Specific gravity inconsistent

[Animagus]

My experience with firefish is that they dont jump unless there is a reason too (some type of stress be it other fish, the maintainer, or disease/parasite).

This was my thinking as well, being that 10 gallon tank is not very big to begin with. (especially when it's full of rock & corals) Add a couple more fish to the mix combined with the fact that parameters can change in the blink of an eye and your left with a jail cell with only one way out. Very tempting...

As far as the Clownfish getting to big for the tank goes, I believe ten gallon tanks are the standard when it comes down to breeding these fish. FWIW I have a breeding pair of Ocellaris clowns in a 20 gallon tank and they rarely venture over to the other side of the tank. I could cut this thing in half and they would still be ok.

 

[NeilFox]

I think the clown would be fine, I have one in a 6.25 gal tank. Once they have a Nem they usually don't venture far. I also have a Bangaii Cardinal, Coral Banded Shrimp, 16 SPS, about 7 snails, some zoa's, polyps, mushrooms and a tree coral. I wouldn't recommend starting with that but it can be done, just add slowly. My pieces are also quite small, I consider the tank like a Bonsai Tree. Most of your CuC is pretty neutral, they recycle nutrients and feed themselves. Regarding the hydrometer, I usually have stored them with seawater inside so that they don't form bubbles or scale up. just keep it away from sunlight if you do this. I have access to the sea so I check it against natural seawater from time to time, I keep my tank and the local ocean the same. I am getting a refractometer today though. Amazon has them quite cheap.

 

[KyleSmith]

Continued thanks to everyone's thoughts. I've been fine tuning my plans and haven't quite finalized on this thread combined with continued research is immensely helpful.

 

[Shawn O]

I am not planning on a lot of fish. My plans:

Fish
1 O. Clownfish
1 Exquisite Firefish
1 Goby (probably Neon)

CUC
10 Dawrf Ceriths
4 Florida Ceriths
3 Nassarius
4 Nereites

Invertebrates
2 Electric Blue Hermit Crabs
2 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner

One each of trocchus and nassarius should work fine until the tank builds up some crud. Scarlett is probably too big, as others have stated. Maybe some sexy shrimp would suit you. They stay very small so you could probably add a half dozen. The electric knuckle hermits can get pretty big, probably too big for a ten gallon. They have lots of energy and the pairs of orange and blue I added to my 55 both ended up as a single of each color. Your best bet would probably be a few small scarlet reef hermits, very peaceful in my experience. Avoid dwarf zebras and thin stripe hermits. Too much energy and appetite.