New Reef Nano

[PeaceLoveFish]

Hey guys. Ive been delayed with starting a reef aquarium and now I'm able to do it. I've got an empty 10g and a power head. I plan on making it all natural so the live rock and sand bed will be the filter. The only animals will be a couple shrimp and crabs. My question is, how long do I let it cycle before I add the animals? I'm doing it fishless btw.

 

[Sniperhank]

How long your cycle lasts depends on the amount of LR and sand...and that length of time will be determined by your ammonia/nitirite/nitrate levels which you will be needing to test for.

What kind of reef are you planning on having...if you are planning anything besides housing softies in this tank you are going to need additional filtration to keep your water pristine. Doing this in a small tank like a nano can be difficult. I would highly suggest a sump/fuge setup to aid in nitrate removal and also a protein skimmer. This will prevent your nano from becoming toxic for your corals. Will save you a ton of money in the long run.

I made a mistake in my 55 gallon reef and it killed 500 dollars worth of coral. I still haven't got it squared away after a week, it is very frustrating. Hope this helps, if you have additional questions I'll do my best to help out, as will others.

 

[PeaceLoveFish]

It'll just be an invert tank. I'm not planning on putting fish since its so small. When I introduce animals, I was thinking about starting with peppermint shrimps or blue legged hermits. And I was gonna get 20lbs of rock and sand. I'm not sure how much ill use though.

 

[Sniperhank]

So no coral? That would be doable probably.

 

[PeaceLoveFish]

No coral. I want to get some hands on experience before I handle coral or fish. It is my understanding that they would need a much bigger tank??

 

[Sniperhank]

Depends. There are lots of nano fish that can go into a 10. Check out gobies at drfosterandsmith. If you have an invert only tank youll prob have to feed them as most basically eat fish waste or parasites. Having a fish just minimizes that.

 

[carey]

I think an invert tank would be awesome! You could get a clown goby or some other small fish like that but the inverts can be the star of the tank. lol

If it were me I'd add some red scarlet hermits, an emerald crab, a cleaner shrimp or maybe a fire shrimp, a porcelain crab and even maybe some pom pom crabs or sexy shrimp.

I am hoping to make a tiny invert tank myself this year They can be just as cool as a coral tank.

 

[PeaceLoveFish]

So having a couple fish will help feed the inverts? And ill be sure to look into the different kinds of inverts. I definitely want inverts to be the main animals. Do you guys have any recomendations for websites to buy the live rock?