13 Gallon Nano little advice

[Finch43]

Hello everybody this is my first post ever on Reef Central and my first saltwater tank! I have had FW tanks my whole life, so i understand setting up a new tank and Cycling which im currently in the process of doing.

It's a Fluval sea evo 12. I went to the local LFS and picked up 15 pounds of live Rock A 10 pound bag of live sand and picked up 15 gallons of RI/DO water. I started this tank up on Sunday fish less cycle with some flakes and a piece of raw tuna today the ammonia is reading in between 1-2 ppm so I'm on my way.

The live rock I bought is nice but I felt like I had to much in the tank so I took some out. Mostly rubble pieces and setup a little 2.5 gallon that I had laying around i'm going to use this as a quarantine tank.

okay so my actual questions:
1. Fish-I would like 3 a pair of clowns and a sand sifting goby what are your opinions on this combo or even some recommendations.

2. Cleaner crew- I have no idea how to go about setting one up with a good ratio of sifters and algae eaters all I know is I gotta have hermit crabs.

3. Just honestly curious on peoples thoughts on this setup in general if you see any mistakes i may have made etc.

I have attached some pictures of the setup please give me your honest opinions I'm a big boy i can take it =) also i have the ps2 protein skimmer figured why not extra filtration and a koralia nano 240 powerhead on the way for extra flow if i need it.

 

[bitwise]

I’d start with 5 trochus snails and a couple of smaller sized hermit crabs. I’m a big fan of trochus snails and have gotten them to reproduce in my nano tank.

 

[Finch43]

Hey thanks for the recommendation checked those snails out they have a pretty cool looking shell!

 

[Marouette21]

My Evo 13,5 gallons

My Evo 13,5 gallons

Hello,

I have exactly the same tank. It's 6 monthes old now.

First, I suggest to you to join this groupe on Facebook. All people with this tank
https://www.facebook.com/groups/386448848444255/

I started it with 13 lbs of dry rock and 10 lbs of life sand. Then I added 2 lbs of life rock.
My living are
- 1 clown
- 1 bicolor blenny
- 2 trochus snails
- 2 nassarius snails
- 1 cleaner shrimp
- 1 emerald crab

I have 5 littles corals for now. Hammer head, GSP, Recordia, Zoan and Montipora digitata

About the tank, I made couple of change with time.
- Add Hydor 240 water pump
- Made a structure with egg crate for the 2nd chamber. In it, I have Chemi pure blue, rowaphos and floss.
- In the chamber 1, I had the PS2 skimmer but finally removed it 2 weeks ago because I had too much trouble with it. It's a junk. If you doing water change each week, you don't need it. I'm doing 20% water change. Now, in the chamber 1 I have a UV light
- In the chamber 3, I have my heater and the return pump. For now it's the basic one but I wait for a new one. The Sicce 1.0 fit perfectly in the chamber and will increase my flow.
- Finally, I changed the light before to buy corals. I had trouble with alguae and the new light help a lot with that. I have the Ai prime HD

Hope that can help you. The group on Facebook is really helpful too.

 

[Marouette21]

Hello,

I have exactly the same tank. It's 6 monthes old now.

First, I suggest to you to join this groupe on Facebook. All people with this tank
https://www.facebook.com/groups/386448848444255/

I started it with 13 lbs of dry rock and 10 lbs of life sand. Then I added 2 lbs of life rock.
My living are
- 1 clown
- 1 bicolor blenny
- 2 trochus snails
- 2 nassarius snails
- 1 cleaner shrimp
- 1 emerald crab

I have 5 littles corals for now. Hammer head, GSP, Recordia, Zoan and Montipora digitata

About the tank, I made couple of change with time.
- Add Hydor 240 water pump
- Made a structure with egg crate for the 2nd chamber. In it, I have Chemi pure blue, rowaphos and floss.
- In the chamber 1, I had the PS2 skimmer but finally removed it 2 weeks ago because I had too much trouble with it. It's a junk. If you doing water change each week, you don't need it. I'm doing 20% water change. Now, in the chamber 1 I have a UV light
- In the chamber 3, I have my heater and the return pump. For now it's the basic one but I wait for a new one. The Sicce 1.0 fit perfectly in the chamber and will increase my flow.
- I have a ATO system, Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152 Auto Top Off
- Finally, I changed the light before to buy corals. I had trouble with alguae and the new light help a lot with that. I have the Ai prime HD

Hope that can help you. The group on Facebook is really helpful too.

 

[Marouette21]

Sorry, I want to modify my message to add my ATO system and I made a copy The second one is the good one!

 

[Finch43]

Hey Marouette21 thanks for the reply ill have to check out that Facebook group I was looking at all sorts of add ons and upgrades things sure can start to add up quickly!

 

[malacoda]

i can't speak from personal experience, but it's my understanding that sand sifting gobies require fairly large tanks (75g +) to avoid the risk of starving to death. I had contemplated getting one for my 24g, but the consensus seems to be that they sift through sand an deplete the microfauna that they feed off to quick in anything smaller ... and it can't regenerate fast enough to keep them nourished.

Not saying it can't be done ... just that you may want to do some further research into it before deciding to pull the trigger.

 

[stagcrazy]

will the lighting that comes with this tank be enough for zoanthids and some lps like hammers etc@

 

[Finch43]

I'm honestly quite new to the hobby but i did buy some coral frags from the LFS they have been in this tank for a couple of weeks and everything is looking good so far ive attached some pics it might be what your talking about

 

[BeachVacationer]

Marouette21, where did you get the cover for the tank. I'm looking to get that tank and need a cover too.
Thanks.

 

[perenesbuenos]

check out mine. I just set this up a couple months ago. Went full out on it and got the AI prime HD, Smart ATO nano, Protein skimmer.
So far is doing amazing.https://youtu.be/2lDVHgvbZlc

 

[perenesbuenos]

On another note. I moved the middle filter sponge to the first chamber and the skimmer to the first chamber. I then added a filter floss on top of the sponge so it will catch more debris from the overflow. It works amazing and not sure why no one has tried it.

 

[Subillbo]

Hey finch... looking good so far!
I have same tank, up for about 2 months. I have 2 clowns for fish so far - ocellaris and a Darwin.
Clean up crew - 2 trochus, 2 nassarius, conch and 2 hermits (1 scarlet and 1 Halloween). I also have a cleaner shrimp. So far so good with the fish and inverts. I also have had good success with my corals so far - have 6 zoa frags that have been multiplying, a hammer, GSP and a pulsing xenia......
Using hydor koralia 240, and using the intank media baskets (would highly recommend) love them!
And am currently using the center sump spot as a mini refugium with cheato and a small piece of LR
Down the road I will probably add another fish like a goby with a bunch more zoas!

 

[Subillbo]

Hey finch... looking good so far!
I have same tank, up for about 2 months. I have 2 clowns for fish so far - ocellaris and a Darwin.
Clean up crew - 2 trochus, 2 nassarius, conch and 2 hermits (1 scarlet and 1 Halloween). I also have a cleaner shrimp. So far so good with the fish and inverts. I also have had good success with my corals so far - have 6 zoa frags that have been multiplying, a hammer, GSP and a pulsing xenia......
Using hydor koralia 240, and using the intank media baskets (would highly recommend) love them!
And am currently using the center sump spot as a mini refugium with cheato and a small piece of LR
Down the road I will probably add another fish like a goby with a bunch more zoas!

Forgot to add.... I travel alot so got an ATO.... the tunze isolator nano aswell :beer::beer:

 

[Crusinjimbo]

My Fluval 13.5 has been online for 10 months with one large clown, an 8” and a 4” Monty, a Duncan and 300 Zola’s. All evacuees after the hurricane last year. Overcrowded, yep and that will be corrected soon. I use no mechanical filtration, GFO or carbon. I use the center chamber to grow turf algae by applying 14W of red/blue via to light bars taped to the glass running twelve on/off. I do a 2 gallon water change every 4 days. NO3/PO4 are undetectable. I manually harvest a handful every two weeks or so. My glass requires a swipe every 5-7 days or so. So far, so good.