Never had saltwater, ever... Questions

[DrawnToBeaches]

I'm already fairly confident I want a very small nano tank however I want a sump there is no if or but about that. The lighting I'll figure out with trial and error because I'm finding out I really like to DIY stuff... Anyway...
First question what is a suitable size sump for say a 12" cube or a mr aqua 17g. What are some essentials for a simple nano, I'm only looking to house a clown and a smaller goby and maybe some crustaceans and an anemone and maybe a couple easy corals. And can a tunze power head be used in such a small nano?

 

[footballdude2k3]

Get the biggest sump that you can, with a tank that small the water parameters will be all over the place, you would be fine with a tunze, you will not really hear people say "oh no that is too much flow." It just depends on what you want to keep, are you going to do coral at all?

 

[furman589]

I started with a biocube. It is very hard to keep parameters in check with such low water volume. For your sump size go as big as you can to help keep it stable. You will be upgrading to a large reef in a year, trust me

 

[shifty51008]

A tunze 6015 would be a good size pump for a 17 gal.

Your pushing it though if you wanna keep an anemone in such a small tank with other corals.

But i agree the biggest sump you can fit and afford would be best to keep parameters more stable sence this will be your 1st sw tank. Just go real slow and wait about a year aftet the tank has been setup before attempting an anemone

 

[DrawnToBeaches]

Nah I have a large fresh water just want a piece of the ocean in my room, and although i would love some tangs I'm going to stay nano untill I own my home and can mess with all the plumbing as far as the sump is concerned I think I can use a 40 breeder and just put it on the floor behind the tank and access the sump from the side, what's an ideal water volume? Is a skimmer a must? Should I use reactors? I'm running co2 on my freshwater if that can be of use I can add another valve to that system. Think I'll be going 30g tall or a mini cube one or the other. Idk yet but I'm going to start with the lighting first then go from there

 

[DrawnToBeaches]

Anemone are that hard huh? Tis a bummer I was eyeballing a pretty yellow one at an lfs and a snowflake clown

 

[squishifishi]

no tangs!!! tangs definately need a bigger tank. You should get a goby/pistol shrimp pair. those ar super cool.
be aware that clowns are picky when it comes to anemones so you have to get the right kind.
can't wait to see how this turns out!
what kinds of coral are you thinkingof?

 

[someotherguy]

There is no "ideal" water volume. In general, the more volume the better simply because the whole system will be much more stable. A good size sump also allows you to hide all the ugly equipment and keep your display tank nice and clean looking. A 40 breeder would be a great sump and would give you plenty of room to put stuff in.
Reactors work great, but you can always dump some media in bags into sump and let them work passively. If you can somehow fit in refugium, that would help a lot.
It's not that anemones are really "hard", it's more that they need a really stable system, and you're not going to get that in a new tank.

 

[nynick]

You can easily keep a bubbletip anemone in that tank. They are pretty hardy and even if they can wander about they rarely kill corals. Try to find one that has split from another hobbyist. They tend to be very easy to care for and already used to life in an aquarium.

...and yeah, as big a sump as you can fit in. More water volume = easier and more stable.

 

[tone0026]

Careful with those easy corals specially kenya tree or gsp. I have a 12g mr aqua and I'm constantly throwing kenya trees away the gsp also grows out of control if I could do it again I would not add those two.
I run a tunze 9002 skimmer on mine and it gets pretty dirty so I'm guessing its a good thing.