10gal setup help

[coral acquisition]

hi im starting a 10gal nano. just the standard $10 10gal glass tank you buy at petco. i was thinking of doing the aquaclear 110 (i think) for filtration/refrugium

but changed my mind and thinking of getting this

http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=292

since it has a skimmer already in it. do you think its worth it?

i want to put maybe a hammer or frogspawn, live rock, live sand, some cleanup crew, zoo's, maybe ricordia and pulsating xenia.

how much light would i need? do i have to go the metal hidlie route? i dont want to spend too much on lights. can i go with
this light from hello lights?

http://www.hellolights.com/201xcoaqpcho.html

are there any other equivalent but cheaper brands?

thanks

 

[jenlovesty]

I would go with the coralife 96watt powerquad. I have one on my 10 and love it. If you dont want sps, there is no need for MH. The powerquad is a great choice.

 

[msn711]

I agree with jen; that lighting should be fine for your 10g. For a 10g, I would keep it as simple as possible. If you do a search on aquatraders, I think you'll find that a lot of their equipment is cheap junk. I personally wouldn't waste any money with them. I think 10-15 pounds of LR would be sufficient filtration; I wouldn't even bother with a refugium. If anything I would use the aquaclear for circulation, and maybe for carbon. That and another small power head, for a total of about 200gph total circulation should be sufficient.

 

[coral acquisition]

mmm so go with aquaclear mod then huh? what if i just get a skimmer and no filter but do like 5 gal water change every 2 weeks. do you think that would be good enough for the setup i want?

 

[coral acquisition]

i want this to be as minimalist as possible. i was thinking just light, skimmer and that's it. just do water change every 2 weeks. i dont want to use too much electricity/plugs.

thanks guys

 

[msn711]

I agree with the minimalist approach. A 50% water change seems like a bit much though. I would probably do a gallon every week or 2 gallons every 2 weeks. Actually, I would do regular water changes but how often would depend on my test results.

 

[coral acquisition]

so can i just have a skimmer and do water changes? would that be good enough? (just live rock, live sand and skimmer)

 

[msn711]

Yep...that should be just fine.

 

[coral acquisition]

last question...whats that cheapest GOOD skimmer i can use on a 10gal tank?

 

[jenlovesty]

I have the cpr bak pak on my 10 gallon. I picked it up slightly used for $75.

 

[dendro982]

The minimalist approach is a desktop lamp with 27W daylight spiral bulb, no skimmer, hang on the back power filter (next size will be better) and some chaeto in $1 transparent soap holder with the suction caps. In this case don't keep fish, requiring the constant presence food in the tank, like scooter blenny.
With 96W you will be able to keep most of the corals. The cheapest skimmer will be small Lee's CC protein skimmer (less than $20, plus air pump for it), many people have very good results, but I couldn't make my lager version work efficiently; could be just me.

 

[coral acquisition]

yeah im thinking of the 96watts and just skimmer only. im leaning more on zoa's now and green star polyps. with mushrooms and a frogspawn/hammer. i just painted the tank and hopefully i have enough this payday to get a skimmer.

thanks for all the help n info.

 

[coral acquisition]

jen - do you have pix of yours?

thanks