starting a nano tank

[TRe]

i thought id give the nano thing a shot... i picked up up a 10 gallon tank, 16 pounds of live sand, 6 pounds of live CURED tonga rock, and 20 small blue leg hermits...the questions i have are... what all equipment do i need when starting a nano tank i mean is it the same as in a regular tank?? protien skimmer,power heads, lighting,additives, ect...next week ill buy another nice chunk of tonga, a few astrea snails and maybe a few cleaner shrimp..the week after ill buy one more nice size chunk of tonga and a few clown fish and the week after ill start on the lighting and anenomes....do you guys have any recomendations on good starter anenomes?? and what about lighting any suggestions???
how does this plan sound??? any thing you'd do differantly??

 

[S.Reef]

I would just do a powerhead or two for water movement. And use the live rock and sand for biological filtration. Lighting depends on what you want to keep. If you just want some small fish a fluorescent will do...some medium light-high corals probably a power compact fixture.

 

[TRe]

how much live rock would i need if i was gonna do biological filtration?? and how many power heads or what size??

 

[S.Reef]

Lets see, at 5lbs of live rock. I would eventually shoot for about 10-15lbs. but thats just me. Power heads, I would place two across from each other and have them rated to about 200GPH each.

 

[1979camaro]

your plan sounds ok except for the anemone...that is a ridiculously horrible decision for a nano tank for a wide variety of reasons

 

[S.Reef]

Oh yeah forgot to mentiont that...stay away from anemones.

 

[TRe]

why is it too small?? i saw a nano cube at the lfs with anenomes

 

[TRe]

and what about star fish....they ok??

 

[1979camaro]

a small starfish is probably ok, anemones will grow to be 10-12" in diameter minimum and beyond that water quality and lighting issues make it very difficult to maintain a healthy anemone in a nano tank; this being your first nano tank and given your tendency to overstock I do not believe an anemone would have a chance of surviving in your tank

 

[TRe]

ok than than what else do you recomend me putting in there ??

 

[S.Reef]

Some mushroom corals, maybe some zoo rocks, a few leathers...

 

[TRe]

a made a few new editions last week i got a clown, 2 atlantic glazer snails, a hawaiin feather duster, this tiny red starfish... whatcha think so far?? i know i still need more rock but the day i went to the wholesaler to get more rock it was closed so instead i just went to a few of the lfs's i picked up some other stuff (i couldnt wait) next ill get more rock then maybe a cleaner shrimp or 2.... can you guys think of anything else i may want ???

 

[1979camaro]

what you want is up to you not us

im not sure what an "atlantic glazer snail" is but if its a turbo snail those two will cause problems in the long run. feather duster should be ok if you can keep it fed (which is always an iffy prospect). depending on what kind of starfish it is it could be ok or it might not

 

[lordroad]

Tre, I've been doing some readings on starfish, on the internet and in a book called "the complete guide to the marine aquarium," and here are some starfish which seem to be okay for a nano or a nano reef:

Some fromia species commonly called red or orange starfishes are usually reef and invert safe and stay small. Some similar looking species can get to be about a foot, and others, like the common chocolate chip star, gets large and eats inverts and isn't reef safe. Run a google on fromia and red and orange starfish (or seastars) and you'll get some images and information, which is crucial to have at the lfs because these guys can be mislabeled pretty easily, from what I understand.

I'm looking into a starfish too down the road. A friend of mine actually had a mangled chocolate chip come out of his live rock... it died a week ago, probably due to water spikes in nitrate, I'm guessing, since his tank is only two months old.

 

[TRe]

hey camaro why do you say turbo snails are bad in the long run?... btw these are atlantic glazers im not sure exactly what that means but the were next to the turbo snails a little smaller though

 

[1979camaro]

i dunno...still haven't heard of those, but the problem with turbos is they get really big so in a small tank they sometimes starve and almost always knock stuff like live rock and coral frags over

 

[TRe]

btw camaro they are called "atlantic grazer" not glazer my fault... they have antenas and u can actually see their eyes

 

[1979camaro]

it must be an astraea snail of some sort if it is smaller than a turbo...they are the only atlantic snails i know of other than turbos

 

[TRe]

exactly how much rock do i need for biological filtration?? is 12 pounds enough?
also in my storage unit i have an old 100 watt metal halide ..will it on work in my 10 gallon??

 

[dbacksrat]

for LR, it depends on the quality/density of it, but a good rule is minimum 1 lb per gallon