G $$$

[Nuke]

Hey. 8O why couldnt i just keep with my cichlids????


heres the deal. Im setting up a 10 g. All i have right now is the tank. one of those hob mini filters. a hood- all glass and a fluorescent light. I wanted to keep just low light corals in there such as mushrooms. But I was wondering about sps and lps. I was wondering what light setup i would need for the lps and sps....$$$ Would a pc work?? or do you have to have mh? I am on a tight budget-14 yr old budget so what is the cheapest way to go here?
Thanks for the help

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a bit of a newbie to marine aquaria myself, but this worked for me.

tank

10g plexi

filtration

hob power filter
Liverock

flow
1 cheapo powerhead

lighting

2 coralife 20W 50/50 mini-compacts

the tank took 1.5 mo to cycle
the algae cycle marches on.

Maintenance.
25% water changes per week (50% during cycle)
bi-weekly cleaning (hood, salt creep, whatever the smails missed on the front glass powerhead etc.)

Inhabitants
1 glown gobi
1 Blue Yellow-tail damselfish
1 peppermint shrimp
5 nassariaus snails
3 turbo snails
3 assrt Hemit crabs (hellions)

Gotta keep up on water chemistry especially during the cycle and expect sudden swings in temp and chemistry. When it looks like nitrates have died down and chemistry looks good, if you have not seen a high nitrite spike then the cycle has proly not comopleted, wait a little longer.

Please Please Please do not make the same mistake I did. Do not cycle the tank with a fish, unless you want to see it suffer. You can cycle with just the live rock (should be about 10-15 lbs for your size aquarium) or with a frozen prawn. Check on the library and faq here.

I got away (before buying corals and additives etc) at arround $300.00. when all said and done, is prety cheap for this hoby. Good Luck, it is worth the extra study and work. I love my little tank!

Have fun

 

[M_Phobos]

Sheesh..you guys and your "simplicity" kick..didn't you know that its not a real reef if you can still hear yourself think in the same room as the tank? lol The whirring of ballasts, fans, pumps, and rushing water should be deafening! lol


All kidding aside, Alf does present a good simple reef system...now if you want complicated...see Matt or myself..lol.

Cheers and good luck,
Fred

 

[Anonymous]

I like to think I make pretty simple tanks...it's just that I use very expensive means to get the results I desire.

I really think the part that should never be skimped on is the live rock, especially for a nano. When I buy large amounts, I get it from www.harboraquatics.com For a nano, you can cruise the classified ads in your local paper, look through the for sale forum here at RDO, or find a reefkeeping buddy near you who has a bit of extra rock to sell or give you.

Buying it at the LFS is usually my very last resort. Basically, you want stuff that has nice growths of coralline (purple) algae and other life forms covering it, and not a bunch of brown hairy stuff. If you can find someone who's selling their tank and live rock, this is probably your best bet. If you can, take 5-10 gallons of their tank water for use in your tank as well. I've attached a picture of what my live rock looks like.

After that, you can add a very thin layer of fine sand, a small powerhead (around 200 gph or so should be fine), the HOB filter, and you should be fine. I strongly suggest reading through this guide:
http://www.reefs.org/library/newbieguide.htm
to get your feet wet in the basics.

 

[Anonymous]

I really think the part that should never be skimped on is the live rock, especially for a nano

I found this one out the hard way. The newbie guide helped me out alot too.

 

[M_Phobos]

Isn't Harbor belly-up?

And cramming a Tunze stream into an internal overflow, running pipes under the tank and back up through the bottom, hiding them with rock and finding uniformly purple liverock (your diagrams..lol) is NOT simple..lol


Cheers,
Fred

 

[Anonymous]

Sure it is. It's a complicated way of making it look aesthetically pleasing, but the concept is still simple:
Give the corals a lot of flow, a lot of light, food, and clean seawater of the right chemistry and temperature. Pumps, metal halides, live rock, skimmer, frequent small water changes with natural seawater, small feedings, and a heater. That's about all I use on my tanks...I don't use trace element additives, UV sterilizers, ozone, test kits, pH or ORP meters, etc. Some of these things can be very useful but knowledge is more useful than all of them.

Matt "feeling very Zen today" Wandell

 

[Anonymous]

Matt, I have to know, what fish is that in your avatar. it taint in either of my fish books.
Thanks

 

[ricky1414]

Sheesh..you guys and your "simplicity" kick..didn't you know that its not a real reef if you can still hear yourself think in the same room as the tank? lol The whirring of ballasts, fans, pumps, and rushing water should be deafening! lol

My tank makes very little to no noise. If your ballast whirs, get an E-Ballast!!!! :wink:

 

[M_Phobos]

I couldn't agree more with your methodology Matt, thats why I prefer to run tanks with sumps (like the new 15 in the works). In my mind..its not so much "simple" as it is more aesthetically pleasing/easier to work with/time and money saving in the long run. But as you said yourself, its far from simple...comparatively speaking to Alf's system.

BTW, I really like the setup you have planned...a bit more complex in the plumbing dept than mine..but thats probably why I like it. lol

Cheers,
Fred

PS--My guess is a Yasha Hase shrimp goby for the avatar, but I've been wrong before...

Edit: Yes, my 400w ballast whirs like an SOB, but thats because its an old outdated behemoth (thing must weight 10 or 12 lbs..lol)...and I like my nice old equipment..something comforting about being able to hear electricity..lol.

 

[Anonymous]

You guessed right! Stonogobiops yasha. It's listed as Stonogobiops sp. in some books, but it was formally described in 2001 (or '02?)...

 

[Anonymous]

good ol Yashiba Goby..see them go for about 60 bucks...I started out with a 10gal...upgraded a couple months later to a 20...decided i wanted to keep better corals and upgraded to Power Compacts, only to decide i wanted to keep SPS successfully going with my now current 175W MH..was using a PF 150 Tetra Tec..then went to a Lees counter current skimmer, to now a bak Pak 2r...All in all this has been an expensive hobby for me, especially if i would have just bought what i needed from the get go...The moral is if you want to keep SPS even in that ten, my suggestion is atleast going with a 70W MH retro fit system..You might be able to get away with SPS with enough PC lighting, by In my opinon, why take that risk...You dont need the Top of the Line stuff, but get the good stuff, dont settle cheap...good brands turn out to be the right way to go...Matts way of thinking is a good way of thinking..nothing wrong with cutting corners...like buying a used lighting system..just make sure you get new bulbs..dont cheat too much, itll hurt ya financially and your inhabitants will suffer..speaking of which im in the process of building a DIY wavemaker..actually quite simple for the electronics geeks...a buddy at work is actually gonna build it becuz he has the books to program the processor for controlling the PH's...but ive helped him design it..it will be more for the nanos running 1-2 PH's compact and simple..nothing fancy like those Red Sea guys...when its done ill let everyone see it

 

[Nuke]

Thanks for all the answers! I think im going to have to save up some more money now... I was thinking about ordering the double 20" power compacts from fosters and smith, but now i have to think about how bad i want to keep sps. Can anyone give me an estimate around how much a 70 W MH retrofit system will set me back? Thanks again
Nuke :twisted:

 

[reefann]

http://www.hellolights.com/70wunmam85ba.html
OR
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... eName=WDVW
Then after a socet and bulb you are looking at another 80 to 100$
_________________
Mercedes SLK Class

 

[reefann]

BTW You CAN keep sps and clams long term under PC's. It is very possible and has been done. That being said, I think that MH is the definate way to go though, and would recomend it to anyone.
_________________
Mercedes V Class

 

[ricky1414]

Can anyone give me an estimate around how much a 70 W MH retrofit system will set me back? Thanks again
Nuke :twisted:

70w ballast, 10k Ushio bulb, socket and wiring (complete)- $140
PFO Pendant- $90

You can use a regent halogen floodlight for your pendant instead ($10 at HD), but I chose to go the safe route in regards to UV protection. Plus since my pendant is partially visible, I prefer the cleaner look of the PFO.
HTH