Thinking about a nano. Great results with 55reef.

[Florida8]

Not sure where to start with a nano. I miss my 55g set up so bad had it 4 yrs and my cousins kid dumped an entire plate of food in it while I was away at the gas station, I tore it down after a week of trying to get my tank straight to no avail... anyways we went looking into some much larger tanks yesterday which we will buy after the baby is born and we decide if we are moving or not... But for the time being my son, who is 11 and has a HUGE love of SW tanks has been begging for me to convert his 10g FW tetra tank or his 7bow to a nano. FOWLR where do I start? What do I need to convert either of these?

TIA,
Kimberly in Florida

 

[grimlock3000]

Hi, welcome to AA.com!

I am in the process of setting up a 10g nano, and another member on the forum (nodoubt471) is doing almost the same thing.

Since you already have salt experience, the nano is going to be pretty easy for you. I presume you already have all the test kits and a lot of patience. Get some power heads for water movement, substrate (aragonite is good for a small tank), live rock, and cycle the tank. You can get by without a skimmer if you do weekly water changes. A refugium might be a good idea as well to help stabilize the tank. Once everything cycle, you can add a small clean up crew, wait a few weeks, then work on adding basic corals and fish.

The smaller tank will require you to test water conditions and keep up on maintenence much more than the larger tanks, keep that in mind.

 

[MattP725]

I personally would start by kicking that kid in the head that ruined your tank... thats just me though.

 

[Florida8]

I can't even tell you how ill I am about it and it's been a good while... I was proud of that tank and in all the years it was up I only lost a scooter blenny to a mantis! UGH, then to loose it all to an uncontrolled kid! We have a house full of our own kids and they KNOW better! Grrrrrr

 

[MattP725]

Didn't the adults remove the food asap? If so was it that much that it still affected the tank?

 

[Florida8]

Well, they tried scooping with a large net, but it was a filthy mess. A LOT of food, I could barely see through the tank. I had a Q tank set up and removed my fish, the ones I could find and then had my oldest daughter mix a 32g batch of water for the LR but my shrooms and everything else on my LR didn't make it, all my fish did though. It was just a mess, a giant stinkin mess!

 

[Corty]

I'm hoping the parents at least offered to pay for the damage.. :|