Easy one, please respond

[clown-lover]

i'm talking to my aunt right now and she and my little cousin, her daughter want 'Nemo'. I set her up with a tank and some decorations.....lr and ls is not for her at her age....
i just want to know how hard would it be to get her set up with a SW tank with regular decoration, regular filter, on a ten gallon tank???
just add salt and let cycle, and throw in nemo.....
don't worry, her mom is willing to do water changes and tests
is there anything else i need to tell them?

 

[1journeyman]

I'd use live rock. It doesn't require anything, and helps the overall health of the tank.

 

[iechy]

I agree that some LR and LS would be very beneficial and do not add to any hassles other than cost.

 

[clown-lover]

what if i added just one peice of lr?? i don't want to give her any of mine because it has cyano on it.....

 

[clown-lover]

wouldn't she need a skimmer if i started putting lr in there?
please tell me that it's possible to have a ten gallon w/o a skimmer

 

[karajay]

Lr does not require filtration...it PROVIDES filtration.
You don't need a skimmer.

 

[clown-lover]

so all that she would need to get is:
some lr
she still needs a filter so, a filter
some salt
shrimp for cycle
and NEMO!!!!
that's it?

 

[karajay]

substrate?
heater?
hydometer/test kits?
maybe a small powerhead?

 

[clown-lover]

well she has gravel....does she NEED ls?
i'm giving her my heater
i'm going to be testing her water in the begining until they get the hang of it
does she need a power head in a ten gallon?

 

[karajay]

Originally posted by Clown-Lover
i don't want to give her any of mine because it has cyano on it.....
Unless you have a filter providing pretty good current, I think a small powerhead is a good idea. Might prevent them from getting cyano.
What do you mean by "gravel"?

 

[clown-lover]

i know....she has colored gravel, like what you would use in FW i think it's pink

 

[therock0861]

I would recommend only natural things be put in the tank outside of mechanical filtration and other necessary equipment (power head, filter,heater) the reason the artificial stuff is a no no is because of the paints and other artificial coloration and things that the salt would eat away at and thus release it into the water. I recommend 10-15 lbs of LR and another 1 -2" sand bed to help a little with stability on such a small tank. This would also eliminate the need for a lot of mechanical filtration as mentioned before. Also with the LR being added you can eliminate the shrimo and cycle with the sand and rock, a much better option IMO. HTH

 

[sandman12]

go with
lr
ls
bio wheel filter
small power head

 

[therock0861]

And especially no fresh water gravel only bad things will happen with that. HTH

 

[karajay]

Not a good idea. The paint/color on that type of gravel will come off in SW and potentially poison your tank.
CC will work if they are OK with vacuuming it regularly. Dry arragonite sand would work instead of LS.

 

[clown-lover]

i have some ls that's been sitting in my qt....never even used that tank though....would that sand be ok for her to use?

 

[clown-lover]

it's been in there, covered no heat no filter, just in there with sw for about 6 month

 

[karajay]

I don't thnk it would hurt considering the tank hasn't cycled yet. Maybe you could rinse it in a bucket w/ some new salt water.

 

[clown-lover]

ok, thanks so much for the help....
one more question....what powerhead should i consider getting??
what's good for a ten gallon.....and how much will it run me??$$$

 

[fishman830]

wouldnt a 10 gallon be a little hard for young child, to keep the params rights?