Starting a nano...

[MandyC]

First I want to say hi to everyone I've been reading a few days now and everyone seems so nice, unlike some other nano sites I've looked at....

Heres what i want to do, feel free to laugh and call me crazy if something won't work, I'd rather find out that way then by wasting money I'm sure you know what I mean. I've been keeping FW tanks forever now (almost 10 years) and I think I'm finally going to be able set up a SW tank, YAY!!!!

I have a 10 gallon that I want to make a nano reef, I was planing on using around 15LBS LR and maybe black sand thats made for SW I want to be able to keep some corals, mostly lowlight ones anyways like mushrooms, zoo's ect so I'm going to replace the lights, it has a standard fixture with 2 X 25 wt screw in incandesent for a 50wt total, I was thinking of replacing it with a coralife aqualight 96 quad PC. I want to keep some shrimps, snails, ect. and maybe a couple smal fish, I would love to have a mandarin someday down the road, but I know that I can't provide enough food at this point.
I was planning on getting the sand, and maybe a piece of LR to start the tank cycling ok questions...

1. Can I use the same tank and equipment as long as i clean it really good, I've never used any treatments on the tank, I never needed to.

2. do they sell mini PC flourecents that would screw into my hood? or something similar that would work for the corals I want, or should I just replace it? I'm trying to spend as little as possible.

3.how would you recomend starting the cycling, since I'm using dead sand, I don't want to kill the LR either, so what should I do I know that alot of times it will have a die off, so should I put it all in at once or a little at a time?

4. I'm looking at the Power Sweep 212 powerhead, it rotates 90 degrees, would this be enough or would i need another power head too? I also have some other power filters, I was thinking maybe using one with some macro algea in it (or my heater)and also for more movement.

5. do I have to have a sump? or will I be ok without one?

I can't think of any more now if I do I'll post them, thank you all, sorry for the long post and the newbie questions, but like I said earlier I'd rather ask then not know and do the wrong thing

[darthteddy]

WELCOME TO TRT
to answer your Questions as best i can
1)Yes, I See no reason not to be able to use it.
2)You could gt new lights but i would just buy reef bulbs for your existing light if you want to save money
3)Not Quit Sure lol thats my Bros Job
4)Sounds good. I have a 12g and am not using a power head
5)You dont really need a sump if you are gonna keep the LR in the 10 but i wouldnt be bad for it.that should help but any one who has more expeirence should feel free to add in and you can critisize my recomendations as well lol

[MandyC]

I also wanted to ask...

Sump/no sump? and what is it for to beguin with??

and fuge or not?

[MandyC]

sorry I already asked about the sump I meant skimmer... (how do I edit my posts anyways??)


thank you for the welcome and your reply

[jeepjon]

Well, A sump is a matter of personal taste or opinion or design limitations, if you've got stuff that hangs on the tank...then no need for a sump! I think they're a little more trouble than they're worth on smaller tanks, but that is just me. a 96watt powerquad would probably be able to keep most corals up to stonys. That would be a killer light setup! I have one of the coralife 15 watt PC screw in replacements, it's a 50watt 03, 50 watt 10k, and it rocks! So two of those would probably be ok for some zoos and mushrooms. Cycling...put the LR in the tank and wait for the ammonia and nitrite to go back down to zero. You'll have some die off that will cycle some. After that, add your first (and most likely only) fish in that tank...a pair of percula clowns would look really cute in a tank like that! A refugium is up to you....again, it's personal preference...they're good, but maybe a bit over-rated unless you can add another 10 gallon tank as a refugium. Weekly 50% water changes should cover your filtration, unless you wanted to run purigen and occasional carbon, which would be helpful. You can make a nice little tank in there, if you're patient! Patience is key in SW! ! !

[dhoffroad]

1. yes my 10 gal nano used to be a FW tank
2.like the others said there are bulbs but I will HIGHLY recomend the coralife 96w that is what I am running and LOVE it
3.dump it all in and wait for the cycle to finish .
4.all that sounds ok but I have herd bad stuff about that power head jamming up more than not
5. no you don't have to have a sump or a skimmer for that matter. If you want to have one you can .to be honest with you if I was to start my 10 over I would have drilled the tank and would be running a 10gal sump/fuge set up and oh yea I would put a skimmer in the sump/fuge also.the only reason I dont have all that now is because my tank is not drilled and I don't trust HOB overflows.

[MandyC]

Thanks everyone!, I think I am going to go with the 96W quad, I actually found it online for $88, then again I'd have to pay shipping, theres a place in town that has them for $97, but no money at the moment go figure... I'd rather get the good lights and not really be limited much to what i can keep other then space and money lol.

[dme330i]

On a small tank, I wouldn't worry about a sump.

Half the fun is doing the research and planning. Many options will work. For example:

- instead of using a sump/refugium, you could get a HOT filter (many are on eBay for $22) and in addition to the filter cartridge, fill it half-way with some live rubble and top it off with Chaeto Macro Algae. I get the clear filters so light can get it. Further, I cut a square out of the lid of the filter so that the light (a 20w mini halogen) shines into the fuge brightly.

- I prefer to run a small skimmer. If you don't run a skimmer, weekly water changes are a must and you might have to use phoszorb or something similar. I had a Red Sea Prizm on my 75 gallon tank and it wasn't cutting it, so I set it up on my 10G Nano and it works great.

- The 96W light you mentioned is ideal. I'd like to get one myself. Right now I'm running 3 24", 20W tubes. Two of the tubes are those Lights of America under cabinet lights from Wal-Mart - it's a nice 6500K (ballast is built-in and they're cheap $9). The third tube is a Corallife actinic ($14 at Petsmart Online - you can bring the printout into a local store and they will match their online price). The combination is a nice crisp bluish-white light - 60W.

Enjoy!

[Jeremiah]

1) I would agree that you could use that tank. Although if it's scratched up or anything you should be able to get a 10 gallon AGA for about $7.99 at petco or petsmart.

2) I don't know if they would fit (they are a little bigger diameter then those stock aquarium bulbs) but they have coralife 20Watt 50/50 screw in pc's. 2 of those would be 20 40 watts. But they cost $40 for both of them. For $60 more you could get that 96 watt pc and be able to keep more light demanding corals. Another advantage to having the power quad fixture is that you could have the top open and that would help with gas exchange at the surface. Might help cooling a bit too.

3) Put it all in at once. Depends on the type of rock you are getting but around 10-15 pounds would be allright. Just do water changes often and keep track of water parameters untill it's done cycleing.. Could probably get a scoop of live sand to seed your sand bed from a local reefer or the LFS.

4) I have never used power sweep myself but many have reported that they get stuck quite often and need to be cleaned out constantly to maintain the rotating funcion. As far as a power filter, there are alot of people that have used AquaClear 500's and modified them into mini fuges. I used a AC modified and a 7 watt clip on florescent and had some more live rock and grew macro quite well in there. I don't really think it did anything for the water quality but it sure made it look cooler.

5) A sump is surely not neccessary but I would hightly recomment if if you can drill the tank of have someone do it for you. One thing you will notice in a 10 gallon is that buy the time you add all of these power filters, power heads and heaters it will look sort of cluttered. (might not mind that though) Another thing is you will bave more water volume which is going to help with the stability of your water params. The most annoying thing that I faced with not having a sump was the surface film you get on the water. You can get some attatchment for some of the power filters that have little overflows to get the surface scum. I have never actually used one of those but people say that after you get it adjusted right they work great.

I remember when I was going to set up my first nano I was so excited to have a reef. I had a 5 gallon mini bow modded with pc's and everything I had in there was growing great. (no fish in it) But I quickly moved onto the 30. That sprung a leak a couple weeks ago so now I am on to the 75. That should keep my content for a while...

Good luck on the nano..
Jeremiah

[dhoffroad]

oh yea if you get the 96w light mak sure you get the legs for it also

[MandyC]

thanks again, I was deffinately getting the legs for the light I'll pay the 10 bucks and not add the extra heat. I was thinking of getting a glass lid to put on it to help with evaporation and to keep anything adventurous in, do you think I should just skip the glass? I have a regular hood on there now so it has to go. I'm also thinking of doing one of the DIY top-offs for it I saw a page on it for nanos on here now I'm not sure how to find it again I'm also thinking of skipping the powerhead and going with a good filter, it has a little whisper on there now but its not very big, although it works great it has good movement I'm just not sure its enough, course if I take out the filter bag it will be better,

any other suggestions?

[dhoffroad]

I have a glass top covering all but a 2" (+-) strip across the back when the tank will get a little hot if yuor house dose I don't have AC so my house can heat up anyway I just use a cheep little clip on fan to blow across the gap between the light and the glass top and that keeps it cool .I made my own auto top off but yu can buy them I am at work so I dont have the add for the one I copied (californiareefs.com?)it works great. when I get home I will get the add.you prob will want more flow than that HOB filter.I used to have a power head in my tank but did'nt like th e look of it so I made a closed loop set up there is a link for that on the general forum here. I have foud that what you think might be too much flow usualy is fine.I am pushing arround 130-140gph thru a closed loop and I also have a HOB AC300 converted to a fuge

[Dingo]

With a glass top, it could get too hot. It did on mine with that 96W powerquad. IMO, the single best thing in the world for a nano is an autotopoff. That way you aren't constantly fighting evaporation.

[dhoffroad]

yea the site for the auto top off is www.californiareefs.com and I will agree a top off system is VERRY good to have.

[PufferMatt]

the coralife 1x96w is a perfect choice, i had one on my 10gal nano and i was 110% satisfied with it.