My first Nano

WhoDone IT · Apr 27, 2017

Well here goes nothing....

"Inherited" my dad's 125 gal display / 150 gal total tank a few years ago. I added about 50 gal worth of water to the system, making it 200ish total. Sadly its become too much work. What do I decide to do???? I setup a 15gal nano.

I filled the tank with ~5 gal of existing water from the 125gal, 4 or 5 pieces of live rock, and the balance was new RODI with instant ocean reef crystal. Good idea? Parameters have been mostly in line for the last week. Ammonia was a tad high the first day but quickly dropped. Nitrites have stayed at 0. Nitrates slightly high still (20-40) but dropping with each water change. I've been doing 1-3 gal water changes every other day. dKH was pretty high but I've got that down to the high side of acceptable levels.

I moved the remaining fish, Clown and a 3 Strip Damselfish, a few snails, and 2 hermits. Been a about a week and nothing has died post move. I thought one of my hermits died due to the move but NO! It molted and I just didn't see it til later that day. I was in a bit of a rush when I removed the molt and flushed it.

Whats next? I need to get a nano skimmer (looking at the Tunze 9004) and a HOB refugium for a DSB and some macro-algae. I'm keeping the tank BB. After that I want to get a few corals. The 125gal tank was a FOWLR.

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated. Will post some pictures and hardware list later. No lights on in the tank right now.

reef-rc · Apr 27, 2017

Based on what you shared, my first thought was to first stabilize then slowly ramp-up. Once you start turning lights on for example, I am sure there will be some changes as you may go through a small cycle of sort. Since the tank had leverage existing pieces from an established tank, this should be very short time frame for you. May be best to go as fast or as slow based on your parameters and how the tank look.

WhoDone IT · Apr 27, 2017

Thanks for recommendation. I probably should have been more clear. It was quite late, more like early, when I posted. I had just got home from the gym when I hopped on R2R.

I do have lights. Its the Coralife Dual HOT5 with a 10K and Actinic. Its on a 12 hour cycle. 8a-8p

WhoDone IT · May 2, 2017

Only took me a week but here's a picture of what I have so far. Parameters are still in line. Alkalinity is right where I want it to be finally 11dKH as of yesterday's testing.

I'm ready to spend some more money now. My list includes a protein skimmer and a HoB refugium. I can only get one or the other right now. One side of me says get the skimmer first to get that protein out of the tank and assist, ever so slightly, with aeration. The other side says to get the refugium to add the 2-2.5 gallons of water to the system as well as get a sand bed and some macro going to help with the nitrate and phosphates. That 2-2.5 gals would be a 15-18% increase in volume. Every bit of volume helps with a nano right?

I'm looking at the Tunze 9004 and the CPR Aquafuge2 small with light as my options. I might have to get a little creative with the placement of all this as I only have 23-24 inches of space but I'll get creative.

I'm leaning toward the refugium first. Good idea? any thoughts?

reef-rc · May 2, 2017

What are you using for aeroation now? Most would say you don't need a skimmer for nano and I can understand that. Since I tend to be a heavy feeder...I am in the skimmer camp

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imo either option is fine. As long as you keep the tank stabilize, it'll work out with either path now or later.

WhoDone IT · May 2, 2017

I'm using one of the Aqueon power filters that has one of those blue diffuser pads on it. I only had mentioned aeration because skimmers create bubbles and breaks the surface tension to create that gas exchange.

Fish have looked good for the last 2 weeks since I setup the tank. No gasping or the sort.