A little advice would be appreciated thanks

[ITSMANNY]

wuz up i am new to this salt water /nano hobby . unfortunatly i havent been able to get a bigger tank so im starting off with a 12g jbj nano cube...i plan on adding coral soon and a couple colorful fish. so far my tank has been running for almost a week with approx 10 pounds of live rock. it has a lot of purple and red and dark people spots here n there (i assume those are dead spots?) and also a couple spots of this flourecent red that glows wen i turn on the led lights looks kinda nice. oh yea and some shelled critters here n there i assume came with the sand. also, some green hairs on the rocks. the water i added was pre made at the store i assume thats good. i bought several chemicals i beleive i would need in the future heres a list of them... Cycle...kent marine iodide....kent marine zooplex...and the A and B chemical process. i plan on getting the test kits this weekend. wich would i most necesarily need?
I hear a lot about protein skimmers some people say u need them and some say u dont regardless i bought one but does not fit i realized too late wen i got it it says for 14 gallons n up...that was the oceanic skimmer they also had the fission one...but it seems to be the same size..should i really worry about having one? or will my chemicals be enough along with water changes?? should i remove the carbon wen i add my chemicals? or can i leave it there? and last question for now....other than damsels wat fish are good to start with? i apologize for the bombarbment of questions but i like doing things the right way so i would appreciate the help from anyone willing to help thanks again )

 

[Burgerking]

Questions are good, we all ask them.

First of all, are you new to fishkeeping in general? Or just new to slatwater?

Either way, corals are something you should add once you have a little more experience. You could add damsels/cromis to start, then return them once you know what fish you would like to keep. Damsels+corals= potential disaster, the corals probably wont do too well against the damsels.

Im not really into chemicals, but some corals need various supplements(like iodine). A dechlorinator is a good idea to have, my(city) water is dosed with chlorine every few weeks and would kill corals and fish if I didnt treat it first, you might want to talk to ppl at your LFS or city people to find out about that.

Protein skimmers are good when establishing a tank, but once healthy and established all you'll need is live sand, live rock and some water circulation(powerheads) to be successful(I didnt believe it at first either). Your skimmer should be ok.

Get a master test kit, they're expensive but they'll save your ass.

hth, Josh

 

[TimSchmidt]

Don't put anything in your tank unless you test for it first. The colored spots are probably coralline algae ( a good sign). There are a lot of opinions in salt water keeping but there are a couple common beliefs.

However; skimmers, carbon, and chemicals are not part of those common beliefs. :lol:

I don't run skimmers on my nanos, but I do run carbon, chemical supplements are at a minimum on my nanos as I do water changes frequent enough to replace lost trace minerals. Test your water and see what you have before tossing in something to "help". :cool1:

Smaller fish do well in the nano tanks and almost anything marked "goby" does quite well.

+1 on the test kit. There area couple things you *could* do without, but the best thing is to have the test kit to check. With experience you will be more comfortable with your husbandry skills.

:welcome to Nanotank.com! And remember to enjoy the hobby!

 

[ITSMANNY]

Well i have a small 6 gallon tank with 3 african cichlids every lfs iv been to are surprised at how i have them in that small tank...i figure im doing a good job on those but thats all the experience i have aside from reading often and trying to learn from peoples questions on these forums. iv never done salt water before but honestly i got bored of fresh water because well...its basically just fish n rocks and its a typical thing to have so i decided what the hell ill try salt water and ill entertainmyself with trial n error and besides i have a lot of patience so i think ill be alright for the most part. i read that the feather dusters are farely simple to keep along with some mushrooms amd a couple of other things iv seen but info from a website is not the same as live feedback. basically...call me fruity but i just want a very colorful fishtank

 

[ITSMANNY]

my best bet then would be to just return the skimmer cuz it doesnt fit anyways and get the test kit. and come up with a list of verts n fish i want or (can have) due to my lack of space. any suggestions?

 

[TimSchmidt]

There are quite of few resources here on the forums about fish that work well. Also quite a few online vendors have "nano" sections with a variety of fish.

What colors do you like? One great thing about your tank is it has a lid so you won't have to worry about jumping fish.

By the way the skunk cleaner and the sexy shrimp should be just fine together.

 

[ITSMANNY]

blue green anything bright would be fine i liked a wrasse i think it was that was green n had a bunch of redlines looked pretty nice on the pik

 

[Burgerking]

I think most wrasses would outgrow this tank(unfortunately, they are beautiful), but if you have a plan for them(a new tank, or someone that'll want to but it from you) then you should be good.

 

[TimSchmidt]

How about a purple firefish, clown goby (green), and a yellow watchman goby? They have some pretty striking colors. You can always add in a some inverts for other color pops! Peppermint shrimp have a nice red coloring (although they do hide a lot, but they can eat nuisance aiptasia). Sexy shrimp have cool movement as well.

Wrasses normally don't do too well in our smaller tanks, but if you find one you like just please read up on the care of the fish. Coco worms give a good splash of red and white too.

 

[ITSMANNY]

damn i must say im dissapointed but i like some of the choices. iv never heard of th purple firefish but ill look it up and the coco worms neither. i like the choices especially the green clown goby maybe ill add those i think those three will do fine in the tank together... same thing wit the inverts ...... theres a fish that looks really nice but i dunno if i can have it in the nano the royal basslet type of fish? and wat about an urchin or two. i dunno feel free to throw some ideas for me of kinds of fish and inverts and how many of each. i know for sure i want one of those sexy shrimp

 

[TimSchmidt]

Actually the sexy shrimp do nice in groups too. We aren't saying to not get a specific fish, after all it is YOUR tank. Just take the information and check up what you can provide for your pets.

I *think* a baby six line wrasse *may* be OK...but that could be pushing it. As it would grow up and need more room to be less stressed. They can get to 3 inches and normally a 30 gallon tank is recommended for them.

 

[ITSMANNY]

thanx tim...i recently purchased my fish....i got a cardinal...royal gramma...n nemo....a pair of small blue shell crabs and a skunk shrimp wat do u think so far?

 

[TimSchmidt]

I've not had a cardinal fish nor heard much about them. Nice looking fish! I don't think I would add anymore fish though. Any photos? :cool1:

 

[ITSMANNY]

no more fish...incase i get bored ill donate them and get dwarf angels and maybe a mandarin but i think they would grow too big...and for sure some type of reef safe wrasse they are very colorful ....tommorow ill take some piks and post it ill send ya a pm or something knowing me ...when i get into the corals ill add a watchman goby i have a lot of small caves they can stick their head out of ...my gramma is already tucked in nicely in a crevice its like he knew it was there wen i put him in the water he went straight to that one haha but lets see wat i do wne i start getting into the corals