Couldn't you take a gallon of RODI water and add a teaspoon of skimate to it and test what you've added?

What would you be testing for? You have to know what you are looking for before you could find it. Also once you take it out of the water column and it ends up in the skimmer cup it is dead material and probably already decomposing, so most likely will not accurately reflect what is in the water column and what is originally being pulled out by the skimmer.

Calcium, traces, etc.
IDK, whatever you may think the skimmer has removed.

Well you don't have to worry about a skimmer removing ca etc because it will only do this with wet skimmate the same as if you were just pulling water out. The skimmer itself is not removing these elements.

10. Why does everybody keep saying no crushed coral?
15. Why no anenomes under 25 gal? I have one in a 5.5, it's small, and it's doing well, and has yet to sting any corals.
37. Is that a min or a max?

the local place does a lot of hand scimming on their tanks and they have a amazing amazing corals and i believe it's they're 120 gallon tanks or bigger

hello. i am a "noob" who wants to start a nano reef. this will be my first ever saltwater tank, but i do have tank expirience. i have my own 10 gallon, we have a family 20 gallon,and ive been around freshwater tanks all my life. thats sorta whyi want to start, u know, do sumthing different, something new. all the people on "fish forums" say "your not experienced enough" or "nano reefs are too hard to take care of and u will get sick of them", or "if u want to start a saltwater tank u have to start with a 40 gallon". well im kinda young so i dont have the space, OR the money for a 40 gallon, with all the things it requires(large protein skimmer, lots of salt, lots of live rock" and i want to provev them wrong. im thinkinh about getting a 24 nano cube for my first. wat do u think about that? pretty much what im saying is will you please be my "mentor"?

crushed coral messes with pHand btw, if you have carbon, do you have to take it out when dosing calcium?ill be happy to teach you, but there are 2 things in this hobby. There is no unexpensive way and there are no shortcuts.

why wouldn't you get a Royal Gramma?

You need to do some reading about anemones. They get HUGE and in a short time.

Why would you need to remove carbon when dosing calcium? I never have. I have also never heard this, what is the reasoning behind it?

wow all of this is helping me alot! im a nooby...... i dont have a SW tank yet but im planing on getting 1 in the near future keep it comin!

i was recently talking to someone about the feeding periods for my fish. i was saying how i planned to feed them either lightly once a day, or a normal amount every other day or so.

i got reamed out for "being cruel" by not feeding them 2-3 times a day. i brought up the whole idea of "more food = more waste" in a nano tank, and they reamed me out some more. this person has more experience than me in the hobby so i wasnt going to fight what they said.

so is it ok if i feed my tank every other day? lately ive been feeding them once a day, but making sure that only a pellet or two make it to the ground (the nassarius love that stuff). i only have two small ocellaris right now, and they dont eat a lot when i feed them, so im wondering if feeding them every other day would be better for them, as i know it would be better for the rest of the tank's inhabitants.

Is this for stability reasons?

Wouldn't it be more beneficial to have greater surface area by putting the rock on top of the sand? I'm looking to set up a 12 gal without a skimmer so I want to insure that I get the most from the LR that I can.

Yes i agree good things takes time to happen bad things happen instantly......

I am a noob to nano reefs, but I keep african cichlids. The reason for this, IMO, is so that your live rock doesnt collapse when fish dig and stuff like that.

I'd like to hear opinions on this as well.
None of you more experienced people have any input for this??

IMO feeding every other day or so is fine. You can see if a fish is healthy or not. If it looks thin and it's stomach is shrunken then it's not getting enough. Remember that the fish are also eating things in the tank like pods and algae.

Keep your wife happy....buy her flowers, remember birthdays and your anniversary - and for God's sake do your share around the house. These things will come in VERY handy when you are shelling out that dough for that Beautiful Coral or LS that you just "have to have"!

Seriously: Get your spouse involved. My wife and I love this and we have 5 tanks (1 freshwater, 2 breeding tanks - freshwater, and 2 saltwater tanks). The time we spend on this is invaluable to our relationship and the kids love it too!!!

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO:

RELAX AND ENJOY YOUR TANKS - WATCH THEM AND HAVE FUN!

I'm currently reading all i can find on this forum about starting a nano reef.
This is my new project I plan on spending quite a bit of time and money on BUT does anyone have advice where to start. I have no experience in keeping any type of tank but take pride and large amounts of time when i do something. Is there any site or link anyone has written or started that goes over the basics of basics. Most of the things I've read in this post have been very informative and 90% of the things I've understood except some abbreviations but usually has to do with large tank supplies.

I understand the idea of not going cheap when doing this but I'm just curious for the beginning noobs who just want to start their first tank and plan on going with something like a BioCube 14G. What should we consider as far as upgrading or any other supplies we need for a BioCube besides the norm: LS, Salt mix, and LR.

I'm assuming you need a test kit to test the water for Ph, gravity, and nutriets(sp)
Are the lights in a BioCube sufficient? Do you need any other things like chiller or anything else i've seen people talk about with a start up 14G?

Two last questions: I live in Miami,FL and know some friends who just started tanks but seem around the same level of knowledge after a couple of hours of reading on this forum BUT they've gone out on the boat and caught fishes and put them in tanks. Can you do this? and if so is the logic of getting rock, fish, sand, and water from the ocean also usable for a nono reef? It might be a basic NO WAY but haven't really read anything about anyone asking that.

Sorry about all the noob questions but figure if someone answers the questions it might help someone in the future with my same questions.

Thanks in advance!

ps: anyone in Miami who might want to mentor or give some pointers ?

Hi jayxem, to N-R.com. I'd suggest reading through the Nano-Reef.com Articles >>LINK HERE<< Then if there's more questions you need answered, post them in the Beginner Section, start your own thread.

Thanks for warm welcome. Yeah I've read all the articles and seem to learning as the minutes pass. Yeah i guess that i should of just started my own thread but instinct told me, maybe some other people might want these questions and answers on a sticky instead of just posting a thread. Thanks though

I have noticed that my fish stayis in one corner of my tank and goes no where else. Is there are problem should i be worried?

Yes, you just got the tank for Christmas, you shouldn't have a fish in there yet.

6 years ago I was all about big tanks and big $ in Arizona. then I moved to florida, and in a smaller house, or at least one that has no good homes for monster tanks... So here I am with these new nano cubes... we have nano skimmers, nano fuges, nano halides, nano stands, and now nano tangs? It was my understanding that you needed like 90-140 gallons depending on species for a tang to thrive... mine thought there was a world of difference between my 45 and the bigger tanks.

Oh No... who drafted me into the tang police?

Hey Jay, I am from Miami too, although I am stuck in Vero for the next year. But I am always in Miami...lol. PM me and I will give you some info on reputable LFS around here.

Aly

I'm brand new here, and that piece of advice really hits home! Tonight, my wife enjoys 4 hours away from the kids getting pampered at the Salon ... tomorrow, my first SWT arrives via UPS. A guy has to do what a guy has to do.

Anyway, my name is Jason, I'm 28 .. from Michigan. A few months ago, I discovered this great local fish store and now I'm finally able to get my first SWT up and running.

Our house isn't huge, so I decided to go with a Nano Reef, by way of Oceanic's 14 Gallon Biocube. I'm extremely excited to get things going and get the cycling process going. Thanks for all the great beginner's advice!

Jason

Anybody who makes a blanket statement about anything in this hobby is automatically wrong and should not be trusted.

As with everything else, it is completely dependent on the fish you are keeping. Do they graze on algae? If yes, then you can get away with feeding them a lot less often. If no, then you may want to feed them more. Are they prone to nipping corals (angels)? Then you should probably feed them enough to keep them from sampling everything you have. Unless you have a harem of anthias, you should not need to feed your fish 2-3 times a day. Doing so will cause you to pollute the water.

That being said, I feed my fish once a week. They all graze on algae and are nearly full-grown though. Smaller fish should be fed more often.

I think every other day would be fine, in other words

Cool thread.

Just an excuse to get subscribed to the thread since I did not find any other way to do this in this forum.

Anyone care to provide a sequence of corals to add to a new tank for a new reefer? Variables to consider: hardiness, cost, feeding, growth expectations.

Be sure to Explore!

Why not the Gramma? I have had them is my bigger tanks, but now I have a Red Sea Max and after my cycle is complete I was planning on picking up a Royal Gramma as one of my first fish. What are the worries about them that you have?

Thanks.

Steve

I wish I had found this forum when I first set my tank up or actually a month before. Now that I've learned my LFS guy is a moron and the Fisson Nano Skimmer has been tossed into the trash (I can't find the box to return the stupid thing)... I can relax knowing that I'm doing everything else right.

I'm off to make a fresh cuppa and read some articles on your most fantastic website.

JW


____________
24 gallon AquaPod (now heater n skimmer-less)

I do not know if this has been mentioned but if you purchase Live Rock to cycle your tank right off the bat, dry it out to get all the hichhiking crap of the rock. Then start the colonizing of bacteria from scratch.

I say this because i purchase live rock that came with about 3 crabs/ bristleworms which killed alot of my fish.

Nope, this is generally viewed as a bad idea. Bristle worms are harmless, and you should just do a visual inspection for things like crabs, or remove them during the cycle if possible.

I bought my LR from three different sources, and I haven't had any problems so far. The trick I believe is to QT the LR or to give it a quick FW bath. The change in salinity should send the hitchhikers running. The only hitchhikers I've had is 3 feather dusters and a couple of small worms (although those could have been from the LS).

I also got my LR from three different sources. The ONLY hitchhikers, I've found so far: button polyps (2 colors), two earthworm looking things (not bristleworms), a couple of feather dusters. All the hitchhikers seem to have come from one source while, the other two sources have nothing on them but I also had a ton of die off from the first two sources. Of course we are only 18 days in.

The hitchhikers from the last two posts seem to be things to not worry about. Other that aptasia (sp?) what else could cause problems? I guess there are Mantis Shrimp, but what else?

Freshwater baths also kill off everything on the rock, so short of having a mantis in there, I couldn't recommend giving any LR a freshwater bath.

Dry out live rock???? Freshwater dip live rock??? Crazy, why not just buy cheap dead rock and start your tank with that and a piece of shrimp??? The whole point of paying big money for "LIVE ROCK" is to keep as much life on the rock as possible. You can deal with undesirable hitchikers during the cycle and balance period. Most hitchikers are good for your tank. Besides, the fun is to watch the life blossom from a piece of what looked like just an old wet rock

I think everyone should read this article before starting a nano reef.

http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/?article=17

Anyone starting should already have a basic understand of the nitrogen cycle.

One thing that stands out to me about that article is the arugment made that deep sand beds are a bad idea espeically in a nano tank. And that it talks about how our live rock is a great source of denitrification.

Good stuff

Man I read all of this big debate,
Skimmers or no skimmers for newbies like me your
#1 Saving $80-$100
#2 Getting a skimmer and wondering if you shoulda spent the money on MH,sump or better equipment.
#3 get a better canister filter with the money Well great thread more reading to go...

Reefing advice? Hmm well my advice would be.

1. Drip Loops and GFI's save lives
2. Buying cheap equipment only costs you more later.
3. Plan for what you want thats within your budget.
4. Use the SEARCH BUTTON on this site, it saves lives also
5. A good tank doesnt need to be stuffed to the rim with corals, enjoy the beauty of a well designed tank not one that just shows how much money the owner has.
6. If you have the time and patience learn to build some of the simple things you could buy. Knowing how everything works in your tank makes you a better aquarist.
7. Book of Coral Propagation should be your bible. Know what you're putting in your tank and what it needs to survive.
8. Read up on lighting and requirements for your inhabitants. Usually more is always better, A tank thats overlit is better than one thats underlit.
9. Commercial pet stores are the devil, try to find a local dealer. They give better deals and actually care about the hobby.
10. Dont be afraid to ask questions, its how we learn and in this hobby mistakes are expensive.

Good luck!

I would suggest qualifying the LFS first, hopefully by talking to other reefers in your area. I have found out from those in my area that I MUST be VERY careful when taking advice from our LFS owner. He will agree with you on everything if it means a sale. Not the best resource if you don't know that going into it. Some have said they got healthier livestock from ebay.

Im very new to the hobby, and im still researching. I have had much experience with fresh water and im looking for somthing different. But I am wondering what will be more costly, a 30g biocube or a 30 gallon regular tank/w filter?

What do you mean specifically by "let your tank mature for 2 months after cycle"? don't add anything?

It is mainly directed to not start adding fish or corals immediately after ammonia/nitrites are zero and nitrates are low. You should begin to add your CUC, not all at once, right after the cycle has finished to deal with algae blooms. Even though a tank has finished its cycle, there will be different phases of organisms (specifically different algae blooms) in the tank. Also, the wait gives a chance for pod populations to grow without any predation to "sustainable" levels. This will help the majority of fish that are kept in nano-reefs to have an extra food source that they can rely on between feedings.

Basically, it is to get people to slow down (and hopefully think and plan in the mean time) their stocking. Many fish/corals/inverts will fare better if added to an established tank, which means letting the tank mature. Some things can't be hurried...

What's so bad about crushed coral?

If you get an algae bloom the crushed coral will get discoloured. It encourages more ripping down of reefs in the ocean if we buy it. I'm sure there's a chemistry problem too but I'm not posting an answer to that in case I get it wrong