New to saltwater aquariums and LR

Source of bio filtration

  • wet dry

    Votes: 2 66.7%

  • bio wheels

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
S

shaynep

Reefing newb
Hello everyone. I have some ?s i hope everyone can help me out with i have a empty 55 gallon tank that i was looking to setup in the future but i wanted to start a 10 gallon marine tank for my first marine tank next winter i was trying to find out everything i can now. First i only want to keep damsels maybe a few blennys and herrmit crabs the blue legged ones perferably :mrgreen:. I was elso looking into not using a protien skimmer but having a above the tank refugium to grow live foods and maybe a algae turf scrubber. My main concern is i know very little about marine tanks and i figered maybe i could get some help on here. Any suggestions on how to set it up would be great.

Thank you in advance
 
by the way i dont want to use live rock id like to use tufia rock and live sand much cheaper in sorta on a budget and want to do weekly water changes of 5 gallons
 
The rock will turn live over time so you can save money that way. All live rock is, is rock with bacteria in it that takes care of amonia and nitrates.

You can easily do a skimmerless 10 gal and I'm sure you can get by with 2 or 3 gal a week as long as you do 20% a week on a skimmerless you should be fine
 
Bio wheels and wet drys are not really recomended for a saltwater tank because they usually lead to higher nitrites. Don't get me wrong you can use one, but most people advise against it.
 
without live rock and a protein skimmer, especially in a tank as small as yours your just asking for a disaster to happen so i suggest you get both and in a 10 gallon it wont cost much so it wont blow your budget.
 
ya thats what i figered maybe even goin have live and half tufia basicly as a base rock and as far as the wet dry goes i though so because i had both on a freshwater tank and my nitrates where higher then ever. my main thing is veryone says small are harder to maintain so i wanna try one before blowing my budget on the bigger 55 so bacily the 10 will be with damsels trial and error type of a deal
 
I hear that too. I have never owned a large saltwater tank but several smaller ones. The way I look at it is if something goes wrong they're easier because less water changes will fix it. The tufa rock will become live in time.
 
my point im only 18 and work a very bad job ( cook) and you where young once im sure you had 1 they dont pay well. i figered id get some help from other people i think my girlfriends tried of hearing how i want to setup a saltwater tank. if you dont mind me asking what the equipment on your tank and how often do you do water changes?
by the way thanks for the quick responce and sorry about the spelling
 
i saw that you said you want some damsels and some blennys but i suggest you find the one you like the most and only get it for two reasons, 1. bleenys can be territorial, especially in a 10 gallon tank since there wont be a lot of territory and 2. youll be quick to max out your bio load
 
I trie to do 20% everyother week, but that doesn't always go as planned. I have a tank that can handle it though. On a ten gal with no skimmer I wouldn't miss a change. You can set up a 10 gal pretty cheap especially if it's a FOWLR
 
dustin_P74 said:
i saw that you said you want some damsels and some blennys but i suggest you find the one you like the most and only get it for two reasons, 1. bleenys can be territorial, especially in a 10 gallon tank since there wont be a lot of territory and 2. youll be quick to max out your bio load
Click to expand...

+1 You can go with other fish like clowns, clown goby, fire fish. Also damsles are just mean fishes.
 
Welcome to the site...one thing i have learned in the hobby is to do it right the first time, if you go the cheap way out in the beginning, you end up paying more in the long run...if you're gonna set up the 10gal, you could make it work without a protein skimmer,IF, you have enough rock in it(for the nitrogen cycle), get a powerhead for water movement, and leave the damsels out of it...they will just kill each other and whatever else you try to place in the tank...base rock will eventually turn into live rock, so you can save money there...just get some live sand to seed the rock, or a piece of live rock to seed the base rock and the sand...good luck with the tank.
 
thank you all im really interested in the yellow tail damsels have to look at them everytime im in the lfs. as far as the blennys really dont want them right away wont be till after the 55 is up and running if i make it that far. For now i was going to go with hermit crabs and 1 yellowtail damsel ( or another cheap fish maybe 2 blue chromis) 2 powerheads @ atleast 100 gph and a refugium outof a rubbermade container with atleast a 6500 k light and maybe a algae turf scrubber with 50 % water change weekly wont be a problem. if anyone has ever used them which would be better the algae turf scrubber or a refugium with Chaetomorpha Algae
 
refugium with chaeto is a good choice, i wouldnt do more then 10-20% a week on water changes. if you plan on adding other fish to your ten gallon then add the damsel last. and speaking of the damsel i suggest the yellow tail since they are probably the most tame comparatively speaking
 
thats what i was look into i dont want to go more then 2 fish max because i dont want it to be over stocked. and in the 55 all i really was is a harlem of yellow tails sence thats how they are in the ocean with maybe a star fish and some blennys of some sort and hermit crabs.
 

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