Attractive 10g?


I am slowly setting up a small 10g tank for my mother and wanted to know what other have put on a 10g to make for an attractive set up. Currently it is only 2 lace rocks and one Percula Clown in the tank. Filtered by a small Millennium filter. Please post here.


Staff member
You're at your limit now....10 gal is insufficient for a marine setup, unless you're a marine biologist or close to it.


get a bigger tank 30 gallon at the very minnimum....AND make it into a reef setup use the 10 for a quarenty tank..... SORRY BOUT'LAUGH'N AT YA!!!!!!!!!!


What? I must be a marine biologist, then, cause I have a 10-gallon QT with a clownfish and a damselfish -- they don't fight -- I have a fully cycled UGF -- I clean it out twice a month -- and the fish have been happy for many many months. Of course I have other tanks, but this one works great! I don't advise adding any other fish other that what you have, though, just clean it out a LOTTTTT!!!!!! ~fishgirl


Beth, with all due respect, I would disagree with what you said. It might be hard, but it does not mean that you have to be a marine biologist. I have ten gallon and I say it's quite attractive.
Sitting on top of two inches of live sand, 10 lbs. of live rock, mostly covered with colorful coraline algae, decorated by two smal feather dusters and a red bali starfish, scavenged by cleaner shrimp, cleaned by sally lightfoot, emerald crab, and five astrea snails, and being played around by a sebae clown, is a very refreshing view for me.
You just have to pay extra attention to it, and do frequent water change. And most important do not overfeed.
Make your mother happy, that's a very nice thing to do :) .


I have to disagree with Beth, this is very do-able. My lfs has at least 4 tanks that are 10 gallon or smaller. Each of these has a bio-wheel, powerhead, and a heater, the guy says he changes the water once a month that's it.
I have a 7 gallon bow that is thriving right now. I've done some modifications from the kit. I added a penguin 550 ph, I removed the hood and have my old hood with two 18 inch lights on top for better color (an actinic and 10,000k).
I have 15 lbs of marshall is. lr, 2 inches of ls, some star polups a ton of orange sponge growing on the lr. I have a cleaner shrimp, a catalina goby, a percula, some snails and some blue legs.
I change the water about every 2-3 weeks. This tank takes a lot of attention but it is easy.
This is definatly a setup and forget about tank, but water changes take just a few minutes and require only a couple of cups to remove. Big trick is not to over-feed.


Nano tanks are nothing 20g is considered a nano, and I love it!
Just watch your water parameters, salinity and temp closely.
You might need to add a small powerhead, just make sure that it isn't so strong (for a small tank) that it will blow everything around.
I second the comment about featherduster worms, they can make a very nice display and don't require any special lighting. Shrimp are very cool, snails are a must, and if you were to go for another fish, I would go with either a firefish or a neon goby. They stay small, and are not aggressive.
Mushroom corals can survive with regular lighting, just make sure to buy 50/50 (or actinic) bulbs.
How nice of you to do this for your mother! <img src="graemlins//angel.gif" border="0" alt="[angel]" />

fish magnet

I know that people are trying to be helpful, but I have had a 2 gallon marine tank before. Yes a 2 gallon. All I had was a bubble wall and live rock. I had 2 tomato clowns a goby a anemone, and it had an incandesent light on it. I had no problems with it ever. I had it up for a year or so until I moved. Don't try to tell people what they can and can't do, especially if you've never tried it yourself. Anything is possible!!
i don't think it is the issue of not being able to keep a tank of that size, but just more of a hassle. a smaller tank is much harder to keep than a larger tank, it doesnt leave you much room for error. fish need their room to roam and they can be very territorial,these are another problems with smaller tanks. people reccommend to you not to use smaller tanks for these reasons (and a lot more), but it is definetly not something you can't do.
p.s. this post is from march 2000


Thanks for pointing that out Wolfman! I didn't notice the date on that at all!
Now why would a post almost a year old be brought up? <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />


The reason this was brough up again was because fish boy must be trying to get his posts up so he can get higher up the ladder. He was warned earlier by broomer5. Guess he didn't want to listen <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" />


No offense Baron, but i think i you would have to be a marine biologist to keep seahorses alive. I had the idea that i could. I was wrong. I mean im Triggerfool. SHeesh. If i cant do it, no one can.