1ft marine tank ? Advises ?

**Xmant** · 3rd Jan 2012, 08:41

Originally Posted by SeVenZ

suddenly shrimps seems so much easier to keep

. will try next time when im working and have the spare cash to keep one. students dont earn alot now adays. haha

Don't be so dishearten by what others had told you. I have setup a pico tank (about 11 litres) for 6 months already. Just need to WC once per week about 20%. Daily feed them with blood worm and mysis shrimp. I only have 1 big OHF in my tank with live coral for biological filtering, no skimmer at all. In my OHF, I have chaeto to remove the extra nutrients. LED light is placed on top of my OHF and it is turned on for about 3/4 of the day. Don't forget to do daily top up with aged water so that salinity will not build up too high. Here is the link to my previous setup http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...Tank?highlight

Do not put in cleaner shrimp as it will eat up your corals when it is too hungry!

**BFG** · 3rd Jan 2012, 16:21

Originally Posted by Xmant

Don't be so dishearten by what others had told you. I have setup a pico tank (about 11 litres) for 6 months already. Just need to WC once per week about 20%. Daily feed them with blood worm and mysis shrimp. I only have 1 big OHF in my tank with live coral for biological filtering, no skimmer at all. In my OHF, I have chaeto to remove the extra nutrients. LED light is placed on top of my OHF and it is turned on for about 3/4 of the day. Don't forget to do daily top up with aged water so that salinity will not build up too high. Here is the link to my previous setup http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...Tank?highlight

Do not put in cleaner shrimp as it will eat up your corals when it is too hungry!

Live coral for biological filtering?

**Xmant** · 3rd Jan 2012, 18:20

Originally Posted by BFG

Live coral for biological filtering?

Yes and the byproduct from live corals, Nitrate, is absorbed by the chaeto.

**Ezie** · 3rd Jan 2012, 18:32

Originally Posted by Xmant

Yes and the byproduct from live corals, Nitrate, is absorbed by the chaeto.

Hmm corals dont give out nitrate. They in fact take in minute ammounts to photosynthesise. Nitrate usually come from fishes and dissolved organic carbon(DOC). that's why in small polyped stony(SPS) coral dominated reef tanks, people usually keep a low fish stock. Unless you are talking about excess slime that corals are giving out when they are not healthy and the slime is left to decompose and not removed by means of water changes.

hope that clarifies.

this is of course from what i learnt, do correct if there's any mistake.

**Xmant** · 3rd Jan 2012, 23:58

Originally Posted by Ezie

Hmm corals dont give out nitrate. They in fact take in minute ammounts to photosynthesise. Nitrate usually come from fishes and dissolved organic carbon(DOC). that's why in small polyped stony(SPS) coral dominated reef tanks, people usually keep a low fish stock. Unless you are talking about excess slime that corals are giving out when they are not healthy and the slime is left to decompose and not removed by means of water changes.

hope that clarifies.

this is of course from what i learnt, do correct if there's any mistake.

Oh, I have 4 fish in my tank. Due to feeding, for sure the bioload will be high and don't expect that the fish can finish-up every single bit of food in the tank after the feeding. Mysis shrimp and blood worm have high nutrient content and it easily pollutes the saltwater in the tank. Corals do excrete too and give out brown slime.

Sorry, it should be "live rocks" instead of "live coral" to do the major filtering. My bad! Live coral can only do limited filtering as it consumes the suspended food in the water.

So what we had here is that the ammonia is converted to nitrite to nitrate by the live rock. On the surface of the live rock, aerobic bacteria takes place and converts the ammonia to nitrite. Nitrite is then further converted to nitrate by anaerobic bacteria which lives deep inside the live rock. Chaeto does the final job to absorb the nitrate before it is built up too high and poses a threat to fauna.

Noticed that saltwater fish and corals do like current. This is another key point to take note.

**Solasido** · 11th Jan 2012, 23:36

Hi SeVenZ,

This website is really good for newbies in nano marine setup:

http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/

The idea in nano marine tank is to keep it simple.
It is a very good guide.

I have just setup my nano marine FOWLR tank (45cm cube tank). So far it has been good.
I used Nutafin Cycle to start up bacteria and added 2 clown fish, 1 yellow tail damsel and 1 fire shrimp about a day later. NH3 and NO2 are always in good range.

For smaller tank, you can setup the same and use distiller water from NTUC for water top up and water change weekly.

For my tank, I made my own DIY resin filter for deionizing tab water.

**Solasido** · 11th Jan 2012, 23:39

I use live rock and live sand for my tank. For brown algae control that start appearing after I put some live stock, I put 2 snails and they have done a very good job. My live rocks which was covered by brown algae is now so clean.