New to the hobby, I want to try a Nano tank.

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sohankpatel

New member
So, I have never has a SW tank before, i have a high-tech planted aquarium, but that is all. I have a 10g and i wanted to try a mantis shrimp. How should I go about setting this up? I am a complete newb to this all so links to other websites/threads would help alot for things like keeping corals.
 
A tank that small is incredibly hard to keep corals in just as an FYI.
One fish, shrimp and some inverts wouldnt be too difficult.

There are articles at the top of this forum that are stickied. Read them.
 
davehead86 said:
A tank that small is incredibly hard to keep corals in just as an FYI.
One fish, shrimp and some inverts wouldnt be too difficult.

There are articles at the top of this forum that are stickied. Read them.
Click to expand...

Why is it hard to keep corals in? It is obviously harder to maintain stable water conditions, but why are corals hard to grow beside that?
 
Depending on species some sand and live rock would be fine. Definitely research though. Google mantis shrimp care. There is also a mantis forum right here on reef central. Try posting on that.
 
Nano tanks are awesome but it's even more critical than in FW to not overstock them. I've had good success with smaller tanks. Never did a Mantis setup, though it's on my "someday" list. Don't most of those get pretty big? I think you'll also deal with extra water changes since they are predators so you'll have dirty water. Perhaps you could run a "filter" trash can where you cycle water often and handle the main loads. Just dump the water changes into that system and do occasional water changes out of there. Just an idea, I'm not saying it's a good one.
 
Maybe a mantis isn't a good starter choice. Would a wet/dry sump be overkill for this? i wanted to try with some soft corals and mostly inverts with a couple fish - clownfish? Any recommendations for lighting?
 
sohankpatel said:
Why is it hard to keep corals in? It is obviously harder to maintain stable water conditions, but why are corals hard to grow beside that?
Click to expand...

Its harder because they require far more specific water conditions and when you are running a small tank it is very easy to over or under shoot those parameters by doing things ever so slightly different. You REALLY have to be on your game with a 10 gallon saltwater.

Personally i wouldnt think a clownfish would be good in a ten gallon with corals too. They get big and there isnt much room in a 10. Maybe a firefish? A watchman goby and pistil shrimp?
 
Nano tanks are very fun but its tricky I'd try it.
I'm 13 and I have a 30 gallon tank with clams, electric scallops and mandarins I've had it for 1 year
 
Nano tanks are very fun but its tricky I'd try it.
I'm 13 and I have a 30 gallon tank with clams, electric scallops and mandarins I've had it for 1 year...
 
fishy boy said:
Nano tanks are very fun but its tricky I'd try it.
I'm 13 and I have a 30 gallon tank with clams, electric scallops and mandarins I've had it for 1 year
Click to expand...

You have a mandarin in a 30G tank that's barely a year old? Unless your supplementing it live copepods every day, it's unfortunately doomed to die. Your tank isn't big enough to sustain a pod population large enough to feed the mandy. It will slowly starve to death.
 
I ran a 10g with soft corals and a old PC light. Just had a single Clark clown, though I had the setup with the intention of moving the Clark when she got big into my 120. It was a pretty easy system to maintain with good water changes. I had decent mushroom and zoa growth. There are some great colorful fish for nanos, do a bit of research in the nano forum. A Mandarin is not good for a tank this size.
 
I find more enjoyment from my 10g Nuvo that I have in my kitchen over my large tank in the basement. It seems to be easier to maintain then the large tank (at least to me). As far as inhabitants I have a bunch of softies and LPS along with a small cleanup crew, a purple firefish and yellow clown goby. Tank has been running for close to two years now.
 
If you were thinking of a 10g, why not go a little larger? The additional cost and additional space requirements are negligible.

The hardest thing about a pico or nano is keeping up with evaporation. Depending on your indoor environment, forgetting to top off for a day or two can cause salinity to rise enough to kill things. So this means you need an ATO device & fresh water resevoir (auto top off) which can be hard to stuff in a small tank. A full glass top may retard evaporation but can block light & hinder oxygen exchange. If you try to top off by hand, you've got to have perfect performance 365.25 days per year.

Also, just adding a little more food one day can skunk a small tank really quickly. Temperature changes and a pump failure for example can happen and the bad consequences can happen fast, much faster than on a larger tank.

Small tanks of <10g can be done and sustained for a long time, but the system has to be very well thought out and employ the right equipment, and must be monitored carefully. Often, one mistake is all it takes to crash a small tank.
 
They do make nano ATO units (autotopoff) but keeping a small tank requires more technical knowledge than a big one, because slight mistakes for a small tank become big mistakes. Recommend reading the sticky thread SETTING UP thoroughly before committing money.
 
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