What Chemicals in a Nano

[Chrash236]

Hello and good day to you all.

 

Here’s the lowdown, I have a 10 gallon nano that I set up one month ago, with a penguin 170 filter with bio wheel for filtration, a via aqua 101 power head, a 96 w CL light, 15lbs of live sand, and 10 lbs of LR, I know that the live rock is on the skinny side but I don’t want a crowded tank.

 

My question is what chemical should I put in the water and what should I put in the tank, all I have ever done is fish tanks with a couple of shrooms and a sponge. I really would like to do corals and if anyone has any suggestions on what dosing process I should use it would be great. Is there someone out there that has a schedule I could copy?

 

Thanks for all of the help.

[Ike]

Hey Chrash,

 

The tank sounds cool so far.

 

Here's my 2 cents...and at 2 cents my opinion is probably greatly overvalued.

 

Lot's of people will tell you to keep the Penguin, but lose the bio-wheel. The filter is good for water movement and maybe you can fit some carbon in there, or whatever. But you won't really need it's filtering abilities. That's because every week you are going to be doing a water change of between 10-20%, and youy are going to do this religiously. That will do more for water quality than the biowheel could ever dream of. It will export lots of impurities and replenish all the calcium, iodine, iron, magnesium, strontium and trace minerals that have been depleted.

 

Don't bother buying a bunch of suplements. The packaging looks cool and the manufacturers make some great claims, but a good rule of thumb is "less is more." You'll probably get everything you need just by doing a water change.

 

But make sure you use a good salt mix, because that's where all the water change goodness comes from; all the minerals in the salt mix. Everyone has their own favorite and in the long run no one salt mix is probably any better or worse than any other. It's more important to be consistent. Whatever salt you start using, keep using and make sure that it's the same temp & salinity as what's in the tank.

 

Also, go slow with whatever you do. No good can come from rushing anything. That goes for everything. Add animals to the tank slowly. Acclimate them slowly. Do your water changes slowly, don't just dump the new water in. Adding Kalk, B-Ioninc or whatever? Do it slowly.

 

About the Kalk & B-Ioninc. This is probably all you'll need to add to your tank. They both basically do the same thing. Maintain a balance of Calcium and Alkalinity. Go out and buy a test kit that can be trusted, like Salifert and test before you add anything. Don't just put stuff in the tank before you test because you might not need it.

 

So once you have tested and determined that you need to add a Ca/Alk supliment what to do? Well, B-Ionic is a no-brainer. You just read the label and determine how much you need, it's a 2 part liquid. Measure it out in the little cups they provide and add it one part at a time, slowly.

 

The only catch is if you test and find that your Alk is OK but your Ca is low you have a problem. B-ionic and/or Kalk is good for maintaining levels, but not so good for increasing levels. To get your Ca up you'll need a product like Kent's Turbo Calcium. It looks intimidating with the expert users warning on the label. Don't sweat it. Just mix up a batch and add it slowly a little at a time and keep testing until you reach the level your're looking for.

 

Finally, make sure you're using pure water for everything. Pick up an RO/DI unit off ebay, or see if you can buy RO/DI water near you. Not doing so increases your chances of unwanted algae outbreaks.

 

Most important, just relax, have fun and enjoy doing it. It's rewarding to keep a small exotic habitat in your house where everything is healthy & thriving.

 

I'm sure others will come by to correct my mistakes or offer more insight, but I hope this helps a little.

 

Ike

[Chrash236]

Hey thanks Ike, that took some time to write and I appreciate it. I do have a RO/DI system at home because of the 250 and 54 gallon fish only tanks they need their loven' to you know. What do you think of DT's for the corals is there something better, I really don't care about cost just want the best for the little guys. Thanks again

[Ike]

Are DT's phytoplankton? I'm not at all familiar with it. All I've been doing is feeding my fish Formula One and feeding the corals the leftovers that the fish don't eat, ie. particles that are too small, and a product called Golden Pearls that was given to me with my purple Monti Cap frag. Well everything is thriving so far. The Monti is growing like a weed and my sump is litterally filled with all kinds of little filter feeders, so there must be enough in the water for them to eat.

 

Ike

[Chrash236]

Formula One is made by Kent Marine right, I use that for my sponge in the fish only tank

[Ike]

I'm not sure if KENT makes it. I think it might be Ocean Nutrition...but that might be part of KENT. I'm not sure. At any rate the fish love it.