10 gallon nano reef

JerseyBird97

I started building a hang on back sump for 10 gallon. The box is done... but now I'm pricing out the plumbing and I'm finding it more economical to just get a canister. What are you guys using on your nano reefs? I'm between eheim 2213 or marineland C160 (would prefer it had a spray bar)

teddyzaper

canister filters arent the best idea for a saltwater tank. for a 10 gallon i would just use a small skimmer or nothing at all. a skimmer isnt necisary if you have a dps (deep sand bed) and a lot of live rock, around 10lbs.

A hang on back sump wouldnt work so well either, if it was me i would do a hang on back refugium if i HAD to have a tank on the back, but again skimmer or nothing is better.

outpost

A 10 gallon is such a small tank you could just do a regular sand bed and like 8 pounds of live rock and you will be fine. Just do weekly 15% water changes. And yah for the hang on back idea a refugium would be best. Also you could pick up a HOB filter and use it for some of your flow and a place to put carbon and other things like a phosphate remover if you so choose. The reason why a canister filter isn't a good idea for a reef is because it will collect and trap a lot of detritus that will eventually cause and increase in phosphates. I think it might also cause an increase in nitrates too. Same goes for the HOB but with just a bag of carbon there will be no where for the detritus to settle in the filter. I run my 29 gallon reef tank with just a HOB with carbon, heater, and powerhead and it is doing awesome. My sps are doing great. I do not run a skimmer. Some people will say this is a bad idea but I've been running no skimmer fir about 6 months now with no problems. I also have 5 fish. The only mantinance I do is a 3 gallon weekly water change.
I think that it would be cool if you ran your tank all natural and the only equipment you used were a light, heater and powerhead. Then do your 15% water changes weekly. I think that it is entirely possible. If you don't believe me watch the miracle mud vids.
For stocking I woulnt go above 2 fish though and to me that's kinda pushing it.
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teddyzaper

when i set up my 10 gallon tank i tried 2 fish and one died, the otehr was normal, then next month i added 2 more fish and they both died within the month. my point is, sometimes things will work for you and sometimes they dont, its like a kidney transplant, sometimes the body doesnt accept it. So now all i can have is one fish, the cool thing about my tank is that it readily accepts corals and inverts. it all depends on your tank. you dont need a skimmer, and if i was to redo my tank, i wouldnt have spent the money on that, get yourself good lights and a 50 watt water pump and you will be fine. invest in livestock and rock, not equiptment (although if you want nice corals youll need a nice light)

outpost

Yah that's really true. To me, 1 fish in a 10 gal see s enought to me. Besides I think that the coral and the inverts are way more I teresting. I would be fine with having a 10 gal fishless reef.
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teddyzaper

thats a really good idea, if i could take anything back is the fish, just get 1 shrimp and more corals. fishless looks good, just need some corals that move more like anemones and pulsing xenia

outpost

Search 10 gal reef at 10 months on YouTube. He has a really nice fishless 10 gal that is 100% captive bred. His username is SoftCorals he is also ipsfdotcom. You should check out those vids they are awesome.
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JerseyBird97

searched... didn't find. Post a link if ya can. So I gave in plumbed the filter I built. I was having an issue with input flow. I built one of the auto start syphons that you see online that go up and down and up and down and... yea you get the point. The flow was so slow that I almost chucked the whole thing in the dumpster. Then I realized that it's going to be right behind the tank so the only that would happen was the water levels would become even. I broke the pipe apart now it works fantastically. I wish I could post a video but I'll take some pics this weekend.

trukgirl

My 10g is a fowlr... I have an aqua-tech HOB filter that came with the tank... I just have a carbon bag in it. I have an AquaEuroUSA nano skimmer in it that works WONDERFUL. I barely ever have to actually do water changes... I have to top off once a week and thats pretty much it. I have 4 hermit crabs, 2 large turbo snails, and 2 juvenile oc. clowns in it for now. also has 10 lbs live sand & 13 lbs live rock. I am not planning on making it a reef though, since it will be a hospital/quarantine tank once I get the big tank going with corals.