Thinking Of A 23g Nano

[dave_oddballs]

i'v always wanted a nice reef tank, i just dont want to jusp straight in with a 6 footer yet! just been looking around and come across one of the nano reef tanks at my lfs, its 23 g with metal halide lights, heater, filter and protein skimmer aswel as a few other bits, he just mentioned that a lot of people would ad a chiller due to the halide lights being close to the water surface? guess it makes sense.
i know very well, given the space and time, the bigger the tank, the easier it is to keep stable, and basically easier in that respect.
he told me i would be able to keep corals, anemones, shrimps, lemon peel angel, scooter blennies, starfish, clowns, mandarin gobies and similar, not all in the 1 tank but just giving me some ideas as to what could live in there.
information on these sort of small reef set ups would be greatly appreciated!!
i really like the idea of the lemon peel angel, he said it would be ok but i'm a bit unsure so info on this would also be appreciated
thanks

David

 

[bae1994]

to the salty side

 

[Crazy fishes]

Alright Dave first and foremost welcome to the forum!! Secondly, lets look at those animals you mentioned as many are really not that suitable for a nano. Anemones and starfish are really not at all suitable for a nano; starfish grow too large as a general rule and anemones grow large and require an expert touch for long term survival. If you get it wrong with anemones they CAN crash your tank. Scooter blennies and mandarin gobies are also generally not the best options for a nano although if you are really really thorough you can keep them going for some time. Mandarin gobies usually starve to death as they only accept live copepods which is a bloody nuisance to breed unless you have a refugium. Scooter blennies require a mountain of algae to keep them going, so once again there frequently starve. If you wish to keep corals it is usually advised to stay away from lemonpeel dwarf angels as they peck corals to ill health and eventually death. Shrimps and clowns are fine though !! If you are new then start with some easy to care for little fellows like clowns, damsels, banggai cardinals and fire gobies. Also you can have some of the wrasse family as well. I suggest you get an idea what corals you want to keep and then work from there as they really are what dictates the stocking level.

Come back with the specification of the tank like dimensions, lighting power rating and flow rate etc and we can work from there.

Hope this helps

Regards

 

[dave_oddballs]

hi,
Yes that helps alot! Thanks.
I wil try and get the info mentioned and get back to you!
I really like the banggai cardinals so thats good, ye a like clowns but thats why a wanted anemones because i thought clowns liked them.
Just out of intrest, how do corals affect the stocking level?
Thanks
David

 

[Crazy fishes]

Stocking level determines how fast nitrates and phosphates rise. Corals have different tolerance to nitrates and phosphates. Generally soft corals will tolerate a little more nitrate and phosphate than say SPS hence if you wish to have an SPS reef your stocking level is lower to keep the water maintainance managable. Corals also depend on light and flow rate plus pattern of flow for good health; it changes depending on the coral. More lighting is generally better but not always same with flow.

Once we have the tank information we can look at your options closer.

Regards

 

[black molly3]

word of advice. dont rush like i nearly did. haha take a look at my journal it was basically a cold war haha. but yeh i would probably start off with clowns and damsels like metioned before. soft corals should be fine under a hallade. what is the power of the light. i wouldnt go with anemones as they are hard to look after and if your a begginer like me the odds are it will probably die on you haha. however there are some corals what look like anemones if you realy wanted the anemone look in your tank. things like the tourch coral. i quite like frogspawn and hammers but all these 3 corals are aggressive and sting other corals so read up haha. take advice from these people they are here to help you.
good luck