New small reef help!
- Thread starter mattslack
- Start date
GFO = Granular Ferric Oxide
It helps to keep PO4 (phosphates) down thus helping to prevent nuisance algae. Their is also other media you could use instead of GFO to accomplish this same task.
If you use a HOB, then that will serve as your biological filtration; therefore, you do not need live rock if you wish not to have it. I personally like the look of live rock and would opt to have some. You can start with dry rock to save some dough as well. 5 pounds of dry marco or BRS reef saver would make the tank look great, imo and should only cost you $15 bucks or so (plus shipping...). You will need to cycle the tank which will take 6-8 weeks for the nitrogen cycle to complete.
You need to do some more research and see what others have done with a 10 gallon. There are plenty of builds out there for 10 gallon "nano" tanks.
Here is a pretty nice build of a 10 gallon.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2151887
Also, you don't even need sand if you don't want it. Look up bare bottom (BB) builds if you are interested.
It helps to keep PO4 (phosphates) down thus helping to prevent nuisance algae. Their is also other media you could use instead of GFO to accomplish this same task.
If you use a HOB, then that will serve as your biological filtration; therefore, you do not need live rock if you wish not to have it. I personally like the look of live rock and would opt to have some. You can start with dry rock to save some dough as well. 5 pounds of dry marco or BRS reef saver would make the tank look great, imo and should only cost you $15 bucks or so (plus shipping...). You will need to cycle the tank which will take 6-8 weeks for the nitrogen cycle to complete.
You need to do some more research and see what others have done with a 10 gallon. There are plenty of builds out there for 10 gallon "nano" tanks.
Here is a pretty nice build of a 10 gallon.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2151887
Also, you don't even need sand if you don't want it. Look up bare bottom (BB) builds if you are interested.
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igot2gats
Deeeetroit Basketball!
This ^.
I would suggest going with a nano tank (around 30 gallons).
It will teach you how to maintain your water chemistry faster, and the cost won't be nearly as much as a 55 gallons + that a lot of people suggest, should you get out and find out that this is not for you.
If it is for you, then you can always upgrade over time.
Just my opinion.
mbingha
New member
Just my .02, but if you ask for help, you ought to listen to it. Seems like you don't like the answers you're getting so you are going to do it your way anyhow. That being said, you might add well take a couple hundred dollars and burn them in the fire place. You would get the same pain in your wallet, but it wouldn't prolong the suffering. From the looks of it you don't want to do the research...so I'll help ya out. With a 10 gallon you are going to need an ATO or automatic top off, unless you plan on topping off with fresh water every day. That's another thing, you shouldn't use tap water. You will need a reverse osmosis De-ionized water filter, or purchase water from a local fish store (lfs). Live rock while not needed, dots make life much easier, it provides biological filtration, biodiversity, and it looks good. Are you planning on corals? If so you will need the proper lighting (coupe hundred bucks if done right) and that lighting may heat your water enough that you need a chiller (another couple hundred). with a smaller tank temp swings can happen fast, and can be deadly. You are going to need a test kit. For fish only, you will need ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and ph. For corals you need calcium, phosphate, alk. Can you see where I'm going? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Research research research. Then come back and ask questions, research some more, then start putting a list together of things you need. It's a fun hobby, so I don't mean to discourage you, but if you don't start off right, it can be very costly, and failures add up quickly. Good luck
+1 on stickies
Im still new, but I read and reread everything in the forum labeled sticky for about a month before I started my tank. I helps create foundational knowledge that you will not get from asking one question at a time. Just asking "do I need X" will never educate you on what you are trying to achieve with X. Many paths to success, but they are interrelated. Some people will tell you that you don't need a skimmer. Others say you should get one. Without understanding what a skimmer does you have no idea who is right (they both are). That's how you end up with a piecemeal system that doesn't work.
Best of luck.
Im still new, but I read and reread everything in the forum labeled sticky for about a month before I started my tank. I helps create foundational knowledge that you will not get from asking one question at a time. Just asking "do I need X" will never educate you on what you are trying to achieve with X. Many paths to success, but they are interrelated. Some people will tell you that you don't need a skimmer. Others say you should get one. Without understanding what a skimmer does you have no idea who is right (they both are). That's how you end up with a piecemeal system that doesn't work.
Best of luck.
raybyrne67
New member
Hi, I also started with a small tank 20L back in Aug. I tried and it has been an interesting and expensive venture so far. I started with RODI water from my LFS, 25lbs of base rock and 15lbs of substrate, no skimmer and not a good light. I used 2 Aqua clears for filtration and a Hydor Korilla 450 circulation pump. I quickly added a HOB protein skimmer and used the AC filters for carbon and phosphate remover only. This setup worked ok as a fish only tank. When I decided to add corals back in Apr, I upgraded my test kit from API to Red Sea and went with the Kessil A350w for lighting, purchased a BRS 5 stage RODI and started dosing with seachem fusion 2 part. The tank is doing great but I have to keep on top of everything with weekly maintenance, testing and tracking everything in a log. Good luck and take it slow.
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E36328i
New member
The best water is ro/di (reverse osmosis and deionized) you can get thus water at most LFS for less than 50 cents gallon. If you have to use bottled water use distilled water as it is the closest to pure water you can get aside from the preferred ro/di. It's about a buck or so per gallon at the grocery store.
raybyrne67
New member
Walmart sells distilled water for 60 cents per gallon.
You do not want to top off with bottled water as it does not have 0 TDS. Make sure to get distilled water from the grocery store or RO/DI from the LFS (local fish store). If you do wish to use water from the LFS, I would get them to show you the TDS of the water. I have heard on numerous occasions where the LFS "RO/DI" water has 100+ TDS because they are too lazy to replace their filters...
Over time, it may be cheaper to buy an entire RO/DI unit, however the price is around $150-$175 for that.
Someone mentioned above $0.60 a gallon for RO/DI so I will use this as an example.
The average 10 gallon probably evaporates approximately 2 gallon of water a week...
You will also need to do a 1 gallon WC a week which means you will use approximately 3 gallons of water a week.
3 gallons of water = 180 cents or $1.80 a week.
You will use approximately $93.60 a year on general maintenance.... + the initial 9 gallons of RO/DI to fill up a 10 gallon tank ($5.40 of distilled water to fill up) so (assuming 1 gallon of rock/sand displacement) gives a total of $99 for the first year... It will take about 2 years to break even with an RO/DI unit.... Now with that said... with an RO/DI unit... comes the convenience of making it right in your home.... not to mention if you need to do a WC immediately you can do it in a matter of minutes instead of having to wait until the next day or so for the LFS to open.
With all of this said, large reefs is definitely more affordable if you have a medium to large size reef, but with a small reef, it will take a couple of years for the RO/DI unit to pay for itself. Another thing to factor in is of course how far you are from the LFS or grocery store that has distilled water....
Wow that was a long post... sorry for the long story... This is just my .02.
eastfernstreet
New member
The acronyms are a hassle to learn, but it helps save time in the long run.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1672798
raybyrne67
New member
You should wait until your tank has cycled.
tallball158
New member
My clown is also VERY picky. I have tried many different foods, and the only thing he will eat is Sera marine granules. Here is a link:
http://fishaquarium.tradeindia.com/sera-marine-granules-pellet-fish-food-100ml-1244043.html
http://fishaquarium.tradeindia.com/sera-marine-granules-pellet-fish-food-100ml-1244043.html
