is my idea for a nano tank do-able?

dereks

dereks

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Mar 7, 2006
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I wanted to do a 3 gallon nano tank, I know it's not the best idea for a saltwater beginer but my mind is made up and I'm willing to put the extra effort into it. Will these fit into the tank?

2" fish (not picked out yet, open for suggestions)
marble sea star
giant green polyp duncan
australian polyp blastomussa
neon green palua nephthea

is this over crowded? Do corals add to bio-load? do I need a clean up crew, snails to sift through the sand etc?

Brand new to salt water, what do I need to monitor and look for in terms of calcium and kh? what do I need to take care of coral? any other advice would help, thanks!
 
Well, with a tank that small, you will need plenty of water changes. Or a sump, so to keep your waterchanges up, you will ned a container to mix in, at least 5 gallons, maybe even two, so that you can keep the water mixed ahead of time.

Chances you will want a very hardy small fish, yellow tail damsel so that as the water parameters constantly change the fish doesn't die.

In reality, you can stuff as much as will physically fit into the space, but you need to keep the water clean. Live rock helps, macro algae, scrubbers, skimmers etc. For a smaller tank water changes is by far the easiest. Maybe daily 30%

But you have to mix ahead of time and keep the salinity ph etc all the same, maybe mix in a rubbermaid trash can with heater and pump.
 
dereks said:
I wanted to do a 3 gallon nano tank, I know it's not the best idea for a saltwater beginer but my mind is made up and I'm willing to put the extra effort into it. Will these fit into the tank?

2" fish (not picked out yet, open for suggestions)
marble sea star
giant green polyp duncan
australian polyp blastomussa
neon green palua nephthea

is this over crowded? Do corals add to bio-load? do I need a clean up crew, snails to sift through the sand etc?

Brand new to salt water, what do I need to monitor and look for in terms of calcium and kh? what do I need to take care of coral? any other advice would help, thanks!
Click to expand...


In my opinion, none of that stock above is suitable for a 3 gallon tank..They are grow to be too big besides the the nepthea...With a tank this size, fish wise, your VERY limited to the tiny goby species, a snail or shrimp and a few corals...
 
If you'd like to start a sw tank, something as small as a 3g tank would be the last thing I would recommend. Smaller tanks require more attention and are less forgiving than larger tanks... and even a slightly larger tank in this case might save you a tremendous amount of headaches.

I wouldn't suggest anything smaller than a 15g tank to a sw beginner, and that is still quite small for a sw tank. Even with a 15g tank, keeping up with the evaporation will be a daily task to prevent wide variances in salinity. In a 15g tank, you could easily keep 1 or 2 smaller fish (depending on species), a handful of inverts (wouldn't recommend any sea stars though), and a few corals.

Corals do generate waste, so they do have an influence on the overall bio-load. How much any one coral effects the bio-load vaires greatly from coral to coral and will also depend on if it is being fed any supplemental foods.

Many corals require very little (or even no) extra care beyond maintaining proper water quality, providing appropriate water movement, and giving them an adequate amount of light.

To monitor your water parameters, you'll just need a good set of test kits.
 
Reefscape said:
In my opinion, none of that stock above is suitable for a 3 gallon tank..They are grow to be too big besides the the nepthea...With a tank this size, fish wise, your VERY limited to the tiny goby species, a snail or shrimp and a few corals...
Click to expand...

I agree on everything he said, only fish that may be ok in that size tank is something like a Clown Goby. I wouldn't even put a shrimp goby/pistol pair in a tank that small. Duncans are way too big for that size tank and no way you could keep water parameters stable enough to support an LPS coral like a Duncan. You are going to have temp, salinity, and pH swings in a tank that small and that is not good for keeping hard corals (hard as in corals with a skeleton, not as in difficult)
 
ok, thanks. Is distilled water better than RO, im willing to put the extra money into it. I am ready for a water change every day if needed, I've got three 5 gallon buckets, a small heater for them and one of those things to keep the water mixing (can't think of what they're called.) Do I need to adjust the ph to 8.3 like they recomend, with reef buffer, right? Will a poly filter take care of the phosphates? What level of calcium am I trying to get?
 
I have never been a fan of using distilled water for some reason, if I had to chose between just plain RO and Distilled I would pick RO. Only because I had good success with plain RO for many years. RO/DI is ideally what you want but it is hard to find for sale unless you buy it from a LFS. That is why most people spend the $150 or so for a RO/DI unit for their house.

Normal salt mix will give you a pH of around 8.3 when freshly mixed so no buffers should be needed for the sw you make. When you do fresh water top offs though it may be a good idea to use some pH buffer in that. In a normal tank without a constant pH buffer it will swing from 7.8 - 8.3 depending on the time of day. In the morning before the lights come on the pH will be at its lowest and that is the best time to add top off/buffers. Poly filters will not help too much for phosphates, but they are still good to use for catching deitrus and other large particles like fish waste. You will need to use some media like Phosban to remove phosphates. In a small tank you can put that media in a media bag. Reactors work better for media like Phosban, but do take up space and in a small tank isn't really required. You can also just go with a product like Chemi-Pure Elite which will have your carbon AND phosphate remover in the same bag.

Calcium isn't that big of a concern if your not going LPS or SPS corals. 380 is a good number. If you are doing LPS or SPS you want to try to get it in the 420-440 range.
 
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