Thinking of starting a nano reef!

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SKB

SKB

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
748
Location
Jamestown, NY
So I have a 20 gallon grow out tank and pretty soon ill be able to move my fish from there to their forever lasting home. But... Lately I've done a lot of looking and researching on salt water tanks. I live in an apartment so I can't have a massive tank for it. So I want to, eventually, have a nano reef in my 20 gal.

Right now, I haven't even purchased anything for a saltwater because my freshwaters are still in there. But before I even get started I have some small questions. Once Im ready to start ill ask more.

I have sand in my current freshwater tank, can I use the same sand? Its play sand.

I only have the lighting that came with the 20 gal and that's a marineland fluorescent reflector with eclipse fluorescent lamp I can't even find the watts on the box, I didn't really ask about the light because it was my first one and I wasn't really In need of a certain wattage for my tank, so I didn't ask....but I'm assuming this light isn't proper for a saltwater tank?

I have a 40 gallon aqueon power filter and a aqueon heater for 45-56 gallon tanks.

Any suggestions please! :)
 
SKB said:
So I have a 20 gallon grow out tank and pretty soon ill be able to move my fish from there to their forever lasting home. But... Lately I've done a lot of looking and researching on salt water tanks. I live in an apartment so I can't have a massive tank for it. So I want to, eventually, have a nano reef in my 20 gal.

Right now, I haven't even purchased anything for a saltwater because my freshwaters are still in there. But before I even get started I have some small questions. Once Im ready to start ill ask more.

I have sand in my current freshwater tank, can I use the same sand? Its play sand.

I only have the lighting that came with the 20 gal and that's a marineland fluorescent reflector with eclipse fluorescent lamp I can't even find the watts on the box, I didn't really ask about the light because it was my first one and I wasn't really In need of a certain wattage for my tank, so I didn't ask....but I'm assuming this light isn't proper for a saltwater tank?

I have a 40 gallon aqueon power filter and a aqueon heater for 45-56 gallon tanks.

Any suggestions please! :)
Click to expand...

This is a loaded question but I'll try to give the basics.

For a 20 gallon reef tank you'll need.

Some live rock to help seed. Me personally I like to use all live rock and all live sand.

Being a reef tank you'll need proper lighting. I would go into great detail yet. But when you get more serious and further in I will offer my input. In short, T5's and LED's.

Power heads even if you have a HOB filter.

Test kit

Refractometer to measure your salinity

Thermometer

RO/DI unit for water changes and a gallon or 2 of distilled water is good to have on hand.

To answer your sand question, if you wash it you can use it. I might even be wrong about having to wash it but you need to understand I'm OCD.
 
Yeah I'm sorry I know doing a salt water nano has a lot of info required. U completely answered my question. And being a person that hasn't had a saltwater tank, I'd be OCD too! I might get live sand anyway, just figured if I was gonna save money anywhere, it would be the fact I could use the same sand.

Thank you for your advice!! Ill post again when my fish are out of my 20 gallon and am going to start cycling or maybe before when I'm purchasing things for it. I have subscribed to other threads about starting nano sw tanks so I might be ok.
 
Oh and I do have an outside tank thermometer on my 20 fw gallon currently, will that work or is a diff thermometer required for sw?
 
SKB said:
Yeah I'm sorry I know doing a salt water nano has a lot of info required. U completely answered my question. And being a person that hasn't had a saltwater tank, I'd be OCD too! I might get live sand anyway, just figured if I was gonna save money anywhere, it would be the fact I could use the same sand.

Thank you for your advice!! Ill post again when my fish are out of my 20 gallon and am going to start cycling or maybe before when I'm purchasing things for it. I have subscribed to other threads about starting nano sw tanks so I might be ok.
Click to expand...

No reason to be sorry, your here to learn and you asked questions! :)

That's what we're here for lol. I'm sure you'll be fine! It appears hard and I was intimidated at first but now it's all good.
 
I know, I'm sure it'll be hard and I want to do everything just right. I just don't want to mess up on the cycling or something to go wrong and end up with a dead fish. Or shrimp. My dream shrimp which I haven't done much research on is a harlequin shrimp... But i don't even know if they can go in a 20 gal, what there temperament is etc, like I said I haven't researched the little guy, but I feel like I'm ready for the next step in fish keeping.
 
I too have heard people say something about a residual in freshwater tanks that may affect saltwater. I would definitely wash the sand. I would check out the nano reef section of the forum. I'm not on my computer so I can't post the thread but a guy named Evan has had a super successful nano tank. His user name is Evansimp. I read his forum, it helps give you ideas!

I personally am about a month into my own nano/pico tank. My thread is titled "Pico reef". (it's a 5 gallon). I've got some great feed back too.

Lighting is usually the big question. Since light is so important for coral everyone wants to make sure on the lights for their specific tank. Fortunately, because everyone has the same question but different circumstances, that question is frequently answered so browse through a few and see if a certain fixture will suit you.

Basically, LED are expensive at first but should last much longer than T5.

Hope that helps!
 
SKB said:
I know, I'm sure it'll be hard and I want to do everything just right. I just don't want to mess up on the cycling or something to go wrong and end up with a dead fish. Or shrimp. My dream shrimp which I haven't done much research on is a harlequin shrimp... But i don't even know if they can go in a 20 gal, what there temperament is etc, like I said I haven't researched the little guy, but I feel like I'm ready for the next step in fish keeping.
Click to expand...

Harliquen shrimp are amazing!! I have one. The only thing is I never see her :(

She only come out when she's hungry lol.
 
I think the harlequin shrimp are more than amazing so if I could only see it once in a while, I think I'd be fine with it. I love love love the looks of them
 
:))). Omg I'm so pumped and I haven't even done anything. The wait is gonna be hard. But it'll be worth it. Don't want my gold saum going into a non cycled tank because of my inability to wait lol.
 
I have been doing more research, I added up all of the prices of the stuff i will need. But, i found a discussion that said if you dont use the right sand, the options of inverts or corals could be minimized. So I added up the sand cost also. But is this true?
 
We used fully cured live rock and sand and we have such an abundance of life! We are always seeing something new and it really cut down any cycling problems(none) we just took it slow and steady and had a stress free start up if you can be patient it's really worth it
 
I'm a month in and just as excited as I was when i went to buy the LS and LR. Stick with it and Good Luck!
 
Thanks! Im probably just going to add my fw sand into my other aquarium then. Im def taking my time, I am so pumped, but i feel like one mistake can ruin the whole thing.
 
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