After being out of the hobby for a couple of years, I recently bought two 10 gallon aquarium kits on sale. I was thinking of trying out one of the 10 gals as a saltwater invertebrate aquarium. I'll post my plan of action, but I think I can still return the salt and hydrometer if I'll just be wasting my money and overly risking the invertebrate(s). I asked someone at a pet shop and he said to not do it. He said because of it only being 10 gallon and the filter. I'm willing to upgrade the filter if it is something in the $30 area. Because of room issues I would prefer to avoid bigger aquariums for now.
My plan of action
Mix ocean salt into conditioned water and adjust salinity after testing with hydrometer(plan to upgrade to an RO unit later if I can do this without it being a failure). I then plan to put the water in the aquarium and setup the filter and heater and let them run overnight. The next day I plan on buying live rock. After checking the live rock for obvious dead things I plan to put it in the aquarium and let it cure and cycle. One youtube mentioned completely replacing the saltwater after curing because of nitrates, so I might do that. From what I understand some of the live rock organisms will die while curing, so I should be able to use that to get my cycling going. If that doesn't work, I plan to use a piece of shrimp or something to start the cycling. I'll then add regular sand or live sand(if you think it is necessary). After the cycling is done I plan to add 1 or two little blue legged hermit crabs. After awhile if things seem stable I might add a clown goby.
setup plan so far
10 gallon aquarium
heater
HOB Whisper PF10 filter - Could upgrade this if necessary. Was planning on using it if only went with 1-3 hermit crabs
3-10 lbs live rock - At low end if I'm using it to seed dry rock
Sand
Reef crystals salt - it was actually on clearance for cheaper than the regular so thought I might as well get the better kind even though I'm doubting I'll ever try to grow coral.
Probably a light even though I'm not growing coral
1-3 hermit crabs
Clown goby in the future if things are doing alright
My plan of action
Mix ocean salt into conditioned water and adjust salinity after testing with hydrometer(plan to upgrade to an RO unit later if I can do this without it being a failure). I then plan to put the water in the aquarium and setup the filter and heater and let them run overnight. The next day I plan on buying live rock. After checking the live rock for obvious dead things I plan to put it in the aquarium and let it cure and cycle. One youtube mentioned completely replacing the saltwater after curing because of nitrates, so I might do that. From what I understand some of the live rock organisms will die while curing, so I should be able to use that to get my cycling going. If that doesn't work, I plan to use a piece of shrimp or something to start the cycling. I'll then add regular sand or live sand(if you think it is necessary). After the cycling is done I plan to add 1 or two little blue legged hermit crabs. After awhile if things seem stable I might add a clown goby.
setup plan so far
10 gallon aquarium
heater
HOB Whisper PF10 filter - Could upgrade this if necessary. Was planning on using it if only went with 1-3 hermit crabs
3-10 lbs live rock - At low end if I'm using it to seed dry rock
Sand
Reef crystals salt - it was actually on clearance for cheaper than the regular so thought I might as well get the better kind even though I'm doubting I'll ever try to grow coral.
Probably a light even though I'm not growing coral
1-3 hermit crabs
Clown goby in the future if things are doing alright