[Alleykat0498]

I have been in the freshwater hobby for years, and recently set up my first saltie project. I started small to find out if I was going to really enjoy constant testing and retesting before I dumped a couple thousand on converting one of my larger tanks over to SW. I hope to learn much about the SW hobby here, as it is the learning that keeps me so addicted to this hobby! (not that I know everything there is to know about fresh water, but things to learn are fewer and farther between)

I currently just have a 10 g with 7lbs of base rock, 3-4lbs of LR, 1 turbo snail, and 1 teeny damsel. I have had this tank running for about two weeks and so far so good. The tank has a simple hood with 2 mini PC's (15w each) a tetra 50w heater and a el cheapo HOB filter for movement 12x turnover per hour. I will fill the hob with LR rubble when my LRS (Local Reef Shop) gets another shipment next week. I enjoy the challenge of this little tank more than the other 300 gallons of FW tanks that I have set up and running. Any thoughts, suggestions, and or comments are very welcome.

 

[Marty]

Wow that looks great and welcome to the forum

 

[Alleykat0498]

Wow that looks great and welcome to the forum

Thanks Marty!

 

[APoirier594]

cool, so its been up for 2 weeks? If it has its in the cycle right now, make shure you only get damsles while in the cycle. Looks pretty cool, yea if you have any spare money I would get more LR

 

[Alleykat0498]

cool, so its been up for 2 weeks? If it has its in the cycle right now, make shure you only get damsles while in the cycle. Looks pretty cool, yea if you have any spare money I would get more LR

Thanks, It's definitely cycling at the moment.

I found an aipista today so I'll be destroying that little bugger shortly. As far as stocking anything other than damsels, that lil fish will probably be the only inhabitant of this tank. I have plans to switch over either my 30 gallon or 75 gallon in the near future and wanted to seed the rock with a little extra ammonia.

I added the turbo snail to keep down the frequency of how often I had to put my hands in the tank. I will probably all but fill this tank with base rock over the next few months stocking up for the upgrade. I am keeping a close eye on parameters for the damsel though as I don't usually cycle with fish at all. I just knew I wouldn't be able to restrain myself from putting something in there... I may stock another teeny fish a few months from now in this tank but it's unlikely.

 

[heights]

Thanks, It's definitely cycling at the moment.

I found an aipista today so I'll be destroying that little bugger shortly. As far as stocking anything other than damsels, that lil fish will probably be the only inhabitant of this tank. I have plans to switch over either my 30 gallon or 75 gallon in the near future and wanted to seed the rock with a little extra ammonia.

I added the turbo snail to keep down the frequency of how often I had to put my hands in the tank. I will probably all but fill this tank with base rock over the next few months stocking up for the upgrade. I am keeping a close eye on parameters for the damsel though as I don't usually cycle with fish at all. I just knew I wouldn't be able to restrain myself from putting something in there... I may stock another teeny fish a few months from now in this tank but it's unlikely.

You've got a lot of room in there. At least that's what it looks like from the pictures. Why not put a dozen or so fish in there and see what happens? That is the "fun" approach to water-animal keeping (WAK) that my partner and I take.

GOOD LUCK TO YA!!!!

:fish-top:

 

[Alleykat0498]

Why not put a dozen or so fish in there and see what happens? That is the "fun" approach to water-animal keeping (WAK) that I take.

GOOD LUCK TO YA!!!!

Interesting approach even though it's a very unsuccessful tactic, lemme know how that works out for ya!

 

[petlover516]

welcome to the site! be careful with damsels-they can be very agressive. expect the turbo snail to go once nitratyes peak-SW inverts are very sensitive to nitrates. nice set-up though!

 

[archer772]

If everything you post isnt a joke then you need to do some research and stop keeping fish untill you learn something. I would not add any fish until your tank is thru its cycle and maybe add some more LR but looking good so far.

You've got a lot of room in there. At least that's what it looks like from the pictures. Why not put a dozen or so fish in there and see what happens? That is the "fun" approach to water-animal keeping (WAK) that my partner and I take.

GOOD LUCK TO YA!!!!

:fish-top:

 

[Alleykat0498]

welcome to the site! be careful with damsels-they can be very agressive. expect the turbo snail to go once nitratyes peak-SW inverts are very sensitive to nitrates. nice set-up though!

Thanks for the warm welcome, and the lady that sold me the turbo snail let me know that they are really succeptable to nitrate's but I intend on having a healthy waterchange schedule once the trate's start to climb. Since this tank doesnt have a skimmer I'll probably do 20% atleast once a week. I will purchase a skimmer when I graduate from this 10 to either a 30 or my 75 that is currently FW. I am slowly falling in love with the amount of knowledge required to have a nice reef set up and I am becoming more and more certain that there is one in my future! Thanks again.

 

[petlover516]

the fact that u like to learn will make u very successful in the hobby. 10 gallons is pretty small for most damsels-can u get a good pic of the 1 u have now?

 

[petlover516]

never mind i zoomed in on the initial pic-what u have is a yellowtail damsel-1 of the most aggressive damsels. even if its tiny, it could PACK A PUNCH!!

 

[Alleykat0498]

Added some more rock!

 

[petlover516]

lookin good!

 

[Alleykat0498]

I've got some brown algae growing on the sand and the first few pieces of base and LR that I put in the tank when I set it up. I suppose the last few pieces I added will be growing it next... Anything else I should be looking for at this stage in the process (anything alive)?

 

[petlover516]

if u have 1 lb per gallon u might spot a few little white things called copepods.

 

[Alleykat0498]

Added a few more lbs of LR, 3 blue leg hermit's, a pepermint shrimp, and a snail or two. You can also see the coraline starting to seed on the BR Comments?

 

[petlover516]

the tank is now cycled?

 

[Alleykat0498]

Yeah it's cycled. Ammo 0 trite 0 and trate is under 10ppm. has held pretty steady for about a week now. I attribute this to the quality of the rock I purchased, and the two powerheads have helped immensely.

 

[petlover516]

those inverts need below 5ppm in nitrate.