My First Nano Reef Tank

G

GregK

New member
Hi guys,
I've been into freshwater aquariums for several years, and I'm now ready to get into saltwater. I've seen a lot of amazing looking nano reef tanks on here and really want to get one set up. I've been reading through a lot of posts here trying to get a handle on all of the information I need to know to get started.

Here's my plan: I've just ordered an Aquapod 24 gallon (the one with the 150 W HQI lamp). That's my purchase for this month, gotta take it kind of slow to budget everything. Next month, I'll be getting test kits, filter floss, a replacement pump for the stock one that comes with the Aquapod. The replacement pump is probably going to be either a Maxijet 1200 or 900, suggestions?

Then in April, I'm going to be buying the live rock, etc for the tank and actually get it started. I've read a lot of good things about Tampa Bay Saltwater, so I'm planning on getting their "package" from them. For my size tank, their package consists of:

48 pounds of live rock
24 pounds of live sand
24 blue leg hermit crabs
12 Astrea snails
2 Tiger Tail cucumbers
1 serpent or brittle star
1 peppermint shrimp

As I said, I've already ordered the aquarium, so can't change that, but if any of you more experienced reefers (which right now is all of you) have any changes or additions to any of the above, I would be very grateful.
 
The MaxiJet1200 is a good idea.

Yikes, that is a lot of liverock and a pretty large cleanup crew. No way you need 2 cukes, even one might be more than you need. I prefer Nassarius snails to handle the sandbed.

I had a brittle star in my 24, mine was way to big, had to take him out. 24 hermits is about double what you actually need.

Where do you live (State?) Maybe we can find a local vendor who lives close enough that you might be able to change some things.
 
I live in Virginia. Haven't been able to find any good (or even decent) lfs. That's also part of the reason why I'm waiting until April to get the live rock and critters. I want it to warm up a bit before I bring in any animals. For the last couple of weeks here it has been getting down to around zero at night. I figure that's too cold to safely bring them safely from the airport.

From what I've been reading, the live rock serves as the basis for the tanks filtration. However, a lot of people seem to also use things like purigen and/or chemipure. Any thoughts on those? Will the live rock provide enough filtration for a 24 gallon tank or should I also plan to use something like purigen?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9267647#post9267647 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by colinadam
Yikes, that is a lot of liverock and a pretty large cleanup crew. No way you need 2 cukes, even one might be more than you need. I prefer Nassarius snails to handle the sandbed.
Click to expand...

I thought it seemed to be a bit excessive too, but figured this guy knows what he's doing. And I've read a lot of positive testimonials about his products and service. He's got a website at http://www.tbsaltwater.com and there is also a forum for Tampa Bay Saltwater here on this site. Maybe you, or someone else with more experience than I have, could check it over and see what you think? Obviously, any company is only going to post the best testimonials on their own site, but the feedback here is also strongly positive.

One other question: What would be a good size heater for a 24 gallon tank?
 
A good sized heater is a 75W one, I use Ebo Jaggers from Premium Aquatics.

Chemi-pure and purigen are vital to nano reefs IMO. If you want to do anything with corals you need to keep your nitrates down as low as you can and these chemical media's help to do that, I personally would not run a tank without them but you are right, Live Rock should be an is the main filtration method.

As for the live rock you chose I have heard good things about TBS and know of people who have gotten stuff from them.
You get live rock with a lot of life on it (sponges, hitchhikers like mantis shrimps, etc....)

Virginia is close to Raleigh, North Carolina, home of Reef Science, he has some nice rock as well.

http://www.reefscience.com/web/live_rock.php

The trick is to see if he is close enough so that if he ships it Ground it will still get to you next day (If your within 150 miles of him you should get it next day, even 2 day in April won't be bad, you'll just have a longer cycle). It's a good way to save some money.

He also has some Inverts so you might be able to get your cleanup crew from him, especially if you tell him in advance what your looking for. Like I said Nassarius snails are the best for the sand. Cernith snails eat diatoms and a lot of algae's, Nerite snails are small but do a good job cleaning my rock and glass and get some scarlet hermits to eat leftover food that falls to the bottom and waste.
I'd do
5-6 Scarlet Hermits
10 Nassarius Snails
4 - Cernith
4 - Nerite

That's all you really need, you don't need starfish, cukes and all that, trust me, I had a brittle star die on me, not enough food in our nano's to support them.


I know Yellowdesmo here in this forum likes Reef Science and their live rock and the owner sounds like a good guy so maybe in March you can send him a message and see if he can get the cleanup crew you want.
He has a forum so if you have any question on his products you can post there:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=327



If he can't get what you are looking for you could easily have a cleanup crew delivered 2 day delivery, I got mine from www.premiumaquatics.com.

Hope that helps
 
Last edited:
Whoops, I should mention you want to get the rock first, let it cycle (probably 3 weeks) then get the cleaners.
 
I like the MJ 900's 9watts instead of 20 on the 1200's, and they get good flow, but don't run as hot. I have a 1200 in my 30L and its a little too much. Will downgrade as soon as possible.

All the MJ's are the same size (body), seems they pushed the style to the limit on the 1200, they probably tryed even more power and ran into problems. :)
 
Colinadam, Bri Guy,
Thanks for all of the great info. I'll definitely check out the Reef Science guy in Raleigh. Raleigh is about 200 miles from me, so getting a delivery in 1 day probably wouldn't happen, but I'll definitely see what he has.

I'll also definitely plan on getting both the Chemi-pure and purigen for the tank. I'll pick that up next month when I buy all of the other accessories.

Concerning Bri Guy's comments about the different power usages of the Maxijet 1200 vs the 900, would I be better off going with two 900s instead of one 1200, or would that be too much flow? Is there such a thing as too much flow for a nano reef? I've always read that more is better.
 
More is better to a point, if you get corals there are some that you don't want to get blasted.

I have a MaxiJet1200 in place of the stock pump and a Maxijet 600 inside the display.

If you want to try something look at the "hydor flo" on Dr. Foster and Smiths website, you can go with 2 Maxijet 900's and add that to one of the powerheads. It not only creates random flow but also does restrict some flow coming from the pump.
 
I checked out the Hydor flo. It looks interesting. If I did get it, would I have to put it ona powerhead inside the display or could it go one one that is in a back chamber?

As far as corals go, I'm still looking around. Here is the corals I would like to have: frogspawn, candy cane, maybe a brain coral. I also really like the look of feather dusters in general.

As for fish, I was thinking about getting one or two clowns and a firefish.

Would all of these be compatible or would there be problems with them being in the same reef tank.? The tank I've ordered has a 150 w MH HQI light in it, 6 white leds, and 6 blue leds for nighttime lighting.
 
Great coral and fish choices. Just get some peaceful Percs, I made the mistake and got a Clarki that was mean (killed my first firefish, had to take him back).

The frogspawn and candycane are 2 that like some moderate flow not directly blasted. Never had a brain coral.

I have my frogspawn in the top left of the tank, right in front of the intake so the water that flows hits it and tosses it's tentacles, that's really a good place for it.

I keep my candycane on the sandbed, I have 5 color morphs now, will be 7 tonight.

If you want to see a pic check out this thread, I just posted one of my tank (Page 36)

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9272305#post9272305


You know what, your AP should come with Loc-line tubing, instead of the regular return nozzle it will have plastic black tubing and a split Y connector so you have 2 nozzles and can aim them in other places. My Nanocube didn't come with that.

Not sure if the hydor flo is something you will even want to add if you get the loc-line but if you did I would add it to the powerhead in the display if you want to do 2 pumps.
 
Colinadam,
Thanks again for all of the great advice. I checked out your tank on the thread you mentioned. It looks incredible. How long has that tank been set up? Is it the 24 gallon Nanocube you site in your signature? I can't believe how much stuff you have in it and how great it all looks!

How often do you do a water change? On my 55 gallon freshwater tank, I do about a 20% water change each week. Is that a reasonable schedule for a reef tank as well (unless I'm having problems with water quality like high ammonia, etc)?

I'll check my AP for the loc-line tubing you mention once it gets here. I don't recall reading anything about it in the product descriptions. If it does have that, do you think it would be adequate to just have the Maxijet 1200 as the only pump in the tank and have the nozzles point in different directions?
 
Conlinadam,
One other question. What kind of lighting are you using in your tank? Since mine has 150w mh, will that be too much light on the frogspawn if mine is as close to the top of the tank as yours is, or do they really like a lot of light?
 
Hey Greg,

Yep that's just my Nanocube 24, now you can see why I use all the media :)
Tank has been setup since April of 06.

I do weekly water changes (just did one this morning), usually 5 gallons which is on the high side, usually people can get away with 3 gallon water changes.
Water quality issues in saltwater are more like high nitrates or phosphates, you shouldn't see ammonia after you add the live rock and it cycles (Unless a fish dies) but you are right, 3 gallons as long as everything is o.k., if something is out of whack up the number of gallons.

I think if you have locline and upgrade to a maxijet 1200 that would probably be enough but it's one of those things where you'll have to see and cross that bridge when you come to it.

I ditched the stock lighting and just got a new hood a couple months ago, it's 108W of PC lighting. Mine loves it high up there, I actually had a friend come over and he said "Wow, I thought my frogspawn looked good, yours is huge".
Only 2 heads:
Frogspawn.jpg


I guess his doesn't puff out as much.

As with any coral it is best to start it towards the bottom and slowly move it up over a period of a couple weeks to acclimate it to your specific lighting, corals can get burned or bleached by not light acclimating them, especially under your MH lights. I think it would be fine in the same spot in your tank as long as you acclimate it, another good reason to put it there is because it does have a sweeper tentacle that comes out at night and will sting other corals so things like frogspawn, hammers and torches need to be given space.

Another good site for nano's is www.nano-reef.com, they have both an all in one section for tanks like ours and a member aquarium section if you want to keep a running log of your progress.

Or if you want feel free to join the link I gave you earlier, it's just a bunch of us with nano's swapping pictures and advice, basically a running diary of our tanks. The first 10 pages is great and full of info, after that it's just an update free for all. Slukachs tank is pretty cool, especially for all of 2 months old.

Good luck with the new tank.
 
One more question. I've been reading about RO/DI units. Is there any particular model/brand you would recommend?
 
I have a Typhoon III from Air Water Ice. Very nice and simple unit, easy hookup, comes color coded and with a manual.

I have also heard great things about The Filter Guys and have ordered a replacement filter from them, very helpful guys, I talked to Jim on a Sunday and he helped me out.
If you go with The Filter Guys

http://www.thefilterguys.biz/ro_di_systems.htm

I would get this unit

$135.00 - OCEAN WAVE FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI

The 4 stage isn't gonna work for you, you need the DI Resin which the 4 doesn't have. You can either get the 5 stage with inline DI Resin or with the Extra chamber of resin for $15 more. I like the inline resin myself, easier to change and saves more space.

So those are my 2 picks, either one you should also invest in a TDS meter, that will tell you when to change your prefilters on the machine (I got about 7 months on my DI Resin, 2 carbon blocks and sediment prefilter, as an FYI Membranes will last 2-3 years)

Here's a good TDS meter

http://www.thefilterguys.biz/tds_meters.htm

$21.00 - HM-4 DIGITAL TDS TESTER

Also if Customer Service is a factor I would go with the Filter Guys, you might need some advice installing it and I know Jim is helpful. While I have zero complaints with Air Water Ice I have heard horro stories from people recently and they have recently been banned from the site (which is why I didn't type their URL, if I did it wouldn't come up).
 
i see you are from virgina ,,i would sugest that you give good old drMac a try he is in mariland i think he would be closer then nc ,,,DR MAC has inverts the best live rock arround ,,i just got 20lbs from him of the tong fusion for my aquapod 24 great stuff ,,,not to mention he will have everything you need as for live stuff ,,good luck
shawn
 
colinadam,
Thanks again. I'll check out the Filter Guys website more fully when I get home tonight (can't do too much of this from work of this research from work :)). I did go there just briefly. It looks like they have a TDS meter as an available add on to the model you recommended. Is it any good, or would I be better off with the separate model you suggested?

Also, where do you have your RO/DI set up?

Fragman,
I live in Roanoke, Virginia. So I am actually closer to NC than MD. But thanks for the tip.
 
The little handheld is $15 cheaper and it works great. I have the same type.

You can install the unit permanetly somewhere if you would like but right now I have it hooked to a faucet in a spare bathroom.
 
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