I am gonna be a newbie to a nano tank please advise!!

[Lunchbucket]

here is a thread i started on reefs.org. thought i would come here and ask the advice of the nano crowd. please advise

http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=027830


any info you need please ask.

basically just wondering if i can add the sand, rock, and water from the cycled awesome 55gal and let it settle a couple hours then add the fish and corals right away!

thanks
Lunchbucket

[nitritetest]

If your water parameters were fine in your old tank, it shouldn't be a problem. However, if you were using a skimmer and refugium and other methods to clean the water before, and now all of a sudden you aren't (and you now have a smaller margin for error on top of that) you might run into trouble in a little bit if you try to put too much into your new nano with less filtration than you had before.

[Lunchbucket]

yeah i had a simmer and refugium.

would the 2 ocellarus, purple firefish, and the corals throw it to the ****ter??

what should i do then?

later
Lunchbucket

[nitritetest]

Well, it might not be that bad. If you've got a deep sand bed, and alot of live rock you should be able to support quite a bit. Maybe some macro algae would things out, but you don't want to put anything in that you aren't prepared to prune back if it's fast growing.

The good thing about a tank that small is you can do alot of water changes with a little hassle.

If you can, you're always better to play it slow. It would be awful to dump hundreds of dollars of livestock into a bowl and then have the water parameters go south on you overnight.

The big thing you would have to worry about is going from skimmer to skimmerless - and refugium to refugiumless. You should do that slowly on even an established tank. Suddenly going skimmerless and without a refugium probably isn't a good idea to do all at once.

[Lunchbucket]

i am tearing down the 55gal and setting up the 10 gallon on the same day. i don't think i would have time or the water to fill the 10 gal w/ sand, rock and water and let it cycle for a while

you think w/ the lr, and 4in sand bed i would mess it up w/ the fish and corals, this is the only thing that worries me

could i do a water change the next day or 2 to help it out and still be ok??

i might be able to talk my friend into keeping the fish and corals for a few days but then they would have to adjust to his tank...then back to mine.

what to do???

later
Lunchbucket

[nitritetest]

If you're stuck and you absolutely have to tear it down and transfer it right away, I don't think it would be the end of the world.

You just have to be conscious of the fact that there is alot less water in this tank, and therefore it takes less time until concentrations of bad things build up to critical levels. If you monitor it, you can do water changes if you see any parameters going out of control.

The LS and LR should be ok (especially with a 4 inch sand bed). But because your skimmer was pulling gunk out of the water before, the colonies in the LR and LS might not be enough to handle the load initially. In the long run that system would be just fine. I'd just keep a very close eye on the conditions immedietly following the move.

[Lunchbucket]

i will try to move the rock and sand on that day...and keep the fish and corals in my buddies tank. then move the purple firefish over...wait a week or so...move the clowns, wait a week, then add the corals.

that should help

otherwise i might end up putting everything together right away
later
Lunchbucket