10 gallon considerations

[woodymdt]

Good afternoon:
I have been keeping a 10 gallon freshwater tank here at the office and I've been giving thought to changing it to a saltwater nano tank. I'd like some of you veteran nano keepers to offer your thoughts on what would be necessary to make the switch.
Currently I'm running 2 - 6500K 20w PC bulbs, which gives me 40 watts of light for the tank. Would that be sufficient, or would I need to upgrade the lighting?
I have a Pengiun mini biowheel filter running the tank, and a standard heater. Would those be decent in the switch? I know the LR and LS would offer filtration, but would it be enough in such a small area?
The tank footprint is 20w x 10d, so I'm figuring on about 25lb of LS, and approximately 12-15lb of LR to start.
I wouldn't keep more than possibly a pair of small fish, which I'll research the posts here to see what thrives in the small environments, and the cleaner crews and possibly some small coral fragments. No big corals, no anemone, nothing like that.
So, if anyone is willing to share their thoughts or advice, I'm all eyes...

 

[bigarn]

Coralife has the 96 watt PC lighting which would be great for that tank. I've had great success with the millenium 1000 HOB filter on my 10 gallon. Along with a couple of maxi-jet PH's, you should be good to go.
A couple of percula's would be great fish for that set up.

 

[woodymdt]

Originally Posted by bigarn
Coralife has the 96 watt PC lighting which would be great for that tank. I've had great success with the millenium 1000 HOB filter on my 10 gallon. Along with a couple of maxi-jet PH's, you should be good to go.
A couple of percula's would be great fish for that set up.

9 watts per gallon? So that wouldn't be too much? Would it overglow my desk? Remembering that I'm at work in a highly trafficked office, I don't want to "stand out" anymore than I do. lol
I've heard that biowheels are useless in salt tanks? Is that the common agreement?

 

[bigarn]

Hmmm .... office..I missed that. Unless you can devote a lot of time to it I wouldn't go nano... just to much work. Stick with the freshwater tank.

 

[woodymdt]

Originally Posted by bigarn
Hmmm .... office..I missed that. Unless you can devote a lot of time to it I wouldn't go nano... just to much work. Stick with the freshwater tank.

I was afraid of that. yeah I'm here about 10-12 hours a day, but not here on the weekends, if I can help it.
What would be the major difference you think?
At work I'd be here about 10-12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, and not here nights and weekends.
At home, I'm there about 3-5 hours per night before bed, then if I'm lucky I'm home Saturdays and Sundays, unless I'm doing yard work, woodworking, helping friends with stuff, family trips...etc.
So in a sense, I'm actually here at work more than I'm actually at home where I'd be available to do stuff with the tanks (I don't count sleep time as available home time)...lol.
So whats the payoff?

 

[bigarn]

You'd need to test the water alot .... you may have to drip Kalkwasser, you have to be on top of water changes etc. Bottom line is I just don't think a full blown nano is good for the office. Unless you can do whatever needs to be done, when it has to be done, I'd stick to freshwater.

 

[woodymdt]

Originally Posted by bigarn
You'd need to test the water alot .... you may have to drip Kalkwasser, you have to be on top of water changes etc. Bottom line is I just don't think a full blown nano is good for the office. Unless you can do whatever needs to be done, when it has to be done, I'd stick to freshwater.

hmm, gotcha. Well I'll continue on with the freshwater here than...maybe set up a small tank at home.
Only thing is, we have the 40 and 55 gallon tanks at home, and if I set up the 10 gallon at home, I'll want to setup either the 40 or 55 again...lol.

 

[bigarn]

Good move! ... IMO.