fuentes925 Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 Hello, I will be getting a 16 gallon nano started soon and am curius as to how many fish would be fine before I would need a skimmer or filters, I want to use natrual filtration method with LR , LS and no filter or skimmer. After cycle is complete would a 3.5" clown, 3" fire fish and a lawn mower bleeny or barnecale bleeny be fine in this size tank? How many fish can you put in a 15 gallon Nano? Fuentes925 Link to comment
AZDesertRat Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 Thats a lot for a nano. I have both a 15 and a 20 and only keep 2 to 3 fish in the 1.5" to 2" size and a coral banded shrimp in them. Both tanks have a Percula while the 20 also has a Sixline Wrasse and the 15 has a Yellow Damsel. Think about it as much as 30 to 50% of your tank volume will be rock and sand so there is not much room left over. Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 your fish choice sounds fine to me. think about it the firefish most likely will pick a cave to hang out around. the blenny will stay on the rocks or near the bottom or in the rocks and the clown will be freeswimming. start out with smaller specimines if possible and they will grow into it. Link to comment
AZDesertRat Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Its not so much the fish choice but the size he mentioned and the biological load it puts on a system with only natural filtration. Lawnmower blennies will starve in a system that small once they clean things up. They also get pretty big for anything smaller than a 29G in my experience. Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 ok if all those fish out in at once yes it would probably crash....if done properly it could work and probably will...as long as you can feed the blenny. i personally would go witht he barnacle blenny cause he will stay smaller Link to comment
swordfish Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 The tank will support at least two of those fish, so why not get two percs? I firmly believe they are better off in a pair than alone since a pair will eventually become a mated pair and then will object to any other clowns in a small tank with them. Like love birds, you should keep two of them if you wanna have optimally happy clown fish. Besides, they're more fun to watch when you have two and they are definitely one of the most beautiful of all marine fish that will live in a tank. Any way you cut it, best to just get two fish and then add another after at least a month of stable water readings than to add three in there at once and have to remove one afterwards who has already bonded with the group, so to speak. If you get two clowns though, do not seperate them afterwards. That's why i say to get them first if you want one, than add one fish of another species later who you just may have to take out. JCS Link to comment
fuentes925 Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 I think I like the Barnacle Bleeny more than the Lawn mower also because the Barnacle Bleeny only grows to 2" max. so he is a small guy. Will it help with the Bio load if I were to add a Refugium or Skimmer, which would benifit me more? I really like the Bleeny, Firefish and Clown fish combo, but if 3 fish is to much for a 16 gal. nano then I would be likely to only get the Barnacle and a fire fish or a clown fish. I also know not to add all these fish at 1 time, but this is what I would eventually like to have. Fuentes925 Link to comment
offsprg01 Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 fuge = yes skimmer = yes a 10 gal fuge would help with the bio load big time. Link to comment
AZDesertRat Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 I have a CPR BakPak II skimmer on my 20G high and a Prizm on my 15G ViaAqua 418W curved front. On the 20G I originally started with a Skilter 250 with modifications and only replaced it about a year ago. I really like the Prizm for small tanks because the pump/powerhead is outside the tank so you have more room. I wish I had a 'fuge or a sump but that may come later. By the way my 20 has been set up since 1990 and I have fish that are 9 to 13 years old. My Coral Banded Shrimp is also 7 years old so I'm not a newbie. Link to comment
Wasabi Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 I was thinking about having a small perc, a royal gramma and a red head goby in a 16g(with 4g fuge for 20g total). You guys have me wondering if that may be too much. I'd still need to skim with this fish load even if I do a 10% water change weekly and add the fish slowly over time? Scott Link to comment
AZDesertRat Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 I'm not familiar with that Goby but the others are good choices as they will remain small. Keep in mind most Gobies love to dig tunnels so make sure you have plenty of sand and stack your rock well or you will have landslides when he digs under. I saw a Yellow Headed Goby in a guys 60G last weekend and he was constantly spitting out sand the whole time. Kinda cool if you have the room! Link to comment
Wasabi Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Thanks for the reply AZDesertRat, Here's a link that describes the Red Head Goby some: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...d=21&pCatId=202 It doesn't look as if it will get very big(2" max). I'm a little worried that they may be more low temp though. I'll make sure to secure things so I can avoid any possible cave ins if I get one. Thanks again, Scott Link to comment
AZDesertRat Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Cool looking fish! I haven't seen one here in Phoenix. Link to comment
Wasabi Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Yeah, I haven't seen one in the central/west Florida area yet myself. I'd rather buy one in person than go mailorder. Hopefully when I'm ready for one, I can find it locally. Scott Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.