setting up a 10g reef

[WesleT]

ok i am new here and i got some questions... i recently set up a 10 gallon salt water tank.. this is my first time to do a small tank and everyone says its hard.. i have experience in 55 72 and a 150 (none are reef though)...

so i need a list of what to do to get started

right now i have the thing set up with crushed coral.. using a whisper as the filter and i have two elite 802 air pumps pumping into it.. the flow is excelent..
I put some ghost shrimp in there to cycle it out

my main question is do i need a skimmer. and do they make one for a 10g ... the smallest i have seen is for a 75
also what kind of lighting to i need do i need to get the corallife light or will a regular florescent work (the light on it right now is all-glass pre-heat 15w)
and do i need RO water?

any other suggestions please let me know

 

[Anonymous]

Absolutely no need for a skimmer. The ease with which water changes are carried out negates the need for one.

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to RDO!

You're definatley going to need more light. You might be able to keep a few mushrooms, or other softies with that light, but they won't do so well. You'll have to upgrade. There's actually a retro-kit for the light. You just wire in a new power compact light to the existing fixture. It's pretty easy if you're okay working with electricity!

On my 10, I had 2- 32W PC lights, and could keep anything I wanted. (I didn't want a clam or anenome at the time.)

Filter, You don't necessarly need the air pumps. As long as the return from the hang on is above the water, You'll be stiring the surface. All the air pumps will do is create a lot of salt creep.

And you don't need to go buy an RO filter right away. Check around, you might be able to get it for $.50 a gallon or so. Check the 'fill your own" water places. Get a sample, and check it with a TDS meter. Just think how many 1 gallon water changes you'll do before you spend the $100 or so it costs for an RO unit. And you don't have to pay for new filters!

You don't say whether you have LR or not in your tank yet. Check out stores around you, and hand pick the best pieces. Paying a bit more for really great pieces of rock is well worth it in my experiece. You only have a bit of room to work, so get the best pieces you can!

B

 

[WesleT]

ok so take the air pumps out and drop the water lvl to where the filter is pouring in not just streaming in like it is

buy a new light.. how much is this gonna run me?

get live rock (i am going to do this now)

and as for randalls refill station.. where do i find a tds test kit

 

[WesleT]

here it is so far.. havent taken the air out yet

 

[rnoreef]

I was hoping to jump in here since you already had this thread going. I have a similar setup, a 12 gallon regent tank ( cheap ripoff of an eclipse I purchased at walmart) that I kept an octopus in a few years back. How much light is too much on a small tank like that. It has the 15 watt single bulb in it now and I was looking at cramming another one in the hood which would give me 30w of lighting. Petsmart has coralife 18" 10k's and actnic florou tubes that could be added to the existing hood. I've also seen a 18" 96watt quad tube 50/50 that could be put in there in it's place, but would that be overkill. I currently have about 20 lbs of live rock and some tufa I picked up in the local desert here in northern nevada (pure calcium carbonate, should be good for a reef). I left the stock pump and biowheel in there and removed the cartrige filter, I also added a rio 800 pump that is about 200 gph. i have some live sand on the way that I was going to add to the play sand that's in there already. Would the 30 watts of flouro's be enough to keep some leathers, sponges, Green Star Polyps, and maybe some ricordias, or should I spend the money on the 96 watt? Sorry to jump into somebody elses post, but maybe thisb info will be helpful to them too!

 

[Anonymous]

rnoreef,
Jumping into another persons theard is the way we wish most people would ask for help!

If you'll check out the nano build off forum
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewforum.p ... 5fd8852ab8
You'll find all kinds of very useful informaion on small tanks. It is a "read" only forum, but you'll still get alot out of it. Folks intered are using all kinds of different methods, filtration, lighting and reefing styles. I think you'd really enjoy it.

You can use as much light on your little tank as you can cram in. Some people prefer using retrofits of pc lights or pc with mh. Or you might be able to find a fixture that fits. And there is usually always some one with something for sale. The choice is really yours.

I always tell people to use a skimmer, but it isn't a "must". Frequent water changes (weekly or twice weekly) will do. You just have to keep up with your maintainance or you'll run into problems very fast. Good luck! 8)

 

[rnoreef]

Well from the infinite wisdom from the owner of my lfs told me to use the 400w mh I have laying around for my 12 g nano. seems like overkill to me. I was hoping to keep a reef tank, not a beach tank. So out of complete boredom tonight I decided to add another 15w fixture to my existing 15w hood. Turned out pretty good. Seems to be enough light for the time being. The store owned did hook me up with some frags for cheap to try out. Some small brown tube looking thing that opened up it's head when I fired off the actnic and had like a flat green top. pretty cool.