jc16 Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Hi all! i am new to the SW hobby and i'm facinated by marine life. A few days ago i decided to setup a nano reef. I have it runing already got 2 20wattt coralife mini compact flourescent 50% 10000k dalight and 50% Actinic 03 blue for lighting, powerfilter 20 for filter, 11 lbs of live rock and about half inch of live sand. i also got water from the LFS. I need some advice if this setup would be enough for 3-4 corals, seahorse,star fish,pair of clowns,1shrimp, and 2-3 more small fishes? main consern should be the filtration should i upgrade to powerfilter 30 or 50? or get more live rock? any good suggesitons owuld be grealty appreciated and looking forward to share my Sw expereicen wiht all of you Link to comment
Kraylen Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 What size is the tank? Nano can be from 6-2.9 gallons Link to comment
r20crazy Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 what size tank? in most 'nano' tanks you can only safely hold 2 fish. (again depends on size of tank and fish). seahorses....forget it, they are difficult to keep, even for experts, and generally need a dedicated tank, of 18g minimum. please do some research, and don't add ANY livestock for at least a month so the tank can establish itself. durring this time, do the research/reading. welcome, and good luck Link to comment
Kraylen Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Vote = 10 gallon tank with 150 gallon sump. Link to comment
jc16 Posted June 1, 2008 Author Share Posted June 1, 2008 my tank is only 10 gallons so if i don't add seahorses and limit my fishes, would the filter and lighting be enough for corals? Link to comment
Kraylen Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Get the pair of clowns, upgrade your lighting, get some coral your clowns will host, and enjoy. Link to comment
r20crazy Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 only basic corals, like mushrooms and zoanthids, or anything non-photosynthetic. maybe a few LPS (like torch and frogspawn) if they are placed high in the tank (aka close to the lights). 10g will limit you to a small pair of clowns or a few gobies. thats about it. check out liveaquaria.com for guidelines on what size of tank certain creatures need and their lighting requirements. Link to comment
jc16 Posted June 1, 2008 Author Share Posted June 1, 2008 thanks alot guys, so my filtration should be enough or should i do the upgrade? and how much would it be for me to upgrade my lighting? and what to upgrade to? Link to comment
noobofreefs Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 I would recommend making a HOB filter out of what your using. A HOB (hang on back) filter can be like a small sump (extra tank where most mechanical filtration takes place). Remember your LR and LS (live rock & live sand) are your biological filtration. There are many mods for HOB filters in the DIY section of this site. Basically it can have a small fuge (thing loaded with macro algae to help export excess nutrients), some sort of carbon (personally I like chemi-pure or purigen), your heater/thermometer probe, and any other mechanical filtration you desire (such as filter floss). Using a plain filter is frowned upon in SW because of the reason people use them in FW is biological filtration. As I said before your LR is your bio-filter. I would recommend upgrading your lighting as well. Right now you could keep most softies (Zoanthids, mushrooms, ricordea, xenia, GSP to name a few) and possible a few low-light LPS (hammer, torch, frogspawn, etc) We can't really recommend a light because we don't know your tank dimensions, but look into some sort of T-5 HO or PC (power compact) because you don't need MH (metal halide) unless you plan on having more light demanding coral, but with the T-5 or PC with a wattage of ~60+ (EDIT: There's really no reason to limit your lighting wattage) you should be able to keep all softies, and probably almost all LPS (large polyp stony coral), and maybe some sort of easy SPS (small polyp stony coral). If you get T-5 be sure it has individual reflectors. NOR Link to comment
jm82792 Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 If my dad would have let me I'd do a 10 gallon with a 20 gallon sump/fuge . I'd drill it and do that type of thing but he won't trust me with it being leak free. Link to comment
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