cheap lights for 10 gallon nano reef

[mysterysnail]

Hey all.
So i've been doing great in the freshwater game so far, and have a 10 gallon tank cycled where my cat managed to kill the female daffodil cichlid. Now the male is lonely. Ive tried to find a new female with no luck, so im thinking of repurposing the tank into either a planted shrimp tank, ora nano reef tank.
The tank already had a aquaclear 20 packed with seachem matrix, has a heater, and fully cycled african cichlid sand. So since my ph is already 8.1, and its cycled i figured saltwater would be easy since i only need lights, hydrometer and live rock.
My main question is lights.

Where can i get cheapish lights for soft corals or mushrooms or some of the lower light lps
Found alot of links to diy lights but mostly from the states. Any local people have any ideas or advice.
Im thinking possibly the coralife 50/50 compacts but the 10w ones may not be enough, and the 20w are $50+ each...

[mysterysnail]

One example
https://www.21ledusa.com/default.asp
They have several led options which seem great
The other option so far is this
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B0002AQ44O/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB
I could use 2 of those in the current hood i have
Thoughts?

[Sharbuckle]

I have a 6 bulb t5ho that fits a 10 gallon perfectly. 5 brand new bulbs.

[Darth]

You would really want  to go t5s min.  I think the 6 bulb fixture may be a bit much.  But depending on your budget you might check out some leds for nano tanks

[Nienna]

You're looking at a lot of maintenance if you go salt for a 10g - you're going to have challenges with corals if your salinity is changing too much due to evaporation.  I'd recommend adding an auto top off system at the least and those don't exactly run cheap.

[Sharbuckle]

Darth is right about 6 being too much so i just ran 4 of the 6.!

[Mike L]

I don't  know anything about salt  but I  have talked to many salties that say small tanks are much harder then large.  It's the same with freshwater cichlid tanks since the amount of water is so small any deviation from the ideal  is magnified.  Not saying it can't work but despite what is often said salt tanks are a considerably  greater investment then freshwater of similar  size.  Think hard on this but go for it you will have some great assistance from the knowledgeable  salties on the site.
Mike

[Darth]

Yes small tanks are harder but not impossible. Salinity changes are easily avoidable with simple auto top off. The hardest thing would be ammonia spike if something dies in a small tank it can wipe it out.  My suggestion is keep it simple. Don't go nuts you will only get frustrated later and shut it down later. Go slow and enjoy

[GuyFawkes]

You will be fine. Set the tank up and take care of it. Lol people always have these stories

Look at par38 full spectrum bulb. Cheap and will grow your corals


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[mysterysnail]

Thanks all for the input. The 10 gallon nano reef spiraled into a 65 gallon tank. Got a great deal on tank,stand, 4 fixture t5ho,2 circulation pumps, and heater plus lots of fully cured rock. Its been set up for almost 2 months now and has 2 clowns, clean up crew, cleaner shrimp and a rew ricordea yuma, green star polups and as of today some new  mushroom corals.10 gallon is being used as my qt and has a firefish goby and a bangai cardinal I got last sat.

Also, its not worth starting a new thread but something hilarious and yet infuriating happened to me today. I went to a lfs and was told baserock was live rock..... I was like noooo thats baserock. No coraline algea no hitch hickers nothing at all on it. No fish in the tank to help seed bacteria no snails or crabs. When I explained the difference I was told "it will grow coraline eventually" and I said "yes and then it will be closer to being liverock, by that deffinition all rock is live rock". Sooo mad because they were nice pieces but no chance in hell at those prices. Went to another place and got a stunning piece with 5 heads of one kind of mushroom coral and 1 head of another kind plus brittlestars and other goodies.
Anyways thats my daily ranting sorry guys

[GuyFawkes]

Nice.


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