Boof's Nano Reef

[BluewaterBoof]

Finally jumping over to the salty side. It's gonna be a small tank, but I'm pretty confident that I can put together something beautiful. I've been looking at a lot of nano reefs and if done properly they can look just as amazing as their full-sized big brothers.

Going with a small tank means less options for animals, but I'm in this for the corals. I have a special project in the planning phase that I've been discussing with Spardas that will be home to some interesting animals, but that is going to be a much larger tank and will probably not start coming together until after Xmas.

Going small means I can invest in a better more powerful light capable of raising gorgeous SPS corals without driving my little family into debt haha

The following are already ordered and should be here within the week:

Fluval Evo marine tank, 13.5 gallons
Tank comes with internal filtration and a light capable of some soft and LPS corals, which will do just fine until budget allows a more robust light needed for the little SPS corals.

Coralife salt mix

Caribsea Arag-Alive white live sand

Cobalt heater

Hydrometer

API Saltwater master kit

The tank comes with directional nozzles for the outflow, but I also have a nice little nano Koralia circulation pump that should work great in this tank.

Wont be much happening for a while. Once everything comes in I have the long process of waiting for the tank to cycle. I'm so used to instantly cycling my fresh tanks that this will test my patience a bit :) Small price to pay to make sure everything is safe for the corals once they go in.

Since everything isn't coming until later this week, here is a photo I pulled off Google that shows the tank.

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[RiversGirl]

subscribed

I'm looking forward to following this new build of yours.

[BluewaterBoof]

Should be fun. Not sure how many updates this journal will get. It's my understanding that most corals grow pretty slowly. Weekly updates like my other journals get probably wont be the case with this one. Happy to have you following along, though!

[Spardas]

Boof, the live sand and live rock, once added will basically cycle your tank and seed your other bio filter in the back. But this must be done correctly to prevent die off or additional curing for the live rock/mini cycle spike. You will just need to get your live rock from an established source and during the transfer, make sure to keep it submerged in water. Your live rock is essentially the bio filtration. That's why I find it way easier to start off a salt water tank and it cuts the cycling time substantially.

Start with a few small inverts like hermits or an emerald crab (green or red) and they will produce enough waste to keep the cycle going. You will probably start seeing different type of algae start growing since it'll be part of a natural saltwater setup, which the hermits/snails/crab can assist with cleaning up. Test your levels daily but it really shouldn't move that much until your inverts start producing waste and you'll see nitrate.

While things stabilizes, you can do research on corals and small nano fishes. I'm sure they'll make things interesting for you.

[BluewaterBoof]

Ok great! My son would love if I got some hermits or a crab. Whenever I would stop by Petsmart's plant section he would always drag me over to the little hermit crab area :)

How about an electric blue hermit crab and a skunk cleaner shrimp? Those emerald crabs look a bit rough! Would I have to worry about it going for the corals if it wasn't finding enough food scavenging the tank?

[BluewaterBoof]

I think it is almost official that this will be our first addition once the tank is running :)

Reef safe, peaceful, eats algae, sifts the sand to keep it aerated, and from what I'm reading from several vendors is fairly easy to keep.

Not to mention the markings and colors! Such a beautiful little gem. I was never a hermit crab fan, but I never saw these guys before.

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[Slaphppy7]

Indeed, a beautiful hermit crab, may be the first time I've ever seen those colors on one.

I'll follow this, should be fun to watch evolve...if I ever could afford a SW tank, it would have to be a nano sized one, all inclusive.

I wouldn't even need fish, just all of the things that pop up from the live rock itself would fascinate me*

*I'm easily entertained with some things, lol

[BluewaterBoof]

Keep an eye out on Drs. F&S, Matt! Everything to get me running cost around $195 using the 25%-off flash sale they had over the weekend. Now its just a matter of getting some live rock and then the animals.

[BluewaterBoof]

Some interesting zoanthids:

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[Spardas]

I think it is almost official that this will be our first addition once the tank is running :)

Reef safe, peaceful, eats algae, sifts the sand to keep it aerated, and from what I'm reading from several vendors is fairly easy to keep.

Not to mention the markings and colors! Such a beautiful little gem. I was never a hermit crab fan, but I never saw these guys before.

crabhermitelectricblueleg.jpg

Just curious what colors you see on the electric hermit crab.

There is a mixture of light blue, blue, orange, green, white, and dark blue/black.

Definitely a lot of colors of the zoas to be sure. One of the main reasons I will always have a reef tank is because of the colors. I can shut down all the freshwater tanks, fish only saltwater tank, but not the reef tanks, lol.