My Virgin Nano Marine Tank

[dnsfpl]

15" x 15" x 12"(H) tank
800L/hr hang on filter
12v DC fan x 4
55w PL light
15kg of live rocks/sand
will add 1-2 clown fish after 2 weeks of cycling

are there any pointers for newbie like me?
any tips to improve the rocks arrangement?
thanks a million

[planted86]

this tank is not cycled yet?? next time don't add coral in when its not cycled... might kill your coral...

rockscape wise not bad... alot of holes... for fishes to hide and to put your coral...

[Kristen]

#1 - your rock arrangement looks really good! Sadly, my tank arrangement sucks As long as things survive lol

#2 - your sand bed is WAYWAYWAYWAYWAY too deep. For nano tanks, the more water volume you have, the safer for the fish. There is no need for sand beds too deep, an inch or less should suffice.

#3 - 2 week cycling is way too short for marine. Take out a rock and smell it. If it smells bad or smells like the sea then your tank isn't ready. If your rock has no smell at all then it's ready.

#4 - your water looks really orange and cloudy. Are you using any filter media? Carbon and anti-phos media is the least you can add. Also, your tank might be looking orange because of algae - which means you might be using unpurified (a.k.a. tap) water for your tank. This is also suicide. I learned the hard way You should use reverse osmosis or distilled water. Trust me on this.

#5 - your lights... seriously cannot make it. You need T5 lights in actinic blue and daylight white for corals to survive. They rely on algae inside them to produce simple sugars for them during photosynthesis in order to survive. The stronger the light, the better. If you don't want to make this investment, then go for fish only with live rock (much easier, less heartache).

I learned all these things the hard way :P Hope these tips save you the agony I went through lol.

[dnsfpl]

1. thanks but a lot of bro say too many rocks

2. the more the live sand, the more BB thus easier to manage right?

3. all the live rocks/sand including the water are taken from a mature tank

4. i am using wool and activated carbon. any better suggestion?

5. i am looking for a 55w blue/white bulb


thanks for the information

[EvolutionZ]

no skimmer? thought that skimmer is the most important equipment in a marine set up?

[Kristen]

1. thanks but a lot of bro say too many rocks

2. the more the live sand, the more BB thus easier to manage right?

3. all the live rocks/sand including the water are taken from a mature tank

4. i am using wool and activated carbon. any better suggestion?

5. i am looking for a 55w blue/white bulb


thanks for the information

Mm nano tanks usually have a problem placing the skimmer Some of them use the skimmers only at night then take it out in the day.

Now:

#1/#2 - actually the more rocks the better, since your rocks will cultivate BB. At least a third of your tank should be live rock. However, the sand under the upper layers will not be sifted to be exposed to oxygen and thus, bacteria cannot grow anyway. So you want live rocks, more than live sand

#3 - Maybe it's your light colouring then... hmmm might me. Guess I was wrong

#4 - Use anti-phosphates too, keeps down algae, which is evil.

#5 - Awesome the more light the better.

[dnsfpl]

any pointers for me to take note in keeping sea anemone and regal tang?
are they easy to keep/maintain?
thinking of keep them together with my clown fish

thanks

[budak]

wouldn't that overcrowd the tank?

[BFG]

You should remove a few of the so called live rock as they are actually dead coral skeleton. I see 3 of them from the 1st picture.

[dnsfpl]

will they cause any harm to the tank?

i find the design nice

[BFG]

Nope, just that it occupy too much space in the tank. Also, a tang has no business to be in your nano tank. You'll be cramping it's style of swimming. A pair of clownfish is enough for such a small tank.

[dnsfpl]

noted...thanks a million

[beetlejuice403]

Wow bro, you are sure fast to set up your marine nano tank... (you must be those kind 'fast legs fast hands' kind... )

Anyway, your set up looks nice with the liverocks and live sands... Agreed that it's best not to intro any livestocks to the tank in the process of cycling (that includes corals of any type...), better to tahan til when the tank is fully cycled... Even when it's fully been cycled, better to intro the livestocks in a stage-basis (rather than to add all livestocks at one go & suddenly causing an upset to the bioload...)

You may choose to remove some of the liverocks & livesand so as to allow more swimming space for your fishes (although your current scape does allow for many hideouts - it also mean harder to see your livestocks once you add them into the tank... ). DSB is recommended more for bigger tanks as space is not a constraints, unless you intend to keep those livestocks that likes to dwell into the sandbed (e.g. like gobies etc...)...

Keeping a Tang in a nano is quite impossible due to limited space & it can grow quite big in the future... Think fishes suitable for nano like ours will be those like clownfish, damsel, some wrasse etc...

Do keep us updated on your nano... Cheers!!!

[dnsfpl]

i guess i have to keep clown fish and yellow tail damsel instead

by the way, must i treat the distilled water with anti chlorine?

thanks

[Kristen]

Yellow tailed damsels are very aggressive so better take note. Also I suggest introducing your anemone in after a month or so as it's quite a delicate creature. Clown fish don't necessarily need them to survive also.

Have you removed most of the sand? XD

[dnsfpl]

i will rescape this week end
remove some rocks, dead corals and clean up the sand

slow and steady haha

[beetlejuice403]

Yellow tailed damsels are very aggressive so better take note. Also I suggest introducing your anemone in after a month or so as it's quite a delicate creature. Clown fish don't necessarily need them to survive also.

Have you removed most of the sand? XD

Bro dnsfpl,

do agree with bro Kristen that most damsels are aggressive in nature (think there are 1 or few kind of damsels that are not, but can't remember its name offhand...). If you are really keen in the clownfish - yellow tailed damsel (YTD) pair, then maybe it's advisable to do the following:

1) Get a clownfish that's slightly bigger in size than the YTD;
2) Intro the Clownfish into your tank 1st before the YTD - if you do the other way round, the YTD can be very territorial & hence aggressive when you intro Clownfish...

As for anemone, agree too that it's not really a must to have alongside with a clownfish... although it is the case in the natural habitat. I have my common clownfish in my nano tank with just a bunch of red macroalgae & it's now hiding & resting among it all day long, except during feeding time... From what I understand, anemone is quite sensitive to water parameters changes - more so than some corals - especially so in a Nano setup...

Cheers!!

[beetlejuice403]

i guess i have to keep clown fish and yellow tail damsel instead

by the way, must i treat the distilled water with anti chlorine?

thanks

Hi bro, for my case, I do not treat the distilled water with anti-chlorine anymore all these while (Paiseh, I do not know if distilled water contains any of those chlorine & chloramine in them anyway...) & my livestocks are doing fine so far [except for my recent red starfish's demise which I guess is due to either: (A) attacked by some creature which left a gapping wound on its body; (B) high nitrate in my water... ]

If you are using Distilled water, better to focus more on getting good marine salt to mix it...

[Kristen]

Bro kristen is a girl Maybe should be Sis Kristen? But then I sound like a nun hahaha...

By the way - I recommend Reefmax salt. Fast to mix, lots of trace elements. Don't use Red Sea. It takes forever to dissolve and there's always residual granules that won't go away -.-

[dnsfpl]

i am using tropic marin salt, recommended by the bro who sold me live rocks/sand

did another test on my water
results where similar to the ones tested last saturday
ammonia/nitrite 0
nitrate - no test kit
pH 7.8-8.0
temperature 26.5-28
salinity 1.02

are there any more crucial parameter i need to test?

thanks