Questions on LR, a type of fish, and cycling(long post)

[travie]

Background incase it is needed: I'm going to start out 10g with FOWLR, won't even be able to start setup for at least a good month, but I like to know has much as I can as early as I can.

First question on LR. I've read suggested amount is 10-15 lbs. for a 10g. One of my LFS sells base rock, well they had it listed and had a price for it. I want to put as much base rock as I can in the tank to lower expenses, since I know it can be cured if it is in a tank with LR. I'm wondering how many lbs. of base rock to start with and how many lbs. of LR.

Fish question: Well looking around I saw a Green Chromis. I didn't get around to asking the employees on this visit, they are very knowledgable, so it wouldn't have been a bad idea to ask, but I would have asked here too anyway. I was wondering minimum tank size for this fish. If it is somehow okay in a 10g, what is its temperment?

Last question...for now... Can nitrifying bacteria from a FW established tank be placed in a SW tank and keep up the nitrogen cycle going?

Thanks for reading this long post. I greatly appreciate all and any help you can give.:11:

[unleashed]

My answers in BOLD


Background incase it is needed: I'm going to start out 10g with FOWLR, won't even be able to start setup for at least a good month, but I like to know has much as I can as early as I can.

First question on LR. I've read suggested amount is 10-15 lbs. for a 10g. One of my LFS sells base rock, well they had it listed and had a price for it. I want to put as much base rock as I can in the tank to lower expenses, since I know it can be cured if it is in a tank with LR. I'm wondering how many lbs. of base rock to start with and how many lbs. of LR.If you are only going for 10-15lbs of rock, I would just go with Live Rock rather than base rock. Trust me. Your tank will be a lot more stable in the long run

Fish question: Well looking around I saw a Green Chromis. I didn't get around to asking the employees on this visit, they are very knowledgable, so it wouldn't have been a bad idea to ask, but I would have asked here too anyway. I was wondering minimum tank size for this fish. If it is somehow okay in a 10g, what is its temperment?Despite popular belief, chromis do better in schools of 5+. I would go for a nice and interesting fish such as a fire fish or shrimp goby pair. They are slightly more expensive but are well worth it. However, chromis ar every hardy fish. But one on its own is not very interesting.

Last question...for now... Can nitrifying bacteria from a FW established tank be placed in a SW tank and keep up the nitrogen cycle going?No. If you use Live rock, this will come with all of the bacteria you need, plus some cool critters

Thanks for reading this long post. I greatly appreciate all and any help you can give.:11:

[gem]

Unleashed is right. Chromis is a schooling fish and 5 is way too many for a 10 gal. I honestly wouldn't put more than 2 to 3 very small fish in a 10 gal. Your best options , Unleashed already mentioned. There are a couple others, like clown goby, neon goby, and court jester goby. On LR.....in a 10 you could do the base plus a little LR....but you're better of with all LR. If you're worried about cost in an LFS for LR, you might want to check craigslist. I know people here sell LR from tank tear downs for like $2.50 a lb on craigslist all the time. You don't have to go 1.5 to 2 lbs a gal in a fowlr...you could go with less than 1 lb a gal and an HOB filter.
And again....as unleashed said....your LR has all the bacteria you will need to cycle the tank. Bacteria from a FW tank would simply die off if added to SW.

[travie]

Chromis is out. I just wanted to learn about it. I would rather not go out and buy another HOB for the 10g, because LR would be cheaper. Craiglist hasn't had an LR on it since I started looking for regular tanks on it.

Would going 8 lbs. LR and 2 lbs. base rock be okay?

[coachfraley]

Would going 8 lbs. LR and 2 lbs. base rock be okay?

That would be fine, eventually, the base rock would become LR. Check the link below for more stocking options. It is one of my favorite stocking sites, although it leans a little towards overstocking.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[travie]

Fish-wise, my stocking plan is 2 clownfish, not sure which species, and 1 goby, again not sure which species.

Invertebrate-wise, not sure.? hermit crabs, ? shrimp, and ? snails. As many as could co-exist in a 10g and not overstock it.

[cocoa_pleco]

usually the rule for hermit crabs is 1 per gallon of water, and for turbo snails one per 2-3g of water

[unleashed]

Fish-wise, my stocking plan is 2 clownfish, not sure which species, and 1 goby, again not sure which species.

Invertebrate-wise, not sure.? hermit crabs, ? shrimp, and ? snails. As many as could co-exist in a 10g and not overstock it.

For your fish, I would not go for any more than two small fish. Most species of clownfish, when adults, are massive. Thats why, if you have a pair of them, they need a tank which is 20g+. I would either go 1 clown fish with 1 goby, 1 clownfish, 1 goby, 2 gobies (matedpair of firefish foe example)

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

The only Clownfish I'd even think of putting in a 10g is either an Ocellaris or a Percula. I think you need to look at the Neon Gobies for a tank that small. Also you clould get something like a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp. Remember this about small tanks, the nitrates will build up faster in them and most marine fish are more sensitive to nitrates then FW fish are. If you keep more than 3 fish in a tank that small you will be fighting to keep nitrates low all the time and you will likely have some algae battles on your hands as well.

[travie]

So 1 clownfish and 1 goby, or 2 gobies. Plus invertebrates. I'm hoping that will work for stocking then. If that doesn't for some reason point me to the reasons why.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

If you go with a Goby of any kind I would suggest a Neon Goby. Also, for Clowns, the 2 I mentioned above. The rest get too big for a 10g

[coachfraley]

There are plenty of small gobies that would work in a 10g. The clown gobies, green banded, red headed, some of the shrimp gobies.

My personal opinion is that it is ok to keep a pair of Ocellaris in a 10g. You will be ready to upgrade your tank long before they outgrow it thumbs2:

Here is a list of nano fish from liveaquaria. It is much more conservative than the last link I provided.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[spudbuds]

That would be fine, eventually, the base rock would become LR. Check the link below for more stocking options. It is one of my favorite stocking sites, although it leans a little towards overstocking.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
I think the guy who wrote that list works on my LFS (at least he used to, I haven't seen him in a while). I'll have to chat with him about it if I see him in there again.

I'm with unleashed and ILuvMyGoldBarb on your stocking. 1 clown and 1-2 gobies (depending on size - some gobies get pretty big).

[snapdragon9]

Last question...for now... Can nitrifying bacteria from a FW established tank be placed in a SW tank and keep up the nitrogen cycle going?

From what I have researched and experienced myself as I was acclimating some BW species to SW, that you should increase the salinity only by .003 a week, otherwise the nitrifying bacteria will die off. Not really sure if this is a good slice of info but at first I increased the salinity by way more than that at first. My cycle was way out of wack for quite a while after I performed this large SG change.

[unleashed]

simple answer, no. the bacteria will die off completely as they have spent their entire life cycle in FW and cannot be acclimated to SW