10 Gallon Nano please help

[playa0069u]

Hey, well I am thinking of setting up a ten gallon nano. I have 1 neptune powerhead, with a venturi tube i guess that lets air in. A 10 gallon tank(obviously).
I was wondering if a hob is really necessary. I dont get it why would you want one? i have been told if i have a hob to just put live rock in it. Should I use a glass lid or egg crate?
Can I just use 2 18" florescents one white and one blue?because I have no coral. Will that grow coralline? Will I have a problem with other algae?
10 or 12 pounds of Lr
Aragonite with some live sand 1" or so.
and salt.
is that enough? will that work ok? this is a stupid question I think, but if i put another 18"er on there, is there ANY chance I could grow any coral in there?
I am thinking of a cleanup crew, a small fish (somekind of clown maybe? not a false or true perc.) idk and a goby pistol duo maybe. Please respond thank you so much.

[harmanrk]

the HOB is not necessary, and will only serve to provide surface water movment which is good for O2 exchange. It can also be used to house LR, that is not in the display.

A small skimmer would be a good addition, in place of a HOB.

If you are not planning to grow corals, you dont need the blue light. Coraline seems to be pretty tolerant to low light so you should be okay with the low light. Other form of algea will be an issue, although the skimmer will help some, by removing some of the organics.

Normal Output florecents would not be enough to grow corals in my opinion.

[playa0069u]

so the algae will be caused by the low light?

[harmanrk]

Agea is not very pickiy about the ammount of light.

[playa0069u]

then why did you say algae would be a problem? so the live rock wand everyhthing will do fine with that light just not corals righgt? a fowlr

[Sweetpea]

Is this your first tank? If so, welcome to the obsession!

I have a 10 gallon tank with a 1" bed of aragonite sand and 10 lbs. of live rock. I have a Maxi-Jet 400 powerhead and a Penguin BioWheel HOB filter; I tossed the biowheel in the trash and placed a PolyFilter in the chamber. This has worked well for me, and my water parameters have been stable.

As for lighting, that is a very personal decision. If you even remotely think you may cave in and want corals later, do yourself a favor and get an appropirate light now (saves $ in the long run). Do some research on the web, look for corals you are interested in, and determine the best lighting for those critters. When you have some ideas, the people here will be more than happy to point you in the right direction. If you do decide to stay FOWLR a normal flourescent fixture should be fine.

Here is a link for fish that could be happy in a nano tank. I have never purchased anything from them, but I have gotten some ideas from the site: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/s...fm?pCatId=2124

Water + light + nutrients = algae. Your clean-up crew (crabs, snails, etc) should take care of the worst of it for you. For your part - regular maintenance and not over-feeding are the keys to keeping a (relatively) algae-free tank!

HTH!

[mutts]

I like hob filters because i really like to use carbon in my tanks. it helps keep the water clear and clean and gets out a lot of nasties.

[playa0069u]

how often and for how long do you leave the carbon in? Thank you SOOOO much sweat pea that is EXACTLY what i wanted to hear. so i would have purple coraline and whatnot with the flourescents?
awesome thanks.

[playa0069u]

oh ya eggcrate or glass lid???? which one is better for my tank. BTW sweatpea. Technically this is my first sw tank i planned 2 other but they have been delayed. One for my girlfriend 30 long and one for my friend 29 tall. They have been delayed and i am getting anxious.

[Sweetpea]

how often and for how long do you leave the carbon in? Thank you SOOOO much sweat pea that is EXACTLY what i wanted to hear. so i would have purple coraline and whatnot with the flourescents?
awesome thanks.

I use carbon ocassionally; it is my understanding that it should be changed frequently... weekly or every two weeks at the longest. I can't comment much on coralline and normal-output flourescents, other than to say back when I started my tank I didn't see any growth until after I bought power compact flourescents.

oh ya eggcrate or glass lid???? which one is better for my tank. BTW sweatpea. Technically this is my first sw tank i planned 2 other but they have been delayed. One for my girlfriend 30 long and one for my friend 29 tall. They have been delayed and i am getting anxious.

Glass, eggcrate, or open top? Depends on what fish you want to keep in each tank ... I have used glass on my 10 gallon to minimize evaporation. I, fortunately, have never had any issues with the temperatures in that tank getting too high, which can be a problem in many tanks. However, I often get lazy about cleaning the salt film off (which blocks light to the critters), so I currently am running the tank fully open. I only have one maroon clown in there; since clowns are not known to be "jumpers", I don't worry about it much. However, I have a 20 gallon tank with a new firefish. Since they are known jumpers, I have eggcrate inside the canopy, along with a strip of fiberglass screen around the back edges to (hopefully) keep him in place if he decides to get spooky on me!

DON'T GET ANXIOUS!!! Rarely does anything good in this hobby happen quickly... patience is SOOOO important!!! You are in the right place... keep asking questions. If you ask, the answers will come!