New Reef Aquarium

[MAT3E0O]

Goodmorning R2R, I'm thinking of getting a reef aquarium this coming summer. My parents used to have a saltwater 90 gal in my old house and I used to do all the maintenance for it. Now I'm studying biology and want to get a reef aquarium to enjoy aside from school and so I think it's time to get my own. I have been researching for 5 months and will continue researching for the next couple of months until summer. So my question is what aquarium size do you recommend for someone of my experience level: beginner-intermediate level? Thanks!

 

[King Turkey]

the bigger the more stable water. that sorta depends on bio load also. do you have a house dorm apartment? you might wanna get something realistic if you are renting because when I was in collage and getting my life in gear I moved around a bit and a bigger tank means more time teardown and more effort moving the tank gear livestock. could do a all in one bio cube 30 to 40 gallon with a Nano protein skimmer and a reactor.

 

[MAT3E0O]

the bigger the more stable water. that sorta depends on bio load also. do you have a house dorm apartment? you might wanna get something realistic if you are renting because when I was in collage and getting my life in gear I moved around a bit and a bigger tank means more time teardown and more effort moving the tank gear livestock. could do a all in one bio cube 30 to 40 gallon with a Nano protein skimmer and a reactor.

Im still living at home, college is a few minutes away. I'd like to have an anemone in the tank and I read that a 40 is too small. what fish would you recommend for me to house with these corals as well as anemone

 

[MAT3E0O]

Also is there a way to make a nano aquarium more stable? because the small size is very convenient

 

[King Turkey]

Idk much about anemones to be honest. Corals and fish that is I know a bit about. I have a 40g. I do chalices hammer lepto acropora. I have a clown fish diamond goby scooter blenny blue green chromis 6 line wrasse 10 hermit crabs 5 emerald crabs. Set up details. 9004 tunze skimmer and a hang on refugeium for chato algae. A have a multi chamber canister filter for carbon gfo sponge and bio media. I have 40 lbs dry rock 30 lbs live sand. I do 10 percent water change once ever 2 weeks and carbon dose 1 ml vodka once a day. Using bio active topic marin salt. Hope that helps with a idea of a set up and live stock.

 

[King Turkey]

Also I use red sea pro tests. And use red sea to hand dose for mg alk and ca as needed if water change does not do the trick to balance the water peramiters.

 

[brandon429]

I recommend making a reefbowl right now and having five strains of coral growing well and in control before upscaling $ to harder systems. an idea start is a full reef for 150$ tank and all that will grow sps/ nano easy

that way you can start now vs wait/ramp up.

facebook=maritza the vase reef. check that out :)
its like practicing to ride a bike by first being able to wheelie around the block. it specifically makes your costlier investment less likely to die...crucial practice. Maritza's vase is worth well over a grand. you dont have to pack that much in, its that it can carry that much if you want.

 

[Spanky05]

You absolutely can have an anemone in less than a 40g tank but I'd ask which anemone you are wanting to give a better recommendation.

For example, in my 29 gallon biocube I had 3 rock flower anemones, 1 bubble tip anemone and 2 maxi mini anemones.

Smaller water volumes can be less stable but they are also infinitely easier to maintain (10% water change on a 20gallon vs 10% water change on a 100gallon) and will be much easier to move when needed.

Due to a nano being more sensitive to small changes, make sure you get an auto top off to keep salinity stable. Stay on top of ~10% water changes weekly. I'm not saying that there aren't other ways to accomplish stability but my tank never looked bad when I was staying on top of routine water changes. Especially on my biocube. I started out doing a 4g water change every week and I didn't miss a beat for a year +. Then I started getting more relaxed and stopped being on top of them and that's when algae issues started to arise.

Also, make sure you are patient. Don't rush to add chemicals to solve a problem. Good things don't happen fast but bad things do.

As to your actual question, there isn't a size that is best but I would do something like an innovative marine 20 - 40 gallon tank. The all in ones are handy to keep things looking tidy but also keeping things like heaters from sitting in your tank. You do lose some utility to add extra gear (different reactors, scrubbers dosers etc) but it isn't needed, especially on a smaller tank.

 

[MAT3E0O]

I recommend making a reefbowl right now and having five strains of coral growing well and in control before upscaling $ to harder systems. an idea start is a full reef for 150$ tank and all that will grow sps/ nano easy

that way you can start now vs wait/ramp up.

facebook=maritza the vase reef. check that out :)
its like practicing to ride a bike by first being able to wheelie around the block. it specifically makes your costlier investment less likely to die...crucial practice. Maritza's vase is worth well over a grand. you dont have to pack that much in, its that it can carry that much if you want.

I rather wait and get something bigger because constant water changes don't seem to attractive to me, and I also wouldn't be able to get a bubble tip anemone

 

[MAT3E0O]

I also hear that the smaller the tank the more variable the temp, I live in South Florida so the temp is constantly fluctuating in my house from 72-79. I feel like this would be the hardest obstacle to conquer what temp should I keep my reef at and what helps facilitate this would a heater be better or a chiller

 

[brandon429]

those are ideal temps, since we use a heater the lower limits dont matter my home gets to 62 in the winter. the max home temps we want them in is 80 degrees, and thats a mighty warm home most keep it within max temp range. agreed not for anems, its merely initial bio tuning practice vs investing three grand into an anem setup as a first go. the reason maritza's reef has seven years worth of $ sps coral in it is because those vases tolerate anything below 80. they're size restrictive, no fish no anems. we have thousands of pico reef keepers all over Fl, thats how I know it w work fine

reefbowls will work in all states

 

[MAT3E0O]

I'd also like some fish in there so that's why a 5 gal or less is out of the question.