College Nano Plan

[extendedmango]

I am an upcoming senior in highschool and I'm beginning to plan a downsize from my red Sea reefer 250 (~55g) to a 10g nano. This is because most colleges only allow a 10g in the dorms. I would like to add the fish to my current reef asap then move them to the nano about a year from now. I don't really know what I want, but I was beginning to think a warty frogfish and watchman goby w/ pistol shrimp would be good, but I'm not sure of their compatibility or wether the angler will fit in the 10g. Any thoughts or stocking recommendations?

*Current tank info*
- Ocellarous clown pair
- Melanurous wrasse
- long nose hawkish
I have lots of polyps, a few mushrooms and two sps corals


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[Bagabaga]

I'm sure the frog fish will eat anyone that fits in his mouth. And they need a slightly larger tank too I think. You could go pico on it and do the watchman or yasha goby and shrimp combo and do bright zoa garden.

How does a tank in a dorm work? Are there limited outlets? Are you planning an ato or skimmer or any other equipment?

[twitchy]

I had a 10G freshwater in my dorm, and they made us take the tank down over winter and spring break, not sure if all schools are like that, but something to look into.
I would go goby/shrimp pair and then maybe a clown if I didn't have to move the tank a bunch.
A cool thing you could do is make a DIY all in one with a 10G, and that way it hides the equipment and you can run a little ATO.

[ReefWreak]

I love twitchy's idea.

Whatever you're going to do, you'll need to stock super light, and have a setup that is easy to take down. I had a 24g biocube in college for a year. Honestly it was a nightmare breaking it down every break. Fortunately the LFS in town was willing to babysit it/use it as a sales tank since it was in good condition.

I ended up keeping the 24g at my parents' house 8 hours away... and ultimately selling it. I did also set up a 120g SPS tank at my parents' house while I was at school. Once you have a calcium reactor and top-off dialed in and you only need to maintain it every other week, things do really well. You do need someone to feed it every few days though, and clean the glass.

Anyway, I'd do the 10g mentioned above, with that partition looks brilliant. Then I'd have one large piece of liverock, so you don't have to re-build your rockwork every time you move the tank. One rock is easy to move to a bucket and back, only have to worry about the orientation.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by twitchy

I love the idea of this little tank, it looks a bit like a im nuvo. For the aquarium, I was actually thinking of using the money I can get from my current equipment to buy a im pennisula 14g. The display portion of this aquarium is only 10 g so I think it will be fine.


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[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by Bagabaga

I'm sure the frog fish will eat anyone that fits in his mouth. And they need a slightly larger tank too I think. You could go pico on it and do the watchman or yasha goby and shrimp combo and do bright zoa garden.

How does a tank in a dorm work? Are there limited outlets? Are you planning an ato or skimmer or any other equipment?

Well, Haven't done it yet but the plan is to put the tank on either a dresser or desk when I'm at school then drain it into some buckets for transport. Something along these lines... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PDDuFNqxT60 I will have a ato for certain but I'm unsure wether or not I will get a skimmer.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

I love twitchy's idea.

Whatever you're going to do, you'll need to stock super light, and have a setup that is easy to take down. I had a 24g biocube in college for a year. Honestly it was a nightmare breaking it down every break. Fortunately the LFS in town was willing to babysit it/use it as a sales tank since it was in good condition.

I ended up keeping the 24g at my parents' house 8 hours away... and ultimately selling it. I did also set up a 120g SPS tank at my parents' house while I was at school. Once you have a calcium reactor and top-off dialed in and you only need to maintain it every other week, things do really well. You do need someone to feed it every few days though, and clean the glass.

Anyway, I'd do the 10g mentioned above, with that partition looks brilliant. Then I'd have one large piece of liverock, so you don't have to re-build your rockwork every time you move the tank. One rock is easy to move to a bucket and back, only have to worry about the orientation.

I had a thread for discussing if I should go ahead and try and the consensus seemed to be that I should give it a shot. Great idea with the one rock thing. I will definitely either use one rock or have them glued together tightly.

[extendedmango]

I would really like to have a fish other than the goby. Could I put a possum wrasse or two in the tank? And what about a cleaner shrimp?


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[Bagabaga]

Firefish, basslets, cardinals, blennies, pink streaked wrasse, royal gramma, I searched unique nano fish on google and got a ton of results.

[ReefWreak]

Possum wrasse would be really cool, especially since he will have nowhere to hide (though put a screen over the tank then!). Cleaner shrimp yes.

Which reminds me, you should probably get an ATO, since salinity swings in a 10 gallon tank are going to be huge, that'll at least minimize it.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by Bagabaga

Firefish, basslets, cardinals, blennies, pink streaked wrasse, royal gramma, I searched unique nano fish on google and got a ton of results.

How do you think I found the possum wrasse ; )


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[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

Possum wrasse would be really cool, especially since he will have nowhere to hide (though put a screen over the tank then!). Cleaner shrimp yes.

Which reminds me, you should probably get an ATO, since salinity swings in a 10 gallon tank are going to be huge, that'll at least minimize it.

How many wrasses could I realisticly have in addition to the goby? It would be nice to have a pair or group of 3.

I didn't realise the ato would be so helpful, I'll be sure to get one.


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[ReefWreak]

I wouldn't put more than 2 fishes, even small ones, in a 10g tank. You'll quickly pollute it with feeding them and have algae issues, IMO.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

I wouldn't put more than 2 fishes, even small ones, in a 10g tank. You'll quickly pollute it with feeding them and have algae issues, IMO.

Okay, better safe than sorry


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[extendedmango]

Here are 3 pictures of what I am thinking the tank will look like. It is a 18"x18"x12" glass aquarium with an acrylic filterbox that is 18"x6"x12". The display measures 18"x12"x12" and holds almost exactly 10g of water. I'm planning to put some sort of mechanical filter in the first column, a 2.5g refugium in the middle and the last column will contain the pump and heater. There is also a acrylic lid for the filter compartment and a screen for the display.

Where should I go to buy the glass/acrylic to build this and is there anything I should change on my desighn?


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[twitchy]

That's a nice looking drawing and tank desing, like the cover for the sump area.
Don't take this the wrong way, I don't have experience building tanks, and I don't know if you do or not, but I personally wouldn't do it. Imho it's not worth the risk damaging someone else's property. Yes, you could probably get away with having a 10g display and ~4g sump, but if things go south the first thing they will do or their insurance will do is find a way to blame you.
I would get a real tank especially if you're going to be moving it around a lot. Not sure what your budget is, but I think a nuvo fusion 10g is around 100$. which can't be much more than what you'd spend on glass, acrylic, pump, etc.

But if you do build your own, good luck and make sure to include a lot of pictures 👍

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by twitchy

That's a nice looking drawing and tank desing, like the cover for the sump area.
Don't take this the wrong way, I don't have experience building tanks, and I don't know if you do or not, but I personally wouldn't do it. Imho it's not worth the risk damaging someone else's property. Yes, you could probably get away with having a 10g display and ~4g sump, but if things go south the first thing they will do or their insurance will do is find a way to blame you.
I would get a real tank especially if you're going to be moving it around a lot. Not sure what your budget is, but I think a nuvo fusion 10g is around 100$. which can't be much more than what you'd spend on glass, acrylic, pump, etc.

But if you do build your own, good luck and make sure to include a lot of pictures

I was going to get the fusion peninsula 14g at first but I wanted a larger refugium than the 1/2 gallon provided. That is what drove me to to build my own but I also have zero experience in building aquariums. Maybe I should break a ten gallon down into glass sheets and glue them together then test the tanks ability to hold water




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[extendedmango]

Would a automatic feeder be worth the cost on this tank? I was planning to use my reef frenzy but maybe I should switch to dry so I can save time. Can anyone recommend a good pellet food for my fish selection?


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[Clowning_Around]

Food for thought, 10g display + ato, refugium etc = mpre than 10g of water....

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[ReefWreak]

Automatic feeders are almost never worth the cost IMO. On a big tank, where you can handle the bioload of random drops of pellets, maybe, but on a small tank, absolutely not.

Reef Frenzy frozen food should be fine, but if you wanted to add in pellets for convenience, I've been using, and like, the New Life Spectrum small sinking pellets. I've been using them for years and years, they generally have a very good reputation, and I've seen public and private large aquariums use it for their food as well.

[Clowning_Around]

I.e. If they are strick on the 10g then you may want to consider those other compoments remote as opposed to inclusive of the ome enclosure...

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[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by Clowning_Around

Food for thought, 10g display + ato, refugium etc = mpre than 10g of water....

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I think colleges only care about display volume, but I may be wrong.


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[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

Automatic feeders are almost never worth the cost IMO. On a big tank, where you can handle the bioload of random drops of pellets, maybe, but on a small tank, absolutely not.

Reef Frenzy frozen food should be fine, but if you wanted to add in pellets for convenience, I've been using, and like, the New Life Spectrum small sinking pellets. I've been using them for years and years, they generally have a very good reputation, and I've seen public and private large aquariums use it for their food as well.

Reef frenzy works great on my current tank so I will continue using it on the nano if possible, but I don't think dorms usually have freezers so I may need to switch to pellets. Thanks for the recommendation!


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[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by extendedmango

I think colleges only care about display volume, but I may be wrong.

They won't know the difference, you can always justify it as display volume anyway I think my dorm had a 20g limit when I had my 24g nanocube. Nobody even asked though, everyone just thought it was really cool and wanted to come in and see the aquarium.

Originally Posted by extendedmango

Reef frenzy works great on my current tank so I will continue using it on the nano if possible, but I don't think dorms usually have freezers so I may need to switch to pellets. Thanks for the recommendation!

Not sure how much has changed, but they used to have the small split fridge/freezers. I doubt it has changed, but you never know. The top had a small rack that would keep frozen things frozen. That's what I used for the mysis I used to feed my fishes. I used to do frozen only with that tank (that was 10 years ago )

[extendedmango]

At this point I've kinda given up on the custom tank and I'll probably get the peninsula 14. I would rather have a larger refugium section but going custom would be too expensive.


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