Am I crazy, or what? (The answer is yes...and I know it! LOL!)

floridacowgirl

floridacowgirl

New Member
First of all, I have to say thanks to everyone who has welcomed me so warmly! I am a newbie to SW, and everyone in every area I have posted in has been so helpful and not at all "I'm the expert, you are the twinkie" like. (I say that because they were downright RUDE in another forum...ain't goin back there!)
Okay, so my Christmas present tank is cycling away for my dwarf seahorses (and I've posted a few times in that forum). Yesterday my DH and I went fish store hopping, and he (and I) were completely smitten with the nano tank set-ups we saw. He pointed out that we have a perfectly good, albeit "old school" 10-gallon tank in the garage that had previously been home to FW fish. He suggested I post here and get some input on setting that tank up as a nano. (We don't have a lot of room or we would try for something bigger.) We want to keep it pretty simple, but would like to do a few fish (I like clowns, he liked the spotted goby) a sea star (I was partial to the chocolate chip one), some scavengers, and some EASY coral.
My questions are....is this doable and what equipment would I need to get the ball rolling here? Filter? Lighting? I know live sand and rock...what else? Are the critters the DH and I are partial to able to live in a nano? I know frequent maintenance is mandatory on a tank of this size, but where I'm already scheduling daily/weekly maintenance with my dwarf tank, it won't be inconvenient to add nano tank care as well.
Thanks in advance for all of your input...I appreciate it!
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Hi,
I'm afraid a 10g tank is too small for clowns, and the CC sea star...I'm not sure about the spotted goby, but I doubt it. A neon goby, a dottyback (one per tank on both of those) a couple of Yellow clown fish (not the same as the "Nemo" type of clown...shrimps make awesome additions and they also do clean up work. Get some snails and leave off the hermit crabs, they kill the snails for their shells. Two very small fish and maybe two shrimp will max the tank (maybe 5 to 6 snails)
Equipment besides the lights:

  • nano power head

  • HOB Whisper or penguin filter (any filter will do from the HOB to a sump)

  • Aqualife or tunze nano skimmers are good.

  • heater
    hydrometer or refractometer
    Reef lab type test kits
    Thermometer
Corals require the fancy lights, LEDS or a Metal Halide satellite lamp. Any coral except something like the elegance coral can go in a 10g tank, just get frags so you can trim them as they outgrow the tank. Beginner corals would be the soft corals, such as the Kenya tree and button polyps...they don't need the really bright lights so the power compacts would work if you only kept them. You should decide on the types of coral you want before you buy your lights, they are the most expensive purchase when it comes to the reef set ups. So if you want to graduate to the hard stoney corals, get the LED or MH straight off.
Don't think just because you don't have much room that you can't keep a larger tank. My house is super tiny, and so is my bedroom where I keep my 56g tall tank. The foot print is very small and is only 31 X 17 ...60 inches tall with the stand and canopy. The kind of critters you want would go nicely in that tank. I keep my 4 adult (about 8 inches each) Kuda seahorses, a Hectors goby, 2 blue stripe pipefish along with 5 peppermint shrimps and 65 to 80 different types of snails. I used to keep a reef set up in my 90g but I converted that tank to a cold set up with potbelly SHs.
 
floridacowgirl

floridacowgirl

New Member
I appreciate your input. I kinda figured a CC star was too large for a nano, but quite a few of the set-ups we saw had clowns in them (or were they false clowns...I am unsure of the difference.) We truly don't have the room for a larger set-up. Overall, I was just throwing the idea out there to see if turning my 10g into something other than a fixture in the garage was a feasible idea. Either way it's not like I'm going to take on the project of establishing another tank right away...lol!
 
pezenfuego

pezenfuego

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by FloridaCowgirl http:///t/393951/am-i-crazy-or-what-the-answer-is-yes-and-i-know-it-lol#post_3506028
I appreciate your input. I kinda figured a CC star was too large for a nano, but quite a few of the set-ups we saw had clowns in them (or were they false clowns...I am unsure of the difference.) We truly don't have the room for a larger set-up. Overall, I was just throwing the idea out there to see if turning my 10g into something other than a fixture in the garage was a feasible idea. Either way it's not like I'm going to take on the project of establishing another tank right away...lol!
False percula and percula are two different species. In some places (like the forum you mentioned), using the term false percula is frowned upon because this species is known as ocellaris. So (false percula)=(ocellaris). The difference is not very big. Some people will say that perculas are hardier.
You'll notice that there are black lines dividing the orange and white stripes. In percula clowns these are usually very dark and very thick. In ocellaris clowns this is not the case. Should be easy to tell the difference, right? Not at all!
The best way to tell is to count the spines on the anterior (closes to the head) dorsal (top of body) fin. Ocellaris clownfish have more (11) than percula clowns (10). Counting them is easy if you have a quality camera. Unfortunately ocellaris clownfish will occasionally have 10. If a clown has 9, which is also rare, then it is a percula.
This big difference for me is that ocellaris clownish have cuter faces. I don't know how to describe this to you, but by looking at them, you can tell that their faces are different.
These are different species, but they can interbreed and produce offspring WHICH ARE FERTILE. Which means that you can get clownish which are 1/4 percula or 1/16 ocellaris, etc. Because they are so hard to tell apart and because they can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, it is surprising that they aren't considered the same species. Perhaps they don't readily interbreed in nature. But then we get into the different races of humans and all things go downhill.
In any case, there are many different color morphs. Some are all black and white, while some are "naked" and have no stripes. Some look like their stripes were painted by picasso (or a drunkard).
Here I will throw out another opinion: If you are going to do a 10 gallon tank (or another nano), look for something that's a little more designer, like a cube shaped tank or a hexagon based tank. In the end this won't be very expensive and will look awesome! It might also have a reservoir for equipment, which is really nice. I think freshwater fishkeepers get this mentality that if you all ready have a tank, it won't cost too much more to buy a filter, gravel, and fish. But saltwater is another story and often the tank costs less than most other things.
 
floridacowgirl

floridacowgirl

New Member
I think at this point I will let this idea slide. It was just a "hey that's cool...wonder if we...why don't you look into it" thing. Perhaps in the future we can purchase the goods for a nano.
Thanks for all the input though! :)
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
You're not crazy. It can be done, and on a budget.
Check out this thread for some inspiration:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/368543/video-palmtop-sps-reef-no-evaporation
But, your not looking at getting any fish, stars, urchins, or cucumbers...
 
floridacowgirl

floridacowgirl

New Member
Wow Snake....gorgeous!
Okay, so a question. Let's say I decide to give this nano thing a go...what's the smallest size I can do and get away with maybe 3 fish, a shrimp or two, and a sea star (along with corals...of course!)? Is there an all-in-one that would be good for this? I just can't seem to get those tanks we saw out of my head! LOL!
 
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