nano tanks

[nathan_unsane]

how do people keep their levels in a safe area with such small tanks...

i've seen very great looking 5 gallon tanks loaded with coral!!

i have a hard time with my 55 gallon!!

even with water 10 gallon water changes every other day my nirtates stay at 10-20??

[10" Red Devil]

Experience. Alot of these people did not start with nano-tanks. Some did, but they did a ton of research usually. I myself started with a 60 gallon once I felt comfortable with the regime of keeping the tank after about 2 years, I realized I rent and it is going to be a biotch to move that big a tank so I did a lot of research and realized that keeping a smaller tank was really only a bit harder if at all harder then a larger tank.

There are ways to make it easier, Auto topoff, chiller, quality heater on a controller. I gotta say the only difference between keeping a larger tank is that the params fluctuate a little bit more, but not that much more. The water changes are a lot easier though.

Check out the nano forum here or better yet check out nano-reef.com for some real education on nanos.

[newb]

water changes are way easier. man it was nice. 10 cube softies shrooms some others. 2 false percs 2 cleaner shrimp. 95% water change once a week with water made the week b4. notice i said was... yeah last tuesday my wife and i came home from work, the tank had a five inch crack going up the side. no rocks on side of glass and the a/c set at 78. i still have no idea why. the tank was awsom we loved it it was easy. i think it had alot to so with the regular big water changes though. corals still recovering in the big tank and fish n inverts doing fine in quarantine tank. nano empty on garage floor :( so if you remove the water whats left the sand and rock right ? go b bottom for a lill while see if it helps maby u have a gunk buildup. good water flow? are your rocks clean of if u shake them will it cloud your tank?just some things to think about. good luck and sry bout the rant im just bummed

[nathan_unsane]

thanx for the comments

[ACBlinky]

I have a 5.5g that was initially a little hospital tank for damaged/sick coral frags, it turned into a funky little reef, then I moved the corals to a more permanent home once they were recovered and now it's a Xenia frag tank. It's always been super easy to keep. I drip RO 24/7 to make up for evaporation so salinity stays steady and otherwise treat it just like my bigger (but still pretty much nano compared to some of the tanks here on RC) tanks. I kept everything very simple, just a couple little HOB filters for circulation and a PC fixture, 8lbs of LR and an inch of sand. I do a 1g (20%) water change every two weeks. IMHO fishless is the way to go with tanks this small -- I tried keeping fish in it a couple times and always ended up moving them; they raised nutrient levels quite a bit and never looked comfy living in such a small space.

Here are a couple pics -- when it was running as a reef full of recovering corals, and in its present state as a Xenia frag tank:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/5g%20pico/P4280007Custom.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/5g%20pico/P6250021Custom.jpg

[Artik]

low stocking, skimming, natural filtration

[travisurfer]

i have a 20H tank running off of natural filtration and weekly water changes. this is my first tank though i did research forever. my nitrates are currently at 0.