Setting up a nana/micro REEF lots of quesions

[RobUK]

Setting up a nano/micro REEF lots of quesions

Hi all,
This is my first post in the marine section

I have been running FW tropical setups for a while now and there has been talk of Nano reefs in those forums.

I have some space and fancied doing maybe a 10g setup.
Questions are....

Filtration: What if any would I need as I have heard in tank so small water changes and plenty of live rock/sand do the job???

Lighting: Oviously I would want some kind of coral, invert, anemone life in the tank. Would sort of power/spectrum would I need.

Heating: Does a standard FW heater do the job?

Also any other bits of advice/info would be greatly recieved I know handling such a small tanks parameters would be tricky but I feel I have the time and drive to give it a go. Ultimatly I wuld love a large marine setup and this would be my learning curve before taking the plunge (Pun Intended ) into a full blown 100g+ setup.

Thanks an advance

 

[OrionGirl]

As long as you keep the stock very light, rock and sand will do the job. A skimmer will always help, too. I have a cheap skimmer, rock and sand in my 10 gallon tank, 15 gallon sump, and it's been stable and clean.

Lights--depends on what you want. I wouldn't encourage anyone to put an anenome in a nano--just not a good idea, these are critters that are tough to maintain. For some of the lower light softies, figure 4-5 wpg. Then up you can go!

Yep--most heaters say they are fine for either SW/FW...I don't recall seeing any that wouldn't work in either, anyway. I prefer the submersible ones, since it's easier to use and secure from water level changes. Mine is in my sump, so I have to watch it when I do water changes, but elsewise it's safe.

 

[RobUK]

I've had a good browse around online at things.

Lights: Firguring somethng like a T5? 55w Daytime blue and a 55W atrincte blue???

Live rock will probally be "uncured" parcific stuff

I havent decided on tank size yet but I am thinking about 10-15 gallons

I assume there arnt really any fish you can keep in a tank that small? so I was going to go for plenty of little cleaners and maybe one larger hermit crab (I just love looking at all the little guys, they're so cool )

 

[OrionGirl]

If you want corals, I'd forgo the hermit crab. While they seldom eat the corals, they tend to be little bulldowzers, and knock things around. I evicted all the hermits from my tank--they were killing off all my snails.

There are some fish--clown/gumdrop gobies, many of the gobies that form a relationship with pistol shrimp, possibly one of the smaller clowns. It's more a matter of how stable you can keep the tank--lots of small fish out there.

Lighting sounds fine--you'll be able to keep just about any corals you'd like. Shouldn't have too many problems with heat either, but I would probably build a fan in to the canopy JIC.

 

[RobUK]

Ok thanks.
I did find this place aswell while I was searching...

www.nano-reef.com they have some call pics and some Okish advice. Might be worth adding it to a sticky or something for anyone else who fancies nano-reefing it

Pretty sure now I am gonna go for plenty of coral and small inverts, hopefully after a few months of nanoreefs the Girlfriend will let me have a full size one

I am gonna go to my LFS shop tommorrow and price a few things up and once I have what I think is an OK setup, I post again just to check it sounds OK, if thats cool?