10g Nano Flow Rate??

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[robcurtis2]

Hey Ya'll
Getting back into salt after many many years and need some suggestions on flow for a 10g nano.

So here's were we are at so far:
10g AG tank
40W PC
Marineland 50w heater

Ive seen posts and have had people tell me many different things at lfs so wanted to ask the pros. 

K...I think the powerhead of today is the H-Koralia so been looking at those.  They have a nano model at 250gph and a #1 at 400gph.

To reduce the amount of cords I would like to go with only one power head for my standard AGA 10g tank. 

Im not sure what types of corals yet.  I have 40w PC so any suggestions on what I can have in the tank afa corals also would be great also.

whats ya'lls input?

[robcurtis2]

And thanks in advance .
RC

[fogish]

Will you have a sump? The 250 gph (25 times) should be plenty even with SPS. Since it will be only one powerhead you will want to set it up high in a corner pushing water lengthwise (longer) across the back or front not depth (shorter) to create a gyre. With the 40w PC you can provide lighting needs for most if not all softies and several SPS, depth dependent. This does not take into account any other needs of the corals: chemicals, phytoplankton, things like that.

[robcurtis2]

Will not have a sump.

[fogish]

Go with the 250 gph, avoid sugar fine sand with so much water movement in a small area, Corals are up to you to find out what you like as far as looks and then study each one and see if they will be simple enough for you to care for and if they can go together long term in a small tank. Are you going to have a protein skimmer and a filter system?

[robcurtis2]

I probably will go with 1 Koralia Nano to start with to see how things go and can always add another if needed.

No Skimmer.  Trying to keep this system very very basic so just doing LR and LS as filteration along with water changes 1-2 per week.  I have read some on having skimmers on such a small system and I guess they seem to skim too much of the essentials off.  The Bio-load shouldnt be too big with maybe a pair of Clowns....not sure on any of the livestock yet.

So the sand...Hmmm!  The only resource here in W^2 is Petco.  They have a OK SW gig going on here.  I havent seen this before with Petco in the past but for some reason they hired someone that takes pretty good care of the stuff and Ive lived here since March and still see the same fish alive.

They have some different options but not sure on what type sand.  They do have the standard Aragonite in a bag blend.  Any other ideas?

[fogish]

Are you going for a deep sand bed for nitrate removal? If so then the finer the sand the better, 1.0mm or smaller, it also has to be a min. of 4 inches deep, the deeper the better. No matter what substrate size you go with I always say get aragonite, it slowly dissolves releasing calcium and acts as a buffer for PH. Very important in a tank with such a small volume of water, you have to keep on eye on chemical levels religiously, there is not much margin for error like there is with a 100g+ tank. The more water the more is diluted.

A skimmer can be used on and off with a timer but frequent water changes can reduce and/or eliminate the need of a skimmer. So you know fish are considered livestock. In such a small tank with 2 clowns and some corals you will have to change the water a min. of once a week, I suggest twice and a minimum of 5% each time. Those clowns are not going to stay small either, you might want to look into other fish that have a smaller body mass. I know a guy who kept 24 fish in a 29 gallon bio cube but he did a 25% water change daily. Keep that in mind when you are thinking about how much life to add to the tank. It's really important to remember the mass of the fish when full grown that will be in the tank and how that will effect maintenance and quality of life for the fish.

If you are looking into an anemone for the clowns I suggest that you stop at that as other lifeforms, they can get very large and take up a large part of the tank. You will want to learn how to split the anemone to keep it down to size and they will engage in alleopathy with other types of anemone and corals. Another thing is they are notorious for getting sucked into power heads and getting chopped up, if that happened you would most likely lose everything in the tank.Also the clowns do not need an anemone. Sorry if you know all of this already.

[robcurtis2]

Nope didnt know all that so thank you.   I will go with the DSB and mostly corals.  Again fish are going to be limited and I will research a smaller species with personality.  I would love a Jawfish but I know that they like to jump out of even larger tanks.  Who knows at this point what I will get.

So the Aragonite in the bag from Petco should be fine?  Of course look at the date I think ive read that it has a shelflife of around 8 months or so.

[fogish]

Is it a bag of "Live Sand"?? You don't need that at all. Just a bag of dry aragonite sand or crushed coral is the way to go and it doesn't expire. I would again suggest 1.0mm in size, 1.5mm at the largest. A good fish to go with that is like a jawfish but much smaller is a watchman goby, you don't need to worry about getting the shrimp with it.

Plan on any fish jumping out, some are more likely than others but it happens. A gutter guard wall around the outside of the tank can help, and keep the lights near the front so they have to jump towards the back where the guard is. With PC lights you can get away with a glass top but you have to really watch the temp in the tank. Look at a lot of pictures of fish and then study about each type to see what would work best, ask us a lot of questions and see what you come up with. I know I love Flasher and Fairy Wrasse's and certain ones don't get over 2.5-3 inches and they have a thinner body compared to a clown = less mass. They come in awesome colors, look them up and see how you like them.

[Nate C.]

I agree that all "live sand" isn't needed, but if you want to speed cycling, a bit of  seed sand (live sand) is a good idea.  We used one 20 lb bag of live sand in with our sandbed (several hundered pounds total) and had good quality cured live rock to go in the tank as well.  We were cycled and adding small fish to the tank in about 2 weeks.  Would also recommend adding a detritavore kit from Inland Aquatics if they have one for your size tank.  Critters that live in the sand and are there to be part of the clean-up crew (assisting your snails and crabs).  Most live IN the sand and are quite beneficial to the overall health of the system.

[Ed]

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=4419&parent_category=0&category_search=6&root_parent_id=6

how about a set up like the above?