Hopeful 7g Nano Diary

[OohFeeshy]

Right. Well, firsts first. I need a tank. I'm after a 1ft cube for preference, if not, we'll see. Currently in the planning stages as I still don;t have much of a clue, most of my knowledge is aquired as I go along...

Planned Stats and Equipment

Tank- 7g Cube
Heater- 50w 'Whatever I have lying around' brand
Lighting- Undecided, need to decide which, if any, corals etc. I want, and also at lgihting provided
Substrate- Most likely aragonite sand, 1cm ish layer
Filtration- ~3.5kg LR, Aquaclear with phosphate removing media, possibly made into a small fuge
Circulation- 150gph powerhead
SG- Around 1.025, monitered with refractometer

Stocking-

Could do with some cleanup crew help. Based on modifying the 10g guidelines from another site, I was thinking
3 Astraea Snails
3 Blue-Leg Hermit
2 Margarita Snails
2 Nassarius Snails

Sound OK? I much prefer hermits to snails though... And shrimp, I like shrimp. So moving on slightly, would the tank be able to support said cleanup crew, either a cleaner shrimp and mini goby (need to see whats available) or a shrimp/goby pair?

 

[OohFeeshy]

My first purchase Took the oppertunity to buy some sand while we were at a big petfood superstore- much cheaper and I only needed to buy enough for the tank. Nearly bought a tank, they had some not bad 7g bowfronts, but they aren't very wide and the colours were, um, interesting. So whenever I have the chance I'm off to look at the 'nano setup' in one of the shops.

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Sounds like your off to a good start, everything in your plans seems pretty cool. The things i'd change in the cleanup crew would be:

* Change Margarita snails for ceriths. Ceriths kick ass when it comes to cleaning the subsrate and also margarita can't survive for long in the warmer temperatures that we run our reefs at (Especially nanos!)

* Cut back to 1 or 2 hermits, if they run out of food they will turn on your snails. I'd also consider changing from blues to scarlets hermits as they seem to be the more snail safe. My scarlets do a great job and are good fun to watch and i've read that they are the least aggressive. Although i do have 2 bluelegs on the way as well...

Other than that i think everything looks pretty cool.

You could do a 70w MH and then you could keep pretty much anything coral wise in there. I'm not sure what wattage 10-12" bulbs would be

I reckon a clown goby would be fine in there, so would a cleaner shrimp or you could do a pair of sexy shrimp?

 

[demonmagus]

I don't think she wants corals right now, and a 70w halide may be a bit too many £. I don't know but I am just assuming

 

[OohFeeshy]

Thanks Sf05, I'll bear that in mind Lighting will be something looked into when I come to that hurdle, as long as there are no negative effects by increasing the lighting from averageish to what corals need, I can sort that out once the tank is established.

 

[steelhealr]

If your tank runs cool, you may want to change that 'anything heater' into a reliable one. Although losing livestock in a FW is not fun, there is something more painful about losing hundreds of dollars worth of corals if your tank cools. SH

 

[AMS]

You might want to go higher than 150 GPH on a 7 gallon tank, aim for about 210 GPH of total circulation.

 

[OohFeeshy]

If your tank runs cool, you may want to change that 'anything heater' into a reliable one. Although losing livestock in a FW is not fun, there is something more painful about losing hundreds of dollars worth of corals if your tank cools. SH

I've got a lot of heaters spare (from various grow out tanks for expensive oddballs, QT tanks, betta tanks etc.), one is a cheapy one that's only ever used in an emergency, but the other three or so are very reliable brands, still covered by guarentee, so that should be no problem. And my room temp is high enoguh to keep water in acceptable tropical temps.

You might want to go higher than 150 GPH on a 7 gallon tank, aim for about 210 GPH of total circulation.

Rightyo, noted, I was working on the basis of around 20x an hour which I thought would be enough, so a bigger powerhead (or two smaller ones) will be fine.

This weekend should see a fair amount of stuff bought, probably the hOB, maybe a tank, some salt, and maybe a PH.

 

[AMS]

150 GPH of powerheads may be fine actually, but it depends on the HOB GPH rating. Just aim for about 30x turnover. IMHO go for two powerheads plus the HOB. This will create a turbulence flow pattern, much more desirable and healthier and than the Laminar flow pattern.

Are you going for a cube style tank? I like the look of them myself but I would imagine it would be difficult to stck LR and such. I use a standard sized 10 gallon aquarium, the slightly rectangular shape makes arrangement of LR and corals pretty easy.

Be sure to post pictures

 

[OohFeeshy]

Are you going for a cube style tank? I like the look of them myself but I would imagine it would be difficult to stck LR and such. I use a standard sized 10 gallon aquarium, the slightly rectangular shape makes arrangement of LR and corals pretty easy.

Yeah, I did think that, so I'll have to see. I'll have a look at bowfronts, they're longer but not as wide, but they look cool.

 

[OohFeeshy]

If anyone happens to pop by, in the future, would a fairly basic, say, 30 GPD RO unit be a good investment? I've seen them around fairly cheaply, and it would be very helpful for all the FW fish that like soft water (darn them!), and my pretty high tap pH and nitrate...

 

[SkiFletch]

Would be a fantastic investment. Almoast a requirement, especially with a tank as small as yours

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

I'd suggest going for a 50GPD unit at least if you can get it cheap. A 30GPD would probably make something closer to 10GPD if you want the truth. It's boring waiting so long

 

[OohFeeshy]

Perhaps, but for the amount I'd need, ie, enough for water changes on nano, and then enough for setting up and water changing smaller FW species tanks (that would only be 50% or so RO anyway), a small unit would be fine, and easier to get. I believe the unit I saw was from RO Man, so not too naff. Had a scoot around Pets at Home for anything of interest, no tanks I liked, and no equipment of any interest.

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

I think you'll find it hard to find a cube at an LFS
Try classifieds or ebay but even then you can't guarentee if it will be safe to use.

A cutom 12" shouldn't cost too much