Hey fellas, hope your holiday weekend is treating you well. I’m planning to start the process of building a 15g nano reef w/ fish after a couple year hiatus coming from a fresh water cichlid tank. I have very little experience with saltwater tanks so I am doing my due diligence and researching as much as I can before I pull the trigger on buying anything. So I would just like to ask for everyones advice and if there are any tips I could use.
I will start off with the equipment and tank I have picked out:
Tank-Innovative Marine 15G Fusion AIO
Heater- Innovative Marine Helio 100W PTC
Protein Skimmer - Tunze Comline DOC Skimmer 9001 DC
Auto top-off - PNW Customs Micro ATO
Light- AI Prime 16 HD
Upgraded Return Pump - Sicce Syncra Silent 1.0
Please let me know if there are any better alternatives at or around the same price, as well as if I’m missing anything or you guys/gals suggest any additional equipment to make my life a tiny bit easier.
As for filtration, I plan to use filter floss, chemipure blue, and marinepur gems.
In the future I will be making a cheato reactor for algae.
Testing -
Refractometer
Tropic Marin Compact Lab Essentials test kit
Do I need additional tests for magnesium or calcium?
Fish:
I plan to have 2 clowns, a pygmy angel, and maybe one or two others.
What inverts do you suggest as a clean up crew?
With the very mixed opinions about feeding, I have gathered that I should be feeding frozen mysis shrimp once a day. Pellets should only be used as a treat or backup food since they are very protein dense and can cause an ammonia spike easily.
I plan to have SPS and soft coral after about 2-3 months of maintaining the tank and maybe LPS in the future. I’ve heard phytoplankton is good but I don’t know what else would be beneficial but safe for the tank at the same time. I read mixed signals on reefroids because they can cause a phosphate spike. Any suggestions of feeding and general coral care? Do sps even eat phyto?
Food:
Hikari Mysis shrimp frozen 1x/day
Phytoplankton (coral) ~10 ml daily
As far as salt goes, I have read that either Red Sea Salt (blue bucket) or Tropic Marin are very stable and reputable as well as have good parameters for what I want have in my tank.
Parameters:
Salinity 1.025
Temperature 77-78°F (set at 77°F)
Ammonia Undetectable
Nitrite Undetectable
Nitrate 10-20ppm
Phosphate .01-.10
pH 8.1-8.4
Alkalinity 8-9dKH
Magnesium 1300-1450ppm
Calcium 380-450ppm
These are the suggested parameters I have found, are these acceptable or would you increase or decrease anything?
I plan to do a weekly 15–20% water change and check parameters every couple days.
I will start off with the equipment and tank I have picked out:
Tank-Innovative Marine 15G Fusion AIO
Heater- Innovative Marine Helio 100W PTC
Protein Skimmer - Tunze Comline DOC Skimmer 9001 DC
Auto top-off - PNW Customs Micro ATO
Light- AI Prime 16 HD
Upgraded Return Pump - Sicce Syncra Silent 1.0
Please let me know if there are any better alternatives at or around the same price, as well as if I’m missing anything or you guys/gals suggest any additional equipment to make my life a tiny bit easier.
As for filtration, I plan to use filter floss, chemipure blue, and marinepur gems.
In the future I will be making a cheato reactor for algae.
Testing -
Refractometer
Tropic Marin Compact Lab Essentials test kit
Do I need additional tests for magnesium or calcium?
Fish:
I plan to have 2 clowns, a pygmy angel, and maybe one or two others.
What inverts do you suggest as a clean up crew?
With the very mixed opinions about feeding, I have gathered that I should be feeding frozen mysis shrimp once a day. Pellets should only be used as a treat or backup food since they are very protein dense and can cause an ammonia spike easily.
I plan to have SPS and soft coral after about 2-3 months of maintaining the tank and maybe LPS in the future. I’ve heard phytoplankton is good but I don’t know what else would be beneficial but safe for the tank at the same time. I read mixed signals on reefroids because they can cause a phosphate spike. Any suggestions of feeding and general coral care? Do sps even eat phyto?
Food:
Hikari Mysis shrimp frozen 1x/day
Phytoplankton (coral) ~10 ml daily
As far as salt goes, I have read that either Red Sea Salt (blue bucket) or Tropic Marin are very stable and reputable as well as have good parameters for what I want have in my tank.
Parameters:
Salinity 1.025
Temperature 77-78°F (set at 77°F)
Ammonia Undetectable
Nitrite Undetectable
Nitrate 10-20ppm
Phosphate .01-.10
pH 8.1-8.4
Alkalinity 8-9dKH
Magnesium 1300-1450ppm
Calcium 380-450ppm
These are the suggested parameters I have found, are these acceptable or would you increase or decrease anything?
I plan to do a weekly 15–20% water change and check parameters every couple days.