Fish/Coral stock suggestions for a newbie 10gallon

[ThePharaoh]

Hey all, I just finished filling up my new nano 10g tank and dosed it with bacteria. The current contents are live sand, 1 big dry rock and 2 small interlocked dry rocks. The tank has a protein skimmer as well.

I was told by my local fish store owner to ghost feed the tank once every 2 days for a week before adding any fish, and he recommends a pair of clownfish at first. At the start of the third week he then suggests to start adding corals.

Do you guys have any suggestions on fish/CUC/corals for my tank? I am new to reef keeping and need easy, flowy and interesting corals to keep.

My tank is in the picture below, so maybe you can even suggest coral placement? Any help is appreciated regarding tips or so, I know starting with a nano is difficult, but I had no other choice.

Thank you!

 

[ThePharaoh]

Any help guys?

 

[Cell]

Dont just ghost feed for a week and drop fish in. Do you have the test kits needed to test your cycle? Ie ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? I'm hoping your lfs mentioned these things? If this is all foreign to you, you have a lot of reading to do.

 

[Cell]

Generally speaking, take info from your LFS with a grain of salt until you are knowledgable enough to know whether or not your LFS id giving good advice or just selling stuff.

If you have not done so, read the stickies at the top of this forum. Then come back with any questions.

 

[Salt & Peper]

Yes make sure your tank is cycled before adding fish. Clownfish are an ok choice. I would go more for a 3 striped damsel there heartier and more active imo. Clean up crew add slowly start with 2 snails a hermit crab and a cleaner shrimp. Add more later on if you need to. I would stay away from corals till your tank ages a bit. Do some research on which ones you like best! Hope that helps a little.

 

[ThePharaoh]

Generally speaking, take info from your LFS with a grain of salt until you are knowledgable enough to know whether or not your LFS id giving good advice or just selling stuff.

If you have not done so, read the stickies at the top of this forum. Then come back with any questions.

I dont have any tests yet, but he told me to buy them before buying fish. He also told me to only add clownfish and no corals for the first 3 weeks or so.

 

[ThePharaoh]

Yes make sure your tank is cycled before adding fish. Clownfish are an ok choice. I would go more for a 3 striped damsel there heartier and more active imo. Clean up crew add slowly start with 2 snails a hermit crab and a cleaner shrimp. Add more later on if you need to. I would stay away from corals till your tank ages a bit. Do some research on which ones you like best! Hope that helps a little.

Thank you! The guy told me to add clean up crew after 2-3 months because if I add them now they wont have anything to clean and die out. Regarding corals, he told me to only add soft corals like zoanthids and frogspawns and leathers. He said I can also add hammer corals but that should be down the line and not now.

 

[Cell]

You said after 1 week of ghost feeding in the initial post. 3 weeks before adding fish is more reasonable. Stop taking advice from your lfs and read up on the sticky posts, the cycling post in particular.

 

[ThePharaoh]

You said after 1 week of ghost feeding in the initial post. 3 weeks before adding fish is more reasonable. Stop taking advice from your lfs and read up on the sticky posts, the cycling post in particular.

Yes, 1 week to ghost feed then add fish, then 3 weeks after to add corals. Sorry if my English is not that good. What is LFS? You mean the guy from the store? And yes I read them already and could tell I need more preparation!

 

[Tamberav]

What light is that? Corals will look like poop color if the spectrum isn't great.

What fish do you want? If you add two clownfish, you would pretty much be stocked. I would be more inclined to tell you to add fish you actually want that are appropriate for such a small tank.

I personally like gobies and combtooth blennies in these small tanks.

 

[ThePharaoh]

What light is that? Corals will look like poop color if the spectrum isn't great.

What fish do you want? If you add two clownfish, you would pretty much be stocked. I would be more inclined to tell you to add fish you actually want that are appropriate for such a small tank.

I personally like gobies and combtooth blennies in these small tanks.

I dont know, reef aquariums are not common where I live so I had to do with that as I dont have the cash to otherwise spend on medium to large RedSea tanks. The light came with the tank, apparently its the same light spectrum that comes with Fluval Evo 13.5

Honestly I want to enjoy the start to this hobby before going big, I’ll do fine with a few easy corals, CUC and 2 clownfish or something.