sen5241b January 27, 2009 Share January 27, 2009 (edited) I'm trying to setup a 10G fish only tank with LR that will be super simple to take care of and yes I know nano tanks may become a pain to maintain water quality: No sand just 30 pounds of LR. Sand looks nice but it can become a big detritus trap. Put many small pieces of LR on bottom with larger pieces on top. We already have the LR. Under-gravel filter or water pump creating flow from underneath LR to prevent any detritus buildup Heater Plain old hood with florescent bulbs (advanced lighting at a later stage) Hang on filter with floss and chemi-pure elite Only 3 fish NO large fish! (Nanos have water problems becuase a large fish dies in only 10G and you get an ammonia spike). 50% water changes. I've heard (on this forum) that most of the beneficial bacteria is in the LS & LR so 50% changes do not take out 50% of the bacteria. No protein skimmer. A piece of chaeto. Budget $100 to $120. Is this workable? Can this tank setup keep nitrates below 20ppm? Edited January 27, 2009 by sen5241b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak January 27, 2009 Share January 27, 2009 Just wondering if you're doing FOWLR why are you shooting for 20ppm of nitrates? If you're not doing corals you can have a lot higher levels of nitrates (mind you at a certain point it isn't good for the fishies). Some people with full blown reefs have nitrates around 20 ppm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE January 27, 2009 Share January 27, 2009 from what I've seen, the "recomended levels" of nitrates are >20 for a FOWLR and >10 for reefs, so I'm guessing that's why?? I started out this hobby witha 12 gallon nano and of course, being my first tank, it was pretty much a disaster in terms of nitrates. it was also a FOWLR. I had a mechanical filter for water flow and filtration, a 1-2 inch sand bed, and put no effort into aquascaping and so ditritus got trapped a lot, also, I fed waaaay too much. Although it was a disaster, I think I learned a lot about nano's from it so here's what I suggest: I think you've gone way overboard in terms of keeping the nitrate's below 20, and if you stick to that plan including the 50% water changes, I think you'll have trouble keeping nitrates above 0 . I REALLY suggest a sand bed in the nano, especially if you're going FOWLR. BB's look good on large tanks with a lot of coral and color. They don't look good on small tanks with a lot of color and coral let alone no coral IMO. On top of that, I think the amount of work you're planning on doing to maintain this would allow a very shallow sand bed. Also, I think some zoa's, mushrooms, rics, etc would be great for a small tank with mininal lighting. From my experience, shrooms especially need almost no light to survive. I would consider a hang on back refugium as well. I think that would have been the one thing I would have added to my 12 gallon if I had kept it running. HTH, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dschflier January 27, 2009 Share January 27, 2009 I agree with most of the previous comments. I would keep it simple with some small pwr heads maybe 2 percs and a firefish or yellow tail damsel. I would get some nice types of macro for the look more then the filtration although it would do both and you can get a cheap pwr compact for a 10 gallon. I have one that I use on occasion and it gives nice color. Most importantly I would do 3 gallon water changes twice a week or some regiment that includes descent % water change. this shouldn't be that difficult because of the size of the tank. just my 2 cents. After that I would hook up the GSA skimmer the calcium reactor the Kalk stirrer and the nuclear reactor to power the whole thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE January 27, 2009 Share January 27, 2009 oh yeah, going off of what ds said. I WOULD NOT add that chaeto to the tank unless you add a HOB refuge and have it in there. I put it in my 50g tank, and since it's mostly just little strands, a bunch of these got EVERYWHERE, so I took it out about 3 weeks ago, and still have to pull pieces of chaeto out of my skimmer pump and powerheads every 2-3 days. It's toned down a lot now though, but the next side effect that I'm seeing pop up is that some of the chaeto got itself imbedded in the rock and is starting to grow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtfleming January 27, 2009 Share January 27, 2009 some gobies would be cool, neon green banded, rusty, or masked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b January 27, 2009 Author Share January 27, 2009 All very good info. Chaeto in the main tank is probably a bad idea --I've seen it fragment. Some other macro algae that holds together maybe. The problem with sand is that it can become a big detritus trap. Someone, once, drained their tank to get a fast fish out and when he poured the water back in, it stirred the sand up, a ton of detritus was released from the sand and the resulting spike killed everything. I take a stick and deep stir a few inches of sand every few days in my BC29. Gobies, conchs and other things do not really deep stir my sand. Nassarius snails do not dig that deep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b March 13, 2009 Author Share March 13, 2009 (edited) The experiment begins: (BTW, all that LR was free). Edited March 13, 2009 by sen5241b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishyTim March 13, 2009 Share March 13, 2009 cool little tank! You may want to keep an eye out for a nano cube, they give you the same type of filtration, but you can hide it in the back... The experiment begins: (BTW, all that LR was free). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtfleming March 13, 2009 Share March 13, 2009 good deal, stock slowly and due weekly water changes. nano and picos are cool. I've kept both in the past 2 years, I now have a 5.5 gal in my daughters room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoothtriqueter March 13, 2009 Share March 13, 2009 When you are talking about the sand being a detritus trap.......crushed coral is for sure one, but the finer sugar grained sands do a lot better job of just having the detritus bounce along the top with goof enough flow. I think I read you are doing under gravel filtration/powerhead? With that many pieces of smaller LR I would think that detritus is going to build up in between the smaller rocks where flow cant reach. Just my 2c, just hard to tell from the pic. Promising start...tagging along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b March 16, 2009 Author Share March 16, 2009 When you are talking about the sand being a detritus trap.......crushed coral is for sure one, but the finer sugar grained sands do a lot better job of just having the detritus bounce along the top with goof enough flow. I think I read you are doing under gravel filtration/powerhead? With that many pieces of smaller LR I would think that detritus is going to build up in between the smaller rocks where flow cant reach. Just my 2c, just hard to tell from the pic. Promising start...tagging along. Good point. My theory is that there is enough space between the rocks themselves and between the rock and the under-gravel filter that there are NO dead spots where detritus can get trapped. The conventional wisdom is that under-gravel filters and marine tanks don't mix but some have disagreed. Under gravel filter controversy article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b March 16, 2009 Author Share March 16, 2009 Its almost done cycling and nitrates are at 20ppm. With no dissolving sand --I'm thinking low calcium could be a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 16, 2009 Share March 16, 2009 Its almost done cycling and nitrates are at 20ppm. With no dissolving sand --I'm thinking low calcium could be a problem. With 50% water changes every week, calcium should not be a problem as it's in your change water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan March 16, 2009 Share March 16, 2009 Good point. My theory is that there is enough space between the rocks themselves and between the rock and the under-gravel filter that there are NO dead spots where detritus can get trapped. The conventional wisdom is that under-gravel filters and marine tanks don't mix but some have disagreed. Under gravel filter controversy article I used undergravel filters 20 years ago for my marine tanks. I had 2 very strong power heads attached to the UGF on opposite sides of the tank. A strong pull from in the UGF is an absolute must. They did great but I also had a hang on filter, as suggested in the article. There was a tremendous amount of detritus that accumulated under the filter. At the time I used about 2" of crushed coral. I don't know if the new ones allow for use with sand, they didn't 20 years ago. Clean up was a pain in the neck because I had to practically knock down my tank to get to the undergravel filter and yes even with 2 powerful powerheads there was A LOT of build up under that filter, there was also alot of life. I had some type of little crustacians growing under the crushed coral. I'm not sure what they were but they kept my madrins very well fed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b April 16, 2009 Author Share April 16, 2009 FIRST LIVESTOCK ADDED Brown diatoms started growing in there 3 weeks back but we cut back on light and reduced nitrates. Nitrates spiked to 30 ppm. We did a water change and now they are holding at 20ppm. Some very small inverts growing on LR. Put snails and hermits in last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b May 7, 2009 Author Share May 7, 2009 I'm still curious to see if use of a UGF will be bad or good. (All agree they don't work in large tanks). There is a modest clean up crew and one Royal Gramma. I added this little 1G fuge. If you do this put the end of the drain tube above the water --arrggh. My hat is blocking the light cause it messed up the photo. Brown diatoms went away. Nitrates around 5ppm and calcium is at 500ppm???!! How is that possible? Recall this tank has no sand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtfleming May 7, 2009 Share May 7, 2009 whats your SG? + depending on the salt your using, There is nothing in the tank to eat up the Ca. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b May 7, 2009 Author Share May 7, 2009 whats your SG? + depending on the salt your using, There is nothing in the tank to eat up the Ca. SG is about 1.020. We keep it on the low side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now