Help Me Set Up a 10 Gallon

adamc1303

Active Member
I have a 90 gallon reef tank for about 3 years now. A friend of mine just got a 10 gallon flat back hex he wants to set up. At first I thought it would be a breexe, but once I started checking out all the equipment available for nanos, I see it can be as complex as a large reef tank. I wanted to get some input as to what filter, skimmer and lights to use. I guess it would all have to be hob or maybe a canister? Lights got confusing because since it's on 10 gallons I dont want to broil the water. Any way any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Adam
 

vesuvan

New Member
One of my 10 gallons ive had going for 2 years now, and all I have in it, is a Hush Power Filter for a 35 gallon, and a Coralife Aqualight Deluxe Quadtube, thats a 50/50 96w compact. Its basicly 2 10,000K and 2 Actinic 03 blues. Its 20" and comes with adjustable mounting legs, and it stays pretty cool for what it is. It has 4 cooling fans along the top of it, that runs fairly quiet. Ive never had my water go over 78 degrees, as far as I know. I have a digital thermometer with a temp alarm on it. Then coralife also makes a small moonglow light that attaches right into the slide rails on the light, for the night time lighting. Then for water flow I just have a small fluval 2 filter, that I removed all the padding from inside other than the black carbon pad. which makes a nice bacteria platform. Hush Elite 35 Filter puts out 145 gph (adjustable) over about 6 inches of the surface, which I have it in the center of the tank, flowing towards the front, which really evenly distributes a good water flow across the front of the glass and surface, then the Fluval 2 Filter is putting out about 100gph, directed from the side of the tank going across the longways underneath the surface flow from the filter blowing across coral.
I had a nano skimmer for a little bit, but it started to causethe nutrient levels in the tank to bounce up and down to much, ive been without it for about 8 months, with no problem. Then All I dose with is Tech-I, Nano Reef A-B, Chromaplex, and Liquid Reactor. Normally I wouldnt use liquid calcium booster over a reactor, but the calcium levels in the tank really dont drop down incredibly fast compared to the Larger Tanks, Of course other tanks are gonna act different, but until its tested no real way to tell. All in all it was fairly cheap in equipment, and its run perfectly fine so far. The fish like playing in and out of the currents, and no one seems to be avoiding anything.
 
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