Elmo's Tank- 4Gal IM Nuvo

[Mariah]

Hello! I'm Mariah (Rye). This is my first dive (pun intended) into reef keeping. I live in a small apartment and wanted as little equipment to keep it as natural as possible and after doing lots of research came across a reef group of FB (although TBH there are a lot of arsehole's on that page...it's a huge deterrent from posting questions on there haha). Then I found Nano-Reef! Huzzuh! This seemed like the right place for support and advice! Brandon's and Nathalie's tanks have inspired me to stick to basic biology rather than relying on copious testing and products.

This is my tank (and hamburger phone):

 

 

I have so far: 

• Innovative Marine 4gal Nuvo AIO 

• Filtration:
  AOI came with but probably won't use (I plan on having live rock and live sand how deep should my sandbed be in a 15L?)
  Acrylic Filter Wall w/ Overflow
  Media Basket
  Mechanical Sponge
  Activated Carbon Sponge
  Phosphate Sponge
  Flare Nozzle 

• Lighting:
  4 watt SKKYE Light Clamp LED
  Am considering getting the Maxspect Celestial 35W: worth the upgrade? All my research has suggested that the SKKYE's do ok for softies and mushrooms but this is a really low wattage, hey? probably only supposed to be used for a freshwater. Alternatively, I'm considering buying a better LED light and just installing into a regular lamp fixture. Suggestions?

I have purchased:

• Tetra Whisper 10Gal AirPump + airstone
• H-B Enviro-Safe General Purpose Liquid-In-Glass Thermometer + Another thermometer to compare
• Cobalt Aquatics Flat Neo-Therm Heater with Adjustable Thermostat (Fully-Submersible, Shatterproof Design) 25W 

I will custom build an acrylic lid to minimise evaporation because the current lid won't prevent evaporation for shit.

 

I'm planning on using Natural SW because I live near clean SW and can keep a 60L drum downstairs in the garage (cool, dark, stable temp!) and will enjoy the drive to the beach to collect every 2-3 weeks. 

 

In terms of what I'd like to keep my vision is zoas, rics, mushrooms, finger coral and maybe an open brain coral and some clams. I'm still not sure about which and how many CUC, I'd love a fire shrimp and my husband (who is not in charge of this) requested a fish (coloured me surprised) however I'm obviously really hesitant because this is such a small tank and I know having even one fish would make taking care of this much harder. What do you think? 

I am already so appreciative of this community and all the advice available on here already. 

P.s This will probably be the slowest pico ever built. I really take my time with things and want to be as knowledgable and prepared as possible so thank you in advance for your patience. I will try to update this when I can but I have a young son and a busy family so we'll see.

Ta and cheers from Aus! P.p.s thinking about putting Chaeto in the overflow. Does anyone is Sydney have some??

THANK YOU!

 

[Lula_Mae]

Welcome! Those are really cute tanks. I do almost exclusively pico tanks and I would suggest no more than an inch deep sandbed, you really only need enough to cover the bottom for aesthetic purposes so you could so 1-2 cm deep sandbed.  Deeper than that and I feel it starts to become a nutrient trap in a pico.  I don't know anything about the light you're thinking of, you could always try the Skyye and upgrade if it's not enough.  Where you live determines what's available but we do have some members here from Australia who might be able to offer suggestions.  A lot of people use the PAR LED bulbs that can be placed in a regular lamp fixture for a pico but I'm not sure if that's available there.  For an idea of how much CUC you can check out Reef Cleaners and look at their packages; I do this anytime I need to figure out a CUC. You could start with something like 1 nassarius snail (stir up sandbed and eat stuff) and a couple of cerith/trochus/astrea snails (turbos will get too big but I have heard of people getting them small and trading them in when they get too large) to eat algae. You could try a hermit if you wanted but you certainly don't have to; I would suggest scarlet hermits as a first choice, if available, as they are less aggressive than many other hermits.

 

It is possible to have a small fish in a tank this size if you are diligent about water changes.  I would suggest looking into neon gobies, clown gobies, green banded gobies.  Too small for a clownfish (they poop a LOT) but small gobies or maybe a blenny like a bimaculatus blenny or possibly a tailspot blenny (might be pushing it, size-wise).  Small critters like that are what you want to look for.  This tank would also be great to feature invertebrates such as pom pom crabs, porcelain crabs or anemone shrimp.  Clams might get to big for this tank, depending on the type. The giant clams will definitely get too big (maximas get a good 12" and I believe croceas about 6" and they're the smallest species commonly available as far as I know).

 

Don't worry about how slowly it comes together. My current build has taken me over a month just to set it up and I got the tank at the beginning of the year lol.  Slow and steady wins the race!