I'm about 90 days into my first salt water tank. I've always been interested but the expense and complexity kept me from trying before. However, when I researched this last time, the process seemed much more approachable. I’ve never been very interested in a large tank and I feel like everything I used to read pushed everyone to go as large as possible. However, the attitude seems to be changing a little with nanos more prevalent and I took inspiration from Inappropriate Reefer's 10 gallon budget build on YouTube and Reef Builders 1 day 20 gallon nano build covered by Jake Adams. I spent about 3 weeks straight reading every day for hours until I finally bought anything. I wanted to document my build as best I can to hopefully help others make some decisions. As with anything, I'm just just one data point. I'm not saying my decisions were the right ones but they worked for me despite going against some of the more common advice that I've seen.
The Tank: I was very close to pulling the trigger on an Innovative Marine 20 gallon AIO after doing my research. However, when I started adding up all the bare minimum expenses beyond the tank itself the price tag was quickly over $1,000. Being brand new to this, I couldn’t justify it even if I could afford it. Then I got an idea. What if I built out a small, quality QT setup but used it as my display tank until I was ready to purchase something larger? This is exactly what I did with a 10 gallon PetCo tank. Here are the advantages I see to going this route:
Lastly, so I would actually have something to QT my corals, I bought a cheap $10 plastic tub that will just be used to store my other gear after I’m done using it as the QT. The equipment for this is my emergency power outage sponge filter that runs on USB and my backup heater so no funds wasted here either.
Tank Components:
Tank: PetCo 10 Gallon with glass lid
Filter: AquaClear 50
Heater: Eheim 75 watt
Rock: Marco Rock 6.3lbs (I bought 10 but it was too much)
Sand: CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Aquarium Sand 10lbs
Stocking List: 2 Ocellaris clownfish, one cleaner shrimp.
I realize longer term the ocellaris may prefer a slightly larger tank as they get larger, but they’re doing fine for now. I did a “fish in” cycle with the ocean direct sand and never added any other product in terms of starter bacteria. Despite frequent monitoring and even adding a Seachem Ammonia Alert as a backup measure, I’ve never seen any spike in ammonia. I added the shrimp 77 days in which was a few weeks after the first light green algae started to appear in the tank and he seems to be doing well and has already molted. I also ordered and added copepods to the tank based on the recent BRS series showing their value. I’ve seen no diatoms so far.
I also have 5 corals in QT which I've dipped in Coral RX and plan to dip in a hydrogen peroxide dip at a later date. I have a A029 AquaKnight light on them. Coral list:
Green Star Polyp
Pulsing Xenia
Hammer Coral
Candy Cane/Trumpet
Favite (War Coral)
The Tank: I was very close to pulling the trigger on an Innovative Marine 20 gallon AIO after doing my research. However, when I started adding up all the bare minimum expenses beyond the tank itself the price tag was quickly over $1,000. Being brand new to this, I couldn’t justify it even if I could afford it. Then I got an idea. What if I built out a small, quality QT setup but used it as my display tank until I was ready to purchase something larger? This is exactly what I did with a 10 gallon PetCo tank. Here are the advantages I see to going this route:
- Avoid upgrade issue by guaranteeing an upgrade. Conventional wisdom seems to be that everyone upgrades from their first tank if they go too small and they are then out a bunch of money so go big day one to save money. This makes sense but you could still guess wrong and upgrade so why not get started today and as you keep learning you’re more likely to determine your optimum tank size by figuring out your ideal stocking list. You’ll be less likely to guess that second tank size wrong when you know more.
- Save money. Now some may argue based on the above that I’ve “wasted” money on this tank setup, but in reality I needed a QT so it was going to be a cost either way. Plus if I bailed from the hobby my sunk costs are now lower. With this route I’m simply utilizing the QT I was going to buy sooner and getting more use out of it. I feel it also saves money by eliminating that “empty tank” feeling of a big initial tank with no fish or corals. Because fewer fish can live in a smaller setup my options are slimmer and there’s less impulse to buy. Similarly, with frags there is less temptation to buy a large colony because you don’t have the space. You can buy small frags for less and watch them grow without the tank looking empty. When the time comes to upgrade that new tank won’t look as empty either if you have corals nicely growing and thus it will cost less to fill the larger tank.
Lastly, so I would actually have something to QT my corals, I bought a cheap $10 plastic tub that will just be used to store my other gear after I’m done using it as the QT. The equipment for this is my emergency power outage sponge filter that runs on USB and my backup heater so no funds wasted here either.
Tank Components:
Tank: PetCo 10 Gallon with glass lid
Filter: AquaClear 50
Heater: Eheim 75 watt
Rock: Marco Rock 6.3lbs (I bought 10 but it was too much)
Sand: CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Aquarium Sand 10lbs
Stocking List: 2 Ocellaris clownfish, one cleaner shrimp.
I realize longer term the ocellaris may prefer a slightly larger tank as they get larger, but they’re doing fine for now. I did a “fish in” cycle with the ocean direct sand and never added any other product in terms of starter bacteria. Despite frequent monitoring and even adding a Seachem Ammonia Alert as a backup measure, I’ve never seen any spike in ammonia. I added the shrimp 77 days in which was a few weeks after the first light green algae started to appear in the tank and he seems to be doing well and has already molted. I also ordered and added copepods to the tank based on the recent BRS series showing their value. I’ve seen no diatoms so far.
I also have 5 corals in QT which I've dipped in Coral RX and plan to dip in a hydrogen peroxide dip at a later date. I have a A029 AquaKnight light on them. Coral list:
Green Star Polyp
Pulsing Xenia
Hammer Coral
Candy Cane/Trumpet
Favite (War Coral)