I'm thinking of starting a nano-reef. What all do I need?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

ReyK

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
71
Location
Stillwater, OK
I have a 3-gallon cube aquarium that I'd like to eventually turn into a nano-reef tank if at all possible. I don't want to necessarily have any animals in it, other than anemones and maybe a couple shrimp or snails. I talked to a sales associate at a local pet store that specializes in aquariums and terrariums, and she told me I'd need a pound of live rock for every gallon of water, I'd have to replace evaporated water every single day, and the lighting would be very expensive, but being a salesperson, she kept trying to persuade me to purchase a $500 29-gallon marine starter kit but I don't have anywhere near that kind of dough to drop on an aquarium now or in the foreseeable future. Is it possible to have a nano-reef that small, and if it is, how can I set it up and get it running on a budget? If it's not possible, what size tank, lighting, filtration, heater, and other equipment would you suggest?
 
Anything is possible, but smaller is harder. If you're looking to cut back on water changes a good fitting lid is very important to cut down on evaporation. If you're looking to upgrade a bit on size without too much fuss, my wife has been operating a Fluval Evo 13.5g for a few months. The light included is enough to grow zoa and paly corals per LFS, which has been doing pretty well in for the tank. It's currently holding some of the above mentioned corals, a chromis, shrimp goby, pistol shrimp, two turbo snails, and a few emerald crabs. Additional purchases were a heater and a small powerhead [powerhead just because]. I got it for her as a birthday present for around 130$ from a local shop.
 
This is the tank I have: https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-29095-Cube-Aquarium-3-Gallon/dp/B008CA7W7E
It's got a lid, but there's an opening around the filter and another for feeding. I also bought an Aqueon under-substrate heater for 1-5 gallons when I first set it up and it stays about 78F. I could probably obtain a larger tank, but it would be a good while since I'm a broke high school student and all. I've heard about something called a skimmer but I'm not sure what it is or what it does, and the same with sump and powerhead.
 
As long as you keep an eye on your salinity, have decent filtration, and are diligent with water changes you can probably house zoa/paly corals with that provided there's some sort of water flow in the tank. From what I understand the stony corals are the super finicky ones. YMMV I'm no expert!
 
IMO go with at least a 10. A 3 gallon o get into SW is going to be way too hard. A 10 costs around $15, and if you can't spend the money on SW right now even for a nano tank I suggest waiting until you have money to set it up properly. The smaller the tank, the quicker it will go septic and levels will go insanely out of control very quickly. I have a 10 gallon with a 5.5 gallon sump.....a sump is basically a second tank where you bring water into from the main tank, and then have that water pumped back into the main tank after it is filtered in the sump. Corals need a tank with steady and clean levels, which are super hard to achieve in a small tank. The bigger the better honestly, so if you can go 20 gallons go 20 gallons, if you can go 40 then go 40.
 
It is mostly "hard" regarding needing to never forget a pwc, not over feeding and selecting the inhabitants based on adult size for fish - maybe, in regards to a fish for that size.

My 1st SW tank was a 5G and it wasn't as hard as everyone said it might be. Yours is much smaller. Which is an issue if you do not select items carefully and keep up with the pwc. Don't skimp on evap water, use the RODI to replace, and do a 10-20% pwc every week, or do an extra one if you are feeding more foods, live, or frozen foods. Add some Tisbee (for sure, harder to find but can reproduce well in our sw tanks) and / or Tigger Pods. They are fun to watch!
 
Back
Top Bottom