First tank- My Nano Reef Build

[Michael W.]

I just made the dive into reefing yesterday when I purchased my first saltwater tank, a Fluval EVO 13.5. I know a nano isn't everyone's first suggestion as a starter tank, but it works out cost wise and space wise. Also there is this forum here of people who have much more knowledge about this than me to help aid my progress throughout this journey. Here is a picture of my empty (but beautiful!) tank. For those wondering, I am looking at a two fish stocking combo of which I still have not decided, and sand and gravel should be getting added sometime this weekend. Fingers crossed everything works... Thanks for following along with me on this little journey!

 

[Ranjib]

Awesome . Love nano tanks. Following along.

 

[Michael W.]

Awesome . Love nano tanks. Following along.

Haha thanks for following. I'm pretty sure you joined in on my other thread about the same tank... Made this one to fit the 'build thread contributor' guidelines so I have two build threads now for the same tank. Double the fun!!

 

[Ranjib]

I think you can just move a thread

 

[Michael W.]

I think you can just move a thread

Oops... Looks like I'll be running with the double thread for the time being, good information for a different time though.

 

[Joshua2598]

Congratulations! You'll love the tank! I love mine. I hope you take my tips from a few days ago into good fruition

 

[GoPitt88]

Good luck, and have fun! I'm excited for you! [emoji16]

 

[Michael W.]

Congratulations! You'll love the tank! I love mine. I hope you take my tips from a few days ago into good fruition

I already am! Thanks for answering all of my questions, I know they seemed endless... New hobbyist itch for asking questions.

 

[Michael W.]

Good luck, and have fun! I'm excited for you! [emoji16]

Thanks! It is taking all my willpower to not drive to my LFS and grab sand and rock and corals and fish but it is going to be a slow process. I'm still learning as I go but hopefully rock and sand and water will be in the tank sometime this weekend!

 

[Michael W.]

Also if anyone can answer this- How long should I wait before adding the first corals once the tank gets up and running? And is there any recommended corals for a beginner like me? I want corals that I can watch grow and have good color (but who doesn't). I always liked the look of birdsnest but the more experienced reefers can probably tell me many reasons a birdsnest won't work in this tank.

 

[Joshua2598]

Also if anyone can answer this- How long should I wait before adding the first corals once the tank gets up and running? And is there any recommended corals for a beginner like me? I want corals that I can watch grow and have good color (but who doesn't). I always liked the look of birdsnest but the more experienced reefers can probably tell me many reasons a birdsnest won't work in this tank.

Mushrooms were the first thing in my tank. And rock flower anemone

 

[Ori]

Also if anyone can answer this- How long should I wait before adding the first corals once the tank gets up and running? And is there any recommended corals for a beginner like me? I want corals that I can watch grow and have good color (but who doesn't). I always liked the look of birdsnest but the more experienced reefers can probably tell me many reasons a birdsnest won't work in this tank.

Zoas are great. Easy to care for, come in almost every colour combo you can think of and most grow fairly quickly .

My tank was established for around 2 months before I started adding softies.

 

[Pbh-reef]

I recommend tidal gardens' videos on corals - I at least find them a good place to start learning

 

[Joshua2598]

I recommend tidal gardens' videos on corals - I at least find them a good place to start learning

+1

 

[Michael W.]

Mushrooms were the first thing in my tank. And rock flower anemone

Will clowns host rost flower anenome's or are they one of the exceptions? Rock flowers look awesome, and I think my profile picture may even be one, so I might end up forfeiting a true anenome for my clowns for the beauty of the rock flower.

Then again, I just found an awesome coral shop near my house that has some pretty good looking anenome's + corals. I'll throw some pictures up here just cause I like them so much. Thinking of getting a torch, some kind of anenome, a type of brain coral (don't know much about them though so this is a maybe), zoas, and hopefully, eventually, some LPS (I think I got that right) once everything has been going well for a while.

I'm going to center my tank more around corals than fish, two clowns and maybe a goby is enough swimmers for me, the less fish I need to take care of, the more I can focus on the corals.

I'm going to do my best to identify these corals, correct me if I'm wrong, still learning...
This was their frag tank that they considered to be 'harder corals' (I Still haven't figured out the difference between SPS and LPS. Through my research I notice some acroporas and that's pretty much it.

Another picture from that same frag tank

These were some of their torches, where I was directed after asking what a good starter coral would be. Hopefully someone can back that up, but they look really beautiful especially when they have flow running over them!

Here's on of the BTA's they had in store, I'm not an expert in any sense but it looks pretty good to me...

Pretty sure these are rock flower anenome's. I still don't know how anenome's interact with other corals and anenome's so I was suprised to see so many in a little space... Thought they stung each other?

And these guys are just really cool. They are probably way out of both my price range and care level but I just thought they looked awesome.

 

[Joshua2598]

Will clowns host rost flower anenome's or are they one of the exceptions? Rock flowers look awesome, and I think my profile picture may even be one, so I might end up forfeiting a true anenome for my clowns for the beauty of the rock flower.

Then again, I just found an awesome coral shop near my house that has some pretty good looking anenome's + corals. I'll throw some pictures up here just cause I like them so much. Thinking of getting a torch, some kind of anenome, a type of brain coral (don't know much about them though so this is a maybe), zoas, and hopefully, eventually, some LPS (I think I got that right) once everything has been going well for a while.

I'm going to center my tank more around corals than fish, two clowns and maybe a goby is enough swimmers for me, the less fish I need to take care of, the more I can focus on the corals.

I'm going to do my best to identify these corals, correct me if I'm wrong, still learning...
This was their frag tank that they considered to be 'harder corals' (I Still haven't figured out the difference between SPS and LPS. Through my research I notice some acroporas and that's pretty much it.

Another picture from that same frag tank

These were some of their torches, where I was directed after asking what a good starter coral would be. Hopefully someone can back that up, but they look really beautiful especially when they have flow running over them!

Here's on of the BTA's they had in store, I'm not an expert in any sense but it looks pretty good to me...

Pretty sure these are rock flower anenome's. I still don't know how anenome's interact with other corals and anenome's so I was suprised to see so many in a little space... Thought they stung each other?

And these guys are just really cool. They are probably way out of both my price range and care level but I just thought they looked awesome.

Rock flower anemones will not host a clown, big bummer I know.I wouldn't recommend a BTA or any other anemone for a 10 gallon like the fluval. And yes I believe thats a rock flower anemone in your profile picture and those definitely are in the pic. I wouldn't recommend a torch as one of the first corals either because from what I've heard they are a lot more finicky than other euphyllias (frogspawn, hammer, octospawn) other than that other coral seem to be good. It's a bit controversial but I think two clowns and a shrimp goby (or something like a yellow clown goby which are adorable) would be fine. Also anemones of the same species will not sting each other. This is true for rock flower anemones, BTA, and I assume others but I have never read up on any other ones. The difference between LPS and SPS is that ones is called a Large Polyp Stony Coral and the other is a Small Polyp Stony coral. You can ussually tell just by looking at the coral if its LPS or SPS. Heres a google thing: A coral polyp is an invertebrate that can be no bigger than a pinhead to up to a foot in diameter. The bottom corals are scolymia. I dont personally have one but I heard they are pretty easy. And pricey. They are a LPS

 

[Joshua2598]

Will clowns host rost flower anenome's or are they one of the exceptions? Rock flowers look awesome, and I think my profile picture may even be one, so I might end up forfeiting a true anenome for my clowns for the beauty of the rock flower.

Then again, I just found an awesome coral shop near my house that has some pretty good looking anenome's + corals. I'll throw some pictures up here just cause I like them so much. Thinking of getting a torch, some kind of anenome, a type of brain coral (don't know much about them though so this is a maybe), zoas, and hopefully, eventually, some LPS (I think I got that right) once everything has been going well for a while.

I'm going to center my tank more around corals than fish, two clowns and maybe a goby is enough swimmers for me, the less fish I need to take care of, the more I can focus on the corals.

I'm going to do my best to identify these corals, correct me if I'm wrong, still learning...
This was their frag tank that they considered to be 'harder corals' (I Still haven't figured out the difference between SPS and LPS. Through my research I notice some acroporas and that's pretty much it.

Another picture from that same frag tank

These were some of their torches, where I was directed after asking what a good starter coral would be. Hopefully someone can back that up, but they look really beautiful especially when they have flow running over them!

Here's on of the BTA's they had in store, I'm not an expert in any sense but it looks pretty good to me...

Pretty sure these are rock flower anenome's. I still don't know how anenome's interact with other corals and anenome's so I was suprised to see so many in a little space... Thought they stung each other?

And these guys are just really cool. They are probably way out of both my price range and care level but I just thought they looked awesome.

Just in case you mis understood: rock anemones good in the tank

 

[Michael W.]

Rock flower anemones will not host a clown, big bummer I know.I wouldn't recommend a BTA or any other anemone for a 10 gallon like the fluval. And yes I believe thats a rock flower anemone in your profile picture and those definitely are in the pic. I wouldn't recommend a torch as one of the first corals either because from what I've heard they are a lot more finicky than other euphyllias (frogspawn, hammer, octospawn) other than that other coral seem to be good. It's a bit controversial but I think two clowns and a shrimp goby (or something like a yellow clown goby which are adorable) would be fine. Also anemones of the same species will not sting each other. This is true for rock flower anemones, BTA, and I assume others but I have never read up on any other ones. The difference between LPS and SPS is that ones is called a Large Polyp Stony Coral and the other is a Small Polyp Stony coral. You can ussually tell just by looking at the coral if its LPS or SPS. Heres a google thing: A coral polyp is an invertebrate that can be no bigger than a pinhead to up to a foot in diameter. The bottom corals are scolymia. I dont personally have one but I heard they are pretty easy. And pricey. They are a LPS

Thank for all the answers! This is why I use this forum. I think I will stick with the rock flower, probably. The BTA's look so big and I wouldn't want an out-of-control anenome in a 12 gallon tank, It would destroy everything. I've also heard the controversy around how many fish are ok for a tank this size, and I think what I may end up doing is getting the two clowns first, letting the tank settle for awhile, and if everything is going well I may add a goby of some sorts.

Now I got my eye on that scolymia

 

[Michael W.]

Just in case you mis understood: rock anemones good in the tank

Yeah, and they look beautiful too so it's a win win. Will they travel the tank like the BTA's do (as I've heard) or will they stay in one spot, more-or-less.

 

[Joshua2598]

Yeah, and they look beautiful too so it's a win win. Will they travel the tank like the BTA's do (as I've heard) or will they stay in one spot, more-or-less.

So RFAs are pretty well known for not moving. When mine first went in my tank it stayed in the same place for a week, moved on top of mushroom corals, then I manually removed him from the rock. Then 2 days later he did it again... manual removal again. Then I moved him far away on to what I thought was a good spot. Hasn't moved in 2 months.