Bubble wand in saltwater?

[lordroad]

Would a standard cheapo bubble wand work in a saltwater tank, or would it get clogged up and not bubble?

[1979camaro]

it would work but there is no reason to use a bubble wand in a saltwater tank...the bubbles don't dissolve...might do a search through the SW topic on this as it comes up somewhat frequently

[lordroad]

Thanks Camaro.

Reason I ask is I'm contemplating setting up a ten gallon nano in the future. I've researched the basics and know pretty much what I need to get going. I do have a couple other questions, though.

It'll be a ten gallon tank with a HOB filter, media removed, for water circulation. Most likely I'll be keeping the bubble wand too cause I like the curtain of bubbles in the background. I was just wondering if the wand would get gunked up by the higher content of dissolved stuff in saltwater. Per occupants, one little goby or something else appropriate... don't know what fish I want yet.

Anyway, here are some questions.

I've seen fluorescent lights for sale at Petsmart designed for "coral" and general marine growth. Would this work in my regular hood, or would it get too hot? Here's a link to the product: http://snipurl.com/d3h8

I'd like to keep some very basic corals. I've heard mushrooms are good.

A lot of saltwater tanks don't have a hood. What is the reason for this, and could I keep my hood for the ten gallon? I'm guessing it's due to the heat of the high powered lights?

I was planning on using reverse osmosis water bought from the grocery store and then mix the salt myself. Is this necessary, or can I just use tap if my water is clean? (I plan on getting a report from the water department tomorrow).

My friend recently started a ten gallon tank for a single starfish. Don't know what kind or if that's even appropriate for that size tank, but frankly I'm amazed he hasn't screwed up yet. He hasn't had aquatic experience and he's beginning with a nano. Good thing is another friend of ours with a big reef tank is holding his hand the whole way. I have a freshwater tank that's kind of languishing right now, and I may tear it down and begin with salt.

May not even get fish but stick with corals, shrimp or something... would this work, or are fish necessary to keep the cycle and balance going?

[DustinKeating]

I've just started a 10 gallon for my forte into saltwater, it's really interesting and fun.

It's good you've read a lot, there's enough reading to go around and it really helps.

I have learned that a big decision in saltwater is Live rock, or no live rock. In a 10 gallon, it's very important because it's your main source of filtration. Your bioload will depend heavily on that. Also, shrimp aren't really any sort of hinderance as far as bioload is concerned, however if you have shrimp or crabs they'll eat the waste given off by your fish. So if you have a fish, then you wont really need to feed the shrimp ( a whole lot)

[lordroad]

Thanks, Dustin.

How many pounds of live rock do you have in your tank? One thing I'm still not clear on is how you set up the rocks and aquascape them. Do you just arrange them in stable positions and not stack them? I've heard some people use PVC piping... how does that work?

I've been quoted 15 pounds of LR for a ten gallon.

[1979camaro]

1) those bulbs aren't going to do squat for you if you want to grow corals unless you get maybe 4 or 5 of them over your ten gallon...they are mostly for aesthetics...you would be better off getting a 2 bulb PC setup (one 10000k and one 50/50 or actinic) which would give you about 50w

2) many saltwater tanks don't have canopies b/c of the heat. many SW tanks do not have hoods because it is difficult to get enough light through the small strip of glass on standard hoods. if you want a hood (which isn't a problem) i would look for a solid glass hood. the other major drawback to hoods on SW is they require constant cleaning from salt creep. i personally run an open top

3) your water plan sounds fine, if your water report looks ok there is no reason not to go with tap (i use tap) but remember that even very small trace amounts of phosphates and nitrates will wreak havoc on your tank

4) obviously you, like your friend, can have success if you research and plan carefully

5) you do not need fish. corals and other inverts will be fine alone, but there is no reason to avoid fish unless you just want to...that goby you talked about would be a great inhabitant

6) in terms of live rock, you need to consider more than poundage. density plays more of a role in a small tank. you can get 10# of high quality stuff and your tank will be overflowing but ten pounds of low grade rock will leave your tank fairly empty. the lighter the rock is the better! my reccomendation would be to check out the different forms of rock you can buy in your area and think about how you want to aquascape and do that rather than looking for a certain number of pounds. the price difference between some really good stuff and some not so good stuff on a ten gallon tank is going to be negligible in the grand scheme of things ($55 vs $75 probably).

7) aquascaping: the most important consideration is stability. some people do build PVC frameworks to build the rock on, but in a small tank that will not work very well. other people use plastic cable ties to tie their rock together (ive done this...didn't like it). what i did on my 55 was a combination of careful stacking and epoxy. i have not had any problems with collapses or whatnot and it allowed me tocreate some dramatic overhangs. Your best bet might be to find one or two large, interesting pieces and using only those. i would reccomend looking for inspiration in other tanks both large and small. there are many very nice nanos out there. i just did an image search on yahoo for "nano reef" and i got about 6000 hits so that might be a good start

kevin

[DustinKeating]

I personally cant stack too much in my 10 gallon, at most the rock will only be around 2 peices high. So i don't really tihnk in a 10 gallon it's a huge problem, obviously use caution but as long as you use the "big rock on bottom, small rock on top" principal....you should be alright for the most part.

This topic makes me curious about sometihng myself, if you have approx 5 wpg is that non related to how well your corals will grow? or is it more important to pay attention to the type of bulb (50/50, actinic....etc)?

[1979camaro]

"photosynthetic" corals (its the zooxanthellea really) need a certain amount of light intensity at the proper wavelength to grow... both type of bulb and spectrum therefor matter. lumens (or units equivelant to sunlight) is really a better measure, but the standard aquarium thing is to go by watts. how much light a specific coral needs to thrive depends on its feeding habits and the depth at which it is normall found

[S.Reef]

Agreeance with Camaro.