Thinking about a nano reef

N00B · 10-07-2006, 11:54 AM

Hello everybody,

I was thinking about setting up a salt water nano reef, my first one. However, with my job it may be necessary to go occasionally go out of town for a few days up to a week at a time. I wasnt planning on having too many things (maybe 2 fish, mostly coral), but was wondering if it would be a bad idea to set something up since I will be travelling.

What type of fish/corals would you recommend that would be able to withstand this type of schedule??

THanks!!

SuperScro · 10-07-2006, 01:35 PM

What size do you expect the tank to be. Will it be like one of the nano cubes? The one 12 gallons, less than 12 gallons, or the 24?

Loman · 10-07-2006, 02:03 PM

Noob,
It is difficult to be certain but If your work travel is truly occasional and not exceeding 1 week I think you would be okay. Now if you your work schedule is such that you are out of town every week and home basically on the weekends that might be a different story. Most established tanks can a couple of days without food or anything. You can get an auto feeder (I am not real sure how it will work with the hinged lid of most Nano system. If you have light sensitive items such as corals then you would need to have the lights on a timer. Of course some tasks could be completed by a friend or neighbor. Really the nano systems once set up and established are relatively easy to keep running.

N00B · 10-07-2006, 04:44 PM

Thanks for the fast replies guys!!

I was probably just going to go for one of the 12 gallon nanos. I figure it might be best to start off small, so its a little bit easier.

Ive been reading some about cycling tanks and stuff. But, could you point me in the direction of some literature to read, so I can find some corals that are easy to keep and are compatible. Or should I just go browse around at the pet store??

I was thinking about getting just 2 clown fish and then some corals. I suppose I may need that auto feeder thing and a timer for the lights. Is it possible to set up a completely stable ecosystem that requires no outside intervention???

Thanks!

N00B

Nightswimmer · 10-13-2006, 09:18 PM

Hi N00B, I too have been looking into starting a Nano tank.

Here's some reading material to look into. "Reef Secrets" by Jacob Nilsen and Svein A. Fossa, "Reef Aquariums" by John Tullock, "Marine Aquariums" by Vincent Hargreaves ( Marine Aquariums has been the most information for corals, inverts, fish etc. for reef aquariums for me)
Just read the book called Marine Aquariums by Jeffery Kurtz. I had purchased the first three books from Ebay with savings of over half the cost, including shipping. These books have been a great help for me. And of course this forum has also. Experience or the experienced is the best teacher.

From a "Bookworm" on this subject I'm going to start with my own "set up".
Wish you the best

...please wish me some too on the SW venture.

Loman · 10-13-2006, 10:52 PM

NOOB,
Do not neglect the resources here. There is a great sticky on cycling. That is a large part of getting started in a smooth manner.

Quote:

I was probably just going to go for one of the 12 gallon nanos. I figure it might be best to start off small, so its a little bit easier.

I am not sure I totally agree with your logic here. A 12 Gallon cube is a fine choice and will likely work out fine. However, I personally think that a larger system (to a point) is a bit easier. A lot of this is basically physics if you will. If you put the same amount of pollutants (ammonia) in a 12 gallon and a 24 gallon solution - the 12 gallon is going to have the higher percentage. The same is true with the tanks. A bigger tank is slower to react to a problem and have water conditions degrade (unfortunately they are also slower to react to good things and have water conditions improve too) Depending on your resources and what and where you want the system I would think that the 24 gallon versions are certainly no more difficult than the 12 and maybe not quite as hard.I should also add this disclaimer if you were talking about a 120 gallon system I would back pedal a bit because of expense etc..

Tommy Gun · 10-18-2006, 09:32 PM

I would definetly agree with Loman's warning here, even in a freshwater set up, sometimes bigger (to a point, right Loman?! :-) ) is better. The main 'trick' to any reef set up is to have extremely good water quality and in many cases, it is easier to keep water quality high in a larger volume of water than in a smaller volume. More water is just simply going to take longer to go bad (but also longer to get back to good).

I would not want to discourage you or anyone who wants to do anything in this hobby or any other for that matter (unless it is serial killing or otherwise unethical), but a 12 gallon nanocube reef set up may be hard for you and compounded by the fact that you cannot always be there to watch it when you out on business. Maybe a small FOWLR tank would be a good start and you could keep a 12 gallon tank with a couple pounds of live rock, live sand, and maybe one or two clownfish in it.