[jdruff8]

hi, i keep fresh water tanks with african cichlids and discus and want to do a salt. i wil use my 10 gallon after i sell the convicts in it. I want a pair of clown fish and either, coral, live rock or an anenome, which i prefer. Wil this fit in a 10 gallon? and how should i set it up? what type of lights should i have? The hood on it is fit for a 29 gallon. Please tell em the supplies i should get. please help thanks.

[Ninong]

Hi jdruff8, welcome to Reefland!

I really don't know much about setting up a 10-gal nano tank and I strongly believe that you would be better off going with AT LEAST a 20-gal tank as your very first marine tank. The truth is that I really believe you would be better off going with a 40-gal breeder as your first marine tank but I realize many people may not agree with that position.

Marine tanks are much more expensive to set up than freshwater tanks and there if very little difference in total cost between say a 10-gal, 20-gal or 40-gal. It is possible to keep a pair of the smaller species of clownfish (Amphiprion percula or A. ocellaris) in a 10-gal tank but a 20-gal tank would be a much better bare MINIMUM size. It is not possible to keep any of the host anemones in a 10-gal tank. That would be a very bad idea. You could possibly keep a smaller specimen of Entacmaea quadricolor in a 20-gal tank but a 40-gal would be a much better choice. E. quadricolor is not a natural host for either A. percula or A. ocellaris but A. ocellaris usually accepts it in captivity.

If you still want to go ahead with a 10-gal nano tank then I think you should limit the livestock to perhaps one or two tiny gobies, a cleaner shrimp, a few snails and perhaps a couple of hermit crabs (if you like them). You could keep mushrooms and other low light softies with appropriate PC fluorescent lighting.

A 20-gal tank could be lit with either PC fluorescents, VHO fluorescents or a single 150w metal halide lamp. This would give you more options as far as livestock is concerned. The 40-gal breeder would really be a much better choice and is what I consider to be the best alternative between difficult to keep nano tanks and larger reef tanks.

[SeaMe]

I highly recommend a few books, some can be found on Reefland, the library, and various sources across the internet. A 10gal salt doesn't have a lot of room for error, but neither does a Discus tank.