Fastest Setup for 12G NC

[level300]

Hey, new to all this. Would like to start a small and quick tank for my daughter's Christmas present.

I've wanted to dabble in reef tanks for a long time now and never had the motivation, now I have a oppertunity. I would love to show my daughter what a small piece of an ocean reef looks like.

My question is; what is the shortest time possible to get a tank up and running and ready for a pair of clown fish and annemone, rock and coral? Any suggestions to shortcuts in getting to stable environment would be most helpful.

As a side note, I am highly aware of all the expense, work, patience and methodical maintence this hobby requires.

 

[sadielynn]

welcome to nanotank
I dont think there is really a "quick" set up with cycling times ect ....
There are no real shortcuts to this hobby as with short cuts comes disaster ... with that being said ..... You will first need your tank , live sand live rock and the salt water either premade or the stuff you mix yourself if you mix it your self you will need a bin to prep it in I use distilled h20 from walmart for around 50 cents a gallon but some recomend ro/di which can be purchaced at your lfs ...... Once you add you lr , live sand water keep the lights out for the cycle ( you can turn them on to grab a sneak peak) to keep algae at a minimum ....... Cycling can take upwards of 6 weeks depending on the lr you get either cured or uncured , uncured taking far longer to cycle than cured , now no matter how tempted you do not need fish to cycle a tank it is mean and painful for the fish if you want to boost it you can try a shrimp from the local grocer to start the ammonia break down. Now you will also need a test kit to test for :
ammonia
nitrAte
nitrIte,
once your levels say zero you can add you clean up crew snails hermit crabs , and a shrimp... wait a few days test to make sure your bioload has restableized .... now you can look in to fish........ wait again for a few days for the bioload to once again restableize, now for corals you could add a few depending on the lighting that you have the weaker the lighting the less you will be able to keep (since I am not real well versed on the nano cube I cant offer a whole lott of advise on them , you may very well want to look in to a stock 10 gallon or 30 gallon cube since the cube will require a lot of modifications taht you can do from the start with just a regular run of the mill tank ....ie lights , filters , power heads ect) As for the anenome they tend to "walk" till they find the "perfect" spot all the while stinging your other corals they also need an established tank with stable perameters something that you will get once the tank has been up and running for a while like 6months to a year and if they die in the tank it can nuke your whole tank not really worth a 20 dollar anenome to take out 300 bucks of corals imo . They also tend to get to large for a nano tank...... and the clown fish really doesent need the anenome , and may not even host one , they may host something intirely diffrent like a power head , cleaning magnet , or even a diffrent coral such as a torch coral , or frog spawn.... it is really hard to say . Even so you are on the right track by asking questionsI dont want to sound harsh but I seriously doubt that you will have a sucessful tank by christmas time . I am sure that their are others that can also help you some as well Good luck and welcome

 

[level300]

...but I seriously doubt that you will have a sucessful tank by christmas time . I am sure that their are others that can also help you some as well Good luck and welcome

I'm sure I won't Thanks for the wonderful information.

Has anyone ever bought a "ready kit" from the lfs?

I think they would make a fortune if that had a gigantic tank filled with sand, coral, etc. then all they would do is fill up your tank 1/2 way with the h20 from their tank and then add the stuff you picked out, then add the sand then give you a jug with the remaining water... then all you would have to worry about is adding the fish.

Obviously, this would only work for smaller tanks.

Drop off your tank in the morning, pick it up at night

I would pay a mint for this level of service....

Easy right? Ha ha don't you just love newbies

 

[leaffish75]

Well if you want to get it half way ready you could take Live sand from an established tank along with enough water to fill yours and you will see a small cycle but not a large one. I have setup all my nanos using sand and water from my established 20 and I have only had a cycle last 3 days. IF you get some fully cured LR then you can have it going pretty quickly. My last tank took me 5 days to have it up and running with corals. As far as adding the clowns and BTA there can be other issues. Once the clowns are added you could see another cycle started. For the BTA you need some light upgrade.

 

[acei]

I agree with leaffish75. I set up my nano with fully cured liverock, livesand from an established tank, and filter media from an established tank. Mine was cycled in less then a week. I don't advise ever rushing the cycle, but by following some of these steps, you should be able to save a little time.

Best of luck...

 

[Chubosco]

O.K., I'm the bad guy. Just buy the pre-packed sand which is really agorite or something spelled like that (comes packed in salt water). Buy the rock already in the tanks at the llfs and buy the 5 gallon jugs of salt water pre-made or the jugs they sell that comes straight from the ocean, and buy the newest Nano Cube out that has the moonlight. This one has much stronger light and presto...wait a day to settle, test the salt level with a hydrometer and top off the tank water (evaperation) with the ro water you pour yourself at the supermarket. Put snails and crabs in and in a couple of days...well the rest is up to you. Now, this is the worse advice you will be ever given. But if your determined and to get you into the hobby, and you promise never to get invoved in nuclear power plant technology; try it.

 

[incysor]

Like Chub, and leaf have mentioned, if you get fresh sand, with just a small amount of live sand to help seed the bagged sand, and use cured rock from an established tank, and saltwater from the lfs, your cycle can be very minimal.

I would take a large cooler to the store and choose the rock and have them cover it with water, not just wet newspaper. This will cost a bit more, but you'll have less, or no die off transporting it this way.

Once you have the dry sand in the tank, add the bit of live sand, then the rock, and then the water. The faster that you manage to aquascape the tank, and get water covering the rock again the less die off you'll have, and the quicker your cycle will be. I'd also count on only leaving the lights on a couple hours for the first week or so, then 4-5hrs the second week, etc... If you see algae blooms turn the photoperiod back. Don't put fish or anything else in the tank until your params have all read 0 for at least a week.

Like everyone has mentioned, hurrying isn't the way to setup a successful tank, but you mentioned you have lots of experience, so hopefully this makes sense, and long explanations about the ammonia cycle, and not trusting your lfs, and how/why liverock/livesand is part of your filtration, etc... aren't necessary. However if you do have questions, we've gone over a lot of this stuff many times. Use the search function, and if/when you still have questions, no one here is big on flamewars.

Welcome to the site.

Brian

 

[Chubosco]

Oh yeah, by the way. If anything dies your daughter will cry and you will be responsible for your daughter's misery and the death of a living creature. So you better get to reading (on-line and off) and studing the subject. :fu

 

[Dickie52]

The only thing I would add to above mentioned "fast set-up", is to do larger water changes for the first month or two. I would do at least 25% a week for 8 weeks.....

That and be sure to buy aquacultured clowns.

 

[Abarnswell]

That and be sure to buy aquacultured clowns.

But if he wants the clowns to host in the anemone, won't he need wild caught clowns? I have been told that captive bred clowns often don't host in anything because they don't know to. Is this true?

I have two captive bred Oscellaris, and they don't host in anything. Now, granted, I don't have an anenome (yet), but still I have other "wavy" type corals that might have enticed them to host. But they've never been interested.

 

[Abarnswell]

By the way, level300, welcome to Nanotank.com. The folks here are VERY knowledgeable and very generous with their time. You will get all the answers you need here. Our moderators are fantastically awesome! They take very good care of us.

 

[little urchin]

my tank took only a week to cycle....with live sand, fully cured live rock and pre-mixed salt water...mind you i wasn't in a hurry...you can bet if you are it won't go so smoothly!!