8g nano reef - first timer

[JamesWebb]

Background:

While at Aquatek during their customer appreciation weekend to look at some things I needed for my freshwater tank, I broke down and bought an Innnovative Marine 8g nuvo cube with the idea of doing a single anem with a clown fish. I have done a large fish only salt water tank before but knew nothing of reef style tanks. Thought it would be a great idea, bounced it off the guy from IM and a few employees of Aquatek they said 'for sure that would work great'. LOL well after spending some money and then doing the necessary, but preliminary, research I learned that sure as hell wasn't going to happen. I went to Fishy Business and learned a lot more then onto the forums at reef2reef to learn more. Decided I wanted to do coral tank with a few corals and add a small clown. I also realized that once I get this set up I will be wanting to move to a larger reef tank, my end goal has been explain in other threads so I won't add it here.

Equipment:

IM 8g nuvo cube, comes with filter element, pump, and LED lighting fixutre with a two stage (blue/white) built in system

Basic Thermometer (lol)

I have a heater that I purchased but after using watching the water temp realized I wont need so I'll take it back

5 pounds live rock fragments purchased at Fishy Business

crushed coral substrate

Livestock:

Xenia Frag from display tank at River City

eagle eye zoa frag

Plans:

I'm waiting on a 4-5 pound piece of live rock that will fit the tank astetics I am going for then I will use some of the existing small fragments of rock to fill it out. I want a lot of movement in the tank from corals and a bed of zoas near the base of the live rock. I want to do a single clown fish and keep it in the nano until it grows to large and move it to a soon to be set up larger reef set up.

I am all for feedback and advice. I know very little and am doing the best I can to learn everyday. If you think something will help me out, or you think I'm dumb and my plan is fail from the get go let me know. Worst case I will start a larger tank now and use this cute little cube as a beta tank in my office.

Here are a few pictures. I will get one of the zoa tomorrow when my lights come on. that reminds me I am running the lights 10 hours for the blue and 8 hours for the white inside the blue time, so the blue comes on for an hour then the white comes on then goes off 8 hours later and the blue stays on for another hour.

[jestep]

Looks like a good start. I would probably hold on to the heater just in case. My tanks typically use a lot of heater in the winter and absolutely none in the summer.

[Mr Cob]

looks great, very nice tank

[reefninja]

I really like the nano tanks. Have you thought about which clown species you want to put in there? I would recommend going with an Ocellaris or True Percula, as they do not get as large as the Tomato, Clarkii or Maroon. You would be able to keep them longer before they outgrow the tank. Just something to consider.

[victoly]

I don't see any reason you couldn't keep a clown in an 8 gallon for a pretty long time...Mine stay in about a 1 ft³ area in my tank and they arent even hosting anything. I think that youll find that quite a few folks will have free frags of starter corals if youre interested. I've got some small pieces of capnella (kenya tree) that you're welcome to if you want to try different things.

[FarmerTy]

Looks like a good start. I would probably hold on to the heater just in case. My tanks typically use a lot of heater in the winter and absolutely none in the summer.

+1 I had a nano tank (12 gallon) and the heater didn't turn on until October but ran off and on until February. This was in a house away from windows, however, I don't run my heat very often in the house. The small body of water changes temp really fast so the heater is def good insurance. Give it a 6-8 degree sudden drop in a couple of hours and consider your corals nuked.

Also, have you read up at all about cycling your tank? Did you buy live rock? Add any bacteria starter doses?

I think the main difference from starting a predator tank versus a coral tank is the cycling of the system. With the predator tank, its just fish. So, as long as your salinity and temperature are correct, you're solid. Then all you have to do is have the appropriate filtering devices in place to remove the biological load and add some water changes, and you're good to go.

With a coral system (particularly a nano) you have live rock and water changes as your main combatants against your biological load. Even if the live rock has already been cured and good to go, either way you would have to wait to finish your cycle before adding corals and fish, unless you dose some kind of bacteria head-start stuff (e.g. Dr. Tim's).

I may have missed that you've already cycled your tank (typically 1-3 months) but if you haven't yet, expect a cycle to be hitting you soon if you just set up your tank. You'll probably get a ammonia spike and higher levels of nitrites/nitrates and phosphates while your system is balancing out, which usually results in some type of algae growth or cyano. The conditions in your tank may be detrimental to the inhabitants of your tank which is why you usually leave the tank empty with just the liverock and sand until the cycle is complete.

The main reason I mention any of this is to prepare you in case you start noticing algal growth and your corals looking really ticked off.. then you may have an answer as to why. Also, seems like you're still shopping around for that perfect piece of liverock to be the centerpiece of your tank. When you add the new large piece of liverock to your system, it will cause another cycle in your tank. To avoid that, most people aim to have all their liverock in their system at the start and allow it all to cycle first, before putting anything in the tank.

These were the same stepping stones that I tripped on when I first started and wanted to share in case it helps. This hobby is such a rewarding one that I don't want anybody new starting out with a frustrating experience and be turned off by the whole thing. If you have any questions, ask away as you'll get some pretty good responses from the club. If you already know everything I said above, then ignore and maybe it'll help someone else who is reading your post. Good luck!

-Ty

[florenceReefer]

And if you want get two clowns now so they will pair up

[JamesWebb]

I really like the nano tanks. Have you thought about which clown species you want to put in there? I would recommend going with an Ocellaris or True Percula, as they do not get as large as the Tomato, Clarkii or Maroon. You would be able to keep them longer before they outgrow the tank. Just something to consider.

I have thought about it and am planning on an ocellaris for many reasons, first of all the size and cost plus I honestly think they look the coolest.

[JamesWebb]

Looks like a good start. I would probably hold on to the heater just in case. My tanks typically use a lot of heater in the winter and absolutely none in the summer.

+1 I had a nano tank (12 gallon) and the heater didn't turn on until October but ran off and on until February. This was in a house away from windows, however, I don't run my heat very often in the house. The small body of water changes temp really fast so the heater is def good insurance. Give it a 6-8 degree sudden drop in a couple of hours and consider your corals nuked.

Also, have you read up at all about cycling your tank? Did you buy live rock? Add any bacteria starter doses?

I think the main difference from starting a predator tank versus a coral tank is the cycling of the system. With the predator tank, its just fish. So, as long as your salinity and temperature are correct, you're solid. Then all you have to do is have the appropriate filtering devices in place to remove the biological load and add some water changes, and you're good to go.

With a coral system (particularly a nano) you have live rock and water changes as your main combatants against your biological load. Even if the live rock has already been cured and good to go, either way you would have to wait to finish your cycle before adding corals and fish, unless you dose some kind of bacteria head-start stuff (e.g. Dr. Tim's).

I may have missed that you've already cycled your tank (typically 1-3 months) but if you haven't yet, expect a cycle to be hitting you soon if you just set up your tank. You'll probably get a ammonia spike and higher levels of nitrites/nitrates and phosphates while your system is balancing out, which usually results in some type of algae growth or cyano. The conditions in your tank may be detrimental to the inhabitants of your tank which is why you usually leave the tank empty with just the liverock and sand until the cycle is complete.

The main reason I mention any of this is to prepare you in case you start noticing algal growth and your corals looking really ticked off.. then you may have an answer as to why. Also, seems like you're still shopping around for that perfect piece of liverock to be the centerpiece of your tank. When you add the new large piece of liverock to your system, it will cause another cycle in your tank. To avoid that, most people aim to have all their liverock in their system at the start and allow it all to cycle first, before putting anything in the tank.

These were the same stepping stones that I tripped on when I first started and wanted to share in case it helps. This hobby is such a rewarding one that I don't want anybody new starting out with a frustrating experience and be turned off by the whole thing. If you have any questions, ask away as you'll get some pretty good responses from the club. If you already know everything I said above, then ignore and maybe it'll help someone else who is reading your post. Good luck!

-Ty

Thanks guys, I will hold onto the heater just in case I end up needing it.

I do have just under 5 pounds of live rock currently in the system and did use a bacterial starter, Start Smart Complete which I have been using as directed. My plan to help with the addition of the new piece of live rock is to make sure that it is cured as much as possible before I place it into the system thus hopefully limiting the decay occuring on the rock and the spike in nitrogen rich compounds. I am however waiting to place the fish in the tank until I am sure that the tank is completley established. To be honest the frags I have in there now are there to give me something to watch while I'm tweaking the system and hopefully will be the start of the tank with many more to come.

[JamesWebb]

I think that youll find that quite a few folks will have free frags of starter corals if youre interested. I've got some small pieces of capnella (kenya tree) that you're welcome to if you want to try different things.

That would be awesome, I was looking at getting some for sure because I like the flow of it in the tank. I'll have to get ahold of you to try and pick some up once I get my new piece of rock and get it all set up the way it will stay.

[JamesWebb]

Question: At this point should I be looking at adding any inverabrates to the tank to help it out? Im thinking cleaning crew type organisms that I keep reading about in other build threads. If so, any recomendations?

[jestep]

Question: At this point should I be looking at adding any inverabrates to the tank to help it out? Im thinking cleaning crew type organisms that I keep reading about in other build threads. If so, any recomendations?

This is more of a preference than anything. I grew a bit tired of snails and hermits everywhere, so personally, I wouldn't add anything unless you need it.

The main concern is whether the tank is cycling or not. If it is, you definitely don't want to add anything, fish or invert. Unfortunately it's a double edged sword though. Without any bioload in the tank, the tank might not build up and maintain enough bacteria to support a fish.

I think I would add the cured live rock as you were suggesting. Then wait a few weeks before adding anything else. This should allow more bacteria to establish throughout the tank. The bacteria starter may have helped some, but most of the time they will not completely prevent a cycle. Adding established rock can prevent the cycle assuming you don't overstock too quickly.

I would also anticipate several algae blooms over the next 6 months to a year. It's pretty typical for a new tank to go through phases including cyano, GHA, and possibly a diatom bloom. I would add the correct clean up crew at the first sign of a particular algae but just remember if you add a huge CUC you will get die-off which further contributes to more algae. Keep up with weekly water changes and they should all pass without too much problem. Also, make sure to dip everything you put in the tank. The last thing you want to do is introduce bryopsis or caulerpa recemosa or any other highly aggressive algae into the tank.

[victoly]

I fall a little bit more into the "CUC is necessary" side of the spectrum, but i totally understand where the "god my tank looks bad because there are snails everywhere" category. This early in the tank cycle I don't know that they'd be all that beneficial (not much to clean up/may not be healthy for them to be in an uncycled or undercycled tank), but my vote would to be to add a combo of dwarf cerith/cerith/nassarius/nerites/hermits (something like http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_new.tpl&product_id=209&category_id=20&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34 from one of our sponsors) or an equivalent from a LFS would be something to consider one you begin to ramp up your stocking. Like jestep said, it's important not to overdo the CUC or you'll have die off which will contribute to water quality and consequently nuisance algae problems.

[JamesWebb]

I got my new rock in and got things where I want them. I am actually moving the Xenia down further on the large rock but had to wait until I got my glue for it so that will be done today.

[victoly]

Speaking from experience here, you probably want to keep that xenia separate from your main rockwork, as it will completely cover your aquascape if you're not super proactive about it. Unless that's what you're going for, in which case i think you will be very happy

Good luck!

[wesreyn]

Very cool rock although you will not be able to keep the side glass clean with it up against it like that. Nice start though!!!

[JamesWebb]

Very cool rock although you will not be able to keep the side glass clean with it up against it like that. Nice start though!!!

I said when I started that I didn't want any rock touching the side of the tank. Once I got the rock and started laying it out this way looks the best. I originally had it leaning against the back with a cave area between the bottom and the back but it took up too much room in the front of the tank. Once the system is established im going to pull the rock out from under the right side (of the picture) and the small pieces in the very front. It should open the aquascape up nicely and still have plenty of LR for filtration.

[Robb in Austin]

I'd ditch the xenia altogether. It's a weed, IMO.

Go with zoas or rics.

[JamesWebb]

I'd ditch the xenia altogether. It's a weed, IMO.

Go with zoas or rics.

that seems like the common thought, but i like it and the movement that it brings to the tank. Once I get some other stuff in there I may remove it, or just make sure to keep it held back to the small location it's on, if that becomes impossible i'll just take it out.

[Robb in Austin]

I love the movement of it too, but it just spreads incessantly and is hard to remove once it does.

If you want a small tank full of it, and nothing else, let it go. My clowns hosted in a xenia/anthelia rock for a long time.

[JamesWebb]

I got a small clown and three small snails today. I'll get some pictures up soon. I also saw what looks like a little red centipede looking thing, almost pink colored. Anyone know what it is?

Could my flow be too high for the clown with just the stock pump? He seems to be constantly fighting the current in the tank.

[victoly]

did it look like this?

if so, it's a bristle worm.

[JamesWebb]

Similar but skinnier. Good, bad or indifferent if it is a bristle worm?

[JamesWebb]

Everything I'm finding is saying that they are not bad as long as they aren't messing with my soft corals and are actually good at helping keep the tank clean. I'll keep an eye out for any damage but don't plan on doing anything to remove them yet.

[ClarkiiCircus]

I like them in my tank. They are part of a clean up crew, but for free! They will eat detritus for you. Just make sure you dont touch them or pull them with bare hands if you decide to remove them...their spines break off in your hand and cause some serious stinging.