nano experts chime in,10 gallon nano reef

[elgordoinavw]

hey everyone, ok i was wondering if this sounds good to anyone else. i have a ten gallon at work that i want to turn into a reef.
would a 96 watt power quad be too much light? it would be housed in a custom canopy, with to 3" fans. also for water circulation i would use a aquaclear 200 w/ no sponges, could i place a 25 watt submersible heater inside the aquaclear? would the heater be alright if it stuck out of the water a little (heater exposed a little to the air)? 10 pounds live sand w/plenum, 20 pounds live rock.
inhabitants: (1) shrimp undecided yet, (1) green chromis
mushrooms, maybe xenia.
if the powerquad is to much light then what about using (2) 18" flourescent bulbs (1) 10000k (1) actinic 03 i thinkk each one put out 15 watts, or maybe i could go (2) actinic, and (1) lights of america 36 watt light fixture.
also i have a spare 55 pc outdoor fixture, now the bulb is too long could i use say a 36 watt bulb in the 55 watt fixture? please help as it seems there is an infinite amount of options for lighting.
also for protien skimmer will i need one? if so is air driven good enough?

i was told that with mushrooms they don't require a lot of light, what do you think? should i use calupera to control nitrate and do with out a ps? i know a ps removes organics, but what if i just let my tank cycle it w/ the help of calupera and weekly water changes f 2 gallons?

[bamann345]

the 96 watt quad will be nice, not too much light, and the 2(30 watt) bulbs will be not enough. The aquaclear is a good idea, but I wouldnt have the heater sticking out past the waterline thing on it, it would overheat.

I would skip the plenum and just use some dead sand and seed it with good live sand, not the stuff in the bags... 20lbs of live rock is a good choice, make sure you get the best stuff you can get your hands on because you arent getting much of it.

The shrim would be nice, but I would stray away from a green chromis, get a clown or something like it, once you put the chromis in you wont be able to get it out without destroying your tank....

You dont have to have a skimmer but you will have to stick to strick water changes every week-10 days...as far as calupera I wouldnt mess with it, unless you wanted to or had a nitrate problem.

Site to check out.

www.nano-reef.com
www.hellolights.com

Hope this helps you out some!!!

[elgordoinavw]

thanks for the help bamann345, i will definetly keep all in mind.

[TheReefDaVinci]

Tagging along...

[Mr.Peanut]

Tagging along also. I want to do a 10g reef in my sons room and I was wondering if 350gph would be to much for a 10g.

[zero186]

With a nano that size no skimmer is needed just keep up on water changes, but there are some HOB nano skimmers that do a good job

the light should work fine and shrooms done require alot of light so they should do fine and you could get away with some zoas.

I kinda agree on the fish as well it might be hard to get out once it is in. check around there are alot of neat nano fish that will add some life, color, and be hardy.

[zero186]

Originally Posted by Mr.Peanut

Tagging along also. I want to do a 10g reef in my sons room and I was wondering if 350gph would be to much for a 10g.

Is that in just one power head or was it gonna be between two?

Well either way i guess it depends on what you plan to keep i have kept my nanos fairly low flow but that was b.c of my softies i kept didnt like alot of it

[chrisd]

1. you only need 10 pounds of live rock
2. 96 watts would work may be a little over kill
3. with the power head you may not need a heater i would check the tank while it cycles to see how low the temp goes.
4.peppermint shrimp, a clown, a snail, a hermit or two would be good, mushrooms, zoas
5. if you want to run a skimmer you could buy the one for the biocube it is air driven and it would suction cup to the inside of the tank.
6. i would run bare bottom no sand unless you are willing to clean every week

[Mr.Peanut]

Originally Posted by zero186

Is that in just one power head or was it gonna be between two?

Well either way i guess it depends on what you plan to keep i have kept my nanos fairly low flow but that was b.c of my softies i kept didnt like alot of it

I have an extra 350gph H.O.T filter.

[Kakalakasha]

The 350gph might not be enough if it's going to all be from a HOB filter.
Also, the more rock you have the more flow you'll need, although you probably knew that already.

[zero186]

yea if its a HOb filter the flow is coming from it might not be enough and push the kind of flow you would get from it might not do the fish good(not used to water being pushed down)

[chrisd]

i just realized the aquaclear 200 was a hang on filter. not enough flow you would be better off with 2 koralia nanos

[chrisd]

Originally Posted by zero186

yea if its a HOb filter the flow is coming from it might not be enough and push the kind of flow you would get from it might not do the fish good(not used to water being pushed down)

yeah i thought it was a power head as well

[zero186]

Originally Posted by chrisd

i just realized the aquaclear 200 was a hang on filter. not enough flow you would be better off with 2 koralia nanos

Nice catch no wonder i was confused about the filter part

[ibanez2k]

Originally Posted by chrisd

1. you only need 10 pounds of live rock
2. 96 watts would work may be a little over kill
3. with the power head you may not need a heater i would check the tank while it cycles to see how low the temp goes.
4.peppermint shrimp, a clown, a snail, a hermit or two would be good, mushrooms, zoas
5. if you want to run a skimmer you could buy the one for the biocube it is air driven and it would suction cup to the inside of the tank.
6. i would run bare bottom no sand unless you are willing to clean every week

agreed with chrisd on the live rock amount. I have a 10g with 12 lbs of live rock and even that seems like a bit too much for this size of tank. I wish I had maybe got some smaller pieces than I did.

also on the lighting, I only have 40 watts of lighting on my 10g. I'm using the Current USA 20" 1x40 watt PC fixture and I've loved it so far.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...&child=CU01002

Not a bad price and fits PERFECTLY on this tank. Comes with leggs for the light that worked excellent for me.

I'm housing mostly softies and 1 sps frag of pink birdsnest. The lighting is perfect for my leathers, shrooms, and yellow polyps. Even my sps frag is actually growing. It's branches have extended out about a half inch in the last 4 months I have had it although it's color most likely isn't as good as it would be under brighter lighting.

Your filter may be perfect for circulation. I'm not sure. I haven't used it myself. I had an aquaclear 20 filter I was using in mine for a couple months. Didn't create much flow. I consequently have a couple hydor koralia nanos in the tank attached to a JBJ Ocean Pulse duo for wave control. The nanos are on seperate sides of the tank pointed up at the water surface. They switch on and off alternating at 20 second intervals. Seems to work good for my tank.

Anyways, best of luck with yours though. Just remember to take it slow and get a good schedule of water changes going to keep your water pristine and you'll have a great little reef. IMHO nanos really aren't nearly as difficult as people make them out to be. Yeah they are a little more on the maintenance perhaps but doing a 10% water change on a 10 gallon tank probably isn't nearly as difficult as doing a 10% change on a 90 gallon.