New to RC and new to SW

[mikiel1984]

Hey RC Forum,

This is my first post to this forum and my first dive into the great world of saltwater tanks. I have kept freshwater for several years now and I have been wanting to setup a SW tank for quite some time now. When I first started this process I thought I wanted to start with Seahorses but the more I read the more I realized that they are more complicated than just keeping SW. At this point I decided just to do a nano reef until I make sure I know what I am doing. This weekend I found a great deal on CL that I couldn't pass up so I picked it up.

I now am the proud owner of a JBJ 12g Nano DX. See photo below.

The tank came with the following:

1 - Full tank and hood setup.
2 - Heater
3 - Koralio Nano 240gph
4 - Thermometer
5 - Tank cleaner
6 - Live Sand and Rocks
7 - 1 Yellowtail Damsel
8 - Cleaning Crew (includes 1 emerald green crab, 1 sally lightfoot crab, 2x turbo snails, 3-4 hermit crabs and 1 sand sifting starfish) Might be a bit to much but I will balance as needed.

The tank had been fully cycled prior to me getting it so now I am just making sure nothing is wrong and testing the levels before adding anything new.

Wish me luck and I am open to any suggestion on what I can add to the tank.

 

[surgy]

welcome to the community. and good luck!

if i understand correctly, clean up crews and most inverts dont count towards your bioload very much at all. so you are probably ok with the damsel..... but not much more.

test to make sure you are cycled and watch it close i have read horror stories of people upsetting the sand beds in larger tanks releasing detritus thats traped in the sand, which turns strait into ammonia which crashes the tank and causes it to re-cycle. so test often. and do water changes oftern. a 12g saltwater tank will become polluted VERY fast compared to a fresh tank of the same size.

hope i helped :/

 

[whiteshark]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2279642

A small tank like that is a tough place to start in saltwater. It can be done, but it's going to be much more difficult than a larger tank. If you can do it, my suggestion would be to find a bigger tank now (something like a 40 gallon breeder or larger if possible) and go from there.

If you plan on keeping this tank, no more fish, especially with the damsel. I would take the damsel to the LFS and get a firefish and a small goby of some kind personally. Damsels are just so evil.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

As mentioned, you won't be able to put any more fish in there with the damsel. It will kill any other fish you try to put in. Also, in such a small volume of water, one fish should be the limit for a beginner.

You'll want to remove the sally lightfoot crab. They get pretty aggressive and bold the larger they get, and can catch and eat fish. The sand sifting star has to go as well. they need extremely large tank with well establish sand beds to survive. Yours will quickly deplete your sand bed of microfauna and slowly starve to death.

Also, be sure to read through the stickies at the top of this forum.