Help... new 10 gallon, set up.

[dow]

Okay. I own two other saltwater tanks.. a 44 gallon fish only, and a 75 gallon that is slowly becoming a reef tank.

Today i decided that i wanted to make a nano tank.
I took water, substrate, and a few pieces of live rock from both established tanks, and 1/2 new water, and put them in the 10 gallon, with two yellowtailed blue damsels (they're very small, 1")

I have a whisper filter on there right now (tomarrow i'm going to go out and buy a new penguin, and swap out wheels and transfer it over to the 10 gallon)

I need to know what else i need.
Under gravel?
Powerheads?
Airstone???

Also... i don't intened to put any corals/anenomes in there for quite sometime... i do however need to know if two 20" flourescent 10,000k bulbs will be enough to maintain live rock and coraline algea.

 

[islandcreation]

I don't know if you mean you were taking off the bio wheel but please do. Its a nitrite factory.

NO under gravel filter if thats what you mean.

Don't need an airstone.

Powerhead yes!

I suggest getting a chemipure to put in the filter.... Just make sure you ge tthe right size that will fit.

Other wise as long as everything is at zero it should be good? I hope you didn't just transfer over live sand and dump it in with the water and waited 24 hrs then put fish in? You could have started a new cycle?

 

[TimSchmidt]

Drs. Foster and smith have several light fixtures that will work great for a AGA 10 gallon tank. Coralife has a 96 watt and then there is the 80 watt Current fixture. I chose the Current fixture because it has three power cords (timer friendly) while the coralife only had one. Plus the Current has moonlights already installed. I got mine for under $100.00 before shipping and handling. I've never moved substrate but I got the idea that if you moved live sand you could start a cycle even though the LR is fully cured. A small power head is always a good idea. I take it the only other movement is the whisper filter? Not so sure on the airstones though. A skimmer might be a good idea, but since this is a nano you don't really have to have one, just keep up on the water changes. Hope that helps!

 

[skipm]

:welcome to nanotank.
Just to clear things up, you can move a small amount of substrate (a cup or so to seed a new sandbed) without causing a cycle.
Youy can use the lights you currently have for maintaining the coralline on the LR but it will probably bleach when you put bigger lights on the tank for corals.
As mentioned already you don't need the biowheel in a reef because they tend to cause nitrates to climb which is undesireable. They are great for fish onlys though.
You will want to add powerheads for more current but this can wait until you start adding corals.

 

[dow]

So i can stick with the whisper.. thats good, didn't really want to dump 30 bucks on a new filter.
I took probally 2 pounds ( a pound each from both tanks) and i'm going to buy live sand today and fill up the rest
Now i don't undertand why adding live sand of all things would start a cycle.... that just sounds silly. bacteria grows on livesand and argonite, thats where it grows, its the most surface area. So why... on earth, would using it in a new tank cause harm... especially by starting a cycle.
I can understand adding the live rock, with all the stuff on it causing it to die off... but the sand??? I'll monitor my tank... but i don't expect the ammonia to spike at all.

 

[skipm]

You would start a cycle because only the sand near the surface is covered with AEROBIC bacteria, there is anerobic bacterias growing in the lower levels and they will dieoff when disturbed, this will end up causing a cycle.