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How Did You Discover Nano Reef Keeping?


Christopher Marks

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Hi all,

 

I picked up a magazine a couple of years ago with some great shots of bookshelf-sized nano's. A month and a half ago I finally found the Perfect tank at the mall! :-)

 

About 1.5 gallons, short round and wide, but with a neck. (sort of like my 4th grade photos)

 

I drilled it for an air hose, dumped in an inch (25.4 mm) of live sand from the big tank, chipped on a hunk of LR until it Just fits. The advantage of the round tank; it MAGNIFIES everything! It looks like I GREW the rock in there because it couldn't possibly fit thru the neck.

 

It sits at work on my desk now with two tiny hermits and an astrea snail. It has been very stable for a week or 2, and is officially due for improvement$ this week.

 

I'm hooked!

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My bro has a 50 gal arrowana tank. and I've always been into salt-water being born in the Fiji Islands. So few trips to the LFS got me hooked. BUT the LFS was a little discouraging, THEN I found this site as well as mini-bow enthusiasts. Now i've moved into my 18 gal. Good times. thanks to N-R.com. Take that LFS. They still laugh when I by stuff of them and they ask me what it's for. But little do they know MY tanks are thriving more than any of there HUGE monsters. In fact they just set-up a 200+ gal with crazy lighting and live stock. A month into it's life everything except live rock was removed because of a Unbeleiveable brown algea bloom. HAHA. And my buddy who saw my tank went out and bought a full 3000$ 50gal bow-front FOWOL out the box system from the same LFS has the same brown algea bloom. Just goes to show you your LFS is not always the best source. There all about the almighty dollar. Speakin of which N-R.com will be getting a donation from me. The info given is priceless. thanks for reading my rant.

p.s. not to say all LFS are bad, just buyer beware-do your research. I guess thats what you get when you're lead to believe SW tanks are easy. Now i'm tryin to make my buddy feel better and lettin him know it will go away. Can you believe the LFS guy didn't recomend using RO water???? He used tap water :(

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Little Luey

When I first moved to Arizona my new landlord has a limit of 20gal for fish tanks, I am on the 3rd floor and don't have a lot of room in the place, so little room that the tank will be going to work with me soon.

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almost 10 years ago I saw a little 3 or 4 gallon tru-Vu tank with a duetto filter at LFS. Found NR.com about 2 years ago through random searches while looking for reef keeping information.

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My boyfriend had a 55 gallon SW tank in our apartment and I had a 10 gallon FW. I was at school one day and got a message from him saying, "I know we haven't talked about it lately but I wanted to turn the 10 gallon into salt water. I know when I mentioned it you didn't really oppose so I hope it's ok." I came home to find that all of my FW fish had been returned to the fish store and my little tank was full of white sand and live rock.

:P

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After keeping fish for many years and finally successfully breeding freshwater puffer fish i needed another challenge, so i picked up a huge 5-gallon tank did some research started off with a stomatopod and some live rock. Hardest part of the hobby was figuring out what to do with the tank when on vacation.

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My daughter was born 3 months premature and we had to give our cats to some friends because we didn't want them to be neglected while we were spending all our time at the hospital. She's almost two now and requires a lot more care than most babies due to her cerebal palsy. My wife missed having pets, but our daughter still needs too much attention to justify a needy pet like a cat.

 

When my yearly bonus came up, my wife did a ton of research, and set up a 20 gallon and a 10 gallon tank with her half. She talked about all these terms like "cycling" and I realized for the first time that one can have significant control of and information about the fish's environment, and solve problems before they become deadly. I had been reluctant to try fish again since a bad experience when I was about 10. I was very good at chemistry in college, so the idea that fish could be kept healthy largely by solving simple chemistry problems encouraged me to try.

 

I like the uniqueness and vibrance of saltwater fish, but I also wanted to be able to keep the fish on my desk in my cubicle. All the websites I visited had seemingly conflicting information. They said 55 gallons was recommended and 20 gallons was the absolute minimum. However, they also said that a 20 gallon tank could hold 4 or 5 fish. When the box on the Eclipse 5 said it was suitable for freshwater or saltwater, that gave me enough of a nudge to buy it and take a risk.

 

To maximize my chances of success, I decided to start with only one fish and maybe a small crab to help keep the bottom clean, waiting until I could prove to myself that I could keep the water stable before trying anything more difficult. I am cycling the tank before adding the fish so that I will have some breathing room for mistakes. I also added an airstone in addition to the built in filter to help mitigate a potential dissolved oxygen problem.

 

In the meantime, I am researching which fish/crab combinations will work and I kept getting this growing sense of dread that I am seemingly going against the collective wisdom of hundreds of marine aquarium experts. I came across the "nano tank" term by accident. The criticisms against it seemed shallow. Experts claiming it can't be done, ignoring the success of many others who have done it for years.

 

That struck a familiar chord with me. I am a software engineer, and have endured similar abundant criticism of the Linux operating system, which I have been using successfully instead of Microsoft Windows for 8 years. It's not always easy, but it is definitely possible and even enjoyable for someone determined enough to try, despite the claims of "experts." So, finding nano-tankers in a similar plight made me feel instantly a part of the group.

 

I found this site by a google search. You won't believe how much it has boosted my confidence to know that not only can saltwater fish in a small tank be done, but that enough people do it that there is a term for it and entire websites dedicated to it. My tank will probably be ready to get my first fish this weekend and now I can have more excitement than dread. I'll definitely be coming back here for help and comraderie.

 

The best part is, I have spent a lot less than my wife has on her freshwater setup. I don't know how long that will last though. We are already talking about saving up for a 100 gallon saltwater tank that we can do together.

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converted a 5gal eclipse to salt because I was bored w/Tanganyikans. Abuddy@LFS said if Icould make it work, Icould make any tank work. I currently have 15lbs of live rock, one three stipe damsel&one baby niger trigger. For corals I have 2 mushrooms& 9! ricordia(3 are currently splitting). For clean up crew I have 2 astrea snails, 1 blue& 1red leg hermit, and one small Harlequin brittle star. There were a couple of bristleworms stirring up the sand but I went away for the weekend a few mos. ago and my trigger got hungry..... Amazingly he doesnt bother the ricordia and my readings are all zero except for nitrates are about 6-10ppm with weekly water changes. For lights I use a Coralife 50/50 13w bulb&a coralife moonlight at night. Tank is about 1yr&2mos old and covered w/purple, lavender, and red corraline algae(I have to srape it off the front 3 panels every two weeks).

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Finding Nemo got me hooked on SW tanks. :P

 

, Actually no, some friends of mine were into FW and one of them eventually got a saltwater tank and when i first saw it i was hooked. I researched for a month or so the bought my cube. Its been up and running now for almost 5 months..

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I got my first fish tank (FW 1G hex) in 1997. First SW tank (10G AGA) in 2002. 12G NC in 2004. 75G AGA in 2005. 26G bowfront in 2005 (to be a SPS tank by 2008). A 29G AGA tank in 2005. A 11G acrylic ViaAqua tank in 2006. What my next tank will be? I don't know. Most likely a Pico. Or a fuge for my 75G AGA.

 

 

I'm addicted!!!

Edited by halfpint1187
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How did you discover nano reef keeping, and how did you get started? Was it Nano-Reef.com, a friend, or a local fish store? What was hard about getting started? What would you have done differently?

 

New here but not to reef keeping. I started with a 5 gallon FW in 1959. Was keeping salt water tanks by 1966- (never bigger than a 20 G) and keeping and breeding Hippocampus zostrae. I went on to major in Zoology and then graduate school in Biological Oceanography, where I kept salt water again- never bigger than a 20 G HA! (Not on a grad students salary!) Stopped aquariums for many years due to having children and no time- and then my oldest daughter started working at a pet store with salt water tanks- and a friend gave my hubby a 29 G. Sooo I could not resist getting into reef tanks. I now have a 55 G reef and several nano's and I just started up a pico at work because my temporary office is shared and there is no space! I had to move my 11G ViaAqua with refugium home from my "real" office.

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Like many here, I came from a FW background. I talked my wife into letting me setup a 100g African Cichlid tank. She let me do it, but she didn't like the money it was costing. Regardless, I tried to get her excited and involved by taking her to the LFS to help me pick out livestock. However, every time we went, she darted straight to the SW section because of all the colors (and seahorses). I didn't even consider starting a SW or reef tank at the time because I was under the impression that everything salt cost huge $$$:bling:, requiring at least a 55g tank, had to have MH lights, skimmer, ref, sumps, etc.

 

Then I went to an LFS that had a 10g tank sitting by the register. It was nothing fancy. Just some LR, a few polyps and a clown in a tank with an HOB filter and stock AGA hood. I went in there about once a week for a few months to see if the guy had any new species of cichlids. Every time I went in, I noticed there was something new in the tank by the register. A new shrimp, more polyps, more of some purple stuff (coralline algae) and the same clown. It was starting to look pretty cool. So I get talking to the owner and he told me it was a nano reef tank and he purposely setup the tank to prove that salt isn't overly priced.

 

So I decided to talk my wife into letting me startup a reef tank like the ones she saw in the store but much smaller (10g-20g). I warmed her up by pointing out the 10g tank every time she went in with me. Eventually, she reluctantly agreed, but made me promise "NO MORE FISH TANKS!" after this one :rant:. So as I did when I started my Cichlid tank, I looked to my buddy Google. The first return for "nano reef" landed me here and I haven't had to go much farther since.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have kep FW tanks since I was little. After some research, I figured I would give SW a try and being a college student money was an issue. I due hope to go to a 100 gallon once I graduate and get a real job :bling:

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non-photosynt

How discover and why started: seen LFS with MH lighted tanks, dark winter, more free time, why not? Nano size - because of nano-expences and nano-house.

What was difficult or not expected: level of expences other than tank, salt, fish/corals and food. Equipment that doesn't perform fuctions it's sold for, tests with incorrect results, additives that making worse instead of better. And the fun part: after reseach, equipped tank as it was done many times by forum members; guess what - it don't fit into the chamber!

What will be done differently if started now:

- Don't start - too expensive.

- If start, don't fall into "buy biggest you can afford" - tank is the least expence in the hobby. Last thing I want - it's carry buckets of salt water in and out of living room with hardwood floor.

- "Research first and then buy" concept don't work where demand is higher than supply. Incompatible species then moved to anoter tank, and another, and another.

- If only one room is air conditioned in the summer, and basement is too cold in the winter, all these tanks will accumulate in one room, because disassemble everything and move into another room twice each year is not good nor for a tank, nor for inhabitants. Leave alone the cleaner wrasse, that can't be catched in the rank with live rock.

- Helpful enthusiasts in the home are out of help and enthysiasm when it comes to maintenance. But everybody wants a little crispy sunny paradise in the winter.

- Non-photosyntetic coral that require frequent water changes because of feeding (sun coral) are better to keep in not encosed systems as Nanocube with difficult access to the chambers. Usual HOB filter whith easily cartridge in or out, is much suitable, thought not so esthetic.

- Summary: go pico and no fish!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like to break rules and push peoples buttons. It is my # 1 fave hobby to do such. I got a used 75 gallon tank over 10 years ago, and started a salt tank. Reefing was not all that it is today, and a lot of the "basics" and things we take for granted now was not the norm. I was in a LFS, and was looking at some different tanks, and decided to set up a "hospital/ quarintine tank" with a 10 gallon.... whicht he store employees reccomended to be done with ALL fish before they go into a display tank.

 

Oddly enough, the yellow tang that is "too big" for a 30 gallon tank reef ( they said store policy was 55 gallon minimum for salt set ups) but he sure fit in that 10 gallon just fine for 2 weeks ! well, the tank was looking quite boring, and I had some extra reef rubble, some sand and a few chunks of semi-cured live rock, so I said to myself...." well, why not? " and added them to the 10 gallon. 2 weeks later, I retro fitted some bulbs to it inside a custom wood hood, and cycled it. Fast forward 3 months later I had a jawdropping ten gallon "mini reef" that I had put a few corals in and it was perhaps the first ..... um... well what the hell do I call it ? a mini reef ? a microcosim? surely not a bucketarium...... so I googled and found the term of "nano-reef".

 

Oddly enough There was a link to a site and I clicked it. I believe I was member number 250. I jumped up and down and giggled cause I was sooooo going to thow this in the faces of the LFS punks who still didn't grasp my concept of a "ten gallon reef" as doing such was "impossible"... or so they said ! Yellow/orange and blue pagecolor layout, a chat that rarely worked right, and choppy at best HTML. Made a few friends, made a few enemies, but it was a newfound "home". Nano-reef has evolved from a rinky dink site with a rag-tag bunch of reefers into a site that rivals Reefcentral.

 

 

To this day I still have that same tank, and it doubles as a kitty-cat bed warmer ;)

.....and The rest is history :)

 

-Dave

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Edited by Armadildo
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  • 2 weeks later...
fishbabies

Saw an article about Italian “miniature reefs” on About.com. From there discovered Minibow.com (which seems to have been abandoned) which had a link to Nano-reef.com. From there I studied the articles on nano-reef.com and have been keeping nano tanks for 4 years. I remember the days when nano-reefers here would discuss the merits of penguin filters vs. aquaclear filters and compact fluorescents were considered a huge upgrade.

 

Now I have been doing Pico tanks as I prefer changing 16oz of water from a small plastic bottle as opposed to my days of spilling gallons of water all over my furniture and floor once a week. Less weekly work, but slightly more easy daily duties and less $$ to create a tank with that wall-to-wall-coral appearance.

 

The hardest thing was knowing I was stressing and maybe damaging corals by rearranging the live rock and corals every five minutes…but doing it anyways.

 

The thing I would have done differently is avoided the expensive plastic gadgets that promise less maintenance and better water quality.

Edited by fishbabies
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmmmmm....

 

I was tending to my 70 and low and behold I had a Mantis hitcher from my TB Saltwater rock.

 

Little bugger had nuked every snail for 2 years before I caught it.....

 

I was gonna send him the Bank of American Standard but the little guy facinated me.

 

So I pulled a couple of chunks of rock and put it into a desktop Eclipse 6 I had laying around.

 

While it sucked for reef keeping it caused me to get the bug for the tiny reef.

 

I now have a NC12 that I am getting ready to get set up.

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i haf got long been rather intreasted in salwater fishes, but they always seemed so hard to keep, and i confess, finding nemo gave me a little more push to really get serious, of course in the apartment i lived in at the time space was an issue as well as money, so after months of dedicated research i finally got started in february last year, and started my first successful reef :), i built it up slowly over time, and it looks real nice today populated by a wide variety of inverts, bought and hitchhikers, as well as a great number of corals, Polyps, Shrooms, SPS and LPS.(and ppl here say 30w is too little for SPS and LPS of the species i keep)

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I grew up in the desert Southwest USA, so water life has always been rare and exotic and fascinating to me. About a year ago I decided to seriously look into getting a marine aquarium. I live in New York, so I knew I would have to do something small. Try googling for "mini reef" and check out the 300-Gallon systems that come up...

 

My girlfriend got interested as well, and she discovered NR. We did research for about 4 months, and she and her family ended up getting me a 12-Gal NC DX for my birthday.

 

If I had it to do differently, I'd do all of the mods I've done and still want to do before stocking the system. Drilling holes in a water-filled box is frustrating.

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I was at my local lfs in north texas and I saw them bring out this .5g pico and put sand and water in it..a week later i saw 2 hermits and a snail...thought it was amazing at the time and still do.

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I am a "tank-fanatic" for 35 years now. I started at the age of 7. Mainly freshwatertanks. Untill recently (after taken care of big saltwatertanks for some time - I took care of tanks up to 450 Gal) I never was convinced that it is possible to maintain a small saltwatertank without problems (less than 40 Gal). This, because of the fact that I always thought big in means of tank, filter, scimmer and other technical precautions according to maintain saltwatertanks.

 

Recently I had a breake (in means of having a tank at all). I was bored of yet again a freshwatertank with cardinals, etc.. And I also did not have any succes with the saltwatertank I setup at home about three years ago (because of the tanktemperature I could not control on hot days, problems with the filtering, scimmer, and so on - a disaster after all). So I decided to quit (sold the content including fish - they survived all - thanks God) and I was a disapointed in myself (unless the great care I took in maintaining a tank in wich I did not succeed). What did I do wrong? But unless afer all I kept visiting my local petshop. Enjoying the fish in the store. The owner advised me to take a look at your site (he saw that I was desperate and lost).

 

After creating a membership on Nano-reef.com I read a lot of articles and my interest grew again. I had an "left over tank" about 12 Gal. This tank might suite a nano-reef I thought.

 

So I started up the tank the way I use to do (filled up with water from big, perfect running tanks - with aid of my petshopowner - Jan thanks again!!!). And patience for six weeks.

 

After the q.-period I started with filling up the tank with fish and other inhabitants (slightly). Because you have to think small if you own a Nano-reef (that's the main rule).

 

And up till now everything is an big succes. I had some casualties....one fish and one species of hard corall died. All the rest flurishes and grows.

(It's a pitty I can not show you any pictures of my tank because I am a junior member.)

 

Greatings to all Nano-reefers,

 

Juulke

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I was reading postings on rec.aquaria.marine.reefs on usenet. started reading more and more about people keeping more than fish only marine tanks, actually keeping corals. Then there was something akin to heresey and people started trying to keep small reef aqauriums. The term nano reef was tossed around.

 

I read the Reefkeepers FAQ - the entire thing, and was facinated.

 

Googled nano reef and found nano-reef.com. Saw some amzing little tanks. One tank in particular was the one I showed a lot of people. Cyber's 18 gallon Via Aqua stuffed full of zoo's. Learned so much about the hobby reading and asking a few questions. Mostly reading.

 

3 Tanks now - A Via Aqua 18, A nano-cube and a 75 gallon.

 

Thriving !

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