New Nano Diary

[jakeroberts]

Hi

I have Kept tropical fish and african cichlids for over a year now and I have finally managed to get my mum and dad to say yes for a marine nano. the tank im am going to be using is a 2 foot

EQUIPMENT:
- 2 Powerheads 500lph
-hydrometre
-thermometer
-100 watt heater
- salt (which brand should i get)
-coral sand
-Light with stock bulb 15 watt ( would this be any good for any type of coral)
- aquaone filter 400lph (i know small am getting another one)

I think i may have missed some things so if i have can u please tell me

im thinking of
-1 pajama cardinal
-1clown
-coral goby
-Blue damsel


with just a normal cleanup crew

is that all i need

any help would be apprectiated

 

[Anguilla82]

FYI the mandarin requires a very mature tank, as they live off of copepods, which in a new tank there isn't enough of, and even in a mature tank a nano would not be able to sustain them for long.
i know of some people who have managed to get them to feed on flake and frozen but this is very rare.

I would scrap the hydrometer and get a refractometer instead, they are far more accurate!!!

Salt is a personal thing. I use Tropic Marin, but which ever you use stick with it, as each has a slightly different composition.

would think about an extra powerhead for increase flow. The koralia nano is very good and not too big.

hope this helps.

I went from tropical to marine nano last year and it is a big jump!
sooooo much to learn, but well worth it.
just take things very slowly.
things take a lot longer in marines than in topicals.

 

[Splatter]

Hey

Just a forewarning - a 15gallon tank is considered a 'nano' in terms of marine and thus difficult. So I would advise taking things slow and be sure to read up on things you don't know /general advise over

As Anguilla82 said above, keeping the mandarin dragonet isn't a good idea as it does feed on copepods. Also I would say it needs a tank of around 30 gallons, rather than 15. The clown should be okay though, wouldn't know about the firefish, sorry.

I think you're going to need to get another powerhead of at least 200LpH for the tank at the very minimum - Marine tanks really need to have 10x their volume circling through them per hour. Although I would advise taking that to about 15 - 20, especially if you're gonna put corals in there.

As for salt I hear red sea marine salt is quite good, it's the salt my local LFS use and the salt that I will be using - but others will have more experience with different salts

You may also want to get live rock - it serves as a primary biological filtration method in the tank, if you get some corals and coraline algae it looks pretty good too! Also depending on how you're going to stock it you may want to look into a skimmer, but on a tank that size with one or two small fish you should be okay without one.

Out of curiosity, are you going to be keeping corals?

Hope that helped some,
Chris.

 

[Anguilla82]

just to add to what splatter has said:

the firefish will be fine in a nano, but stick to a single one as they get quite territorial.

live rock is a must as it forms the majority of your filtration.
unlike in tropical tanks where we use filter pads, these are often nitrate traps in marine tanks and therefore make it very difficult to keep your water parameters stable.

as for the skimmer, you can usually get away with regular water changes, but in some cases (when you have a few fish and thus are feeding them regularly) you may need a skimmer.

 

[jakeroberts]

Hi thanks for everyones coporeration
Splatter i will eventually want to keep corals and i aslo have another spare power head

 

[jakeroberts]

HI

Im curious as to what the specific gravity, Ph and tempertaure in a marine tank should be

 

[john.o]

Hello jake
I am also a newbie to marine reef keeping here is a link to a site I found very useful when it comes to water parameters
http/www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
hope this helps

 

[jakeroberts]

Hi thanks for that is is very helpful

 

[jakeroberts]

Well i finally have enough money to go out any buy all the stuff i need this is what im buying tomorrow
-hydrometre
-thermometre
-salt
-coral sand
-100 watt heater

toatl cost $82

then this weekend coming im getting a couple of kilo's of live rock

Since the light in my tank is only 15watt i will only be having live rock in the tank no coral. But i was haveing a look at highoutput t 5's. this was the deal 2 highoutput t 5s with 2 moonlights for $96 australian is this a good price also are high output t5s any good for keeping coral.

I was also thinking of upgrading my powerheads to 2 hydor koralia nano power heads at a later date, are these any good?

 

[jakeroberts]

hi well i have just gone out and bought everything to start my nano this is what i bought today
- 2 kg bag of salt
-5 kg cruched coral
-hydromotor
-themometre
2 kg of live rock

will post pictures soon

 

[Splatter]

Since the light in my tank is only 15watt i will only be having live rock in the tank no coral. But i was haveing a look at highoutput t 5's. this was the deal 2 highoutput t 5s with 2 moonlights for $96 australian is this a good price also are high output t5s any good for keeping coral.

It depends how deep the tank is and which coral you want to keep, if the tank is less than 18 inches deep then they'll be good for keeping coral depending on the output

Corals that need low to medium light like Zoas, Trumpets, open brains and ricordea should do great with HOT5s though

 

[jakeroberts]

Hi thanks fo rthat help i will post pictures of my tank later. but so far i have not found any hicthhickers and the liove rock has been in there for 24 hours
Ph is about 8.1
Salinity 1.024

 

[cuticom]

If your looking for good cheap supplies have a look here
http/www.guppysaquariumproducts.com.au

They'll be back online on the 29th, and they have the cheapest prices in any Australian Online store

http/www.aquariumproducts.com.au
Is also another good one.

 

[jakeroberts]

Thanks for those links i actually use aquariumproducts.com.au cause they are only about half an hour away from me they are very good

 

[jakeroberts]

have spotted a couple of hitchhickers in my tank today 2 snails and 1 feather duster