Top 10 tips for Nano Tanks! What tips would you give?

[Daniel@R2R]

Since we're talking about nano tanks this week, here's a video from Reef Builders with Jake Adams' top 10 tips for nano tanks!




What tips would you say are important for nano tanks? Share your advice in the thread here!

 

[NoahLikesFish]

1. ato

2. live brine

3. live rock

4. cryptic filtration

5. rodi

6. research wild habits (i.e damselfish live in acropora exclusively)

7. put money where your mouth is, dont buy crappy stuff and dont buy sissy stuff that takes 40 hours of classes to program

8. stability/correctness

9. have fun

10. persevere

 

[blaxsun]

Work out a budget for your nano tank, then triple it. Compare that to the tank that you really want (double the budget for that).

 

[Chris Aceves]

The first question you should ask yourself is what is your overall end goal for the tank? What corals do you want? Honestly I have learned that the smaller the tank the more you need to know about everything inside the tank and out. If you are brand new to the hobby I strongly recommend you don't even think about a small tank until you do as much possible research you can on everything reef related. I'm running a 10 gallon jbj nano cube with some really high end corals and I think the only reason it's working for me is I do daily water changes. Once a week I get a turkey baster and squeeze a little bit of water into areas in the back that doesn't see much flow and flush out all the crap. I do a 50 percent water change immediately after that. In the back I run layers of filter pad I cut to size myself and remove the front layer about once every 2 weeks and replace it with the pad behind it. I dont run a skimmer at all. I apologize for the haze, it was a garage sale find and the previous owner obviously cleaned it with steel wool lol. I'm building a diy filter for one of my bigger tanks just lying around because I'm tired of being robbed of a beautiful view. Oh I forgot to mention I feed a slury of fresh frozen food only. I have 1 fish in there. I feed once every 2 or 3 days. Fish is healthy and not starving.

 

[fish farmer]

I like a lot of what Jake Adams said.

The biggest "mistake" I see people do with smaller tanks is overstock fish....with more fish comes more food...and if you don't have a heavy export mentality with that stocking, problems can happen.

Although I did take a similar approach of cutting the feeding of my three fish (two clowns and a gramma) down to every other day. The fish were still full looking, but the clowns stopped spawning every month. I've since gone to upping my feeding to one cube of frozen food daily to three fish in a 29 gallon tank with a lot of LPS and softy biomass.

Along the same lines as light bio load with corals and fish, "not trying to grow corals like crazy". Well that comes down to what you really want to do with your tank and sometimes I feel that a lot of advice that people give out is not just for maintaining said corals and fish but GROWING said corals and fish. The advice is given like you are growing the prize pumpkin at the fair rather than just a couple for pie.

 

[Roylt777]

I like a lot of what Jake Adams said.

The biggest "mistake" I see people do with smaller tanks is overstock fish....with more fish comes more food...and if you don't have a heavy export mentality with that stocking, problems can happen.

Although I did take a similar approach of cutting the feeding of my three fish (two clowns and a gramma) down to every other day. The fish were still full looking, but the clowns stopped spawning every month. I've since gone to upping my feeding to one cube of frozen food daily to three fish in a 29 gallon tank with a lot of LPS and softy biomass.

Along the same lines as light bio load with corals and fish, "not trying to grow corals like crazy". Well that comes down to what you really want to do with your tank and sometimes I feel that a lot of advice that people give out is not just for maintaining said corals and fish but GROWING said corals and fish. The advice is given like you are growing the prize pumpkin at the fair rather than just a couple for pie.

How big is the cube you’re feeding the 3 fish? I’m afraid I may be starving mine. I give about a half cube every 3 days to a damsel, a clown, a blenny, and some crabs and snails in a 30 gal tank.

 

[fish farmer]

How big is the cube you’re feeding the 3 fish? I’m afraid I may be starving mine. I give about a half cube every 3 days to a damsel, a clown, a blenny, and some crabs and snails in a 30 gal tank.

I give a standard sized formula 1 cube. That goes in a 29 gallon with sump, skimmer and chaeto. I have two mature percula clowns and sixline wrasse. I recently added a pair of peppermint shrimp as well. I got a bunch of snails and a few small hermits. My clowns eat until they practically burst, sometimes when I just feed pellets they seem to get them all before the sixline has a chance.

My nitrates and phosphates barely register on my salifert kits, but I do have some new algae growth in the tank since I've boosted the feeding.

 

[Jacked Reefer]

Put it somewhere you look at all the time and is in public display. Nanos in my living room! Great. Matinence happens when it needs to. Usually don’t have to many issues. Ones in my bedroom. Lucky to get once a month matinence. Actually that’s advice for any tank. But nanos like regular matinence much more

 

[InvaderJim]

Great video. My tanks always do better when I keep my hands out of them for a while.

 

[Kongar]

Let's talk about how little is a little. This is what I feed two clowns and a gramma daily, and I have bubble algae issues. If you take a standard sized cube of frozen mysis, cut it in half - that's about the amount of Rod's frozen I feed those three fish daily. (also two hermits, two trochus snails, 3 nassarius snails).

Too much? How much do you feed your nano?

Edit - oh and I change 4 gallons of water a week, and this keeps my nitrate at about 3, and my phosphates at about .0.08

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Invest in as much high quality live rock preferably from the ocean even though it's a little more expensive...since the tank is small you can likely afford to use all live rock which is great because the bacterial biodiversity you get will really help out in small tanks

 

[X-37B]

#1, have a plan for your nano then keep it simple.
No plan before starting causes more problems for most any setup, imo.
What type of a system do you want?
Quality lighting
Ato
Feed the fish not the corals
Keep your hands out of the system as much as possible.

My 20g nano cube is the easiest system I run.
2g water change once a month
No skimmer
Carbon in a bag
Media in the 3 baskets
Small amount of floss in oveflow basket
3 fish 25 snails
1 hermit crab
I used live rock from my other systems.
System is 3 months old.

 

[Tankkeepers]

Overfilter and overfeeding making sure everything gets food and then pull the food out before it breaks down

 

[X-37B]

Overfilter and overfeeding making sure everything gets food and then pull the food out before it breaks down

Good advice. I feed my 3 fish several small amounts at a time.
Only a small amount at best goes into the overflow.
A minimum of 1 snail per gallon keeps the rockwork clean so you only need to clean the glass.
My snails not only eat algae they grow it, lol.

 

[Tankkeepers]

Good advice. I feed my 3 fish several small amounts at a time.
Only a small amount at best goes into the overflow.
A minimum of 1 snail per gallon keeps the rockwork clean so you only need to clean the glass.
My snails not only eat algae they grow it, lol.

My snails grow algie also then the emerald crab pins them and cleans their shell kinda funny

 

[Absolutely Fish]

Just curious. At what size does everyone stop calling something a nano?

 

[Tankkeepers]

Just curious. At what size does everyone stop calling something a nano?

Idk about everyone but I consider anything 5 gallons and under a pico over 5 to 40 a nano above 40 regular and above 150 large

That's what I go by not sure about everyone else tho

 

[Absolutely Fish]

Idk about everyone but I consider anything 5 gallons and under a pico over 5 to 40 a nano above 40 regular and above 150 large

That's what I go by not sure about everyone else tho

That sounds pretty accurate to us

 

[melbournedan]

#1, have a plan for your nano then keep it simple.
No plan before starting causes more problems for most any setup, imo.
What type of a system do you want?
Quality lighting
Ato
Feed the fish not the corals
Keep your hands out of the system as much as possible.

My 20g nano cube is the easiest system I run.
2g water change once a month
No skimmer
Carbon in a bag
Media in the 3 baskets
Small amount of floss in oveflow basket
3 fish 25 snails
1 hermit crab
I used live rock from my other systems.
System is 3 months old.

how long did it take to get into the routine of the small monthly water change?

 

[bnord]

Small but very regular water changes - it’s easy !