10 gallon mini reef.

[Calappidae]

I have a 10 gallon mini reef that I'm still working on.. I just wanted to check and make sure everything is alright and in order before I continue..
Currently houses:

A pair of Harlequin shrimp
A pair of sexy shrimp
A pair of bumblebee snails
A pair of Nassarius snails
1 mexican turbo snail
3 blue leg hermits
1 pom pom crab
ricordae mushrooms
Green star polyps
neon blue brain coral (hitchhiked)
and some zoanthids.

Equiptment/aqua scape:
30" Aqualight T5 HO duel fixture
Marineland Penquin bio-wheel 100 (screened off for shrimp's safety)
tetra heater
8lbs. of rock (4.5 lbs. Premium Decorative Live rock)
20lbs. black hawaiian sand

My Future plans are:
-Upgrade fixture to soilderless RapidLEDs
-Get a ton more corals (one toadstool leather I'm probably going to be picking up tomorrow)
-get like 5 or 10 sexy shrimp!
-get 2 or 5 bumble bee shrimp
-build a refugium (mainly for housing my N. wrennerae mantis) on the (out) side of the tank.
-Install a back-pak skimmer (the intake of skimmer blows water into the refugium and overflows back into the ten gallon.)
-Go for SPS (how many PAR bulbs from rapidled would I need? I know I would need only 13 soilderless but I'm wondering which is cheaper)

Thoughts or concerns? I'm really trying to step it up with this tank.

My only concern is the 1 brain coral in there harming the harlequin, bumble, or sexy shrimp..

[terrypercula]

I have a brain in my 16 with two blood shrimps. They don't even go near the thing though it very well could one day have the shrimps for lunch. How are you feeding the Harlequin?

[Calappidae]

I wrote a thread on them recently http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2337268

I'm freezing starfish, and whenever I see them hunting (usually every other day) I give the pair a 2 inch leg. They only eat the tubefeet part so It decays quicker being frozen and goes to waste. So they need fed smaller portions more often.

[terrypercula]

I wrote a thread on them recently http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2337268

I'm freezing starfish, and whenever I see them hunting (usually every other day) I give the pair a 2 inch leg. They only eat the tubefeet part so It decays quicker being frozen and goes to waste. So they need fed smaller portions more often.

Very cool! I'll look into that for sure because it's my favorite shrimp but the idea of feeding them always kept me away.

[Calappidae]

I spend about 20 dollars a month to feed mine.. I don't mind personally because I got nothing better to spend my money on.. I'm 15 and there sure is alot of no good in the world that my money could be torwards so nobody can tell me I'm wasting for my age.

I go frozen because I find the rotation, and live stars inhumane.. I know its nature with live stars but the way the shrimp hunt and everything.. in a way its sadistic to want to be a part of. Freezing stars atleast makes things a little more humane. JMHO.

[terrypercula]

Yea the other way I heard of was to have a few chocolate chips in another tank and to cut a leg off feed it and let that leg grow back and cit a leg off a different one and so on...just seemed like, let's say nothing I want to do

[Calappidae]

Yea the other way I heard of was to have a few chocolate chips in another tank and to cut a leg off feed it and let that leg grow back and cit a leg off a different one and so on...just seemed like, let's say nothing I want to do

Exactly, thats just the classic do whatever it takes to save a dollar type method. Although the expense is there, if you really want to go for the shrimp like I did, then they are worth the extra expense without a doubt. Frozen is more of a just an alternative because I couldn't stomache watching a starfish get tortured or cut legs off of them... just not my morals.

This is the brain coral:
http://i43.*******.com/2r3i6nm.jpg
If it has the ability to harm or kill my harlequin shrimp, bumblebee shrimp, etc then it might be going. :sad2:

How likely is it to kill something in a small ten gallon?

It's sweeper tentacles are really really short and the entire thing only opens to an inch in diameter. The sweepers don't even extend 1/16 it's size..

[terrypercula]

I would say the only way it could kill a shrimp is if the shrimp went on to its mouth. My clownfish host my brain so my shrimp don't go near it anyway.

[Calappidae]

Looks like the brain might be going then.. that or I can get some Leds and make one half of my peacock mantis shrimp dedicated to the brain.. how many Rapidleds focused right on the brain would it take to keep it alive?

[terrypercula]

I'm not positive. They don't really need crazy high lighting. Mine used to be in the shade under a frag rack