View Full Version : My first nano - Lets see how cheap I can do it
Lyscer
12/17/2007, 01:29 PM
So I am setting up my first nano. A few locals here have 10-20 gallon nanos with very little equipment and they have been running for a couple years so far so I thought I would try it. My hopes in starting this thread is to have people give me their suggestions before I go to crazy with this thing.
Here is what I already had:
25 gallon glass tank (24" x 12" x 20")
(2) Maxijet 900's
Unlimited Live Water (From my 120gallon reef)
What I acquired for the tank:
5 gallon bucket of crushed coral/sand (Free)
Aquaclear 200 HOB filter - eBay($30 shipped)
Getting Soon (Trading for frags out of my 120gallon tank):
Unknown lighting fixture with 2- 65w bulbs built in moonlights and fans
15lbs of live rock - I'm trading an octo-frogspawn with 9 heads for the live rock.
I got the sand from a friend that tore his tank down recently and just had it sitting in a bucket in his garage. The sand was very rank so I rinsed the sand by:
1- filling bucket up with 4"-6" of sand
2- Filling bucket with tap water to just above sand level
3- Twisted the 5 gallon bucket with my arm and lots of gunk came to the top of the water
4- Dumped "dirty" water out and repeated the steps until I was satisfied
after the sand was rinsed I scattered it onto some cookie sheets I had purchased from a dollar store locally and let the sand dry out for a week. The sand was dead by the time I had gotten it, and I want to make sure that no funky algae stays alive by staying moist.
Hopefully I will get the rock this weekend. Once I get it I will begin aquascaping and then I will do a 25 gallon water change from my 120gallon tank and put that water in the nano to help speed up the cycling process. I know if I would have used live sand there would be a very minimal cycle. However, I am trying to go as inexpensive as possible.
As a side note, I am setting this tank up for a mated pair of clownfish and an anemone. The aquaclear will provide the filtration plus the water agitation. If I feel like it doesn't provide enough water flow I will start adding my maxijet 900's. Once the tank has been setup for a week I will test the nitrate, nitrite, ammonia levels and then add snails(Atrea, cerith, nassarus) and some hermit crabs.
Sorry for the long post. If you get through it, let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks.
Lyscer
12/17/2007, 01:31 PM
Forgot to mention. Overall I have had to purchase $55 worth of stuff for the nano:
25 gallon tank = $25
Aquaclear filter = $30
Sand - Free
Live Rock - Free
Lights - Free
Live Water - Free
Sounds like fun.
I suggestion on the sand, after it's completely dry do a final rinse with RO/DI water. A lot of the dried organic waste will float to the surface and be easy to remove before adding the sand to the tank. You want to use the RO/DI to avoid adding any chlorine/chloramines/ other water treatment chemicals to your sand.
Plan on at least using one powerhead, besides the AC being inadequate you want backup flow if the AC locks up (happened to me a few times).
Lyscer
12/17/2007, 02:22 PM
good thinking. Thanks.
saltyshoe_nano
12/17/2007, 04:56 PM
lol 30+25=55 but other than that sounds good lol
Lyscer
12/17/2007, 05:01 PM
I was wondering when someone was going to catch that error. Guess I should have posted on it sooner. Oh well. Let's hope my nano skills are better than my addition skills
saltyshoe_nano
12/17/2007, 05:02 PM
lol just givin ya a had time....:) are ya gonna post pics soon of your progress? or is it still a little ways away?
Take a cup of substrate from your 120 to seed the sandbed. Only scrape off sand from the top inch though.
What error ? ;)
Lyscer
12/19/2007, 09:30 AM
I will post some pics this weekend. I should be getting rock and lights on Friday. I will try to post the photos on Saturday that I take.
scottydo
12/19/2007, 09:35 AM
Nice and cheap - look forward to the pics
Lyscer
12/20/2007, 07:18 AM
Here is a shot I took on Wednesday. It is just a tank and some sand. I am not a huge fan of it sitting right next to my 120, but the wife says it can go absolutely no where else. Hopefully things will fall into place for this weekend and I can start add some water.
http://aquaaddict.org/nano/2007/December/NanoWithSand.jpg
jdpierce21
12/20/2007, 10:31 PM
Looks good!
Lyscer
12/22/2007, 10:27 AM
Just a couple a pictures this morning. I haven't had time to do the aquascaping, I just threw the rock in started the HOB filter, heater, and maxijet 900 for flow. I also put a lid on it to help with evaporation until I get my lights. Any thoughts on this good/bad?
http://aquaaddict.org/Tank/Tank2007/December/NanoRunning.jpg
I also got the hook up with a free rose anemone yesterday for this nano. The anemone will reside in my 120 until I can determine that the cycle in the nano is over... I am going to try and pick up the lighting fixture today. Here is a picture of the anemone. The guy said that his tank got pretty hot and it bleached it; It was free so I figured I would try it.
http://aquaaddict.org/Tank/Tank2007/December/RoseAnemone.jpg
Lyscer
12/22/2007, 10:29 AM
I'll try to test ammonia/nitrites/nitrates tomorrow and I'll post the results if I end up testing.
Another thing I forgot to mention. A couple months ago I put a sponge filter for the HOB filter in the sump of my 120, I used that same sponge in my HOB filter because I have heard that seeding it like that will help lessen the cycle time. Guess I'll find out.
Lance M.
12/22/2007, 05:02 PM
It's best to wait at least a couple months, preferably 6 or more, for the 25 gallon to establish before adding an anemone. It can be done but you risk the life of the anemone, especially one that is already uhealthy.
Though I'm not a fan of the 6 month advice, I recommend everyone wait at least a year.
Everything looks good so far Lyscer but the idea that the water is "live" with beneficial bacteria and will help with the cycle is not true, the lr and ls and addition of a uncooked cocktail shrimp (if you go that method) is what does it. If you just throw in cured lr from your tank, dry sand, and then add fish expecting your tank to be completely cycled you will probably have another "mini" cycle and possibly lose some livestock. Do it slowly.
Don't do the uncooked cocktail shrimp cycle. If you're going to do that just urinate in your tank (another discredited cycling method) to kill all the life on your live rock with a huge ammonia spike.
A small pinch of flake food a couple of times a week in addition to the lr/ls is all that's necessary to cycle the tank. The sponge filter will also help seed the tank and reduce the cycle time.
That said, don't move the anemone until it's fully recovered.
Lyscer
12/23/2007, 12:03 AM
Trust me I don't intend on moving the anemone until it has recovered. I also don't plan on putting in dead shrimp or whatever into the tank(Which it doesn't sound like anyone here supports). I always take my time, which is why I'm taking the time to test my levels before adding anything to the tank. I intend to move slowly on this entire process as not to kill my mated pair of clowns, as that would not make me very happy. It would also defeat the entire purpose of this nano if they died. Cycling appears to be going well, here are the test results:
Nitrite: 0 mg/L
Nitrate: 0mg/L
Ammonia: .5ppm
According to my test kit everything is in a 'safe' zone. I will test again this Wednesday and finally again on Friday. Then I will post the results.
Lyscer
12/23/2007, 07:54 PM
I picked up the lights today and I also did some aquascaping. I'm still not sure if I'm loving the aquascaping so it may change in the near future before anything gets put in the tank. Here is the latest picture:
http://aquaaddict.org/Tank/Tank2007/December/NanoWithLights.jpg
I'm am also going to re-work the cords so that they aren't all over the place too.
Although I'm not a fan of the "box of Rocks " look that probably isn't enough live rock for meaningful biofiltration.
Lance M.
12/23/2007, 10:17 PM
I was going to say the same thing. You need more rocks Lyscer. And if the highest your NH3 gets is just .5ppm for the cycle and you still have only that much lr, I will be surprised if you don't have another cycle once you put your clowns in.
Lyscer
12/23/2007, 10:41 PM
You don't think that the filtration will be adequate by running the filterpad and carbon in the aquaclear HOB unit and 15lbs of rock? If you don't think it is enough, I may go and buy some larger rock pieces. I am really toying with the idea of doing a suspended rock structure. At the same time I don't want to dump too much money into this tank because my wife would kill me :)
Lyscer
12/26/2007, 06:26 PM
Just tested and here are the results:
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
saltyshoe_nano
12/26/2007, 09:58 PM
any new pics?
Lyscer
12/27/2007, 07:25 AM
no. It looks exactly the same as the above picture. Once I add some more rock or something I will post some more pictures.
Lyscer
01/03/2008, 07:30 AM
Just as an update. I added up the total amount of wattage for my 120 gallon tank and the nano. Turns out my tanks alone were using very close to 80% of the maximum wattage which isn't good. New years day I ran a new circuit up to my tank using 12-2 wire with a 20amp breaker and a GFI outlet. Now I feel much safer that I'm not going to burn my house down because of too much load on one circuit.
Last night while fragging a coral in my 120 I knocked a golf ball sized piece of pink birdnest off of a massive colony and I threw it in the nano to see how it does. Mainly I just want to see how well it does under the PC lights.
mfp4073
01/05/2008, 06:35 PM
I am probably the most frugal reefer around. I tell people all the time to be patient and wait until someone is tearing down a larger tank. What is rubble is big rock to a nano! And sand, enough sand to do a nano is not even enough for people to bother charging for. Buy a few frags off a teardown tank and get the owner to throw in sand for free. Usually see sand at $.50 a lb and rock at $2 a pound, that can usually be talked down to less for the "small" pieces. Frags can be colonies in small tanks!
Lyscer
01/07/2008, 04:40 PM
......
Do you guys think that I should add some sort of skimmer to the tank? Or should I just do monthly water changes? I am thinking that I might add the clowns this weekend. I am still undecided, because I would really like to have a host for them before adding them. If nothing else I may just wait for 2 months then add the RBTA to the nano. I added a BTA to my 120 when it was 2 months old and the BTA did awesome contrary to popular opinion.
So if I end up waiting a couple of months, is there something else that I can do to help prep the nano since I'm not adding anything to the tank but RO top-off water?
mfp4073
01/07/2008, 06:09 PM
I have a 5 gal that has no skimmer. I put a skimmer on both my 20gals. The junk in there has to be removed somehow. Either by good regular water changes or skimmers and water changes a little less often to replace nutrients. I think either way is possible. Just one is a lot more work.
You could alway do it my method. Do it by water changes until a bargin comes along. I missed what kind of clown, but the bigger and the more "food" in the water for both the clowns and the bta the more often you will need to water change. leftover stuff in the water becomes algae and other bad things.
Lyscer
01/07/2008, 06:17 PM
Ocellaris clowns.. which I finally got a picture of that I forgot to post:
This isn't a very good picture but out of the 50 that I took, this was the best one :(
http://aquaaddict.org/Tank/Tank2008/January/OrangeOcellaris.jpg
Once they are out of my main tank, I plan on finding the other clown in the main tank a mate:
http://aquaaddict.org/Tank/Tank2008/January/BlackOcellaris.jpg
jonreed
01/07/2008, 06:30 PM
I might be stupid, but the pink anemone that you got for free, what type of anemone is that?
Lyscer
01/07/2008, 06:31 PM
Rose bubble tip anemone
jonreed
01/07/2008, 09:23 PM
where did you find one that had that coloring?
Lyscer
01/07/2008, 09:28 PM
The guy that I got it from let the temperature in his tank get to high and he said that it bleached it out.
jonreed
01/08/2008, 06:34 PM
wow, that's crazy. i think it looks better than what it's supposed to look like. got lucky on that one i guess. good luck with everything else.
Lyscer
01/08/2008, 06:38 PM
I agree. I love the look of it. Thanks.
I am going to build an acrylic trap this weekend that I will use to lure the clowns into and then close the door on them. I'm hoping that this will cause them the least amount of stress and also double as an acclimating area before I put them into the new tank.
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