New To Nano

[SLC Flyfishing]

Hi,

I recently purchased a jbj nano cube deluxe 12 gallon tank, I have wanted to do a nano tank for a while and am finally deciding to do it. However Iºve never done this before and so after reading through all your pinned topics still have a few questions:

1. Should I buy cured or uncured rock? I read that uncured may cycle faster so for a brand new tank might be favorable, but what does everyone think?

2. if I get cured rock will I need to do a fishless cycle similar to the one used in freshwater aquaria, i.e. adding small doses of ammonia or food to the tank to start the cycle? Or is there a different method that's reccomended/required.

3. In a 12 gallon nano cube, just what type of clean-up crew would you suggest? i.e.: how many shrimp vs snails vs crabs etc. I really love the emerald crabs and hope that I could make use of them but if not that is something that I'll have to accept.

4. Please make some suggestions on possible fish selection, I really love tiny gobies and wouldn't mind having a percula in there. (I've heard conflicting oppinion on whether or not a 12 gallon is suitable for a percula so would like further info.)

Please don't be annoyed by my newishness to all this, I won't be setting anything up for a few weeks at least and figured this would be a good time to do some serious research/brain picking before embarking.

Thanks in advance for your help, (and if steelhealr reads this post, good job on the FAQ pinned topic, it helped immensly in my decision to finally take the plunge.)

SLC

 

[SkiFletch]

1. If uncured rock is cheaper, buy uncured. If the prices you're looking at are the same, get cured.

2. Cured or uncured, SOME dieoff will occur on the LR you purchase. Remember, LR comes WITH the bacteria to process the nitrogen cycle allready so there's no need to do a fishless cycle. Unless you're gonna let it sit for over a month before adding livestock there's no need to add food to keep it going.

3. You could throw an emerald crab in there. The general rule of thumb is 1 cleaner per gallon, so in your case 12 individuals. I'd stay away from turbo snails in a nano and dont get blueleg hermits either cause they'll predate on your small snails and kill them in the small environment. Try to stick to trochus, nassarius, and cerith snails, along with scarlet (aka mexican red leg) hermits. You could also add astreas, but I dont have much luck with them.

4. 12g is ok for a single clown in my book. You might consider a perc and a goby/pistolshrimp pair, I know that's what I'd keep in a 12g along with lots of corals

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Thanks, I'll probably be having lots of questions in the future, hope that's OK

SLC

 

[SkiFletch]

Ask away my friend, better to have the knowledge than not have it and risk livestock

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Ok I came up with another,

I've got 2 24 watt 50/50 actinic bulbs under there, I'm pretty sure they're 10,000 K. Are these going to be sufficient for basic polyps and other softer corals?

 

[SkiFletch]

Sure. Usually a 50/50 PC bulb is 1/2 10000k and the other half 20000k. If you look at them, one will be blue looking while the other will be white . Those will be fine for basic polyps, soft corals, and probably most non-demanding LPS as well

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Sure. Usually a 50/50 PC bulb is 1/2 10000k and the other half 20000k. If you look at them, one will be blue looking while the other will be white . Those will be fine for basic polyps, soft corals, and probably most non-demanding LPS as well

Sorry, I'm 100% new to this but what does LPS stand for?

SLC

 

[rhysiboy]

Large Polyped Stony

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

OK thanks!

SLC

More questions to come