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Ill Be Going To Marine Soon

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fish_keeper2

I am Nemo!!
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at petco yesterday i found out that they now have a marine starter kit. its a 12 gal eclipse system with lighting, heater, filter(belive its a bio wheel), insant ocean marine salt, hydrometer, water coditioners, and a beginners booklet. with this all i would need would be a power head, a marine master test kit, upgrade lighting, containers to hold RO water, live rock and sand. this whole kit cost only 160 bucks which i feel is not too bad becuase eclipse system are a bit pricy. i get paid on friday so im gonna go pick it up and then 2 weeks later ill be able to get everything else or at least most of it.

now i have a few quetions.
1) when i first set it up can use tap water or should i use RO from the begging?
2) the live rock i can get is precured so there shouldnt be too much die off and im going to find out if the guy will sell me some live rock from his established tanks, if i can when i can start stocking?
3)how should i stock? should i get my cleaning crew first? or half of the cleaning crew and a fish and the slowly build up the cleaning crew and later add another fish or 2? i know i want some fish and inverts. on inverts im thinking 3 cleaner shrimp, ~5 hermits, and ~5 various snails.
4) can you help me decide what fish i should get? i know i deffinately want a black and white percula. i also want another clow if possible - im thinking ocellaris or a regular perc. i also like red and purple fire fish along with neon blue gobbies. i just dont know what combo i want.

i think thats all the questions for now.....sorry for the long post.
 
Hi..just some thoughts. Eclipse systems are not the most user friendly to set up at nano tanks. Although I don't have one, I follow the nano world pretty closely and most people complain about the difficulty in upgrading the lighting and also complain about the filtration system. IMO, you'd be much better off buying 10, 20 or 29 gallon AGA or even a 12G Nano Cube or AquaPod. Some of the contents are a waste anyway:
1) a biowheel
2) hydrometer..you'd be much better off with a refractometer
3) the supplied heater is not the best and you don't want your heater to be 'brand X' IMO with a marine system
4) Instant Ocean is not the best salt IMO
However, if you are on a budget, you could make it work with due diligence. IMO, tho, there are better setups.

SO:
1) I would NEVER use tap water in a marine tank. If you cannot afford an RO/DI filter, you can buy RO water or premixed at the lfs

2) You must wait until all your params are at 0 and even then I wouldn't rush to get a fish in there. Your clean up crew would come next. Be careful not to rush stocking your tank. Beauty comes slowly in a nano tank, disaster comes quickly.

3) Wait for you cycle to end and when you start to see some diatoms, you can start adding your cleanup crew. 3 cleaner shrimp sounds a bit much in a 10-12 gallon system. 3 astrea, 3 nassarius and your hermits would be fine although I am not a big hermit fan.

4) YOu are already thinking too many fish. A twelve gallon system will only hold 2-3 safely. Focus on setup and cycling for now. You could do a paired set of SAME species clowns and a firefish at the most. Actually, the paired clowns would really be enough. SH
 
i just under impusle got a 10 gal. it was one of those kits that come with a heater and hood/light and all. anyway i now have a 10 gal tank with a 50 watt heater, 18000k lighting(i got a new marine bulb to replace the one that came with the tank), 15lb bag of instant ocean salt(the best i had to chose from, i felt), and a hydrometer(the place i went to doesnt carry any refractometers). now all i need to get is a powerhead, master test kit, live rock and sand, and maybe get a stronger heater if you feal that its not strong enough. hopefully ill be on my way cycling the tank within the next 3 weeks. i have set up what i have so far to make sure the heater works and the tank is sealled properly.
oh and i need to get some containers to hold RO water. will large gasoline containers work.....unused of course?

does this work for stocking: 2 cleaner shrimp, 3 astrea snails, 3 nassarius snails, 3 hermits, and 1 or 2 black and white percs(ill get 2 if they have similar sized and very small ones in the same tank other wise it will be just one)? btw i just giving a list of fish i like so someone could give me a good combo of 2-3 fish but as you see i think im going to just stay with a black and white perc(or 2).

could you explain what diatoms are exactly? i remember them very vaguely from my bit of research.

will the lighting i have support most soft corals or do i need stronger?

thats all for now........i think....lol
 
I think you are better off that you got a 10 g AGA. You have much more leeway to design the tank than if you went with an Eclipse.

Thoughts:
1) A hydrometer will be OK. Just make sure you don't get bubbles on the swing arm which will throw off the readings. You can order a hydrometer from Drs. Foster and Smith or Marine Depot.

2) The 50 watts is fine for a 10...my comment was re: the brand. 'Heater enclosed' doesn't usually imply a good one. You want a reliable heater without temp swings. If your heater works well, then..no problem. If not, consider upgrading to a 'solid heater'.

3) Red plastic gasoline storage containters work fine. Make sure you wash them out thoroughly after you get them home and DON"T use one that has been previously used to store any chemicals.

5) The cleanup crew looks OK...two cleaner shrimp in a 10 is maybe much, but, it can be done since they don't add much bioload to the tank. Two percs will be borderline OK if you are good at your water husbandry.

6) Diatoms are microscopic unicellular plants that live on photosynthesis and will be the first 'visitors' to your tank. I appears as brown film on the glass, substrate and live rock. It's normal.

7) I'm not sure what kind of lighting you got, but, if you simply replaced the bulb on a standard 10gallon tank hood, it will not be enough to support corals. You will need to add either some compact fluorescent light fixture or a small metal halide (which are expensive....70W MH). SH
 
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_det...D=1129662629213
that is the light bulb i got. its a T8 15 watt bulb and the package says its ideal for marine and african cichlid aqauriums, intensifies colors of fish and corals, stimulates growth of macro algae and plants, and high intensity bulb, strong in the blue region of the spectrum, benefical for the proper photosinthesis of corals, inverts, and lower species. i can still return if you fell its not strong enough.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_det...D=1129662853371
this is the hydrometer that i purchaced.

the heater seems to work pretty well. i left the tank set up and the heater running all night and once it got where i set it which was 80 degrees F it stayed constant.

after thinking a bit i think ill just get 1 black and white perc that way i dont have to worry about any fights for dominence or anything and ill also just get one cleaner shrimp.
 
Hi..that light will be more than satisfactory for startup, but, if you want corals, it will be woefully inadequate. Look at the bottom of the pages on this link and this is the optimum type of lights...look at the 96 watt quad on the bottom if you are wanting to keep corals that require high lighting. If you really want the big stuff when you are ready, this baby is cool, 70 MH:

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=AQOL1

That light will definitely need to be replaced when you want coral...at 15 watts, you probably won't even be able to support coralline algae. SH
 
im not sure if i said it or not but im only going for soft corals and mushrooms. i was going to go for the nano polyp pack and the nano soft coral pack(1 of each) found here . how much wattage would i need for these ones?

is this a good one . it sounds pretty good and it has 40 watts and its deffinetly afordable for me.
 
You know...I read that whole description and it doesn't even say what the light spectrum is or if it has actinic light. However, the 'A' picture at the bottom suggests that it is 50/50 actinic. At 40 watts over a 10 gallon, not knowing the spectrum, it will probably be enough to support zoos, mushrooms and ricordea, softies.

As for the coral packs, I bought one of those. I think you're better off picking what you want individually. One of the added softies in my coral pack were yellow colony polyps and they can grow like weeds. Price out the following and see what you think:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...cfm?pCatId=2043
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=651
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=681
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=669

SH
 
96 watt Coralife is a popular fixture for the ten. If you go this route, call and make sure it's a fit for your hood if you are doing a retrofit. SH
 
will do. thanks for the help. itll be a couple months before i start getting corals but its better to look for good lighting now so ill be ready to go when its time.

oh i wanted to know what filter media is ok to use with a nano marine. all i know is that sponges and such become nitrate traps if not rinsed regularly. this is becuase the 10 gal kit i got came with a filter that provides 80 gph so i decided i might just go ahead and use it.

oh and another thing, how hard are feather dusters to care for. they look so neat and really interesting. all the info you have would be great.

another question(sorry they just keep poping up in my head :*) ) are black and white percs and firefish compatible. if so is 1 one of each ok in my 10 gal?......once im ready to stock of course.
 
fish_keeper2 said:
will do. thanks for the help. itll be a couple months before i start getting corals but its better to look for good lighting now so ill be ready to go when its time.

oh i wanted to know what filter media is ok to use with a nano marine. all i know is that sponges and such become nitrate traps if not rinsed regularly. this is becuase the 10 gal kit i got came with a filter that provides 80 gph so i decided i might just go ahead and use it.

oh and another thing, how hard are feather dusters to care for. they look so neat and really interesting. all the info you have would be great.

another question(sorry they just keep poping up in my head :*) ) are black and white percs and firefish compatible. if so is 1 one of each ok in my 10 gal?......once im ready to stock of course.
Click to expand...
1) You don't need filter media. You can just let the filters run empty for the water movement. With enough live rock and a good clean up crew, that's all the filtration you need.

2) I don't know much about feather dusters. I've got one that's popped up in my tank but haven't done anything special to care for it and it's growing fine. It's in an area where it can easily catch a lot of the food that's flowing through though.

3) Yes, b/w percs and firefish are compatible. Yes, one of each in the 10g is just fine.
 
If you are great at water husbandry, you can do as Parker313 says. I run my nano with ChemiPure, SeaGel and Purigen. You COULD put that in the HOB if you want. Running a phosphate binder, IMO, is not such a bad thing to do. Even tho' phosphate should be zero if you use RO, there can be some in the food we put in the tank.

Feather dusters are listed as 'easy' to keep, however, mine has dropped it's crown once, meaning it was either starving or stressed. They are filter feeders so, will require fine plankton added to the tank. Some people have claimed that they never fed their tank and their FD's are doing well. Remember, they are NOT photosynthetic. SH
 
thanks for the help. i get paid today so im gonna purchase the rest of the equipment i need over the weekeend.
 
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