Corals For A Low Light Nano

[LeopardPerch]

Hello, I have a ten gallon which is empty and would love to have some more corals in it when I set It up.
I plan to have a yellowhead jawfish, royal gramma, a couple of hermit crabs and a good amount of liverock.
I have two 24" 20W T8's over the tank and would like some mushroom corals, blasstomussa, if possible and whatever else will work (I am already planning on sun corals because they are non-photosynthic

Cheers
P.S. I already own a 100 gallon reef but it has always had enough light for sure.

 

[Chad]

Well, luckily having a 10 gallon tank means it is shallow and that means the light you do have will be able to penetrate with good PAR. Of course T8's aren't reef lighting but like you said you're looking for low light corals.

There are ton of them to pick from. Most soft corals will work. Most mushroom corals. You might have some issue with ricordea but I'm guessing even they would do fine if placed up higher in the tank. Some zoos will need to be placed higher in the tank as well, such as green zoos which tend to like more light.

Many LPS will also work like favia and candy canes and duncans.

The problem with sun corals you will find is having them in such a small tank. Since they are not photosynthetic they must be fed which means an increase in nutrients into that small tank. You will need more frequent water changes to keep up with that or to treat the tank like a lagoonal tank and have corals that don't mind a bit of nitrate like xenia and mushrooms.

 

[nkd5024]

yellow head jawfish in a 10 gallon? They get pretty big for a 10 gallon.

 

[Chad]

They get about 4", not too big and they are less boystrous than the blue dot. For me 10 gallons is okay. It pushes the size, that would be the lowerend of acceptable. Now if it was a blue spot then you want bigger. Also, in a 10 gallon that should be the only fish with the same habital area and morphological chracaristics.

 

[LeopardPerch]

The size is why I chose the yellowhead jawfish.
Anyone else notice I chose only caribean livestock?
Also I found 30 little moonlight LEDs for more lights, it's about 10" I'm going to assume this will help

 

[Chad]

If they help or not really depends on how bright they are. If they are designed and sold as "moonlights" then they aren't likely to help at all.

 

[LeopardPerch]

Well they can't hurt at least.

Which should I add first the royal gramma or the jawfish? As both I've heard will take a territory for there own.
So, the coral list
-red mushrooms
-pulsing Xenia
-Green star polyps
-Up at the top some eagle eye Zoas
What do you think of these corals?

Cheers

 

[Chad]

No, they won't hurt.
I'm a little hesitant on the Royal Gramma. They are a normally peaceful fish except when in small areas with other territorial fish. I'm not saying they WILL go after each other, but it's a very real possibility in a small tank like that. What I predict is that the jawfish will end up on the floor as they tend to jump in such situations.

A 10 gallon tank really isn't suitable for many marine fish so you are going to run into issues like this.

If it were me I would have a single fish in the tank and it would be a shrimp goby along with the commensal pistol shrimp but that's me.

As for corals that sounds good. You will need to put the green stars and eagle eyes up toward the top a little. Play with placement until you get it right.

 

[LeopardPerch]

I'll cover the tank and put the jawfish in first with lots of live rock (I'm actually going to try using dead rock with only one little tiny piece of clean live rock) it's worth a shot in my opinion.

A plate coral probably won't work right?
Also I forgot to mention I'm using real sand I personally got from Dominican Republic when I went scuba diving their

Cheers
And a huge thanks for answering all my questions!

 

[Chad]

Covers are good.

Dead rock will become live. I would use a bit larger piece than "one little tiny piece" though.

You might be able to get a red monti cap to work. It wouldn't be red anymore but would turn brown due to low light. But really I don't recommend SPS for that tank.

Live sand is good as long as you know it's clean and free of polutants and phosphates that can occur from human activity near beaches.

You're welcome.

 

[LeopardPerch]

Okay.
I didn't mean to make the actual live rock I'm using sound so small. I meant a little bigger than two fists held together

I'm pretty sure the sand is okay as there was a reef at the beach (literally half out of the water though and mostly macro algea)

 

[Chad]

Okay...that's a good amount.

You might want to sift the sand. If there are leftover macro particles in it they will rot and create a build up in the sand which could be problamatic later on.

 

[LeopardPerch]

What do you think of my fish list?
-3 sexy shrimp
-firefish
-royal gramma

These would be Added in this order?

Also would one frogspawn also work?

 

[LeopardPerch]

I'm also planning on macro algae and maybe a mangrove pod

 

[Chad]

I suggest you leave out the gramma. 10 gallons really isn't big enough. The shrimp and fire fish are okay.