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Might buy one tomorrow.
Thinking 10 gallon Max, probably a hex type aquarium.
Any photos of yours?
Will probably be using nothing but live sand, live rock, and a small external cannister filter and a light suitable for reptiles needing UV and an ordinary aquarium striplight.
any stocking ideas? Im not into corals, more into inverts and small, burrowing or predatory fish and inverts..
Also, how succesfull are your open-top enclosures? with no hoods? seen a setup for £50 recently with a suspended tiny actinic with no hood..
Comments welcome.
James

First, your light suitable for reptiles is not suitable for marine organisms. Get rid of that. For a 10 hex with no photosynthetic organisms, no real lighting is needed, just whatever you like to view the inhabitants.

If I may, your preference on fish leads me to think of jawfish, or possibly prawn gobies. Check those out. 1 fish in this tank will be plenty.

As for predatory fish....they tend to be messy eaters and will make keeping the tank clean a real chore. But I think there might be a few angler species that stay small enough for a 10. You'd have to research that, as I'm not positive.

Another thing is that canister filters tend to be a pain to maintain on SW tanks. any filter media should be cleaned at least weekly, and since sw was in your filter to begin with, you'll have to refill it with sw when you are done cleaning it. I'd suggest an aquaclear, well overrated for the tank in addition to a powerhead or two. Something like the koralia nano or 1 would work great for you.

Open top tanks are pretty commonplace in the SW hobby, especially reefs (gas exchange, reduction of heat trapping), but be careful with your fish choices, some like to jump. Especially the aforementioned jawfish. They would need a lid.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Ok, recieved and understood.
I do like the jawfish, will research more into the others.

Please be advised also that the smaller the tank the less room for error. The bigger the tank the more forgiving. If you want a 10 gallon tank than that is fine but you`ll need to stay on top of it. Good luck.

that i am aware of...

Once you are up and running some pics would be nice.