Nano 10g Reef

[Scott MacAdam]

A friend of mine, and a fellow fish keeper, has come across some nano-reef tanks (a 3 gallon I believe) and he has sparked my interest. I have never had a marine of any kind but I've got a 10G I could use to try one and I am just wondering how much of a project this will become should I take it on. Have any of you ever tried these and what would it take to get one up and running?

I could spend a couple hundred on this, but that being said, I'd rather a less expensive and more stable set-up as it will be my first. I've got a lot of spare freshwater tank equipment lying around that I could use but I'm not too sure on what can switch over.

As a fresh water fish keeper, I'm really unaware of the specifics and equipment involved, can someone give me a specific rundown of the spec and items needed for a nano reef of a 10G size?

also, if anyone is interested, could someone suggest an interesting stock of reef and fish for something this small?

 

[kj23502]

Read:


http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=135909

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=115937

Could have a pistol shrimp/goby pair. Heard they are really interesting. i'm pondering it my for my tank (a 29g). Could have 1 percula clown or an ocellaris.

Heaters can be used as long as that brand can be used for saltwater. May have to look it up. You'd need powerheads to move the water around the live rock.

Right now all I have on my tank is a powerhead, skimmer and heater. You don't need a skimmer on a 10 gallon. Just keep up w/water changes.

 

[Trod]

Hi

A 10g nano is extremely small and very limiting, you can only really keep one very small fish and with T5 lighting a few soft corals.
The smaller the tank the harder they are to keep

It all depends on what you want to keep in the tank. There are a few threads with 10g tanks running I'd advise you to read as much as possible first

But as a small start you would need.
lighting (T5 for carols)
powerhead
Heater
sand
LR
salt
Refractometer
Test Kits(salifert)
Reverse osmosis (RO) water
Protein skimmer (optional)

What are you interested in,
Fish only (FO)
Fish only with Live Rock (FOWLR)
Fish, Live Rock and corals?
Once you've decided on that you can move forward, the first rule of marine is, take it slowly and read as much as you can

It is not a cheap hobby, and a fair bit of time is required to maintain your tank.

If you go for Live Rock you won't need a filter as the rock does the work, but you will need good water movement thats where the powerhead comes in.

Could have a pistol shrimp/goby pair. Heard they are really interesting. i'm pondering it my for my tank (a 29g). Could have 1 percula clown or an ocellaris.

Pistol Shrimp and small goby would be fine but sorry 10g is to small for a clown.

 

[kj23502]

I still say he can have 1 percula or occellaris. Nothing else, but 1 would be ok. They stay pretty small and should be easy to manage. Just watch how much you feed it. Don't feed much AT ALL. Food waste will create more of a problem than the actual fish.

 

[Truck]

i also disagree on the clown, they are very aggressive and with anything else in the tank (shrimps) god knows what could happen

 

[Straydum]

clown aggression would probably be individually different depending on the clown. i've never had mine pick on anything else except themselves (the other clown).

having said that, a 10g is not recommended for a beginner because any small fluctuation in any factor would be damaging. but i do find smaller tanks easier to handle in terms of water changes and all. just my two cents worth

 

[Scott MacAdam]

right right, thanks for the replies.

although I am a beginner for Marine tanks, I've been keeping 3 different FW tanks for about 4 or 5 years now and I don't think that it will be too bad of a change to monitor the stats on a marine tank instead, although I am aware that there is more to it. The reason that I am starting small is simply because of space restrictions and also, I will have a spare 10G really soon...

 

[kj23502]

i also disagree on the clown, they are very aggressive and with anything else in the tank (shrimps) god knows what could happen

hence I said only the clown

Of course he could try 1 shrimp and I'm sure could have a couple snails. There's quite a few people on reefcentral that have a clown in a 10g ish and they aren't getting flamed for it. There seems to be a lot of people that patrol that forum to point out things people are doing wrong. Certainly they would've freaked out on the all the people that have them in the small tanks. One nano tank even won TOTM (tank of the month) and it has a clown in it. I believe it's less than 10g.

I'm just getting into actual practice of the salty side. I don't have alot of physcial experience yet, but I've reading about this for months and months well into last year. I've read wetwebmedia, TFF, reefcentral the most. I also have checked out quite a few books recommended in the realm of knowledge. Well I may not have actual experience stored up, I have Crap loads of book knowledge (if I call it that) so I'm not telling him that from a shot in the dark either. Not trying to sound arrogant and appologize if I do happen to sound that way. Just backing up my statements about a single clown in his tank I really like this forum and the good people in it too.

Just one of the many different opinions in the hobby


Kj

 

[seffieuk]

Ok folks, lets chill a bit here

A ten gallon tank is called a pico - have some fun researching on the internet

I would agree with my sister, Trod and Truck that a Clown is not suitable for a 10 Gallon I don't however agree that one clown in a tank by its self will be aggressive to shrimps etc I also agree with KJ that a shrimp goby pair is an excellent option - take a look at youtube - there are some cracking little videos on there about shrimp goby combos

You could have an amazing litttle tank if you are prepared to put the work in and do the 'housekeeping' regularly - small is certainly not easier than a bigger tank but they can be special little tanks - so, do your homework, do lots of planning, source some good lr, go shopping for the essentials but most of all enjoy and be patient

oh and by the way to the salty side

Seffie x

 

[kj23502]

eh, if it's less than 30g I call it a nano

 

[seffieuk]

eh, if it's less than 30g I call it a nano

If it's less than 30 gallons, i call it a lot of work, fun and pots of money

Seffie x

 

[kj23502]

eh, if it's less than 30g I call it a nano

If it's less than 30 gallons, i call it a lot of work, fun and pots of money

Seffie x

No doubt

*but isn't it all work, fun and pots of money!!!

 

[SkiFletch]

I prefer the money tree

 

[seffieuk]

I prefer the money tree

ah, the good old money tree - anyone got any seeds

Seffie x

 

[Scott MacAdam]

hahaha! Thanks again for the replies! I've been reading into this for a couple of weeks now on various forums and info websites but it seems that I will have to put it off for another couple months until I move into my new place but should i decide to start a tank a little sooner with just some live rock and let it cycle before I move would anyone see any problems here? just some live rock and a powerhead and let it do it's thing until I move then start setting up the rest? could be fun... ahhh either way, it will be a great little project.