New To Marine - Some Advice Needed!

[andrewcoxon]

hi guys,

iv kept tropical fish for years but recently i got a free nano tank from my practical fish keeping subscription and i couldnt resist setting up a small marine tank. the tank is very small (30 Litres) so i just want to keep some shrimps/hermit crabs ect in there as my training for a bigger marine tank when i move out my parents house. basicall i need some advice!!

iv set the tank up with coral sand and 5 pounds of live rock last night and added the water.

iv bought a very small protein skimmer, and the tank comes with a small internal filter.

one of my questions is, do i run the internal filter as normal as iv read somewhere that i dont want it to become biologically active or should i tank the filter spunges out and use it soley for water movement and airation?

and the other question is how long should i leave it until its safe to add a shrimp or 2? as iv read that live rock instantly filters the tank for me.

So to summerise at the moment the tank has 5 plbs of live rock, coral sand, heater, protein skimmer, internal filter.

im sorry for all the questions!

any help would be great!
[
thanks and merry christmas!!

 

[rhysiboy]

firstly take of the venturi (bubbler thing) off the filter. bubbles are not good as they can cause embolisms in inverts and cause them to die. with the internal skimmer if you can take out the sponges then it would be good because they will start to harbour unfriendly bacteria that will work against your good bacteria and cause them to become 'nitrate and nitrite traps' not good. Id just use it without any of the sponges for water movement. Also great tank i like the pfk giveaawy tanks. shame they odnt sell em in the shops

now if you have a testkit then you need to test the water quality to chek that your conditions are all good for shrimp. I think they should be somewhere around ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate less than 20 ph 8.1 - 8.4.
If you dont have a test kit then you should get one. It is much more essential in the marine world and they are only about £25


rhysiboy

 

[andrewcoxon]

thanks, i will remove the venturi but how does oxygen get into the water? also i can remove the filter sponges but the filter also contains a plastic box full of carbon, should i take that out too?

all the best,

andy

 

[Redstratplayer1]

Oxegen enters the water via water movment.

By the way how many lph is the filter you need around 120 lph of movment in that sized tank.

Oh and welcome to the salty side of life.

 

[rhysiboy]

activated carbon is good. not sure what id does hthough think something to do with algae

 

[Ranger]

You should make it into a mantis shrimp tank! THAT would be exciting

 

[rhysiboy]

yer it would but if hes a begginer in the salty side of life not even the nano side theen aa mantis would be a bit of a challenge. still would be bloody great

 

[demonmagus]

why would it be a challenge? Just wondering

 

[rhysiboy]

ive always heard mantis require special care probably just duff information on my part. but yer they are amzing creatures

 

[Redstratplayer1]

Not hard but you have to feed live food like snails and fish

 

[SkiFletch]

Its a challenge to keep a mantis nano clean from what I've been reading. The shrimp and its feeding habits are easy to care for, but they're MESSY eaters and can foul up a tank if the owner is not prepared.

 

[andrewcoxon]

is there any smaller fish that i would be able to keep in a tank like this?

merry christmas!

 

[Redstratplayer1]

neon or clown gobies

 

[andrewcoxon]

cool! any others?

also what should i put in here as far as a clean up crew goes? and how many?

all the best,

andy

 

[andrewcoxon]

anyone?