I Want You!

[adam98150]

So, here's the deal, i'm attempting to get into the saltwater side of things. I have found a very nice 48L Nano Cube, complete with Filter / Pump, Heater, 2x T5 lights (10, 000 K), 8x Blue LED lights, and so on . . .

It is a Interpet River Reef Aquarium, and i have found it for just under £80.00, which i think is a reasonable price. The thing is, what are the dimensions? I can't find them anywhere!

My equipment list / cost also still needs to be sorted - Help.

I'm currently under going some research as i know nothing about the world of saltwater, so you may need to help me.

So, what equipment do i need? The salinity of the water needs to be? Total price is?

I'm also guessing i need a secondary pump to run alongside the current one, which supposedly does the tank ten times over within the hour. Any suggestions? Substrate suggestions?

I mainly want a small reef tank with several soft corals, i was hoping to have a skunk cleaner along with a few hermit crabs, as for fish i have no idea.

Thank you for the help, Adam.

Edit: We have a board for Nano's? Move if you wish.

 

[ox5477]

First off... heads up with the link. William (the Admin) of this site doesn't really like anybody to link to other online forums. If you PM him the next time before you put a link up, he may allow you to post it... just FYI

Second, this is a realtivily small tank, so there arn't too many fish to put in here. The classic nano fish like clown gobies and firefish would both work.

It seems that the back area of the tank is set-up more for a freshwater set-up. I would remove the bioballs and ceramic media (if this tank has them) and replace with some lr or a chamber for macro algae (if you can DIY a light into the back). If you keep on wc's, then a skimmer should not be necessary. Also, for the lights, are both T5 bulbs 10k whites? or is one a 10k and the other an actinic?

salinity of natural seawater is 1.026 (or I believe roughly 35 parts per thousand (3.5%)) though I keep mine at 1.024-1.025 to give myself a little lee-way for evaporation (as water evaps, salinity increases). If your going to keep corals you will want to read up on measuring and buffering for essential reef minerals such as calcium, alkainity (calcium carbonate), and magnesium. Also want to look into a phophate test kit to keep these low.

This might be a bit to throw at ya in one post... but this is some good baseline info I think

Ox

 

[adam98150]

First off... heads up with the link. William (the Admin) of this site doesn't really like anybody to link to other online forums. If you PM him the next time before you put a link up, he may allow you to post it... just FYI

Second, this is a realtivily small tank, so there arn't too many fish to put in here. The classic nano fish like clown gobies and firefish would both work.

It seems that the back area of the tank is set-up more for a freshwater set-up. I would remove the bioballs and ceramic media (if this tank has them) and replace with some lr or a chamber for macro algae (if you can DIY a light into the back). If you keep on wc's, then a skimmer should not be necessary. Also, for the lights, are both T5 bulbs 10k whites? or is one a 10k and the other an actinic?

salinity of natural seawater is 1.026 (or I believe roughly 35 parts per thousand (3.5%)) though I keep mine at 1.024-1.025 to give myself a little lee-way for evaporation (as water evaps, salinity increases). If your going to keep corals you will want to read up on measuring and buffering for essential reef minerals such as calcium, alkainity (calcium carbonate), and magnesium. Also want to look into a phophate test kit to keep these low.

This might be a bit to throw at ya in one post... but this is some good baseline info I think

Ox

That's a very informative post, thank you, Ox. I'll look into the things you have mentioned with great detail before purchasing, i'm sure i'll have many more questions to follow.

 

[kj23502]

Have you gone over to the marine journal thread? They have some smaller tanks there that you could look off of for information on what you may or may not want/need and also for potential fish ideas. I also think they have something pinned in the nano section that you could look over too!
Def read this.

Now a days, people are leaning more toward 20x tank turnover. That may be a bit much for a small tank though...you don't want a whirlpool

Definitely plan how you're going to get your water too. If you'll buy R/O or premixed saltwater from a lfs or if you'll get your own r/o system and do it all at home. If you have good access to a lfs and price is good, then it may work out good to just get it from them since you have a small system.

Right off hand you'll need: (usd)
1)A refractometer ($50 at the low end) or a Hydrometer (about $10ish)
2)skimmer if you want one...they aren't nec. as pointed out by ox
3)if you'll mix your own water you'll need
*bucket to mix it ($5-$10 or so)
*good reef salt mixture (depends on if you buy a little bag or go big. The bags I've seen are $15ish plus or minus and I think the big buckets can go for around $50 or more)
*good submersible sw heater for the bucket you're mixing it in($ varies by brand and up to you)
*power head for the mixing bucket to keep it churning to make sure it all gets mixed in good ($-not sure exactly...again it depends on what you want to buy for it and can be a smaller one if you're mixing in a smaller bucket)

A book I highly recommend for someone just starting in sw is The Conscienious Marine Aquarist By Robert Fenner. It's a REALLY good book. It talks a lot about the setup and equipment, here's the titles of the chapters
1. Systems
2.Basic Equipment
3. Filtration
4. Water
5. Setup and Aquascaping
6. Maintenance
7. Marine Algae
8. Foods and Feeding
9. Disease
10. Cyanide Collection

Then it goes to talk about tons of fish and inverts...including eels, lionfish, dottybacks, grammas, jawfishes, cardinalfishes, butterfly and angel fishes, clownfishes, wrasses, blennies and blennylike fishes, tangs, fanworms and feather dusters, mullosks and crustaceans and more!! I highly recommend this one. There are other books out there that you can get for corals. Read the Realm of Knowledge. That gives other good books too

 

[orange shark]

hi,

i know this is no help to you at all but im getting the same tank but the bigger version of it, so everybody who posts here will also be helping me lol

thanks