Newbie - 15 gallon reef

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Snowgrrl83

AC Members
Dec 22, 2005
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Ottawa, ON
Hi everyone,

Alright, so before you start going up in arms about a newbie starting a nano reef aquarium, please let me spend (or waste) my money and learn on my own. Haha ;)

No but really, I've had small, large, medium FW tanks before, with all sorts of fish. Then I had to move across the country (from BC to Ontario) and needless to say that my ex kept the tanks.

I've never owned SW tanks before. I would really like to try and I don't want to spend tens of thousands of dollars. I don't want to go FO nor FWLR, I want to go reef. I'm a bit of a nerd, and I like to read about this stuff.....so I bought a book. The Nano-Reef Handbook by CR Brightwell. I'm also a bird conservation biologist by trade, and owning a reef tank should be a big "no-no", knowing how bad taking live coral from their natural environment really is since it is becoming more and more of an threatened ecosystem in the wild -- but I guess my geeky instinct takes over and I would love to kick-off this reefing hobby.

I haven't bought the tank yet and even though I'm sure all of you will say "Go big, or go home" I want to say... I don't have space, nor the 3000 dollars to buy a 60 gallon tank (not to mention all the accessories that go with it, that can easily add up to 10 000). So lets say with a budget of 1000$ in mind...

I don't want this to become a "science experiment gone bad" either. Therefore, before I even buy a tank, I want your "expert", "amateur" or "hobbyiest" advice.

What do you wish someone had told you before you started your reef aquarium?... or nano reef aquarium for those of you that like to "live on the edge".

:)

Snowgrrl
 
i applaud you for doing tons of research before just jumping into the reef and may i say this. I would plan out exactly what pieces(brand and size) of equipment you will need/want before buying them that way you will have a shopping list that you can buy the items as you get the money(if your on a budget like many of us are). I would also find out what kind of corals you want to keep because the different corals will determine what you will need in the way of lighting which can vary from pretty affordable for PC lighting to a little more expensive for like T5(and T5HO) to the more expensive side like Metal Halide

you will also want to find out if you will want to use a sump/refugium

i am sure you know all of this already but it never hurts to inform just incase
 
lol, beleive it or not you could very easily spend the 3grand on that 15G reef. To outfit that tank with good quality equipment and rock, and get it stocked your looking at well over a grand...even with just keeping softies. Also alot of places are selling aquacultured corals now so you wouldnt be taking any from the oceans. tampabaysaltwater.com also sells aquacultured live rock and live sand. They ship their rock and sand fully submerged in water so you have no real die off and not to mention their rock is top quality. Buying top quality rock over half dead boat rock means your tank will undergo few to no algae issues early on.

Also despite what alot of nano keepers tell you a skimmer is a huge asset, my own new 15G reef has a CPR BakPak 2R+ and I tell you that skimmer pulls out some crud out of that water....so skimmers IME on a nano are not useless wastes of money. Plus when you can buy these HOB models like the CPR BakPak or the Aqua C Remora Nano used on ebay for under $75 its definatly money well spent. Especialy when the only thing on them that could wear out is the pump, and thats a cheap replacement buying used saves you a ton.
 
coma white - I believe it. Aquarium hobbying is definitly not cheap. I'm definitly planning on buying a protein skimmer. I've never used one of these before while having FW tanks. Would I need a sponge filter if I have a protein skimmer and weekly water changes were done?

I've also heard that the lights can heat up a small tank quite quickly in these reef aquariums, and unlike FW tanks that I've kept in the past, I imagine that with a small tank, I wouldn't necessarily need a heater...but maybe a chiller?!

It really does relieve me to know that there are more and more captive-bred reef stock out there....phew! I'm really unsure of the types of critters and coral that I want to keep right now - so I have to match them with the proper light, tank size, roomates, etc. I've mostly read about hardwear..... I just really have to get into reading about the biology of the species (this is the fun part) and what would work well together and what doesn't....

I hope I get a gift certificate to the LFS for Christmas ;)
 
Another question that I have - do you guys recommend a specific brand of salt for small reef tanks?
 
There is nothing wrong with starting small first off :) Your $1000 budget will get you everything you need long as you are thrifty. The live rock and lighting will be the most expensive part of the system after buying tank and stand. You can save a lot of money if you go with dry base rock from sources such as marcorocks or bulkreefsupply. 15 gallon is a 24" tank so i would recommend a current 24" sundial fixture which some places have on sale for $207+, from there you can keep with the stock bulbs or upgrade to better bulbs which make a huge difference btw. Skimmer; since it's such a small tank you could go with an AquaticLife 115 mini skimmer, it's cheap and works fine, although it skims fairly wet. For a refugium i don't know if you are going with a sump or not but if you want a cheap hang on tank system you could get an aquaclear 500 they are fairly cheap and you can easily mod them to be a fuge plus they will add greatly to your turnover rate. The best way to stock your reef is through a local club if you have one, you can't beat the prices you get from local reefers.

I definitely recommend a skimmer like comma white said. Most nano reefers say you don't need one an i agree but i've done it both ways and i have to say i've seen nothing but positive results from using them on both my 10g nano and 20g nano. On my 10 gallon i have the AquaticLife 115 mini skimmer and on my 20 gallon i way over skim with a AquaC Remora Pro with a mag 3 that is rated for up to a 120 gallon tank lol.
 
Snowgrrl83 said:
Another question that I have - do you guys recommend a specific brand of salt for small reef tanks?
Click to expand...

People have shown that it really depends more on the user than the brand of salt. There are fantastic reef tanks with almost every brand of salt out there. I personally use Reef Crystals Instant Ocean. The main thing with nano's especially is to really keep up on the partial water changes since parameters can get out of whack real fast in such a small body of water.
 
Thanks for the tips MGDMirage. I've had an aquaclear before - in my FW tanks, I guess I'll buy another one. Too bad all my stuff is still with the ^%*!@# ex-boyfriend :(
 
Buy good equipment is my 2 cents, youll see in the long run how much better it is to not half *** this. youll definitly want to start off with easier coral softies and leathers and LPS just so you get the idea of water parameters and all that fun stuff.

In the end the more money you spend and the more patient you are IMO the better off youll be and the more rewarded youll feel once you have a a nice reef.. nothing wrong with starting small at all.. my first tank was a 14gal bc
 
The heat is definatly why Id stick to PC or T5 lighting mounted on legs a couple of inches above the tank...open top nanos are a good idea as it helps keep the tank cooler but with that you have to top off more often. Im using a 24" coralife 130watt lunar aqualight on my reef...does very well temp doesnt go beyond 79*F and its heater is set to 78*F so it. You probably wont need a chiller, these forms of lighting run fairly cool and most fixtures come with cooling fans to keep them cooled off even more. Definatly get a heater just to keep night temps from dropping to low :)

You wouldnt need to have a filter of any form with a skimmer and circulation pumps, especially with adequate live rock. Personally I like to run a small HOB with a piece of a polyfilter and some Purigen just to suck up any phoshate and remove any impurities...plus it provides more circulation and some mechanical filtration. The live rock is going to provide all of your necessary biological filtration.

The easiest way IMO is to set your tank up capable of supporting most corals, which means good circulation and 8-10WPG lighting. Most people start out with softies and migrate toward LPS and SPS later on as they get the hang of maintaining a tank with softies. Zoas, Palys and Mushrooms are readily available aquacultred and quite honestly alot of them rival SPS in color.

Another thing to keep nutrients low its adviseable not to use tap water, either investing in a RODI unit or simply buying the water is best. For my own 15G tank Ive chosen not to buy a unit and just buy the water. You can run your own gallons of RO water from walmart for about 40cents each, or buy pre-packaged RO(green capped walmart brand) for about 80cents or even use distilled. Tap often contains levels of phosphate and nitrate(just to name a few), and with reefs you want as little of each as possible.

I personally use Seachem Reef salt, as it contains a high level of calcium...thus I dont have to dose and Ive never had any algae issues with it so Im sure it literally does not contain silicates or phosphate like it states. I have had huge algae issues in the past with instant ocean so i cant recommend it.
 
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