beginner nano reef aquariums

mfbs1998 · Dec 22, 2015

Hello everyone!

I am new to the saltwater hobby and I need more information on how to start it off successfully. I've been keeping discus for a few years now and I decided it is time for me to start going into saltwater. Due to space and money, I had to start with a little nano aquarium. I will be, however, going bigger next year. I currently have an all-in-one 20 gallon aquarium with a protein skimmer, heater, coral life t5 lights, return pump, live sand, and live rock. I also have some other equipment in it. I am about to cycle it for the next 3-4 weeks until I added fish in it. I know for sure that I'm getting a pair of clown fish. But, I want to add a little more fish in it. So what kind of saltwater fish will be good for this aquarium? and what kind of corals will be easy and small to take care? can I also put an anemone in it? if so, which type of anemone will it be?

newtoreeftanks · Dec 22, 2015

I am in same position ,exept mine is a 36g. One thing I was told from lfs was have a cheap fish in it while cycling so I put a green chromis in for that other than that I am going to follow this thread to also get information

Dr. Phil · Dec 22, 2015

I would recommend that you check out this thread. Follow the cycling instructions in section five of the article in the first post. I definitely would advise against using fish to cycle the tank, this cause extreme stress for the fish and most likely death.

As far as how many fish, I will leave that up to those who have more experience than myself. However, I do know that there is no "set in stone" rule on how many you can have per gallon. Some fish produce more waste than other fish of similar size.

Chrisfish · Dec 22, 2015

Welcome to R2R, you will find this a great place to get all the information you need. I started with fresh water tanks and am new to saltwater as well. I started with a 3 gallon nano to an 8 gallon nano and getting ready to move everything to a 30 gallon nano reef, if you look under forums there is a nano reef forum which I'm sure you'll find very useful as well. I currently have 2 clown fish, yellow watchman goby and some Cuc. With the new tank I'll be adding a few fish as well once it's been up and running for a while. Looking forward to seeing your tank!

tmac18 · Dec 22, 2015

Ok, I was in ur same boots 4 months ago. Since then I have a 29 gallon fish only tank and 20 L reef. If you want a pair of clowns safest way is to add them last. With that size tank like my 20 don't over do it. I had 1 clown, 1 yellowtail and 2 banggai cardinal fish. Love them!! Check them out. But the yellowtail killed both banggais and since then removed him to my 29 tank. Now I have one clown, 1 firefish (awesome ) and a lawnmower blenny. I may add one more but for now I'm good. I found feeding my saltwater fish is harder than my freshwater fish. In my 20 long reef only my clown eats flakes. Since I have corals , long pulyp toadstool leather, some zoanthids, mushrooms and a Kenya tree (all easy) never have to feed. Because I feed the tsnk reef frenzy frozen foods. It has tons of stuff that the corals and fish will eat. This forum is the best and keep posting and reading!!! They saved me tonight from an emergency whole I was at work. Great people on this forum. Let me know if this helped.

melypr1985 · Dec 22, 2015

mfbs1998 said:
Hello everyone!

I am new to the saltwater hobby and I need more information on how to start it off successfully. I've been keeping discus for a few years now and I decided it is time for me to start going into saltwater. Due to space and money, I had to start with a little nano aquarium. I will be, however, going bigger next year. I currently have an all-in-one 20 gallon aquarium with a protein skimmer, heater, coral life t5 lights, return pump, live sand, and live rock. I also have some other equipment in it. I am about to cycle it for the next 3-4 weeks until I added fish in it. I know for sure that I'm getting a pair of clown fish. But, I want to add a little more fish in it. So what kind of saltwater fish will be good for this aquarium? and what kind of corals will be easy and small to take care? can I also put an anemone in it? if so, which type of anemone will it be?

Hi there! Welcome!

It sounds like your off to a great start! I would forget about an anemone for now. Wait until you have more experience and your tank is more established before adding one. This will give you time to do some research on the different kinds and their care.

Easy corals will be softies... mushrooms, leathers, GSP, and zoas for the most part. There are some LPS that you can do pretty easy as well.

Small fish: clown goby, antena goby, firefish, cardinals ect ect. It's already been mentioned, but there's not really a hard fast rule about stocking. It depends on the fish, their bioload and your filtration. Check out liveaquaria.com and look at the nano fish section to get ideas and some basic info on each fish.

chimmike · Dec 22, 2015

TBH, while a nano may initially appear to be the easiest way to start.....it's really not.

Think of an ecosystem. Take a 10000 acre farm, for example. Covers a lot of ground. Let's say locusts come in and swarm 1/5th of the farm. A 10,000 acre farm is more able to absorb the losses/deal with them than say, a 20 acre farm...who suddenly loses 4 acres of his precious crop to locusts.

Same idea in a nano. VERY small ecosystem that will respond rapidly to minute changes in water quality, temperatures, salinity swings, etc.
Overload via too many fish and ammonia could become an issue overnight that could kill all your fish, etc.
Plus, filtration in most AIO's is questionable, IMO. Frequent water changes are must. If you have a sump, that's great!

IMO starting with a larger tank gives you more 'forgiveness volume'.

mfbs1998 · Dec 22, 2015

chimmike said:
TBH, while a nano may initially appear to be the easiest way to start.....it's really not.

Think of an ecosystem. Take a 10000 acre farm, for example. Covers a lot of ground. Let's say locusts come in and swarm 1/5th of the farm. A 10,000 acre farm is more able to absorb the losses/deal with them than say, a 20 acre farm...who suddenly loses 4 acres of his precious crop to locusts.

Same idea in a nano. VERY small ecosystem that will respond rapidly to minute changes in water quality, temperatures, salinity swings, etc.
Overload via too many fish and ammonia could become an issue overnight that could kill all your fish, etc.
Plus, filtration in most AIO's is questionable, IMO. Frequent water changes are must. If you have a sump, that's great!

IMO starting with a larger tank gives you more 'forgiveness volume'.

I agree with you 100%. The only reason I am going towards a nano aquarium is because of money and space. I currently have two tanks in my house right now. one houses my flowerhorn and the other houses my planted discus tank. Once my basement is finished next year, I am transferring my flowerhorn into a bigger tank in the basement and I will convert his old aquarium to saltwater.And my nano AIO is custom build. I specifically designed it so that I can put whatever I want in it.

mfbs1998 · Dec 22, 2015

melypr1985 said:
Hi there! Welcome!

It sounds like your off to a great start! I would forget about an anemone for now. Wait until you have more experience and your tank is more established before adding one. This will give you time to do some research on the different kinds and their care.

Easy corals will be softies... mushrooms, leathers, GSP, and zoas for the most part. There are some LPS that you can do pretty easy as well.

Small fish: clown goby, antena goby, firefish, cardinals ect ect. It's already been mentioned, but there's not really a hard fast rule about stocking. It depends on the fish, their bioload and your filtration. Check out liveaquaria.com and look at the nano fish section to get ideas and some basic info on each fish.

Thank you for your advice! what lps corals will be easy to keep?

mfbs1998 · Dec 22, 2015

tmac18 said:
Ok, I was in ur same boots 4 months ago. Since then I have a 29 gallon fish only tank and 20 L reef. If you want a pair of clowns safest way is to add them last. With that size tank like my 20 don't over do it. I had 1 clown, 1 yellowtail and 2 banggai cardinal fish. Love them!! Check them out. But the yellowtail killed both banggais and since then removed him to my 29 tank. Now I have one clown, 1 firefish (awesome ) and a lawnmower blenny. I may add one more but for now I'm good. I found feeding my saltwater fish is harder than my freshwater fish. In my 20 long reef only my clown eats flakes. Since I have corals , long pulyp toadstool leather, some zoanthids, mushrooms and a Kenya tree (all easy) never have to feed. Because I feed the tsnk reef frenzy frozen foods. It has tons of stuff that the corals and fish will eat. This forum is the best and keep posting and reading!!! They saved me tonight from an emergency whole I was at work. Great people on this forum. Let me know if this helped.

Thank you for the advice. Any suggestion on what should I do if they won't eat pellets?

mfbs1998 · Dec 22, 2015

Chrisfish said:
Welcome to R2R, you will find this a great place to get all the information you need. I started with fresh water tanks and am new to saltwater as well. I started with a 3 gallon nano to an 8 gallon nano and getting ready to move everything to a 30 gallon nano reef, if you look under forums there is a nano reef forum which I'm sure you'll find very useful as well. I currently have 2 clown fish, yellow watchman goby and some Cuc. With the new tank I'll be adding a few fish as well once it's been up and running for a while. Looking forward to seeing your tank!

I will post a picture of it in a month or so!

mfbs1998 · Dec 22, 2015

diaz2010 said:
I would recommend that you check out this thread. Follow the cycling instructions in section five of the article in the first post. I definitely would advise against using fish to cycle the tank, this cause extreme stress for the fish and most likely death.

As far as how many fish, I will leave that up to those who have more experience than myself. However, I do know that there is no "set in stone" rule on how many you can have per gallon. Some fish produce more waste than other fish of similar size.

I agree with you. Even though cycling with fish is fast, I feel that it is cruel and inhumane to put them in a horrible environment.