interested in gettin a nano-got ???s

[horse&fishgal]

hello,

my name is Danyelle, and i am very interested in starting a nano reef. my dad has a 200 gallon sw reef, and i would really like to start my own. i have some experience with saltwater aquariums, i take care of his when he goes on business trips/vacations, and i have my own 20 gallon freshwater that is completely filled of fishies with a froggie and shrimp (lol)

to start off, is there anything else that i need to buy other than the tank itself (nano cube i think ill be gettin) and the light made for corals, like a skimmer?

what id like to have in it is a pair of perc clowns, maybe a small bta off of the one in my dads reef, snails, hermits, and maybe some other small low-light corals.

what else would i need?

any info would be very appreciated!
Danyelle

 

[incysor]

hello,

my name is Danyelle, and i am very interested in starting a nano reef. my dad has a 200 gallon sw reef, and i would really like to start my own. i have some experience with saltwater aquariums, i take care of his when he goes on business trips/vacations, and i have my own 20 gallon freshwater that is completely filled of fishies with a froggie and shrimp (lol)

to start off, is there anything else that i need to buy other than the tank itself (nano cube i think ill be gettin) and the light made for corals, like a skimmer?

what id like to have in it is a pair of perc clowns, maybe a small bta off of the one in my dads reef, snails, hermits, and maybe some other small low-light corals.

what else would i need?

any info would be very appreciated!
Danyelle

With your Dad having the 200gal you're life will be much easier. You can pull water out of his to do water changes, and as long as his is healthy you won't need to deal with additives and such.

For a BTA, I'd say that you'd need to mod the lights even on the new deluxe nanocube. BTA's don't need as much light as some others, but the deluxe still only comes with 48w of PC lights. That's enough for most softies in that size tank, but the BTA would be better off with more light. Probably 96w or so. With access to Dad's water if you do weekly water changes you probably won't need a skimmer as long as you keep the bio-load minimal. If you want to add a skimmer I'd probably skip the nano cube just because modding them for skimmers is kind of a pain, and you could easily get a standard 20gal tank, drill it, use a 10gal as a fuge, (which will give you more room for a skimmer), for the cost of the nano cube.

Check out all the folks that have modded their nano-cubes over on nano-reef.com for suggestions.

Brian

 

[Narkon'n'more]

I agree with Brian on the thought that the Nano-cube deluxe might not be the right one for you.

I would go with a 20 gal with 96W Quad PC lights on maybe legs or hanging. I would also say this for the fish will like it better.

As for as the skimmer if you want something to tinker with then go Red Sea Prizim with upgrade. Or go with a Remora (sp?) which are both HOB type skimmers. Though having a refugium would feel nice its not nessecary. Brian likes to make little tanks mimic big tanks. :wink:

Instead of them being their own tank in thier own right. :b :lol: j/k incynsor

We love to help you more, just tell us what your thoughts are and we gladly help. If you really want to go Nano-cube, don't they have another one coming out in a month that will be even bigger than thier deluxe?

 

[incysor]

I agree with Brian on the thought that the Nano-cube deluxe might not be the right one for you.

I would go with a 20 gal with 96W Quad PC lights on maybe legs or hanging. I would also say this for the fish will like it better.

As for as the skimmer if you want something to tinker with then go Red Sea Prizim with upgrade. Or go with a Remora (sp?) which are both HOB type skimmers. Though having a refugium would feel nice its not nessecary. Brian likes to make little tanks mimic big tanks. :wink:

Instead of them being their own tank in thier own right. :b :lol: j/k incynsor

We love to help you more, just tell us what your thoughts are and we gladly help. If you really want to go Nano-cube, don't they have another one coming out in a month that will be even bigger than thier deluxe?

:lol: Yep Narkon nailed me on this one. My post was a bit misleading. I'm not necessarily saying that you need a fuge. It's just that the only way I can see a skimmer working with a nanocube is to add a fuge for it to attach to. I looked through a ton of mod-threads over at nano-reef and didn't see any mods that really allowed a skimmer to go on a NC. If I were you and had access to your Dad's large tank to help with water changes, I'd go with a either a basic, or deluxe nano cube, then upgrade the lights so you have 80-90W over the tank add some fans, (even on the deluxe people seem to need to add additional fans to keep the temp down.), and skip the skimmer idea. Just do a decent weekly or even bi-weekly water change and you should be fine.

B