Been on sidelines for ages decided on reef setup

[Deano3]

Hi everyone, been here before and was close to trying the saltwater side so hello great forum and seems very friendly, I am from the hightech fresh water and nervous on the saltwater side any links or recomendations on reading material be great ? Also any shops recomendations in North east England be great.

Anyway I have just redecorated and think I may got for a nano reef, thinking the waterbox cube 10 with AI prime light.

You think the sideboard in pictures should support a 10 gallon ?

Thanks dean

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Waterbox 10 will be fine on your sideboard and the Prime is a good light to match with it. I’m running a WB10 and Prime atm, it’s a good little setup for what I’m doing atm, easy to maintain as I’m away a lot.

Recommend you search and review tank journals for other peoples WB10 startups here and on nano reef. Good way to get a visual representation of what to expect on the journey.

I’m opposite to you, long time reef keeping, started high tech planted couple years ago. Main difference I found was the pace in which you approach each. You have to take reef tanks much slower as opposed to heavy initial planting and cranking that CO2 in a freshie.

Hope it goes well for you, I reckon you’ll be nailing your scape. The freshwater planted crew are really ahead on that front.

 

[Deano3]

Thanks mate i really hope so feel like know nothing on this side even though watched loads of YouTube vids, I will attatch a picture of my latest scape but had to downsize as redecorating, lobe reef and always wanted to try so why not.

Only wanted easy corrals and to keep simple and maybe a clown fish etc.

Any book recommendations that everyone shown etc ?

Thanks dean

 

[Uncle99]

I find books dated.
You can try BRSTV or FragboxTV, there videos are a great start IMM.
Welcome.

 

[brandon429]

dont use books for nanos they can't customize as fast as forum'ers will

get your parts going that's a good plan, the ten gallon and the light

dont but filters like we do in freshwater, just buy a pump to move water your rocks inside the tank are the filter.

the type of rock matters that you buy, there are like 4 different kinds.

study this thread, get this kind/easy to find for a ten gallon tank:

A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac

I'm at river city Aquatics in Austin rn Now this is skip cycle live rock If kept wet in saltwater it will not: Starve Get uncycled Fail to skip cycle Cause a mini cycle See all the coralline The bottom of the tank has pods and micro brittle stars, all healthy proof of being cycled with no...

www.reef2reef.com

if you buy that kind of live rock, you dont need to cycle the tank nor test for ammonia, nitrite or nitrate.
you can just begin reefing. one clownfish added isn't a big deal, you can let the nano run a few weeks to ensure stability then add him.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Welcome to reef to reef. Books can b dated but still a good reference.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Wicked freshie scape deano. Love that buce. For the WB10 my recommendations are to:
- upgrade the stock pump to a Sicce Nano
- get an ATO, I’m a long time devotee of the Tunze
- get an overflow guard, I found snails crawling on the stock arrangement set off the ATO
- don’t use filter sock, remove the sock holder and cut a piece of egg crate to size and just place thin filter floss on it
- Nero 3 works well as wavemaker
- don’t worry about a protein skimmer

Softies are easy to keep and I reckon you could achieve great results with your aquascaping experience.

Biggest error I see with small tanks using the Prime is smashing too much light too early. Start off really low intensity, dominant blues and increase very slowly.

I’m not a fan of clowns, show pony slackers that basically just eat and ****. There are other nano suitable fish I’d put ahead of them, Rainford gobie being a favourite of mine.

 

[Deano3]

Thanks for all the great advice guys, only thing I need to do now is find a decent local store to make RO water and maybe in future I will make myself, also I will need a watermarked to mix my salt and a heater ?

Also need a heater for the tank, I have made mistake I'm past of buying cheap so I will want decent equipment.

Yeah I enjoyed fresh water and once the tank was stable it just ticked along nicely bar a large 50 percent water change weekly that was it, whats biggest difference I'm saltwater ? Smaller water changes or would a nano be 50 percent ? I feel like still dont know much about this side so will read the link @Brandon42 put above and like i say just want a great lookimg nano with some soft corals and who knows maybe then some slightly harder ones.

So do softies etc not need any additional feeding etc and do I need to worry about levels of things in water bar the usual ammonia nitrate and nitrite and the salinity ?

I know I have a lot of questions and going to start making a list of my components this week. Also the Nero 3 looks great as so small.

Thanks again
Dean

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

I use the Oase 50w heater in my WB10 and it’s been reliable so far.

10% weekly water changes works for me. I have a medium load of sarcophyton, blastomussa, micromussa and zoanthids. I don’t feed or supplement anything. I consider this best left until I notice any visual cues from my corals that suggest the benefits would outweigh the negatives. I do use locally collected natural seawater though.

I have no fish atm, just a couple small trochus and nassarius snails. I’m not a fan of adding fish early on in nanos. There aren’t a lot of good worker species available, most require feeding which can lead to nuisance algae or they’ll predate on your burgeoning microcrustacean populations. I’ll likely add a couple down the track a bit.

System is very low maintenance, minimal algae, healthy corals.

In terms of difference between high tech planted and reef? It’s almost kind of similar. In a planted tank you’re adjusting light, flow, ferts, co2 and water change volume / frequency to hit the perfect balance for the plants you’re keeping. Nuisance algae or poor plant growth / colouration is the consequence of over / under cooking any of these.

In reef tanks, the corals are the plants. You need to adjust light, flow, nutrients and water change volume / frequency with the extra job of maintaining salinity. Same consequences for under / over cooking any of these.

Research your coral care requirements and exercise correct placement like you would in a planted tank eg micromussa are like anubias, lower light and flow.

 

[brandon429]

all corals including softies require feeding, protein input into the system. no corals are purely photosynthetic/autotrophs/corals are heterotrophs that must feed, although some can go a long time without it.

when you get the skip cycle live rock and put it in the tank of sand, water, circulation and heat and a viable nano reef light you're ready for corals. the feed I use is a mix of reef roids, reef nutrition refrigerated artic pods, and some reef energy AB from red sea, also refrigerated. wait to get fish until you read up on the stickies in the fish disease forum for fallow and quarantine. you can begin with corals though, per the thread.

 

[Deano3]

Sounds like when I am off I need to do some ready and try learn more about corals etc,think i will certainly go for it as they look amazing and very interesting.

Like everything you have a Google and sounds so intimidating buy I suppose can make as easy ir as hard as you like and seem like a great helpful bunch here .

Thanks and any more things you think I should look at let me know.

Dean

 

[brandon429]

hey check this out




that is my friends fish bowl

it has about three thousand dollars of top shelf corals in it, running ten years

reefing has ironically become more simple too vs just all complex.

that reef uses exactly: skip cycle live rock. a fishbowl. a common goldfish tank heater, a kessil tuna blue light, benepets powdered reef feed only, and instant ocean water. it is not tested for common reef parameters other than temperature and salt levels. amazing/simple.