Any ideas for a new mini 15gallon setup?

[mkpeters6]

w/o any sw expereince your gonna want to go real slow setting this tank up - start with the live rock make sure it is fully cured and the tank has cycled then maybe add one clownfish (about a month later) if every thing goes well and you still want to do a reef setup then add some simple corals like mushrooms and zoos

but like ornatapinnis warned small sw setups are much more difficult then larger setups - your best option would be to add a sump of considerable size (30-40GAL) - small systems have bigger parameter swings - if a 100gal tank evaporates 1 gal of water that is one percent rise in salinity while a 10gal losing a gal in evaporation has a 10% swing

 

[I3u11he4d]

A simple coral & reef set up?

It might be a consideration to get a really good book on salt water aquariums before attempting this. Having a good book will help prevent making some mistakes and give you some great ideas on lighting, filtration, etc. COuld save you lots of money too. I really like the salt water for dummies book, it's written really well. Martin Moe's books are great too.

You really need to learn and understand the basics before doing a "reef" type set up.

Joel

COMPLETELY.read,read and read some more and when you think you've read enough read some more.There are many ways to set up a tank of this size some very expensive some cheap.Like i've stated before do your research before anything else.When I said saltwater was more stable I should have clarified that at that size stablity is not the easiest thing to mantain,not say it cant be done because I've seen several tanks of that size and smaller done very well with little or no maintenance on a weekly basis w/ the occupants thriving,So it can be done w/ Knowledge and patience.

 

[LTL]

Thanks guys... got the idea....

Think will start off with 2 small live rocks and see the water condition... my LFS owner told me to rear some daphnia in a breeding tank to check the water conditioning.... if is fine after 2 weeks or so, can start to add in a reef, then perhaps 1-2 clowns.... Hopefully this would not overstock my tank too early...

I have already started the pump running with an empty tak and gravel.... will let it run for a few days to monitor the salinity before trying out the live rocks...

Till now, do have a problem of water over-heating.... have not gotten my cooler yet... is too expensive and bulky compred to the scopeof the tank... if the heating persists, think would change the submersible pump to an external one.

I have installed a small external powerhead to circulate the water... any idea how much lps or gps the head shd be? My pump already did some of the circulation thou.. is a mini 500 litres/hr pump for this 2ft/50gallon tank...

Any assistance?

 

[eng55]

First off 2 weeks is a very short time to let your live rock sit in your tank and cycle. I would recommend waiting up to a month before adding any livestock to your tank. Also during the time the cycle is going, it is very important to test the water as much as possible to see that it begins to cycle. I would not start with a couple of clown fish. I would put a damsel in there first and since you are going to only have a couple pieces of rock I would remove after a while and then get the clowns. Also be sure to do some more research and then research some more. I learn new things everyday, a good site to read forums on is reefcentral.com. I have learned most of my saltwater information from reading and posting on the forums there. Good luck with the tank.
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