Starting new 4 gallon nano PLEASE HELP

islandcreation

islandcreation

New Member
I have been reading this forum to the point that I dose off. I'm trying to be patient and gain knowledge before jumping in and wasting money due to my eagerness. I ordered or atleast won auctions online which should come this week and I'll be ready to go. Here are my questions.

1. What is the best way to establish my water Instant Ocean, Oceanic, Crystal Sea etc... By the way I am getting cured LR's when I begin my cycle.

2. It's a 4 gallon tank and I wanted to know what kind of filter system I can use? Heater? Lighting etc... Here I'd like a lot of suggestions here and please explain why? Sorry.

3. I notice everyone states they need to know what kind of corals I'll be putting in before stating a lighting system. Is there a rule of thumb on lighting when it comes to specific corals?

4. Last but not least, I want black sand in my tank is that possible?

5. One more, I want anyone else to give me their feedback on mistakes that beginners do that I can avoid. I want to learn from peoples mistakes rather than running back and fourth to my local LFS!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!
 
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sadielynn

New Member
1. What is the best way to establish my water Instant Ocean, Oceanic, Crystal Sea etc... By the way I am getting cured LR's when I begin my cycle.
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that will be your prefrence I personally like and use instant ocean .
Here is a link that this is being discussed ..
http://nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2404
2. It's a 4 gallon tank and I wanted to know what kind of filter system I can use? Heater? Lighting etc... Here I'd like a lot of suggestions here and please explain why? Sorry
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This too is a personal prefrence . I use the penguin mini on our 2.5 and find that it does a fine job keeping up with the waste produced and is easy to maintain . Heaters we use these and love them easy to hide matter of fact in the 7 gallon it is in the filter :)
http://www.petsupplyliquidator.com/htm/ ... eaters.htm
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fus ... 3/cid/2194
lighting more is better what are the dementions of the tank
something like this should work for you and allow some softies .
3. I notice everyone states they need to know what kind of corals I'll be putting in before stating a lighting system. Is there a rule of thumb on lighting when it comes to specific corals?
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see above , this is true but you want good par .... deep penitration to the bottom of the tank....hopefully someone can better explain par than I can :mrgreen:
4. Last but not least, I want black sand in my tank is that possible?
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sure why not you may have to siphion out some of the dirt but you can use any color you want heck when I first first started we had Neon PINK :lol:
5. One more, I want anyone else to give me their feedback on mistakes that beginners do that I can avoid. I want to learn from peoples mistakes rather than running back and fourth to my local LFS!
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rushing has to be the biggest mistake . Time is free and rewards are great if things are taken in steps . Education is also a good thing to start with , read search ,and research are your biggest friends as are questions and the search tool . I am sure others will have input here for you as well . hope this helps , and welcome to nanotank :mrgreen:
 
islandcreation

islandcreation

New Member
sadielynn,

Thank you for your reply. I have seen you post everywhere along with reefman and dragon.... You guys are awesome! I'm kind of scared, actually I'm not. I'm more anxious to get it going, its not like a fresh water tank where the processes is no where near a saltwater tank. If anyone else can help me out please do. Thanks again!
 
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sadielynn

New Member
One other thing that I do to help me is I go to walmart and get generic addy lables
go to the dollar store get a calendar book (dated works best)
then on the lables run the tests that I test for
Ammonia
NitrIte
NitrAte
Spec grav
and temp
I put a line on each to write the values down then when I run a panel , I peel and stick to the date easy to do and keeps them there for refrence to see if you are stable or not , I also do this when I suspect a problem brewing as well . I try to test at the same time each month so it is easier to find ,if I suspect a problem I test before and after water changes and log appropiately. It has saved me many headaches , the one last thing I do is use a "star" sticker to indicate when a filter pad is changed . I also log when I place something in such as a fish or a crab ect.... if I add a media such as chemi pure I log that too so it is easy to know when to change it out . :mrgreen:
 
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sadielynn

New Member
most craft stores carry it as well as most pet stores , tho the craft stores tend to be a bit cheaper :mrgreen:
 
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reefman23

New Member
This place...and there are many others too...offer black araganite sand. this is the stuff that you want to use in a reef.
 
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sadielynn

New Member
oooops...not the first time ive done that!! And good job sadie, i did mean thatpetplace.com.
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:lol: I've done that too :lol:
But if he can't find any of those the sand from the craft store is still a viable option as well it just wont sink as easy. I talked to the owner of estees and he said that the sand that they make is the same as the pet store sand and both are reef safe .......Just a tidbit of info :mrgreen:
 
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