My Nano Diary......for A Real Beginner!

[ice maiden]

Well guys I went to my Lfs today to have a look round at equipment for my nano set up that I wanted, to find that they already have a superb sample up and running there, which is looked after by a very knowledgable young man.....after chatting to him for a good half hour I decided to go for it....so came away a fair few quid lighter but with all the neccessary equipment to get it up and running.......

I will start later on and will try to do a real step by step for you.....it will be nothing as technical as the guys on here already have done....they are far more experienced than I and their diarys are superb and very informative.......

So watch up for the highs and lows.....and wish me luck!!!!!!!!

I would highly recommend Swallow aquatics at Aldham Essex.......for anyone local enough to get there!!!!

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Sounds good! Looking forward to following your progress

Dan

 

[Clownfish11790]

Good Luck. _CF

 

[steelhealr]

Welcome aboard....take your time...don't rush anything....don't add anything on a rash decision or before it's time. And the fun begins....SH

 

[trekbear]

IceMaiden,

Welcome to the addiction!

As SH has forewarned, be patient. Don't buy ANYTHING without research first. Never trust the LFS. If you don't know anything about a coral or fish don't buy it until you know for certain what it is, what it's requirements are and how big it will get eventually.

As for the ups and downs, well there will be some of those. Mostly ups though . a diary will allow you to see what has come about in the life of your tank and also allows us to have another tank to look at on the web .

Bon Chance!
TB

 

[steelhealr]

oh yeah..as per Trekbear.....as questions HERE first.....agree re: trusting the lfs. SH

 

[ice maiden]

Thanks guys, I already decided that I will trust you guys first......

Well had my first down side, built the cabinet....got the tank out of the box.....and it has a crack top to bottom....so back to LFS for me tomorrow....just hope this isnt a bad omen!!

 

[@ombomb]

at least it cracked BEFORE you put the water in

 

[steelhealr]

Agree....one of the MOST important steps ofttimes skipped is water testing....testing equipment, temps, etc. You wouldn't want to have it happen on a FW either, but, when it happens on a SW tank, the loss is horrible. SH

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Sad news But like everyone else said it least you found it before you added any water.
Bad Omens......Trust me i've had more than one of those with the startup of my nano

Dan

 

[ice maiden]

A quick update.....LFS changed the tank yesterday with no quibbles at all.....

so now we are on the move, will post pics tonight once its up and running, and a run down of what I am using.....

This whole nano thing has got me hooked!!!

 

[Luanda Pym]

I'm desperate to know how this all goes and will be keeping a close eye.
I was warned off keeping a nano-tank marine set up as it was "more hassle that you can imagine!"
But I have a spare 18gal tank and have been wondering what to do with it. i'll be reading your diary to see how much trouble the whole thing is truthfully.
Wonderful, good luck , i hope it is little trouble (coz i want one!!! hahaha)
Cheers
Lu

 

[ice maiden]

Well we are all up and running, I mixed up the salt water last night got it up to temp etc, added it to the tank tonight, at the moment, all systems are running smoothly lol......

temp is 23 deg is this right?

and the SG is 1.023

have now added the live sand, so the tank has clouded over.......

my set up is a 20 gallon aqua world mini aquarium, which came with a filter unit and heater

I have added extra ceramics into the filter and also Rowa phos and also Bio chem Zorb

Just need to wait for the water to clear now before I go any further....

Am I right in thinking I need roughly 5 -7 kg of live cured rock in a tank this size?

 

[Mr Miagi]

23C is a bit on the cool side. Might want to bump that up a little. I keep my tank on 26C. 5-6Kg sounds reasonably low. It depends what kind of aquascape you do. I think you will be more likely to go through 10-15kilos in a 20gal. Its looking good though!

 

[steelhealr]

Man..those UK/US conversions....78-84 degrees is OK in my books with 79-82 optimal. The key is not one of those absolute temps but STABILITY. You don't want 84 degrees during the day and 78 degrees at night.

I'm not a big fan of ceramics....I kicked them out of my systems since the LR is the main source of denitrification/filtration.

20G tank would need about 25lbs of LR. SH