My new nano tank - some general questions

[Wima1988]

Hello everyone,

first: Sorry for my bad English, I'm no native speaker

I'm Max from Germany, 29 years old and since the beginning of this year I finally have my 16gallon cube. It is a "Dennerle Nano Marinus 60l" cube and I set it up with the devices it came with:

- 4in1 bio circulator (about 130 gal/h circulation with surface skimmer)
- Heater
- 36W reeflight
- Standing on a Blenny cupboard

For the water I take destilled water with the reef salft from Dennerle. The ground is the Dennerle reef sand, about 1 inch. I want to run the tank completely without a protein skimmer, just with weekly water changes.
I've read the books and about 1000 forum entries / manuals / etc. on the internet.
But I'm still a total beginner and would be happy if some more experienced users have some advices for me! The tank is still at the beginning of the cycling, but once everything is fine and the parameters are stable, the following inverts are planned:

- 3 hermit crabs Clibanarius tricolor
- 4-5 Nassarius Vibex
- 1 medium sized snail, mabye a Tectus sp.
- 1-2 leather corals
- If everything seems stable for some weeks I'd like to add a Clavularia viridis, follwed by some Zoanthus and Discosoma and Rhodactis.
- If still everything seems stable I'd like to maybe add 2 Lysmata debelius, but I'm not sure yet because of I'm afraid that they could grow too big for my small cube. An alternative I'd like would be some Thor Amboinensis.

There are NO SPS corals planned, also not in the long term. Maybe somewhen a single LPS, but I'm not thinking about this yet.


Now there are 3 questions I have for you (thank you so much in advance):

- What do you think about the inverts? Does it sound fine?

- Would a weekly 10-15% water change be enough for those invers, so I don't need a protein skimmer?

- What do you think about my reef construction? I built it like the guy in the store proposed, but somehow it looks so different to the reefs I saw from other users ;Nailbiting
Attached you can find some pictures. Don't worry, on the first one the water wasnt clear yet and on the last one the cycle just started, lot of algae growing

 

[siggy]

Hello, welcome to the salt bucket, Your rock looks GREAT! it will be a play park for your inverts. @Katrina71 has some nano tanks and has experienced the Ups and Downs with them. Good Luck

 

[rich nyc]

without any fish I dont think you need a protein skimmer. When my nano was going through fallow, still had inverts but did not run my skimmer. I think the nano protein skimmers do not work well. Now with my fish, I have yet to run my protein skimmer. I use chemipure

 

[Tahoe61]

I do not run skimmers on my Nano. Routine water changes will be fine.

Welcome to R2R.

 

[Wima1988]

Thank you everyone! Glad to hear that this setup should work without a skimmer.

What do you think about the 2 Lysmata debelius? In the sticky they say it's not a good idea for this size. But there also seem to be so many people have them in this size.
I don't really need them, morst important for me is that everything works fine and inverts feel good. But would be interesting to hear your opinion

 

[Cameron Wise]

Hmm... I don’t have any experience with those, I think they will be fine. I do love the look of Thor amboinensis! Or a Lysmata amboinensis would add contrast to the nano.
Any fish ideas? A pair of clownfish or certain gobies can fit just fine as long as the parameters are stable

 

[Vincent100]

Love those rocks , the bit in the middle looks like a giant snakehead to me lol

 

[Wima1988]

Or a dinosaur skull;D fish are not planned. Maybe a trimma or gobiodon, but I'm happy wothout fish. Also I guess Clownfish are too big. The cube is only 16gal gross.

 

[Wima1988]

Or maybe a small goby with a small pistol shrimp.. too many options to choose from ;D

 

[brandon429]

You can use lps, many, that’s a great looking build

 

[Wima1988]

Lps just with weekly water changes? Wouldnt i need a more complex system?

 

[Ranjib]

Everything looks fine to me, both rockscape as well as invert choice. Are you not planning to stock any fish? sexy shrimp can be a prey for certain fish, that all I can think of.

You dont need any skimmer or even filtration if you can do 20% water change. And dont feed your corals excessively. The trick is to spend a lot of time in between live stock additions, and let the system mature. Grow as much microfauna as possible. Add bacterial additives to boost your cycle, and also introduce some pods if possible.

I have no idea about the light, but that can be adjusted later.
You probably need an ATO, from early on. A HoB filter for emergency can be useful as well, they are handy to run carbon or purigen or any other chemical filtration media, in case things go bad.

 

[Ranjib]

Lps just with weekly water changes? Wouldnt i need a more complex system?

Nah.
These are couple of my picos, they dont have any filtration. I have HoB filter in case things go wrong, which I probably run ones every two month (like if something is dead or i frag stuff and that releaes toxin etc)

 

[Wima1988]

Nice pico's! HoB sounds interesting, i will do some research on this.
Fish are not really planned because of the small size. Mayyyybe a trimma or similar after the system run for a long time.

 

[Ranjib]

Nice pico's! HoB sounds interesting, i will do some research on this.
Fish are not really planned because of the small size. Mayyyybe a trimma or similar after the system run for a long time.

If you dont add fish, you dont need much filtration.