Just some Curiousities from a FW keeper

[Riso-chan]

Was wondering.
1.Just how difficult would it be to keep a nano-reef tank, 5-10 gallons, with small fish like gobies?
2.What else would be reasonable to stock along with the gobies?
3.Are there stocking limits for nano-reefs?
4.Are nano-reefs expensive?

Some other questions I've been meaning to ask for a while(Not that I would ever do this myself) is this:

5. What does it really take to successfully keep a moray eel?
6. What species are on the market and which are the easiest and hardest to
keep?

Sorry if I'm going nuts here with questions, but one day I might like to get into saltwater. Not anytime soon though, as I don't have that much money.

 

[Oliver]

nano tanks are harder to take care of than big tanks. All you need really is a few pumps to turn the water over about 10 times for a fish only tank and about 20 for a reef. A skimmer is the way to go but if the budget is low, then you have to do alot of water changes to make up for the skimmer. If you don't have coral then the lighting is what ever you want. Why have you only got a small tank?? I recon you should save up some money for a bigger tank, atleast 30g and then start a fish only tank. Not that expensive, but if you start cutting corners you will end up paying for them anyway down the track. Gobies aren't really that fun by themselves, get a bigger tank and some other fish, and a goby. You could probebly fit 2 fish in a 10g, but without a skimmer you would have to change about 5g every week.

 

[Mako]

I'll have to respectfully disagree with Oliver on a few points. I think nanos, as long as you stock with fish very lightly, are a breeze. I don't have a skimmer, but I do use purigen quite heavily along with activated carbon. I skipped the skimmer b/c I don't want to skim out any planktonic life, and I've had 0 problems.

I have a ton of water movement. The 15g is stacked to nearly the top with live rock and I've got about 40X of water movement going around in the tank via a hang-on-back filter and a powerhead, plus another powerhead slowly returning water from the fuge.

Stock lightly- I keep 1 to 1.5 inch of fish (ie, a damsel or gramma) per ten gallons. Feed lightly, like three to four times a WEEK, especially if you have a good bit of live rock to provide some food.

The keys I've found:
Tons of live rock, even if half of it is "reef bones" or similar.

Stock very lightly, feed lightly



And yes, nanos can be pricey, especially the lighting and the live rock, but there are ways around it that are the same for larger tanks (diy, buy used live rock, etc...)

Small, less aggressive damsels, royal gramma, occellaris/percula clowns (without the anemone, mine play in Xenia), cardinals, etc.. lots of stuff.


Tons of light

Lots of water flow (I don't keep slow-water corals like mushrooms or zoos)

Have a refugium about the same size as the nano, provides water dilution and nitrate removal, plus plankton production. Can be hidden or visible, but light it well for algae.

 

[Oliver]

ok, fair enough. But if you are deciding to go into the hobby anyway then I suggets getting a bigger tank. The cost will be about the same to make it salt water and you can have some fish, not just 1!

 

[Wildshot83]

I'm relatively new to the SW tanks but I just set up my 20 long as a Fish only with live rock (FOWLR) that is eventually going to be a reef.

I'm probably put in roughly 500 dollars to get it ready. You could do it for a less to start out with and you could do it with a 10 but I'd definitely get something a little bigger than a 10 gallon. The evaporative loss in a tank that small could really mess up the Specific gravity. I have to watch mine very carefully and it would definitely be easier with a larger tank. The same applies to everything about a small tank you have to be really meticulous about checking things because they can get out of control really fast. I'm with Mako about Nanos being relatively easy you just have to keep up on the water changes and maintaince.

Anyway what it costs really depends on what you want to keep. Heres just a run down of what I purchased to go from a FW tank to SW

Lighting- 130 Watt Power Compact fixture $130.00
Skimmer- bak-pak2R $90.00
2 powerheads for water movement $47.00
20lbs of live rock $80.00 (Check out etropicals.com and liveaquaria.com good prices and the rock is nice)
Salt, test kits, and a few odds and ends $100.00
Reverse Osmosis unit - Kent Marine 50gpd TFC Full size model $60.00 (used, but with new filter cartriages)

If you keep only fish you could use NO flouresent light so you'd save a lot of money there. You could also use a power filter like Mako said again saving you some cash. You could bum a few pieces of live rock off of someone and use reef bones as a base to build up your tank. There are other ways to save some money, just decide on what you'd like your tank to be and work from there. The livestock really determines what kind of equipment you need. Anyway hang out here and learn what you can, the people here are great and I've learned alot listening to everyone.

 

[Mako]

ok, fair enough. But if you are deciding to go into the hobby anyway then I suggets getting a bigger tank. The cost will be about the same to make it salt water and you can have some fish, not just 1!

Now THAT's something I can agree with, it ain't cheap. Don't you know that all money is TAINTED? It TAINT yours and it TAINT mine.