For heater i would do an eheim jager (better 2 for redundancy if they fit inside of the compartment but you will need to measure) and add a temperature controller like this from inkbird (linked below)
for lights both will work for pretty much everything. I have heard of the reefled 50 having slightly lower par levels but should be fine for most corals in a shallow tank. Other options would be something like led bars like ai blade or orphek or3. The light bars would have less light spill so would be better if the tank is high up and lights are mounted high or if the tank is next to a tv (less light reflection)
rock: good but check local fish stores, some will have dry rock from actual reefs and those rocks usually have more character and are much more porous.
sand: good but it is a fine sand so I would rinse well to get out all of the small particles. I have heard they contain some metallic bits as well so be careful with any magnetic glass cleaners.
salt: great salt. See what is around you as well as I found red sea blue bucket to be more cost effective, but tm pro is still really good
Ah yes, I was looking at 2 for redundancy. I still need to look it controllers more, other than the inkbird.
As far as light bars, I'll check those out. Trying not to spend toooo much right now.
rock, yeah I was considering that still. sand the thing I'm worried about really is it leeching metals into the water, I'd heard of coral growth issues. I don't really fancy the idea of changing out my sandbed after I put it in. I'm not too worried about the scraper honestly because... I'll just get a non-magnetic scraper? I'm sure I can find one with a long handle too lol.
I'll check out red sea again. Where else, online at least, should I be looking? I really only know of brs.
Local, I'm still looking for an LFS. seems like most are kind of far away from me, not that I mind a drive.
Heater, I'd consider looking into a Helio, it's compact and has a controller with built in redundancy. Sand, black sand might be magnetic which can present issues with magnetic scrapers and imo, it usually looks bad because it shows ALL detritus. Lights, look into the Noopsyche K7 Mini, a lot of love for this light since release, I can vouch for it and say it's been awesome.
Ok, I'll check out the helio. I think I had seen it previously.
I had been trying to think of how to keep that sand clean, I think there's some members of the cleanup crew that could help, but I feel like I need more water before I can consider some of them, unsure.
I hadn't seen the Noopsyche yet, but I don't see that it has the moonlight spectrum? Or maybe I'm missing it because I'm new to this lol.
Yeah, with that little water volume you're likely to see drastic swings quickly with either. That extra 4 gallons from a water quality/stability standpoint is really a non-factor. If you do something that's gonna jack up a 10 gallon tank, you've likely done something to also jack up a 14 gallon tank just as bad. Liken it to falling off a 14 story building vs a 10 story building.
Yeah, I was hoping it would help but oh well.
I'd really like to go with a huge tank but I don't have space for that where I live right now, so big tank is future plans.
For now, I'm going to maximize the effectiveness of the AIO.
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