Had 125 3 years ago going to 13 gallon Evo

[remodman]

Hello everyone,
I have decided to get back into reef keeping and after 3 years out of the hobby my how things have changed. I have been doing some homework at the lfs and cant believe the changes that have come about since I have been gone.
Anyhow I was hoping those of you who have gone from a large tank (mine was a 125 with a 30 gallon sump) to a nano tank might be able to give me some ideas what to watch out for. I know the smaller ones react much faster to change but can you guys give me any advice to help make it a smooth start.
I am considering the Fluval 13 gallon evo tank because the wife does not want skimmers and stuff outside of the tank so self contained is important. I want to have an inch or so of live sand, live rock (How Much?) soft corals and a few small fish & clean up crew.

Thanks much!

Joe

 

[DocHogan]

Get a smart ATO and a 5 gallon bucket. Will help keep evaporation in check and salinity levels stable.

 

[Small Heavens]

Hi there Joe, welcome back as it where.
I put together a 16 gal self-contained tank, as a specimen tank for a LTA with saddleback clowns. I used a Juwel with internal filter and an ocean revive LED light, which I love.

To give the tank life beside the Anemone, I got 6 lava-strawberry zoanthids, a small greentipped pocillopora, mixed decorative macro algae, peanutworms to clean the LR and a random amount of tiny red nudibranch named Vayssierea Felis.

Avoid the tactic of feeding much and then use aggressive skimming to skim it back out.

That obviously does not work well with nanos.

With the self-contained nano, you can keep the natural spawn of the Zooplankton, in the water column, instead of removing it, only to start feeding manually.

I keep feather-worms, the tiny tiny types, and they spawn like crazy while cleaning the water column of organic particles. The spawn then gets eaten by the fishes, and the Felis nudibranch lives exclusively by eating the feather-worms.

... full use of the organic particles thus remain in the "natural" food-chain inside the aquarium.

I don't use any snails or shrimps, some fishes will want snails to eat, but clownfishes like to eat herbivore stuff & zooplankton. To make this work, you need to allow time for the lower food-chain to be well established, before adding any fish that will eat them.

I got a skimmer that does not do aggressive skimming but "looks" better because I had to place it in the tank (a glass Mame skimmer), so all I have outside the tank, is actually only the wires from the light, heater & powerheads, and two tubes, one to the Mame cup (love the design) and one to the airpump that drives the Mame

I removed the top of the juwel tank and replaced it with a glass lid that I keep on the tank at all times, and the airpump needs to run constantly, or that would ofcourse strangle the tank.

I just really don't like when ocean fish jumps out of tanks, and I am very happy with both the finish and the efficiency of the setup.

It took a while for me to get rid of the general "ugly tank" stage, so I started dropping a few drops of carbon to make the anaerobic bacteria optimalise their consumption of Phosphates and Nitrates and now I don't need any filters for nitrates or phosphates and the nuisance algae has cleared up.


...
Just plan EXACTLY what you want to have, EXACTLY.

You have 1-2 things perhaps, that you can't live without.
Then comes what your wife wants and can't live without.

Make sure you get things that match the specimens that are most important to you.

My setup I made just for the LTA and so far, it does not want the amount of light I was told to get for it, although I still love the light I picked (it's also about the finish of the setup, no one should have ugly tanks imo).

I have all I wanted to have, EXCEPT every time I get a star polyp, it dies for some reason.

Now I just need 1 star polyp to actually live & want to join the rest of the aquaria, so it can grow to cover some blank spots that I had planned this polyp to grow in ....
..and then everything will be perfect.

Make a plan and follow it, and I am sure you will both love the decision to get back to the Marine Hosting (hobby).

Enjoy.

 

[remodman]

Thanks you guys great advice, I will give the tank a lot of thought before diving in.

 

[BeachVacationer]

I have a Fluval Spec V (5 gallon) reef tank that's been running for almost 3 years now. It's small but a great tank, the bigger and upgraded brother is a nice AIO tank for easy corals.

 

[Small Heavens]

Nice, BeachVacationer, great advice, too many people think Nanos are completely impossible to keep.

 

[sleepingdeep]

ATO is key. i own the evo, so if you have any questions, just let me know. Don't waste your money on the fluval PS2 skimmer. it doesn't work well, and water changes should remove enough nutrients in your tank. I love the tank, my return has been silent and everything else is great. i would recommend a small powerhead for the tank as the return isn't really strong enough to get good flow throughout the tank.