13g Nano Reef

[AdamWTF]

Hey guys & gals, figured I'd make a post here to gain some knowledge from people already within the hobby so when thing's inevitably go wrong I can find the help and support I'll probably require! As well as this I can share my experience with the hobby and maybe people will learn a thing or two from my mistakes or success.

So to begin, this will actually be my first ever saltwater aquarium, having kept freshwater for a number of years I decided it's time to make the plunge into a reef tank having wanted too now for a long time! Let's jump straight in and share with you what I'm actually planning to run equipment wise.

• Dennerle Scapers Tank 50l (13.3 US Gallons) - I know the tank is quite small but due to my apartment space and current living arrangements this is pretty much the biggest I could have.
• Tetra HT 50 Heater
• Hydor WaveMaker 900 l/h
• Fluval Sea LED 25,000k - This light is rated for a slightly smaller tank actually but because I'm only planning to keep soft corals and a few LPS I hope this won't be too much of an issue.

I also have a few other pieces already like test kits, a saltwater refractometer and everything too, but this weekend my final equipment pieces should arrive which will include the following.

• HOB Skimmer Bubble Magnus NAC QQ1
• Red Sea Live Sand
• Red Sea Coral Pro Salt

Finally some pictures!

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• AdamWTF
• Sep 27, 2017

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• AdamWTF
• Sep 27, 2017

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• AdamWTF
• Sep 27, 2017

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• AdamWTF
• Sep 27, 2017

Images aren't the best, I'm no photographer but hopefully they are clear enough to show you what I've currently done. Sadly the tank doesn't have an internal sump where I'm able to actually hide the equipment, nor do I have the option of making a sump for this tank, I just painted the back black so it's slightly more visually appealing. For a little bit of reference although I'm from the UK I currently live in Romania and it's been difficult sourcing equipment and so on cost effectively.

This was my first attempt at a rockscape, I'm happy with it, I'm curious to hear what other people think though? Will it actually work? It will change slightly this weekend when I fill the tank with water as I will also purchase some live rock to go inside and help get the cycling started. I plan to use the Red Sea Reef Mature kit to achieve my healthy and thriving bacteria however.

My future plans and stocking options, so I plan to run this tank for around 6 months to 1 year, by this time I will have moved apartment, to one I actually own instead of renting. This will allow me to upscale and invest a little more money into something nicer.

CUC

• 1 Turbo Snail
• 2 Cerith Snails
• 3 Nerites Snails
• 2 Scarlet Legged Hermits
• 1 Green Emerald Crab (Potentially, I'm not so committed to this one.)

Fish

• 2x Small Clownfish
• 1x Yellow Watchman Goby (or similar)
• 1x Cleaner Shrimp (Not a fish but I'm considering him under this list)

Corals I currently have no idea, my missus is only requesting colour and movement.

I know the tank is a little small for the clowns but I'm hoping that getting them small they will have plenty of time to grow out in the tank until I upgrade further down the line.

So yeah, I'm not really too sure what else to share atm, I think I've pretty much covered everything so far, I'd love some opinions on what I've shared so far. What do people think of my rock scape? Are my stock wish lists appropriate? Does anyone have any advice or criticisms for me?

 

[Tahoe61]

Looks really sharp!

Great job on the images.

 

[mckinleyw]

That looks really nice.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Dig the aquascape! I'd maybe do a few trochus snails instead of a turbo in a nano. They're pretty efficient lawnmowers but don't get near as big as turbos. And be cautious if you go for an emerald crab with soft corals. Sometimes they behave really well, and others think soft corals are snacks. Mine ate a huge chunk of one of my toadstool leather corals when I first got him, but he's behaved ever since. But if you get bubble algae I'd say they're worth the risk as they do a stellar job of wiping that out.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Dig the aquascape! I'd maybe do a few trochus snails instead of a turbo in a nano. They're pretty efficient lawnmowers but don't get near as big as turbos. And be cautious if you go for an emerald crab with soft corals. Sometimes they behave really well, and others think soft corals are snacks. Mine ate a huge chunk of one of my toadstool leather corals when I first got him, but he's behaved ever since. But if you get bubble algae I'd say they're worth the risk as they do a stellar job of wiping that out.

+1 on the emerald crabs - I had two who were great eating the bubble algae, then I came into the room to catch them eating off polyps of my zoas...

 

[AdamWTF]

Dig the aquascape! I'd maybe do a few trochus snails instead of a turbo in a nano. They're pretty efficient lawnmowers but don't get near as big as turbos. And be cautious if you go for an emerald crab with soft corals. Sometimes they behave really well, and others think soft corals are snacks. Mine ate a huge chunk of one of my toadstool leather corals when I first got him, but he's behaved ever since. But if you get bubble algae I'd say they're worth the risk as they do a stellar job of wiping that out.

Thanks for the advice on the snails, I’ll be honest know very little about the CUC really, just know I want to go for a small one to avoid die off.

As for the emerald crab both of your comments matched everything I’ve read online so far. Hence why I’m not committed to one of those, would more be if a problem arises and the situation calls for it I guess.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Thanks for the advice on the snails, I’ll be honest know very little about the CUC really, just know I want to go for a small one to avoid die off.

As for the emerald crab both of your comments matched everything I’ve read online so far. Hence why I’m not committed to one of those, would more be if a problem arises and the situation calls for it I guess.

Well, if you want something to compare to for CUC size, in my 13.5 gal nano I've got 8 hermits (the two scarlets are by far the most well behaved and peaceful but also the most lax in terms of cleaning the tank), 1 emerald crab, 3 trochus snails, 6 nassarius snails, a tuxedo urchin, and a cleaner shrimp (although I kind of agree that they're more of a "fish" than CUC. So much personality!). They all take care of different things, so none of them are starving for food. Although, I do feed the urchin nori nearly every day because he's an absolute beast of an eater and I want him to leave my coraline algae alone.

And in my unintentional CUC list is one micro brittle sea star that hitchhiked home on a frag I bought that I decided to keep, which has now turned into three of them that I can see...perhaps there are others, a couple asterina stars, and some wicked alien looking spaghetti worms. Haha.

I did start very small with the CUC to do the same as you and avoid die off (I believe I started with 3 hermits, and 4 snails), and have added new members slowly as needed for specific types of cleaning like the urchin and emerald crab. Now the tank's nearly a year old, and the crew I've got now seems to be the perfect balance and they keep the tank pretty spotless aside from me needing to clean the glass once a week or so.

 

[AdamWTF]

Well, if you want something to compare to for CUC size, in my 13.5 gal nano I've got 8 hermits (the two scarlets are by far the most well behaved and peaceful but also the most lax in terms of cleaning the tank), 1 emerald crab, 3 trochus snails, 6 nassarius snails, a tuxedo urchin, and a cleaner shrimp (although I kind of agree that they're more of a "fish" than CUC. So much personality!). They all take care of different things, so none of them are starving for food. Although, I do feed the urchin nori nearly every day because he's an absolute beast of an eater and I want him to leave my coraline algae alone.

And in my unintentional CUC list is one micro brittle sea star that hitchhiked home on a frag I bought that I decided to keep, which has now turned into three of them that I can see...perhaps there are others, a couple asterina stars, and some wicked alien looking spaghetti worms. Haha.

I did start very small with the CUC to do the same as you and avoid die off (I believe I started with 3 hermits, and 4 snails), and have added new members slowly as needed for specific types of cleaning like the urchin and emerald crab. Now the tank's nearly a year old, and the crew I've got now seems to be the perfect balance and they keep the tank pretty spotless aside from me needing to clean the glass once a week or so.

Awesome thank you sounds like some pretty solid advice! I’m really curious about you mentioning an urchin though, I didn’t think my tank would be big enough to house one of these but my girlfriend is desperate for one lol, she loves them. Do tuxedo urchins stay relatively small?

An yeah I love cleaner shrimp lol, really can’t wait for one of those, so excited to finally be getting the tank wet this weekend!!

 

[Katrina71]

Your wife might like some green star polyps and Xenia for movement and color. They can become invasive if not groomed when they start to spread.

 

[AdamWTF]

Your wife might like some green star polyps and Xenia for movement and color. They can become invasive if not groomed when they start to spread.

haha we went to the LFS last night actually and was looking at some green star polyps, mutually agreed we are getting those for sure. I planned to make a little island for the Xenia to control it better but I’m more concerned about this one after hearing how it will also break off in parts to float somewhere else?

I truly know nothing about corals other than what I’ve seen in YouTube videos basically so the idea of fragging and so on, I simply have no experience yet.

 

[Katrina71]

With regular husbandry they can be controlled.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Awesome thank you sounds like some pretty solid advice! I’m really curious about you mentioning an urchin though, I didn’t think my tank would be big enough to house one of these but my girlfriend is desperate for one lol, she loves them. Do tuxedo urchins stay relatively small?

An yeah I love cleaner shrimp lol, really can’t wait for one of those, so excited to finally be getting the tank wet this weekend!!

I got my tuxedo urchin at about nickel sized and it's probably silver dollar sized now like 6 months later. I believe 3 inches is usually where they max out size wise, but most are smaller than that. To keep one in a nano, you definitely have to supplement its diet with extra food. When I put mine in the tank I had a nice carpet of thick algae pretty much all over my rocks and he destroyed any sign of it within about 10 days. Now he climbs the glass every day or so and I'll place a piece of nori around the size of his body right up next to him and he'll slowly pull it in and usually eats the whole thing in about 6-7 hours. That's been the most effective way of feeding him for me vs. tying some to a rock and hoping he'll find it, and I'm pretty sure he's learned that coming up to the top of the glass gets him food when he wants it.

But yeah, I'd say they're absolutely doable in a 13 gallon as long as you're willing to feed it. I'd definitely wait until your tank has some algae to take care of and have some nori ready to feed it once it plows through that. IMO the urchin is by far the most effective member of the clean up crew critters. Amazing 24/7 algae lawnmowers and definitely one of the "coolest" things in the tank that my non fish nerd people who come visit comment on the most. Haha.

 

[AdamWTF]

I got my tuxedo urchin at about nickel sized and it's probably silver dollar sized now like 6 months later. I believe 3 inches is usually where they max out size wise, but most are smaller than that. To keep one in a nano, you definitely have to supplement its diet with extra food. When I put mine in the tank I had a nice carpet of thick algae pretty much all over my rocks and he destroyed any sign of it within about 10 days. Now he climbs the glass every day or so and I'll place a piece of nori around the size of his body right up next to him and he'll slowly pull it in and usually eats the whole thing in about 6-7 hours. That's been the most effective way of feeding him for me vs. tying some to a rock and hoping he'll find it, and I'm pretty sure he's learned that coming up to the top of the glass gets him food when he wants it.

But yeah, I'd say they're absolutely doable in a 13 gallon as long as you're willing to feed it. I'd definitely wait until your tank has some algae to take care of and have some nori ready to feed it once it plows through that. IMO the urchin is by far the most effective member of the clean up crew critters. Amazing 24/7 algae lawnmowers and definitely one of the "coolest" things in the tank that my non fish nerd people who come visit comment on the most. Haha.

I will need to look if I have somewhere here I can purchase this then (nori), thanks for the info it seems pretty manageable. I’ve shown them to the girlfriend and she signed off happily lol.

I finally got the tank wet today and stuck a couple of pieces of live rock in! Water is still pretty cloudy atm however, my skimmer also hasn’t arrived yet, hopefully early this week it’ll be here. I don’t imagine this should be too much of a problem for the first couple of days for the cycle?

 

[WarEaglesReef]

I will need to look if I have somewhere here I can purchase this then (nori), thanks for the info it seems pretty manageable. I’ve shown them to the girlfriend and she signed off happily lol.

I finally got the tank wet today and stuck a couple of pieces of live rock in! Water is still pretty cloudy atm however, my skimmer also hasn’t arrived yet, hopefully early this week it’ll be here. I don’t imagine this should be too much of a problem for the first couple of days for the cycle?

Nah, I didn't have the skimmer until after I was cycled and had livestock in the tank. It's not needed for your cycle, so you should be good! Congrats on getting water in that tank! Welcome to the obsession. Haha.

 

[Ryan@ShelteredReef]

I will need to look if I have somewhere here I can purchase this then (nori), thanks for the info it seems pretty manageable. I’ve shown them to the girlfriend and she signed off happily lol.

I finally got the tank wet today and stuck a couple of pieces of live rock in! Water is still pretty cloudy atm however, my skimmer also hasn’t arrived yet, hopefully early this week it’ll be here. I don’t imagine this should be too much of a problem for the first couple of days for the cycle?

Congrats on making the switch to salt! That a pretty sweet setup you've got going. I like the sweeping cover you've created with your scape. Your water should clear on its own in a few days. You can speed it up a bit with some filter floss to polish out the finer suspended particulates from your rock/sand. Polyfil(pillow stuffing) is the same thing and its cheap enough that you can wad up a bunch and stuff it in an HOB filter and swap it out for fresh every day to remove as much of the fines as possible before they settle out. Keep the pictures coming!

 

[nate's reef]

I try to avoid crabs in my nano, there's too little room to be sure there won't be incidents and a cleaner shrimp does a better job imo. Keep up on water changes, do them religiously and as large as possible. I add and drain, simultaneously, 5 gallons a week on my 10g. Match your salt and temp exactly and even acros won't notice the change. I avoid dosing at all costs and adding calc to top off water will do fine when things start growing like crazy.

My advice, pick a strategy and stick with it. If your primary system is water changes, don't ever dose, just change more often. If your system is triton, don't do any water changes and just dose what they tell you. Consistency is the key and a nano makes it easy to be consistent; as long as the water is consistently changed with red sea salt, the water will consistently be red sea salt (or whatever brand you choose)

Edit: softies and lps will usually do well under any less intense light, even a 60w lightbulb could probably keep them alive so your light should be more than adequate. Get all the live rock and flow you can tolerate, both are required and when both are available in sufficient amounts that will be 95% if your filtration.

 

[AdamWTF]

Thanks for the info all, I am using Red Sea salt btw, so a couple of things have changed since my last post! I’ll let my pics speak for themselves initially!

As you can see I’m now in ugly tank mode, the rock scape has changed too, the day I filled the tank I grabbed a couple of pieces of live rock and couldn’t manage to get the old layout to work. I’m happy with it for the time being, many little caves and tunnels so I’m hoping it’ll work well. I wanted to keep the old sweeping down look but couldn’t get it secure, maybe I’ll fix this at a later date.

Equipment wise I grabbed a hob filter which I’m thinking I can place charcoal into to help polish the water later on. Initially I just wanted to clean the water up a little bit, I woke one day to find it full of gunk. I’ve ran it with sponges so far just to clean this out. Is it a good idea to run this with charcoal once the cycling has ended? Is there anything else worth putting inside? The LFS was telling me to put those little ceramic pieces I don’t know the correct name. Failing this being a good idea I’ll either just take it off or make it into a small refugium?

I’m still waiting on my skimmer to arrive.

I also made a couple of new purchases...

So I’m now also awaiting a new wave maker, a Jebao SW-4 /w controller, I don’t want a consistent flow like a currently have and want to make more of a pattern.

Secondly I’ve also purchased a new light, an AI Prime HD, still waiting for this to arrive too!! I lost my patience with the current light when the girlfriend woke me to ask if it’s normal that the light is submerged... The only mounting solution Fluval provide for this particular light is a strip of double sided tape, it failed! Anyway, the options it gives me, the fact I can have a sunrise and lunar effects, I think it’s much nicer. Maybe now I will be able to keep an SPS or 2? [emoji51]

As for my tests, I did them earlier I’m now 1 week in.

Temperature: 27C
Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0.05
Nitrite: 0.4

Does it look to be on track as to what people would expect?

 

[nate's reef]

Yes, I would say you could even add a few hardy inverts to start building up the bacteria and removing some algea for you. When all is up and running I recommend using chemipure blue, which is what I use. It is charcoal and an exchange resin mix designed for reef tanks. I have heard it is better than others that can remove too much from the water. I wouldnt add anyrhing else to the filter. I would wait on sps for another 4 months or so. At least practice some water changes and make sure you end up at the levels you intended. I would recommend you grab a cheap "birdsnest" scientific name seriatopora when you feel ready to begin, they are very easy to keep.

 

[AdamWTF]

Yes, I would say you could even add a few hardy inverts to start building up the bacteria and removing some algea for you. When all is up and running I recommend using chemipure blue, which is what I use. It is charcoal and an exchange resin mix designed for reef tanks. I have heard it is better than others that can remove too much from the water. I wouldnt add anyrhing else to the filter. I would wait on sps for another 4 months or so. At least practice some water changes and make sure you end up at the levels you intended. I would recommend you grab a cheap "birdsnest" scientific name seriatopora when you feel ready to begin, they are very easy to keep.

Excellent! I had saw the chemipure blue but had no idea what it was actually doing so that’s good to know! Yeah I agree on waiting a while for SPS, I had no intention of going straight for them, initially I’m looking for movement.

In my first post I pointed out what I was looking to get for my CUC, now other than one of the snails being recommendly swapped for another. Which of these would you suggest to get/how many of each?

I’m using the Red Sea Reef Mature Kit and it’s suggesting I get my CUC this Wednesday. Which will be day 11 I think.

 

[nate's reef]

I would recommend a couple small snails, turbo snails are very large so people do have problems with them. The other 2 you picked out are good choices. I also have scarlet leg hermits and they clean more than anything else in my tank. If you want the emerald i would wait until after you add a few smaller inverts. Maybe 2 snails and hermits each