10 gallon maintenance

Luka · Sep 17, 2015

Thinking about getting a 10 gallon as my first tank what's all of the maintinence you do to keep your tank healthy and clean. Thanks!

steve&mari · Sep 17, 2015

Weekly water changes are a must with smaller setup. Are you planning a sump also ? But most run a skimmer and reactors for carbon/gfo live rock for filter. Sump will determine how to setup the rest.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 17, 2015

You may find these useful for a chemistry perspective on maintenance, especially the second and fourth:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 1: The Salt Water Itself by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 3: pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Luka · Sep 17, 2015

Thanks for the link! And no sump and no protein skimmer. I did research saying a protein skimmer is not needed, I just have a simple filter.

LetItReef · Sep 17, 2015

+1 on water changes and don't overstock. What are your plans FO, Fowlr, Reef?

Luka · Sep 17, 2015

I was going to start the tank with dry rock so Fowlr so water changes once a week?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 17, 2015

Luka said:
I was going to start the tank with dry rock so Fowlr so water changes once a week?

Water changes are a good idea in most reef tanks. It likely won't keep nutrients low enough to prevent algae issue, however.

Luka · Sep 17, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Water changes are a good idea in most reef tanks. It likely won't keep nutrients low enough to prevent algae issue, however.

Then what do I need to do to prevent algae??

Ahruk · Sep 17, 2015

I've found weekly water changes with a good clean up crew plenty to prevent algae issues. I did have a hair algae problem around six months ago but was able to get it under control by manually cleaning the rocks and then introducing a number of turbo snails to keep it down (they are AMAZING <3). Furthermore, I must say that the hair algae problem came from boyfriend's tank who was running a skimmer, sump and the works. It was actually much worse in his tank then in mine. Having a smaller system allows you to do bigger water changes more frequently and easily which helps remove all the junk not just what a skimmer can pull out. That said doing big water changes does tick off coral and make your tank cloudy for a day which is kind of a bummer, plus I imagine it can result in some swings in parameters so probably not the best if you're planning to keep acros. I've personally had great success with this method in keeping mid-end(?) montis (sunset,starburst), mid-end zoas (gold mauls, lazor lemons, peachy blues, ect), acans (echinatas, lords), rock flower nems and euphillas (torch, frogspawn). I do weekly water changes of 20%(sometimes 40% if I have the spare water) or every other week 40% (if I'm particularly busy). Just to clarify this is not 20% of the tanks total volume but of what I guess the total volume of water to be in the tank accounting for displacement from liverock, heaters and other equipment and coral.