Brand new to the Hobby

tencwhiskey · Nov 30, 2013

I am brand new to the whole aquarium hobby, I bought a set up at the Lfs they had from fluval. Got it home and decided I wanted to try saltwater/reef setup. After reading here I regret that it's only a 25 gallon tank. Too small for reef? I currently have live rock about 1 1/2 of live sand. It's been up for two weeks. My numbers are ammonia 0
Nitrite 0 and nitrates 10. I have some brown algae or diatoms? From what I read. 1. Do I need a sump? 2. Any suggestion on protein skimmer? Please excuse the complete lack of knowledge. LFS made this seem easier then what I have read.

glb · Nov 30, 2013

You should be fine with that size as long as you understand that smaller tanks are harder to keep stable. I have a 12g nano without a skimmer stocked with soft corals, lps and two clownfish and it's doing fine. That being said, I kept fish only for 3 years while I learned the ropes. Ask lots of questions here. You'll learn a ton!

tencwhiskey · Nov 30, 2013

Thanks for the reply. I plan on taking it slow learning as much as I can with the tank I have now.

mike007 · Nov 30, 2013

Welcome

TJ's Reef · Nov 30, 2013

First off a BIG WELCOME to R2R and there is nothing wrong with starting out small... ie Makers Mark or George Dickel, some quality hootch in my book.

The great thing about the Nano tanks is that there are quite a few livestock choices that are really best suited to one like Pistol Shrimp Goby pairings, Anemone Shrimp and several other micro sized Gobies, Blennies, Shrimp and Crabs. And everything is always in view.

Cheers, Todd

SeahorseKeeper · Nov 30, 2013

Welcome to R2R and the addiction!! The biggest piece of advice I can offer is to take your time and stock slowly and carefully. There are a few good nano skimmers out there. Tunze, Reef Octopus and Hydor all make skimmers that would work.

tencwhiskey · Nov 30, 2013

The plan is too just add what I need slowly but surely. Like I said the LFs would have got me off to a bad start without these forums. They basically said throw some rock in there and mix some salt water and life is good. Not until I really started snooping around the forums did I know what any of this other stuff was. So any ideas and help is always appreciated. I will look into the nano skimmers.