Should I start my own tank?

[sm32589g]

Hello everyone I am new to the forums, but not so new to the hobby. I co-operated an 80 gallon tank with my father back in 2011. I was thinking about getting back into the hobby by myself. I was looking at either an IM 14 or the fluval sea evo 13.5 and starting a small nano tank. My only hesitation is work required. Now I am not afraid to do the work. I just don't want it to be as much work as the 80 gallon was. I have other animals I care for and I am back in college now. Mostly the water changes were a pain. Would you guys recommend anything? I saw a few people had no water change ecosystems. I would like to try to get that going in my tank.

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

I will always answer this question with yes if your up for it. Plenty of systems get by with no WC’s but that becomes much more difficult in nano’s. Nanos can be easy if done right I have a fully stocked coral 3 gallon with a shrimo and do 50 percent a week but thats only about one gallon haha.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R and thank you for saying hello

#WelcometoR2R
The IM tanks and the evo tanks are great little tanks, but being that they're so small I don't know that trying to implement in the water change-less system would be possible without alot of work. In the long run regular weekly water changes would be best
Others will chime in with more information but I wanted to welcome you to the greatest forum in the world

 

[sm32589g]

I am not too afraid of doing wc on my nano as they would only be a few gallons. I just want to know if a nano would be too mu h of an extra load to add on?

 

[sm32589g]

Also I was thinking of doing a clown maybe two, three chromis, and maybe a blennie. Clean-up crew maybe 10/10. A star, and a cleaner shrimp. Would this be too much on a smaller aystem?

 

[sm32589g]

How much work is a nano tank if compared to say an 80 gallon tank? and I mean like weekly maintenance., waiting for things to balance out I can do. I think my mind has too many reservations right now I'm trying to convince myself to just do it. I remember it being fun.

 

[Rakie]

Small tank = more work, and bad things happen significantly faster.

Can it be done? Absolutely.

Would anybody giving you their complete honestly suggest it? Very unlikely.

That tank will be harder for someone newer to maintain. It can be done, as I said, but your life will be a million times better if you were to get a 20 gallon Long, or some other sized tank.

 

[Ori]

I have an evo 13.5 and I love it! Honestly despite parameters being more stable in larger tanks I find nanos so much easier to care for. There’s less water to change, less glass to clean and less algae to scrub.

It’ll be a lot less stable than a big tank, but manual mantinence wise, it doesn’t even compare. I don’t have any other saltwaters to compare it to, but I have a 65 gallon freshwater and in comparison it’s so much easier. While changing the 65 involves hauling buckets of water, with my nano I just take a container and scoop out like 3 scoops of water. Then you mix your 2 gallons of saltwater and pour it in. Boom, water change done.

I’m no expert, but 3 chromis feels like too much. I’d go with just a pair of clowns and the clean up crew.

 

[sm32589g]

I have an evo 13.5 and I love it! Honestly despite parameters being more stable in larger tanks I find nanos so much easier to care for. There’s less water to change, less glass to clean and less algae to scrub.

It’ll be a lot less stable than a big tank, but manual mantinence wise, it doesn’t even compare. I don’t have any other saltwaters to compare it to, but I have a 65 gallon freshwater and in comparison it’s so much easier. While changing the 65 involves hauling buckets of water, with my nano I just take a container and scoop out like 3 scoops of water. Then you mix your 2 gallons of saltwater and pour it in. Boom, water change done.

I’m no expert, but 3 chromis feels like too much. I’d go with just a pair of clowns and the clean up crew.

Thank you for this. That makes me feel better about the smaller tank and was my suspicion, guess I just needed to hear someone say it.

I wanted a more fish only tank. I wasn't planning on putting a lot of coral. Also I was considering 1-2 chromis since I discovered that they aren't friendly towards each other.