Originally Posted by
ocean4life
http:///forum/post/3257293
I am going to turn my 10 gal. freshwater tank into saltwater, but I have a few Q's.
1) How much salt per gallon am I supposed to put in?
2)How big of a tank should coral polyps be hosted in?
3)Whats the difference between Live rock and decorations(positive)
4)What is a good minimal population of blue-leg hermit crabs in my tank+ a few fish?
5) Should I start with(rock, inverts, fish)? Vice Versa? Any order?
I need to save up for a bigger tank
Thanks, this info should help a lot.
1) .023-.026 is avarage
2) People ahve done them in 1g pico tanks
3) Live rock has microbacteria livingin it. It is pourous. decorative rock is not so pourous...there fore wont seed with bacteria very well.
4) start with a few. 2-3 hermits will give you something to look at, you realy dont need much more than that for a 10g.
5) You start with the LR and sand. 10-15 lbs of LR would give you a few nice peices to stack up and create a land scape. Then you want about 1" of sand or so. From there you do the cycle. After the cycle is done add your hermits/snails. Then move on to a couple small fish.
My recomendations:
Try a pair of clown fish and maybe a cleaner shrimp.
A couple small crabs and snails.
10-15lbs LR. (about the volume of like two footballs)
1.5" live sand. -probably around 5 lbs by my guess would fill a 10g tank-
A nice Hang on back filter something rated for 20-30 g. (I use Top Fin Power Filter (30) on my dads nano. I like it)
That would give you a nice intro to the world.
If you want to do corals...that will be EXTREMLY tough for a beginer with a 10g tank.
I would sugest you stick with the simple stuff to give you a flavor of saltwater.
You can still have a blast with a "first tank" and have it humble.
This also DRASTICLY reduces the cost of intial startup. You will need specialized lighting to do corals, and now your talking a significant increase in costs.
