Mike

Good point butterfly - You wouldn't be able to use the skimmer and powerhead in the biorb, so I wouldn't use one for a saltwater setup.

flameangelfan

Hey all, wanted to put my 2 cents in. I have been doing SW for a long time, but am realtively new to FW. Nano-Reefs are kind of my specialty. So I wanted to give you my top 5 pieces of advice for a Nano SW tank.
1) OVERFILTER - My prized tank was a 15 gal with a 30 gal Bio-Wheel filter, 50 gal. protien skimmer, and 18 lbs live rock.
2) CHANGE THE WATER! - I changed 25% of the water every 7 days and had a 5 gal. bucket of mixed SW that was at least 5 days old.
3) LIVE ROCK ROCKS - Sacrifice as much space as you are willing to stock live rock. Remember, you can always take some out, but introducing more WILL mess with your nitrogen cycle.
4) BE EXTREMELY CHOOSY WITH FISH SELECTION - Every fish you put in the tank will affect your choices later. Knowing your choices ahead of time will save you time and money.
5) MOVE SLOW - Everything you wait for in FW, wait twice as long for in SW.

So, thats my advice... let us know how everything goes!

atmmachine816

I'm back to considering this idea again so all the help is appreciated, I'm planning well in advance so when I do a trip to lfs in two months I can see if I can find all the equipment I need.

First thing, I need a ten gallon tank and hood. Can I use a regular light bulb or what do I need?

Tumbleweed

What kind of tank do you want to have. If it is just a fish tank then yes a regular light will be fine. The only time you need to worry about that lights is if you are going to have coral or live rock.

atmmachine816

O I think from before it's going to be just live rock, few inverts and a few fish if that. Nobody said what type of light to get and I have no idea.

Tumbleweed

With live rock you can have any light it will live, but if you want it to grow the multicolor algae on it you will need to have compact fluorescent light to achieve this. These lights can get expensive, but check there are some retrofit kits out there that will convert fluorescent to compact and the price is not too bad.

atmmachine816

http://www.all-glass.com/products/li.../lighting.html Would maybe two of those over a 10 gallon work pretty well?

atmmachine816

More research done with help of some other people so far I need a powerhead with at LEAST 100gph with 30lbs of live rock or so, regular strip light is adequate but brighter a T8 would be better. Don't need protein skimmer. O what else....? Sound good?

Tumbleweed

30lbs of live rock is too much. the rule usually is 1.29lbs. of rock per gallon. So you should get about 10-13lbs. of rock for the tank. Be carefull about 100gph for a 10gal tank. depending on what else you are puting in the tank ie soft coral or mushrooms they do not like high current.

atmmachine816

Ok this is what I need to know, as this is what I have read as basic rules for nanos. So 13lbs. or so of live rock. Soft coral and mushrooms do they come on live rock or do you buy them separately.

Tumbleweed

you buy them seperatly they come in many verities and colors. They tend to like slower moving currents look around 4-5 times the tank size in water flow.

atmmachine816

O so are they just a type of thing to add if you like them?

Tumbleweed

yes, they are the plants of the salt water world

atmmachine816

O ok are there fast moving loving things too then?

Tumbleweed

Hard Corals can live in a stronger current, but then you will need a different light setup, anda proteinscimmer. It is a bit much for a 10gal tank

atmmachine816

Soft corals attach to LR right? same with mushrooms, any other plants that I could get?

atmmachine816

I might be getting a 55 gallon now it's sweet if i could, gota convince my dad.

Tumbleweed

The 55gal would be sweet. You would have a lot more options on what you can do with a tank that size.