Wanting to start a Nano

[lank]

Hey I want to start a Nano. A Reef set up. We have a 165 going now it’s been up for about 6 year and it running fine but I wanted to set up a Nano. I was wondering what I should do I was thinking around 15-24 Gal.
So first I was just wondering how to go about this I have read lots of forums about having a nano. I know LR is a must but what about Sand I have heard to do it and then not to was just wondering what I should do.
What kind of Invertebrates, Corals, and Fish should I have in my tank.
What kind of Tank, lights, pumps, filters, ect. Should I have in a nano to have it run nice and smooth.
Mike

 

[veeraj87]

id say do a 20gallon, LR/LS is a good idea, im doing a Crushed coral base and nitrates are already hard to maintain in a smaller tank but that prolly makes it worse unless u ahve a sump with cheato, you could def put some zoos and stuff in, as far as fish, its prolly gonna be inverts, clownfish, gobys, damsels, dottybacks. along those lines... goodluck!

 

[yerboy]

welcome you have come to the right place
before we can give you any advice on some of your questions we will need to know more information. What type of ecosystem would you like to achieve. Full reef with SPS corals and clams or something a little easier like zoas,leathers and shrooms? because this will decide what type of lighting and filtration you may need for your tank. What type of fish do you want ?

 

[lank]

Ok so ya I kind figured that after I wrote that thread that I would have to specify what kind of Coral and Invertebrates I wanted so I started to look at the Fish ,Corals, Invertebrates that SWF.com had so hear are some of them that I liked kind of allot.
Corals
1.Brain Coral 2.Colored Colt 3.Colored Tentacle Fungia Plate 4.FIne Grape Coral
5.Galaxea Coral 6.Star Polyp 7.Hammer Coral 8.Hard Tube Coco Worm
9.Leather Toadstool 10.Leather - Tree Colored 11.Mushrooms 12.Any Plate Coral
13.Sun Coral – Orange 14.XenIa 15.Zoos
Invertebrates
1.Haddoni Carpet Anemone 2.Magenta Sebae Anemone 3.Tube Anemone
4.Derasa Clam 5.Arrow Crab 6.BoxIng Crab 7.Emerald Crab 8.Sally Lightfoot
9.Purple Lobster 10.Cleaner Shrimp 11.Coral Branded shrimp
Fish
1.Scooter Blenny or red 2.False Percula Clownfish 3.MandarIn Dragonet 4.Sixline Wrasse 5.Yellow Wrasse
Sorry so many I just had so much fun picking fun thing to put Into my non existent tank and not having to send $$$$$$$$ on It ha-ha well I would really like It to be mostly a reef tank with lots of soft corals and then some Invertebrates like crabs and a clam I was wondering about 2 crabs and a shrimp that I wanted the 1st Is the boxing crab never seen this crab before seemed very cool 2nd Is the arrow crab have always liked these but would It survive In a 20 gal and 3ed Is the banned shrimp same ? As the Arrow crab
I would all like a anemone with some clowns I know the Mandarin Dragonet Is very hard to keep but love this fish so could any one help me narrow down my massive list of stuff I would like to put In my tank and then what I would need to run It?

 

[yerboy]

Originally Posted by lank
http:///forum/post/2477322
Ok so ya I kind figured that after I wrote that thread that I would have to specify what kind of Coral and Invertebrates I wanted so I started to look at the Fish ,Corals, Invertebrates that SWF.com had so hear are some of them that I liked kind of allot.
Corals
1.Brain Coral 2.Colored Colt 3.Colored Tentacle Fungia Plate 4.FIne Grape Coral
5.Galaxea Coral 6.Star Polyp 7.Hammer Coral 8.Hard Tube Coco Worm
9.Leather Toadstool 10.Leather - Tree Colored 11.Mushrooms 12.Any Plate Coral
13.Sun Coral – Orange 14.XenIa 15.Zoos
Invertebrates
1.Haddoni Carpet Anemone 2.Magenta Sebae Anemone 3.Tube Anemone
4.Derasa Clam 5.Arrow Crab 6.BoxIng Crab 7.Emerald Crab 8.Sally Lightfoot
9.Purple Lobster 10.Cleaner Shrimp 11.Coral Branded shrimp
Fish
1.Scooter Blenny or red 2.False Percula Clownfish 3.MandarIn Dragonet 4.Sixline Wrasse 5.Yellow Wrasse
Sorry so many I just had so much fun picking fun thing to put Into my non existent tank and not having to send $$$$$$$$ on It ha-ha well I would really like It to be mostly a reef tank with lots of soft corals and then some Invertebrates like crabs and a clam I was wondering about 2 crabs and a shrimp that I wanted the 1st Is the boxing crab never seen this crab before seemed very cool 2nd Is the arrow crab have always liked these but would It survive In a 20 gal and 3ed Is the banned shrimp same ? As the Arrow crab
I would all like a anemone with some clowns I know the Mandarin Dragonet Is very hard to keep but love this fish so could any one help me narrow down my massive list of stuff I would like to put In my tank and then what I would need to run It?
now were getting somewhere
first off anemones don't do well in smaller tanks but are not impossible. Also its not good to mix different types of anemones in the same tank. I have never been able to keep one alive for more then a year.
this would be my selection of the corals you picked that would do well under the stocklighting of almost any nano system
2.Colored Colt
4.FIne Grape Coral
5.Galaxea Coral
6.Star Polyp
7.Hammer Coral
8.Hard Tube Coco Worm
9.Leather Toadstool
10.Leather - Tree Colored
11.Mushrooms
14.XenIa 15.Zoos
Fish
hate to say it but a mandarin is almost 100% out of the question. It has been done but only by very experienced marine aquarist. same with the scooters
2.False Percula Clownfish
4.Sixline Wrasse
5.Yellow Wrasse <- not much experience with this fish and im not sure of its max adult size so maybe someone else can advise to keep or remove it later.
inverts
5.Arrow Crab
6.BoxIng Crab
7.Emerald Crab
8.Sally Lightfoot
9.Purple Lobster <-- this guy can be dangerous to your other inverts and smaller fish
10.Cleaner Shrimp
11.Coral Branded shrimp - i would swap this guy out for a fire shrimp much prettier imo
with this stock list i would suggest something like a 24gal aquapod 29gal biocube or the 34 gal red sea max system.
If you want to piece everything together from tank to lights to filtration i would suggest a 20long or 29 gallon with at least power compacts the orbit 30" 65x2 light fixture works great on those size tanks listed for the corals i listed, but depending on budget you could go with t-5s or even an MH fixture.
ill leave filtration to someone else since thats in no way mu cup of tea.

 

[lank]

Yerboy
thanks a ton your really helping me out with this whole thing i was wondering about the scooter Blenny could i do that and what about 1 Anemone our should i just see if my clowns would host in the frog spawn or the hammar. Is a Nano to small for a clam?
So you think i should go with a 24Gal or a 29 Gal im 18 years old still in High School so dont have all the money in the world with gas a all so kinda pinched on the whole $$$ aspect.
Ive read alot about metal Halide lights with reflectors would that be a good choice to go with since i want in to be a reef tank?
What about pumps how much water should i be moving in a 24-29Gal tank should i do a longer tank or what? I can steal some LR from our 165 b/c we have a ton in that thing and and me and my dad are planing on recontructing the tank to make a arch way in the middle. we have a lot of CC in the basement that i could use or should i go bare bottom.
I have also read alot about skimmers on a nano but if i do water changes every other week like what we do on our 165 would that be ok?
thanks for the help,
Mike

 

[yerboy]

Originally Posted by lank
http:///forum/post/2477589
Yerboy
thanks a ton your really helping me out with this whole thing i was wondering about the scooter Blenny could i do that and what about 1 Anemone our should i just see if my clowns would host in the frog spawn or the hammar. Is a Nano to small for a clam?
So you think i should go with a 24Gal or a 29 Gal im 18 years old still in High School so dont have all the money in the world with gas a all so kinda pinched on the whole $$$ aspect.
Ive read alot about metal Halide lights with reflectors would that be a good choice to go with since i want in to be a reef tank?
What about pumps how much water should i be moving in a 24-29Gal tank should i do a longer tank or what? I can steal some LR from our 165 b/c we have a ton in that thing and and me and my dad are planing on recontructing the tank to make a arch way in the middle. we have a lot of CC in the basement that i could use or should i go bare bottom.
I have also read alot about skimmers on a nano but if i do water changes every other week like what we do on our 165 would that be ok?
thanks for the help,
Mike
i think the scooter blennys are just as hard to keep as the dragonet and thats why i removed it from the list.
the reason i didn't leave the anemone there is because they require very intense lighting and a very established tank. Clams also require very intense lighting.
If you plan to go with a MH system then the clams/ anemone could be something to look at. Most people recommend having a tank setup and established 6+ months before trying to add an anemone , just food for thought.
You could go as small as 10-12 gallons if you choose to but i wouldn't recommend adding clowns to a system smaller then that. if you look around on the classifieds forums or search the internet you might could find a nice used system fairly cheap. I would go bare bottom before going with CC. Take alook at my 20long thread because i recently removed all my CC and went barebottom.
you want atleast 15x turnover rate for a reef, i would advise more because for a 10 gallon that equals only 150gph.

 

[lank]

thanks
ya i know you have to go very slow in this hobby lost the our whole 165 3 years ago that was very sad.
so i should go bare bottom (did you run into a nitrite proublem or just sick of cleaning it.)
ya i understand about the scooter they just look really nice so you have mentioned a 24-29 long tank and a 10-12 what would be the best one since i would like to try to have a reed tank and have a anemone with clown dont need the anemone could see if the clown would host in the hammer or frog spawn. if i got a anemone what kind would be the smartest should did i go with a Carpet, BTA, or tube
Love you tank by the way it look great
what about the skimmer or water change what should i do/get.
thanks agian
mike

 

[yerboy]

Originally Posted by lank
http:///forum/post/2477683
thanks
ya i know you have to go very slow in this hobby lost the our whole 165 3 years ago that was very sad.
so i should go bare bottom (did you run into a nitrite proublem or just sick of cleaning it.)
ya i understand about the scooter they just look really nice so you have mentioned a 24-29 long tank and a 10-12 what would be the best one since i would like to try to have a reed tank and have a anemone with clown dont need the anemone could see if the clown would host in the hammer or frog spawn. if i got a anemone what kind would be the smartest should did i go with a Carpet, BTA, or tube
Love you tank by the way it look great
what about the skimmer or water change what should i do/get.
thanks agian
mike
if your dead set on an anem then go with the biggest system you can afford. I personally like the BTAs and it seems most clowns will host them. If you go with a nano system like a biocube or aquapod there are some skimmers out there built for them you would just have to search around to find them.
i had a small nitrate problem and since i wanted to start adding SPS i needed better water quality and the CC itself was just very dirty.
normal rule of thumb is 10% water change weekly or 20% bi weekly.

 

[lank]

thanks
i think im gona go right around a 24 aquapod not dead set on an anem. just like having one in the tank. im looking around for tanks so ill start askin more question on how i should getting everything started when i have alittle bit more equitment.
thanks
mike