will this setup work?

[wisoot]

Hello lovely people

 

Okay so this is going to be my first setup ever! So excited!! I have thought about this setup long and hard. Taking into accounts so many limitation and my circumstances, at the end i decided to start with FOWLR (maybe with some low light corals). Here is my plan for the setup.

 

FOWLR

Tank: 30-litre tank (8.5 U.S. gallons)

Filtration: 5kg cured premium live rock, Fluval 1 Plus internal filter (flow rate 200l/hr for water movement and occational mechanical+chemical filtration), Air Curtain, Minijet404

Light: two 8w Hagen Power-Glo (standard T5)

Heating: 100w

Substrate: 1/2" seeded sand - don't know what kind of sand it is but this was given to me by my LFS last weekend

Salt water : Instant Ocean + RO water from LFS

Live stock: 2 small tank-raised common/perc clowns, one boxer shrimp, a few hermit crabs and snails (maybe some low-light corals?)

 

I know the light is a bit inadequate but I cannot get a PC retrofit for my tank in the UK. I will be happy if i can keep some very hardy and low light corals if that is possible (any suggestions please?). However if i cannot keep ANY corals with 16w then i am quite happy with just fish and a few inverts.

 

I am going to buy RO water tomorrow and will start the setup. I bought salt mix and was given some seeded sand from LFS a week ago. It is still well soaked in a tied-up plastic bag. I hope it will still be okay. The plan is to mix the water and put in the sand tomorrow then order live rocks online to be delivered during next week. Do you think this is going to work? I also wonder how long can the tank go without maintainance as sometimes i have to be away for 2-3 weeks.

 

So what do you nano experts think?

 

Thanks all.

[fish04]

Ok, my opinion:

1. Skip the air curtain, air and corals dont mix. Corals can get air trapped in thier tissue and that usually causes death.

2. I would rethink the whole coral thing with that much light. 16W normal output is just not enough for corals and live rock. If you stick with only shrooms and keep them near the light they may survive, but they won't thrive, you will not get any growth. I would recommend at least 32W of PC lights on a tank that size. 60W+ PC is ideal. Also be sure the lights you are using are in the higher spectrum if you are limted to 16W that may help...a little.

3. Make sure the LR is truely cured before adding any critters, nothing worse than getting rock that you think is cured and adding stuff only to watch it crash. Go through the curing process anyway. If you have the fish you have listed in the tank already you may want to cure the rock in a bucket or another tank before putting it in the "real" tank. The curing process WILL kill the fish if the rock cures with the fish.

[joedirt00]

I completely agree with Fish04, But what concerns me ist the fact that you have to be away for 2-3 weeks at a time. You would definitely need somone to care for it while you are gone. Nanos require a top off every day or at the very least every other day and because of the small volume of water they are unstable. You should also chage about 10-15% of the water weekly. If this is not done you would most likely come back to a rotting pile of underwater goo.

[wisoot]

Hi Joedirt00

 

It will be a year before i had to go away for that long. I think when the time comes i will ask my neighbour to come in and check. That's why i don't want a heavy light setup which require daily top-up.

 

I am also going to save some money from now till then so i can buy an auto feeder and a protein skimmer for use when i am away. So my neighbour will only have to empty the collection cup and check the water level once in a while.

 

Is this a good compromise?