Starting a 10g what should I get?
- Thread starter lil' tanker
- Start date
frozenguy
Member
can i recomend the coralife aqualite? i just picked one up. I got mine for 35 at my lfs.. but here it is.. 50/50.. 28 watts.. its ok for softies right?? real easy stuff. i'm not gonna ivest much.. but there is a 96watt system that is dual bulb for like 110.. go down the pricing guide for the 20".. make sure to get the legs too.. very useful..
bill109
Active Member
Originally Posted by frozenguy
can i recomend the coralife aqualite? i just picked one up. I got mine for 35 at my lfs.. but here it is.. 50/50.. 28 watts.. its ok for softies right?? real easy stuff. i'm not gonna ivest much.. but there is a 96watt system that is dual bulb for like 110.. go down the pricing guide for the 20".. make sure to get the legs too.. very useful..
coralife make good lights.
or get a clamp mh fixture and be done.. u can keep w/e then..
can i recomend the coralife aqualite? i just picked one up. I got mine for 35 at my lfs.. but here it is.. 50/50.. 28 watts.. its ok for softies right?? real easy stuff. i'm not gonna ivest much.. but there is a 96watt system that is dual bulb for like 110.. go down the pricing guide for the 20".. make sure to get the legs too.. very useful..
coralife make good lights.
or get a clamp mh fixture and be done.. u can keep w/e then..
bill109
Active Member
i suppose tht if u find one cheap enough u can live with it huh? lol
well if something does go wrong u could alwady replace it for 30-50. so in tht case it is proly a good deal.
when i was looking at lights i looked at nova extremes for t5's and there is a thread on here saying tht they have had bad reviews and what not so i went twith TEK
-bill109
well if something does go wrong u could alwady replace it for 30-50. so in tht case it is proly a good deal.
when i was looking at lights i looked at nova extremes for t5's and there is a thread on here saying tht they have had bad reviews and what not so i went twith TEK
-bill109
petjunkie
Active Member
If you are very new I would recommend buying a couple books on saltwater during your cycle and not adding any fish for a few months until you make sure you can handle water parameters and swings in them, a 10 gallon isn't much room for mistakes. When I had a ten gallon set up I had 10 pounds or so live sand, 15 pounds live rock, five hermits, five nassurius snails, couple astrea snails, Aquaclear 70 as a fuge/water movement and a 100 watt heater. For lighting I had the 96 watt Coralife powerquad. I kept zoanthids, lps, leathers and mushrooms in that tank for a few years, just moved everything into another tank due to a house move though. Here's a pic:
lil' tanker
Member
awesome tank.
lil' tanker
Member
thanks for the advice guys!
lil' tanker
Member
By the way do you have anymore advice?
A
azul1994
Guest
Hi,
You know that your tank has to go through a cycle right?
You know that your tank has to go through a cycle right?
A
azul1994
Guest
This usually takes like anywhere from one week to four weeks.
You cannot add fish or invertebrates until your tank cycles.
If you don't know what a cycle is it is when your ammonia spikes, then your nitrite, then your nitrate when amonia and nitrite go down to 0 your cycle is complete, then wait a few days and you can add your clean up crew then fish.
You cannot add fish or invertebrates until your tank cycles.
If you don't know what a cycle is it is when your ammonia spikes, then your nitrite, then your nitrate when amonia and nitrite go down to 0 your cycle is complete, then wait a few days and you can add your clean up crew then fish.
lil' tanker
Member
thanks
lil' tanker
Member
anyone else?
autofreak44
Active Member
ill second the T-5's i have them on my 20 and love them
one more thing you will need is a camera so you can take pictures and we can tell you when you mess something up lol
make sure you talk to some people on here about the specific equipment before you buy it... for filters on a 10 i like the aquaclear 30 because then you know you are over filtering and over filtering is a great thing in this hobby. with the aquaclear 30 it will include 3 types of filter elements.
bio rings (the white things)
carbon
sponge
imo chuck the bio rings straight off the bat and go get some phosphate crystals or phosphate sponges... you guessed it, they help absorb phosphates. i prefer to run carbon 24/7 but some people like to run it less. if you are going to run it all the time make sure you change it out every month. you can buy carbon bags for realy cheap so dont chince out and skip months
for lights i would suggest some coralife or nova extreme T-5s because they run cool, are efficient, and have a better spectrum of light than PC's do... for a 10 gallon you probably only need about 30 watts of t-5's. make sure you get a glass lid and set the T-5s right on top of the glass lid and they should be ok. also get a light timer from walmart so you can have the lights go on and off automatically. i would run the lights 8-10 hours a day
for heaters, dont worry about price because weather its 5 bucks or 50 it will die eventually so just pick up a standard one... i suggest 50W. get a thermometer too, and check it routinely because sometimes the heaters will go wack and cook your tank. also its just good to monitor you tank temp... i suggest 78-82 degrees
for a 10 gallon you could go with a 10lb bag of live sand. DO NOT get crushed coral... it collects a bunch of crap and is bad for critters and blablabla just dont get it
make sure whatever rock you get has some color to it. i would suggest 10-12 lbs of rock
i think clowns are a good choice for fish
cleaning crew i would suggest 3 cerith snails and a crab... the crab probably will eat the snails but it happens in nature so dont worry about it whenever it happens just go pick up more snails
as for corals, just stay away from clams and anemones for a LONG time and when you are actually ready for an anemone you will have a bigger tank which they need... start with softies and then lps and then sps in that order and just keep learning along the way... also dont be closed minded about anything in this hobby, because there is always a different and possibly better opinion out there and things are always changing in this hobby
take it slow, have fun, and dont get discouraged. you will accidentally kill things but thats just part of the hobby
have fun and make sure to stick around and learn
one more thing you will need is a camera so you can take pictures and we can tell you when you mess something up lol
make sure you talk to some people on here about the specific equipment before you buy it... for filters on a 10 i like the aquaclear 30 because then you know you are over filtering and over filtering is a great thing in this hobby. with the aquaclear 30 it will include 3 types of filter elements.
bio rings (the white things)
carbon
sponge
imo chuck the bio rings straight off the bat and go get some phosphate crystals or phosphate sponges... you guessed it, they help absorb phosphates. i prefer to run carbon 24/7 but some people like to run it less. if you are going to run it all the time make sure you change it out every month. you can buy carbon bags for realy cheap so dont chince out and skip months
for lights i would suggest some coralife or nova extreme T-5s because they run cool, are efficient, and have a better spectrum of light than PC's do... for a 10 gallon you probably only need about 30 watts of t-5's. make sure you get a glass lid and set the T-5s right on top of the glass lid and they should be ok. also get a light timer from walmart so you can have the lights go on and off automatically. i would run the lights 8-10 hours a day
for heaters, dont worry about price because weather its 5 bucks or 50 it will die eventually so just pick up a standard one... i suggest 50W. get a thermometer too, and check it routinely because sometimes the heaters will go wack and cook your tank. also its just good to monitor you tank temp... i suggest 78-82 degrees
for a 10 gallon you could go with a 10lb bag of live sand. DO NOT get crushed coral... it collects a bunch of crap and is bad for critters and blablabla just dont get it
make sure whatever rock you get has some color to it. i would suggest 10-12 lbs of rock
i think clowns are a good choice for fish
cleaning crew i would suggest 3 cerith snails and a crab... the crab probably will eat the snails but it happens in nature so dont worry about it whenever it happens just go pick up more snails
as for corals, just stay away from clams and anemones for a LONG time and when you are actually ready for an anemone you will have a bigger tank which they need... start with softies and then lps and then sps in that order and just keep learning along the way... also dont be closed minded about anything in this hobby, because there is always a different and possibly better opinion out there and things are always changing in this hobby
take it slow, have fun, and dont get discouraged. you will accidentally kill things but thats just part of the hobby
have fun and make sure to stick around and learn