Looking to start a Nano

jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Ok, I got myself a 10 gal tank and I am thinking about starting a nano tank.
Here is my plan, let me know what you think please.
10 gal tank. 10 X 20 X something I think. 1 50 watt heater. I got a big canister filter for free from a family member. It says it is good for up to 65 gal and gives 185 gph. Would that be too much or too little or an alright amount of flow or would a power head be better? I want to get some black/grey sand that I saw at the store, and about 10 lbs of live rock. As far as livestock I was thinking of a fire shrimp and a yellow clown goby, and a few small hermit crabs/snails but that is way in the future. Of course the whole idea of having this nano tank would be to have some corals, hopefully some fairly easy ones to maintain. My big question now is what kind of light should I try for? I plan on making my own light hood, probably with just power compacts.
Well thats about it, any ideas?
 
nanoreef

nanoreef

Member
Originally Posted by Jerthunter
Ok, I got myself a 10 gal tank and I am thinking about starting a nano tank.
Here is my plan, let me know what you think please.
10 gal tank. 10 X 20 X something I think. 1 50 watt heater. I got a big canister filter for free from a family member. It says it is good for up to 65 gal and gives 185 gph. Would that be too much or too little or an alright amount of flow or would a power head be better? I want to get some black/grey sand that I saw at the store, and about 10 lbs of live rock. As far as livestock I was thinking of a fire shrimp and a yellow clown goby, and a few small hermit crabs/snails but that is way in the future. Of course the whole idea of having this nano tank would be to have some corals, hopefully some fairly easy ones to maintain. My big question now is what kind of light should I try for? I plan on making my own light hood, probably with just power compacts.
Well thats about it, any ideas?
ok here i go

Skip the filter and get a PH "powerhead" as well as a skimmer. go with white sand just because
"trust me" 10pds LS and id say 14-17 pds LR. you can get an awsome powercompact light from corallife its 20inches and it carrys 92watts or something like that that ammpunt of light will work for most softies and some LPS a few good starter corals are mushrooms of ANY kind, Zoos, and even a candycane or something. oh and use dont use tap water ! your just asking for a issue anyhow goodluck and hope this helps

did i mention i have a ten gallon tank



 
fallinmor

fallinmor

Member
figure u want to move at least 5 times the volume of the tank so that is more then enough
so if it's a ten gallon and it turn 185 it more then enough. uh i don't know if canister filters r safe for reef tanks tough i would just go to ur lfs and buy a bio wheel filter they work great i have on in my 20 and it turns 450gph. they are great but mine was only 50 bucks so one that turns 185gph should be at most 30 bucks. just my opinion.
and nice pucs of ur tank nanoreef
 
chipmaker

chipmaker

Active Member
Just about finished doing what you want to do....I used a Aqua clear 110/500 sized hob filter to serve as a filter unit as well as a fuge.........This filter unit is ideal for this purpose and flow can be adjusted by cutting down pump impeller blades so the flow is not as drastic, plus it has a very large sized filter chamber whiich makes a great fuge, which is important in helping with the filtration. It also has more than enough room to have the heater (50 watt) instaled in the bottom of the fuge and not take up any room in the tank itself, as a 10 gal is short on real estate to begin with so everyhting that can be kept out of it the better......save the tank itself for live rock and critters. I went with Coral LIfe hood which is a 1x96 watt enclosed light unit with 2 fans and uses a PC quad bulb with 50/50 lighting. I also added 2 additional 13 watt PC lights I salvaged from other light asemblies. I bought the hood as a complete unit, but will strip it and trash the housing and use only lights and inernal parts / fans in my custom hood......It was actually cheaper than buying a comparable retrofit unit by about $40 overall........
I would go with aragonite sand not the grey black stuff. Since the imppeller is cut fown to reduce overall flow so it does not inundate refugium chamber with water flow, I also added a small adjustable power head to create current flow and surface agitation in the tank, and what flow the hob ac500 provides is still more than sufficient for a 10 gal tank as its design spec is made for tanks up to 110 gal in size, so I probably reduced flow by 40 or 50 %, and figuring what space is taken up by rocks and critters, there is not a total of 10 gal of water in the tank anyhow........Your filtering is oging to be handled by the fuge and the lr andls in the tank, but you canalso put purigen or activated charcoal in a small bag in the fuge if need be.......
I did not want to fool with a weir and a skimmer into a hob box, so I decided to play with a surface skimmer that is sold by Fluval and Hagen that fits their AC50, 70 and 110/500 hob power filters. I have heard mixed results with them, but for the most part they are pretty decent at pulling in any surface film on the water, so all I can do is try it and see what happens. Heck it was only something like 7 bucks for the assembly and it installs right on the intake tubes of the hob powerfilters. If not, I believe the small power head will be enough to break up any scum on the water surface anyhow.........
If you want the address and name of a good place with the best prices send me an email........I did quite a bit of searching for items and overall this place will be cheapest, and have it in stock and if they are higher in price will meet whatever advertised price that is chepaer that you find. It was hard to pass up a Cora Life 1x96 light assembly for $87 with yet an additonal 5% discount.........taken off that price match cost....
 
jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
i dont think you need a skimmer for a tank that small. im also setting up a 10 gallon tank next week. here is what im planning on.
10 gallon tank
millenium 1000 filter
mini jet 400 power head
little less than 10 pounds dead sand
5 pounds rock
coralife 20 inch 96 watt PC lights email me for a link (jacknjill@triad.rr.com)
50 watt heater
livestock
2 clowns
1 goby
5 hermits
5 snails
various corals (sps, lps, softies)
hope this helps you out
 
njfish77

njfish77

Member
well really in that small of a tank i dont think you would need a skimmer if you just kept up on regular water changes and had enough live rock to keep your tank stable.
 
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