starting a nano reef (15 gallon)

[geoffgarcia]

HELLO NEW JERSEY!!!!

I'm new to reef building, but I've been an active freshwater aquarist for several years.
I have a planted 55gal that is my pride and joy and now I'm ready to explore the salt water reef world:)

I have a 15 gallon long tank that I'll be using coupled with a 2x55PC hood w/ 2 fans and a 24" actinic bulb.

I picked up a 50lb bag of Carib Sand, a hydrometer and a bucket of reef salts. But I keep delaying starting up the tank:) been kinda busy of late!

anyway, I think tomorrow I'm going to stop by Absolutely Fish and grab 3-4lbs of live sand for the tank and get some cocktail shrimp to get a cycle rolling.

So I'm looking for:
*good live rock (or recommendations on what LFS I should go to to get the best!)
*snails (strombus grazers, astrea, margarita, cerith, nassarius, mexican turbo, tiger trochus)
*anything else you can think of!

I'm open for donations! *haha*
or
I have the following to trade with:
10 gallon tank (currently housing a school of 7 baby red belly piranha that will probably move into my 55gal planted shortly, unless anyone wants to trade for them?)

I also have a 29 gallon tall that is currently stuffed to capacity with fish of every nature, 3 tiger barbs, 2 6" common plecos, and about 7 different africans that I never bothered to identify(I adopted this tank from an old roomate that refuses to claim it, so I need to get rid of all of it eventually:)

I can also offer plant clippings of a few varieties, nothing to exotic

I have about 6 24" bulbs sitting around that I used to use on a small planted tank that have plenty of life left in them.

I also anticipate having a lot of sand left over from this bag of carib sea. Its a 50lb bag, and I'd be suprised if I took out more than a few handfuls for my nano reef:) stoopid me for buying it!

I also have a 6" black ghost knife, and a 11" rope fish, and shortly I should have a ton of malaysian trumpet snails.

I guess thats it!!!

[katspaw]

Hi and welcome to NJRC. My office isn't too far from Absolutely Fish, and if you would like I can give you a cup of live sand from My 90 gallon tanks refugium. It is loaded with pods. A nano tank is going to be real tricky for a beginner, so I hope that you have thought everything thru on water evaporation and other elements that can cause your system to crash. Ken O'Brein is our nano guy, and someone you might wish to talk to in great detail. The 29 gallon tank might be the better tank to start with and use the 10 as a sump/ refugium. If you wish to stop by my place you are more than welcome to do so. You can email me and I will send you directions. Email address is Ladykats@hotmail.com

Tracey

[geoffgarcia]

Thanks for the welcome Tracy!

I must admit I haven't encountered much information on what causes tanks to crash, I'm reading a reef book right now but obviously haven't gotten that far along! * haha*

For evaporation I was just planning on topping off the tank daily, or is there more to it?

What else causes crashes?
I don't plan on keeping any fish for several months (if at all)

and I don't have an immediate plan for RO/DI water as my house has very good tap water and I have a water softening/filter on it.
Geoff

[katspaw]

A better way to do the top off on such a small system is to have an auto top off switch. Tap water can and does contain silicias and phosphates. these are food for micro algaes and can cause very big headaches. Being that you will be working with a small amount of water you can probably get away with just aging the water before it's use. Saline, Calcium, Alk, and other elements will do a more dramatic swing on a small system, and therefore should be watched very closely. And you will have increased tempature swings as well. I am not trying to scare you here. Just making sure you understand that a small system is more work and sometimes newbies can burn out on the difficulty of it. If you know what is ahead and what you can do to make your aquarium easier for you to maintain, then you will enjoy it even more. No one can be sure of when their system will crash and why. It happens. I crashed my 90 gallon tank over a year ago. Some of it is our own fault because we become too relaxed with the regular water changes, and maintance. Other times, there isn't a logical reason that we can find. If you want to stop in, then let me know.

Tracey

[geoffgarcia]

Tracy,
I'm going to take you up on that offer one of these days!

I just took my freshwater fish out of the tank and am in the process of cleaning it out and getting it ready for saltwater. My plan is to mix up some salts and be ready for everything, BEFORE i go get anything living:) then add a few pounds of sand to seed my dead sand, then some live rock in a few days.

What town is your office in? I work in Franklin Lakes (by wycoff, oakland).

[katspaw]

Clifton, Same town as Absolutely Fish

Tracey

[gmh320]

Hey Geoff,
Welome to your new addiction. I set up a 10 gal tank to be used as a quarantine tank and am now debating on whether to keep it. Like Tracey said, the smaller the tank, the more work it is in keeping everything stable. There is a great deal of evaporation in a small tank, also, I fear that once the summer gets here keeping the temperature under control is going to be a problem for me. Right now it really looks like crap because I have been neglecting it, but if you keep up with it, they can be really sweet. You can ask anyone in this hobby and they will tell you that they wish they had a bigger tank, so just a word of warning...you will be setting up a 150 within...lets say, 8 months. Wanna bet?

[kennerd]

Hey, it's Ken the "Nano-Guy"! Glad to see that you took my advice & popped your post over here, Geoff...Prepare to get pummeled with good advice from local folks here in NJ.

If nothing else, please take your time & make sure that you are in this for the long run. I have found that some of us "Nano-folk" are fadsters & break down tanks as quickly as they set them up. As with any tank, approach it as if you want it to be with you forever, and you'll appreciate the fore-thought. This is a hobby with expensive mistakes, and throwing a small tank together too quickly is bound to cost you more in the upgrade category.

I really enjoy my small tanks, and have experimented with various setups, each different, and with decent results. We can discuss them at length privately, if you'd like.

Well, I do manual top-offs when I feed & take my morning round through the house with my coffee. My tanks are spread around the house, so it's a little bit of a pain in the neck, but I'm a creature of habit. I also have orchids and bonsai which require daily attention, so my chores are a morning thing.

If you go with the larger tank, I will have a CPR BakPak2 skimmer, if you are interested. It;s currently on a 10 gal tank that I have. Kinda overkill, really. It's coming out & I'm going with an Ecosystem 40.


Anyway, gotta hop: tax returns are calling.....AGAIN>

[kennerd]

BTW: The 15 gal long tank is a pretty nice setup, and from your lighting sounds great. I was considering another tank, either 15 or 30 long, but my wife has recommended a larger tank for us & moving everything together in one room, so I don't run around like a nut!

So, we are going to move the various tanks into my old home office, and add a 75 gal with halides:

3/4 gal freshie planted
5 gal freshie planted
6 gal eclipse mantis tank
7 gal cube reef
10 gal reef
12 gal reef
39 gal freshie planted

[kennerd]

Hey, Geoff:

Saw another post, where you said you work in Bergen County....where?

My office is in Park Ridge.

[kennerd]

Hey, Geoff: how's the setup coming along...give us an update!

BTW, keep in mind that I'm hosting the July meeting, so you can check out my nanos & maybe we can trade some plants for the freshie tanks.

[geoffgarcia]

well its coming along *haha*
I have an assortment of stuff in the tank that I can happily report is doing well! Don't ask what any of it is though, cuz I have no idea:)

Gail, and some of the folks at the meeting in May set me up with about 8 frags which all seem to be doing well (although one has deguled itself and since disappeard!) I had received another batch of coral frags (about 8) from a guy name Kedd on this forum (he has a SPECTACULAR 180gallon up in Stamford CT) and they are all doing well too!

I picked up a mess load of algae eating critters from JustPhish.com and they hooked me up big time! practically doubled my order for free and threw in some green striped shrooms too! (highly recommended!)
So now I'm looking at about 3 scarlett hermits, 4 blue legged hermits, 2 turbo snails (astrea), 7 cerith, 7 nassarius, and about 12 strombus grazers and 5 margarita snails! whew! 33 snails all together and 7 hermits!!!! which is a little rediculous I know, but once they get my algae under control I'll be donating a few out:)

My live rock came with some cool goodies on it (got it from like 4 different LFS) I have some button polyps (I think) they are like orange with bright green centers (way cool under just actinics:) and some yellow sun polyps which are kinda dull looking, but whuteva:)

I'm gonna try super dooper hard to get off my lazy butt to take some pictures of this setup over the weekend.

Also my freshy tank is doing well, plants are overrunning the whole thing, I'm gonna rip it down probably sometime in july, I'm not happy with the setup at all. Gonna put on a 4x55pc hood, and dump all the contents of the tank, I hate my plants:( wanna keep it a little simpler, its a jungle right now! so if anyone wants plants just give a holler! I can't identify many of them though! *haha*
I also have a good mess load of fish that people are welcome to....cichilids to piranha, and barbs, and danios.

ahhh...thats my status....
any BEA developers out there? *LOL* I'm stuck on a problem:(

ENjoy the weekend all!

[coachgail]

I will take a few Java ferns, moss, or annubias, or african water sprite if you have it. My cichlids leave those alone. Hope the fraags I gave you are OK. If the one that detached came from me, it is a tough bugger and will show up when elast expected. I lost the hariy shroom I gave you 3 or 4 times, and it always showed up. The softies will attach in the dark and grow to the light.

[kennerd]

Sounds like you're off & running....I'll take you up on any plants you're heaving...I need to re-scape our tank, as it's been a bit neglected. Got frags, too, so let's try to get together on this.

If you're going to tear it down in July, coincide it with the meeting @ my place & we'll be all set.

Ken

[Lago]

Geoff...Since it looks like you have hit all the LFS' could you recommend any one over the other for Live Rock? I don't mind traveling an hour or three if I can pick out decent rock. I called Absolutely Fish and they quoted me $10/lb for "really good Tonga"!!! I said they were Absolutley Nuts. I really don't want to do the mail order thing if I don't have to. Thanks again!

--Lago