Sleeping with the fishes 10 gallons

I started up this tank because i bought some mini maxi nems on sale on black friday but dont really want to chance it in my main tank with them stinging my corals and stuff.

Well i have had my 10 gallon up and running for almost a week just ghost feeding it some pellets "don't want to do shrimp because the tank is at the head of my bed and i think it will smell horrible. I have some live rock in it from my main tank don't know how much it weights but there are 3 larger pieces and 2 smaller ones i will post pictures when i can in like 5 more posts i think. Currently there is no sand but i think i might add some black sand just for looks cause i see little piles of detritus and like a man instead of cleaning it up i just want to hide under the rug "sand".

The tank has a marineland penguin 350 on it im thinking of taking out the filter and putting in some live rock and cheato "how do you spell that" but its mainly for flow cause it was free and rated at 350 gph so at 35x flow that should be enough right? i had a extra fluval M 200 or 300 i dont know it doesnt say anywhere on the heater "kinda overkill on a 10 gallon but w/e". That is all i plan to have running in this tank.

Plans for live stock so far is a maxi mini garden and a percula or ocellaris clown fish to make people who come over stop saying dude where is Nemo "that got old really quick"

So i purchased 6 mini maxi nems for about 50 bucks plus tax on black friday and threw them in my snowflake eel/ refugium/ sump tank the tank is 55 gallons and has a 2 bulb t5 fixture over it running a blue bulb and a 10k one i think. Will my nems survive in there or will the snowflake eel take a bite and is there enough light for them. If not i could throw them in the main tank and just hope they dont move and sting my other stuff i guess. how long do you think i should wait before throwing them into the 10 gallon? Reading around it says no nems until like 6 months but do you think i could add them in like 2 or 3?

Also reading on cycling of fish tanks from what i understand it is to propagate the bacteria needed in the nitrogen cycle right? If my rock traveled all of 5 or six feet from my main tank there shouldn't be a cycle? or just a really short one? Nothing on the rocks seem to be dying i have seen some brittle stars and one bristle worm and 2 aiptasia nems. They didnt die until i killed them with aiptasia x after spotting them yesterday.

If i add dry sand later do i just rinse it and dump it in or should i "cure" it in a bucket like you do with rock? will this lead to another cycle?

Wow that was really long sorry if you read trough it i was just really just typing what came to mind and not really editing it i will get better at not writing essays.

 

You may not have much of a cycle but I really don't know how the sand factors into that. I think you may be able to add them quicker than the 6 months given that you are adding in some established rock....probably one at a time and see how it goes, they will let you know if they aren't happy. You got a whale of a deal on them, that's for sure.

 

10 Gallon currently

 

Looks really nice!

 

My tank leaked do I need to scrape the paint off before returning it to petco?

 

what happened!? i wouldn't worry about the paint

 

I don't know what happened I saw a small puddle on the stand and wiped it away thinking nothing of it came back 30 minutes later and the puddle was back. Emptied out the tank and tested it outside and there was a leak at the bottom. Guessing there was a bubble at the bottom in the silicone that eventually leaked just glad it wasn't anything catastrophic.

 

indeed, screw removing the paint get back to pecto and demand a new tank.

 

Well returned it to Petco was pretty easy just walked in said it was leaking they apologized and told me to get a new one. Didn't even say anything about the paint. Was to impatient to leak test the new one just painted it and set it up hope this one doesn't leak.

 

Setup the 10 gallon again and changed the Power compact out for a cheap aquatraders beamswork led light.


I think the center rock formation looks like this guys head