Starting a 10 Gallon Nano Saltwater Tank - Page 3

Thanks Bang Guy, ill look into it...

But now, for a little fun...... I'M GONNA MAKE IT A VOTE!!! if i get more people to vote on which option is better, i might go for the one chosen by everyone... SO VOTE EVERYONE!!!

Here are the options and some personal pros and cons (pictures in the previous post)

Fish to go with a Clownfish pair:

OPTION [A]

Yellow clown goby and 1-3 sexy shrimp

Pros 

- goby stays small (1.5") and really colourful and cute in my opinion

- shrimp stay small (under 1")

- both relatively cheap

- gobies are generally friendly and social

- gobies are generally hardy and usually aren't picky about foods (i have small marine pellets, and am getting freeze dried mysis shrimp)

- shrimp are cute and move around weird and "sexy" twirling their rear ends

- probably get 3 together

- all the creatures vary in pattern (clownfish - stripes, goby - solid, and shrimp - spotted) and therefore gives tank variety

- all relatively peaceful

Cons 

- as mentioned, if the clownfish spawn they can get aggressive to other fish so the goby might get hurt

- possibly same with the shrimp

- getting THREE sexy shrimp might cost a bit more considering my budget but i would prefer a little group as opposed to only one

- shrimp tend to be sensitive to nitrates so i'll have to REALLY keep on top of water changes

- sexy shrimp have been known to sometimes hurt small polyps!!!

- might have to purchase 2 Nassarius snails as well to stir the sand because I don't think these shrimp really do that (although they stir the upper layers which might be enough since my sand bed is only 1.5-2 inches)

- i will need to make sure there is a lot of small hiding places to get away from the clownfish which will take time (although i have 10 more pounds of rock on the way) I DO NOT WANT THEM TO GET HURT!

OPTION [B]

High Fin Goby and Red Banded Pistol shrimp (pair)

Pros 

- the goby stays relatively small (2") but will start off smaller

- the shrimp will only get about 2 inches which is small enough

- relationship between these two is fascinating to watch

- i love talking about my tanks so it will be fun to explain the relationship between these guys :P (the yellow clown goby and sexy shrimp are just there for "show" to onlookers)

- the shrimp can help stir the sand so i MAYBE won't need more snails to stir it (saving $)

- the WAY the shrimp moves the sand like a bulldozer is just awesome!!!

- the patterns are all stripes but each a different colour which would look flashy

- the shrimp would make a cave/hideout for the pair of them so if the clowns decide to spawn and become a more aggressive, the shrimp and goby can hide from them and not get hurt

- one goby and one shrimp might cost less then OPTION [A] with 3 sexy shrimp, depending on how much they each cost

Cons 

- slighty bigger than the ones from OPTION [A] which may not be better in the long run but still OK

- the shrimp can be dangerous if it touches me or the other fish with the pistol claw

- tend to be nocturnal so the pistol noise might get annoying at night if it does it a lot

- shrimp is not good with others of its kind like the sexy shrimp are with each other

- shrimp is also sensitive to nitrates (WATER CHANGES!!!)

- goby is not as social and more shy when compared to the yellow clown goby

- i like when the fish are more friendly and these aren't, i'm a 'suck' with friendly fish

- the similar patterns might be a little boring after a while, i would like variety with my livestock

- I HAVE TO MAKE SURE THE ROCKS ARE STABLE - I do NOT want the rocks to collapse!

Anyway, EVERYONE PLEASE post a comment saying which YOU THINK would be better for me and my clownfish in my 10 gallon: OPTION [A]  or  OPTION [B]?????           THANKS!!!! 

PS: if you can, please write a short comment saying why you think one option is better than the other. THANK YOU!!!!!

So far it's 1 vote for OPTION [B]

OPTION [A]   |   OPTION [B]

                     |         1

Thanks!!!

OPTION [A]   |   OPTION [B]

         1          |         1

COME ON PEOPLE! I need more votes! At least a tiebreaker!!! :P THANKS

Thanks smallreef and everyone so far!!!!

OPTION [A]   |   OPTION [B]

         1          |         2

OK, a quick update. I'm pretty sure my tank is cycled and i have done a water change. I am picking up a Kenya Tree Coral on Tuesday from a guy off Kijiji.ca... It's $15 and looks pretty good, so that would be great. I heard they are easy to care for. Also, I plan on getting yellow polyps for (the other side of) my tank which grow well too. If anyone has any opinions or comments on these, do tell. Oh and i cleaned my mom's basement and got $40 for the day, so i can now buy a koralia powerhead from the LFS  (although I might have to do a bit more cleaning to pay for the kenya tree coral too)  That will give my tank a lot more circulation, because it currently has next to none (compared to others). I was planning on a 240 gph powerhead, or even a 425 gph one.... which should i get though? would the 425 be too much, seeing how the corals don't need a lot of flow anyway? what do you guys think? i might get that on Wednesday.....

Anywho, THANKS!!!

PS: I was talking to a friend who is also in the hobby and he said i should go with the yellow clown goby and 3-5 sexy shrimp. He was saying I can wait until I have a larger tank to have the shrimp/goby pair because the clown goby and sexy shrimp are better for my current small tank. I also did some more research on what they eat and how they act, and I think I'm going to break the tie and go with Option A because they seen less picky and more social, which i love. Also, with a larger tank, I would probably have larger fish, so I don't really want the tiny sexy shrimp to be lunch, so I'll get them now for this tank (along with 2 nassarius snails)... did that make sense??? :P  Anyway, THANKS EVERYONE!!! It was fun....

Sooooooo i got the corals - yes two CORALS. I went there with $20 and no one had change so he made it 2 for $20. Fully opened they are almost 2" tall and standing up taller everyday! Great deal! Anyway here are some pics of them once they opened up in my tank.

OMG i just realized I haven't done an update since i got the rest of the rocks. I finally got the shipment of about 10 pounds of beautiful dry rock from ebay. Really porous and light (maybe pukani?) Looks great. I couldn't only use half of it (awesome stuff) so i took out some bits in my tank of the fake rock (made from cement rolled in crushed coral bits) and used about 8-9 pound of the pukani because I loved it. I made sure to have it all sitting on the glass and pushed the sand around it. The sand is about 2 inches everywhere else now. But it's really great! I attempted the "Wall" aquascaping but it ended up with two connected "islands" with a BUNCH of caves, which I think looks nicer. AND, I made sure it's all sturdy.   I put the rocks in before the corals so I had to delay getting them because the sand made the tank a little cloudy.... ANYWAY here is a most recent picture, tell me what you guys think!