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Originally Posted by KodiakBear  I'm looking to convert my little 10 gal standard tank into a nano. It has been cycled for a while now, even to the point of being neglected altogether for over a month. Trying to get serious about it now! Eventually I'd like it to house some small SPS and LPS specimens. Any chance I could get away with a pair of clowns in such a small tank? Even just one clown?
First problem: The light needs to be replaced Right now it's just a 28W PC 6500K that I put on when I was using it as a hospital tank (very cheap mod to the freshwater light fixture from PetLand). I'm having trouble finding a VHO or PC bulb that will have enough output, yet fit over a tank that's only 20 inches long! Any suggestions?
Second problem: LiveAquaria doesn't seem to have hardly any cleanup crews in stock right now! I read on another thread in this forum that I should have nerite, nassarius, and margarita snails. Any suggestions for how many of each? Anything else I should put in the cleanup crew? Any recommendations for where to buy other than liveaquaria?
Third problem: How should I manage flow? Right now I have an old canister filter with nothing but mechanical filtration and charcoal in it (trying to avoid the nitrate problems these are famous for). Should I split the return line into multiple outlets, or scrap the canister altogether?
Finally: What is a good protein skimmer for such a small system? I'd like it to be as inconspicuous as possible.
Hopefully you all remembered to look away from the computer and rest your eyes somewhere in the middle of all that. Otherwise, send me the bill for the headache medicine  . Thanks in advance for the help! |
JMO but for a small tank you really don't need a big clean-up crew. The more waste producers you have the more you are going to be fighting high organics. I have gotten by with just 2 small elephant snails to keep the DSB stirred. You should learn to rely on tank maintainance and the
natural biological organic removal process for a nano like LR and maybe a fuge. Unless you are having unwanted algae problems a tank clean-up crew really isn't needed. And if you are having unwanted algae problems then it is best to find out what is that is causeing excess diatoms or excess hair growth and solve it by maintainance. So many times i have seen peolpe dump tons of turbo, astrea snails and hermits into their tank to try and 'clean it up'. And in the end the snails are either dieing off, the hermit killing them for larger homes and the algae even growing on their shells.
Try to keep the tank clean running through your own maintainance with a strict schedule to follow.