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Coral Vue Hydros

nano tank what I want (comment plez)


ms reefer

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hi I'm working on setting up my nano room tank and this is what I have decide on. please leave comments . thanks

 

searclear eclipse 24x12x20

 

(2)powercompact retrofits 15" 32w

 

coralife metal halide retrofit kit 175w

 

45lbs LR(fuji)

20lbs LS

 

fish

2 false clowns or skunk

4 clown gobies

1 sixline wrasse

2 bicolor blennies

1 rusty pyme

 

clean up crew

fighting counch

2 red legg crabs

5 blue legg crabs (mexican)

emerald crab

2 turbo snails

4cerith

2 nassarius

2 astrea

1 starfish(?)

2ppment shrimp

2 cleaner shrimp

 

corals

polyps

mushrooms

kenya tree

tree corals

xenia

suncoral frogspawn

torchs

bubble white

candy canes

trumpets

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The fish totals should usually be approx 1 inch of fish per 5 gallons. That will keep your bioload down. And the cleanup crew should be approx 1 snail per gallon and 1 hermit per 2 gallons.

 

As for the shrimp and any possible crabs...it is your call. Some people put a few in (or even one) and find they can't feed them enough, or they just don't care for the food you give them, and will start to chomp on the corals you have.

 

Also, in a nano try to stick to the smaller snails. Turbos IME are just a nightmare to nanos due to their size. The love to knock things over, and seem to love causing as much trouble as possible. They are great snails and really do a great job on cleaning, but we have had so many probs in the past.

 

As for the fish, try to figure out what type of a look you want. Are you going for a "Nemo" tank? Why did you choose a wrasse? Figure out what type of enviroment you wish to have and pick the fish appropriate for that style.

 

To give you some idea, this is what we have planned for our 20g we set up 2 weeks ago:

 

20g standard glass tank

24" Customsealife PC w/ moonlight

40lbs LR (varied)

6" sand bed (seeded with 4 pounds live sand from LFS's coral tank)

11 hermits (one was in the rock)

23 snails (bubblebees and astrea)

emerald crab (a little big for my taste, but that will make him easier to catch if he gets nasty with my corals, and he'll find himself living in the refugium)

Aquaclear 300 converted to refugium with clip-on book lighting

two maxi jet 600 PH

 

What we plan to get:

Anemone

1 clown

1 blenny

GSPs

shrooms

frogspawn

brains

 

We are going to keep our corals from being overloaded by doing just a few. Then that also gives them plenty of room to grow without being overcrowded.

 

Hope that helps. I am by no means an expert, but my husband and I have been doing saltwater tanks for a while now, and have seen what works well and what can cause a hassle.

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The fish totals should usually be approx 1 inch of fish per 5 gallons. That will keep your bioload down. And the cleanup crew should be approx 1 snail per gallon and 1 hermit per 2 gallons

 

disagree...1" fish per 5gal doesn't take into consideration anything like feeding/ eating habits, activity and such, and i also don't think you can plan a clean up crew with out seeing how things go. i could say i want to drop 10 hermits in my 10g, but the fact of the matter is i wouldn't have a need for them and a good number of them would die of starvation. personally, in 25g i'd add about 5 hermits and about 5 snails and see how it goes, if there's still a good amount of algea then i'd consider adding more snails...i wouldn't add 4 shrimp into a 25g under any circumstances...JMO though, certainly there are plenty of people who would disagree with me...

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thank you nanoamydee. my family friends call ms dee.

 

i will keep the clowns and biclor blenny. I the fishs and corals I picked comes from Indo-paific.

 

my clean up crew will now be

fight conch

5 blue leg

emerald green crab

2 cerith

2 nassarius

2 astrea

1 starfish(?)

2 pp

2 cleaner shrimp

my corals will stay the same

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Phenom - good points, but for the planning and budgeting stage the rules of thumb I laid out are good to at least get some idea of what you plan on doing with the tank. And obviously anyone can add as many fish as they want, but they need to be prepared to deal with many water changes and cleaning the sand on a regular basis.

 

As for the numbers I have given, they are guidlines...not rules...you can follow them if you like. They are formulas that people have found work well. Now of course things can enter the equation that would changes things ie: the size of the snails and hermits, the type of fish, even the type of corals you get. But the guidlines paint broad strokes over everyone's tanks and give estimates and averages that work well for any tank of any size.

 

ms reefer - budget and plan according to what you want, but do it a bit at a time. We only add the cleaning crew a 1/4 at a time. (we have always needed the full load however) and fish are added after the corals. the inch per 5 gallons is something most reefers adhere to. We have strayed from that slightly by maybe a fish or two, but have always noticed our workload increases as well. You'll get some people that say that blennys don't count in that equation, you'll have other that say if it isn't an aggressive eater you can have more of them...You be the judge on your tank. IMO the number of fish you have laid out is way too much. And add them one at a time. If you find that at 5 fish you have nitrate problems that you can't get under control then you might have too many.

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I thought with all my reading I was on the right track. I see that it is a lot different then the bigger sw tanks. I really want the false clown bicolor blenny. . lol I guess I 2 of the fish so they are not lonely.

 

but it will be just the 2 false clown bicolor benny.

 

 

another question. I'm trying to stay as natural as possible w/out having to use a skimmer could I use a a fw filter with the media stuff for a small hang on refugim.

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I don't use skimmers in any of my tanks. We just have fuges set up for them and do weekly 10-20% water changes depending on what is going on.

 

Also, with the larger amount of LR and LS you will should not need a skimmer. I am big on natural filtration. (goal is a large SW tank with natural filtration)

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We use the aquaclear 300 filters without the media, flow turned down (we have not had to modify these at all) plantlife sand and a chunk of LR in the media compartment and a snail. That works really well as a fuge. We got little book lights that clip on to work for the lighting.

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could I use a fw filter w/out the media stuff as a small hang on refugim

 

not sure, i'm new to the nano world, coming from tanks where a fuge that small would be a waste of time & money...interested to see what the answer is...

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amy I have a 75gal that I use a skimmer with waiting in my hang on refugim so I can stop using the skimmer. with the 75gal I kind of jump in with out doing a lot of research.and is doing a lot of upgrading which could have save timeand many

 

but with this one in my room I want to already have the things that I need. so can i use a fw filter the hang on kind for a smakk refugim?

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You don't need a ginormous fuge to get the job done. The Aquaclear 300 is perfect size IMO. It keeps my nitrate levels very low and my livestock loves the food it produces.

 

It is a simple and inexpesive add on that will work well for the size tank you are using. If you do a search on them here and at reefcentral.com you will find more info for using them for larger tanks. Some people use the 500, but it is harder to modify.

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I am not familiar with the penguins but all you really need is a good sized holding compartment, and the ability to turn the flow rate down. If you have that stick a rock and sand in it with a few branches of plantlife, and a light over the top.

 

Your corals and fish will thank you. :)

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thanks. my lights will be here on tuesday. now I have to get my stand and canopy made. basicly . how do my setup look/sound? Is there anything else I would need/improvewith this setup?

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