First time nano. Old time crazy

[LordHelmet]

Hellos. It’s been 10 years since my last saltwater tank and here I am sitting in front of my 1 day old tank staring at live rock again waisting a lot of time and money. My first attempt at salt was over 20 years ago when the cichlids battled it out in a 10 gl tank and nothing survived. So I decided to try salt but learned quickly to stop telling pet store people what size my salt tank was. It worked great with the marine brand all in one hood that apparently they no longer make. I upgraded to a 30 gallon, then a 55 gallon and had a very tame lionfish. Then I sold the house and had no time to move the tank. “You want to keep the tank? Just don’t get to close to that one.” The new house resulted in a modest 20gl but after 7 years I had to take it down due to my youngest son that liked to try and swim in it. So here I am 10 years later and apparently nano is cool now. And many obsessive weeks of research I ended up going with the Fluval Evo 13.5. Although the “purchase online and pickup in store discount” at Petco sealed the deal. Only to tack on another 100 every time I go to the store. 3rd time tonight. 😉 And yes The store live rock jade some nasty hitchhikers. But it’s still fun to look at. 

[rough eye]

welcome. i just joined here recently myself, and opted for the same tank. Like you, I'm back to the hobby and didn't even realize nano tanks were a thing until I bought the tank back in December. Unlike you it's been more like 30 years or more since I had a salt water (or any) tank. I wish you luck and great success with it.

[debbeach13]

Welcome back. That is a very popular tank and you will find lots of good info all about them on this site. Live rock is the best. Gives you some thing to look at right away. Looks like you got some aiptasia to deal with. Better now than later. Good luck with your new set up.

[Christopher Marks]

It's exciting to jump back in after some time away! How's your new nano reef coming along @LordHelmet?

[LordHelmet]

9 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

It's exciting to jump back in after some time away! How's your new nano reef coming along @LordHelmet?

it’s going slow. After the algae bloom came and went some green hair algae showed up. I did a water change, maintenance on stock filters, added some 10 yr old leftover live rock and picked up some hermit crabs for the algae. Just 3 because no fish yet. But they’re awesome. Cleaning the place up. One even took on a new shell that I dropped in from Florida visits. Now I’m trying to figure out the aiptasia issue and looking at buying berghia vs other methods. I tried hot water but no bueno. 

[LordHelmet]

One more thing for those staying with the stock filter for now. I waited a month for the bloom to hit and when I cleaned the filter I realized it wasn’t pushed down far enough. So basically the filter was only kinda filtering. And I used one of the plastic tabs from the lid openings to plug that emergency return hole. It doesn’t completely seal it but it’s good enough and still safe if for some reason I didn’t check the tank for 6 months and the water level dropped. Lol

[LordHelmet]

Also, should I add more rock? I still have 4 more leftovers from my old tank that I could add. And I did clean and then soaked the old rock in salt water for a few days before adding it. It’s amazing that there’s still pink color on some of the rock too. 

[Cpfarris]

On 3/1/2021 at 10:52 PM, LordHelmet said:

Also, should I add more rock? I still have 4 more leftovers from my old tank that I could add. And I did clean and then soaked the old rock in salt water for a few days before adding it. It’s amazing that there’s still pink color on some of the rock too. 

I have been out for a bit too and am not setting up my new tank until august but the amount of LR looks good to me. You want to make sure there is ample swimming room but if you want to add more. I would go more vertical against the back chamber