Hello! Check out my 30 gallon nano reef

Hello, new to the forum and saltwater. I just set up a 30 gal FOWLR tank that will someday hopefully house an anenome w/ clownfish and maybe a few shrimp and snails maybe. Any way here are some pics. Any feedback appreciated. Its been up and running 3 weeks now and has about 15 lbs live rock and 20 lbs base rock. I have a small protein skimmer on order that should be here this week. It also will have 2 - 36 inch power compact lights for a total of 192 watts of light. Let me know what you think.

- Here is the skimmer I ordered
AquaticLife Internal Mini Protein Skimmer 115

 

skimmer looks g2g, you got a sump?

you will eventually probably want to upgrade those lights. could be the algae growth messing with the white balance in the photos, but those lights look pretty yellow...

when you get corals in there you'll want something bluer.

t5's are a good choice for this size tank.

if you have a sump i'd recommend a bigger skimmer too, but for now that'll do just fine.

you got a stocking list yet?

i like your cabinet... wish i had a set-up like that for my 20h

 

i don't have a sump, and have limited clearance above the tank. Thats why i have narrowed it down to that skimmer. I would probably have to custom make a sump, because i don't have a lot of space in the stand behind the aquarium. and currently there is only one PC bulb on it. the second one is in the mail, and it has a actinic bulb. Then I will also replace the current bulb w/ and 12k bulb thats new. Thanks for the feedback.

Not sure what i'm going to put in it yet. maybe just a clown and a host anenome and a few shrimp. but researcing other options for small thanks

As far as filtration i currently have a magnum 350 canister filter and a Rena HOB filter for tanks up to 55 gallon.

 

nice, you'll be really happy with it when you get the actinic light.

you could have a bubble tip anenome, but i'd wait until the tank is fairly well established.

a pair of ocellaris clown in whatever color you prefer would look great, there are some really cool varieties, such as picasso, misbar, naked, snowflake, darwin black just to name a few.

clowns seem overdone but a pair has great personality and they are fun to watch and beautiful fish, not too aggressive and fit perfectly in your tank...

maybe some clowns and a few gobies... avoid a six-line wrasse, damsels, and dottybacks (pseudochromis), they are too aggressive IME.

take some time and look around for good fish, there are some great ones like the swissguard basslet or yasha's goby paired up with a pistol shrimp for that size tank...


and if that's all the skimmer you can fit that's fine, better a small skimmer than no skimmer at all, i run a cheapo VisiJet piece of crap that cost me 35 bucks but it gets the job done... just not as much as i would like it too...

since you have a power filter and a canister filter, i'd recommend running Poly-Filter (not filter fiber!) it works kind of like carbon only better, it lasts longer and is excellent for removing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate directly as well as mopping up excess organics and heavy metals... i think it's a good buy for a nano-reef and I run it in my eheim can (i have sump as well)

when i first put it in my canister, my skimmer stopped producing skimmate for about a week! i was overfeeding and everything... my buddy used it to clean up a toxic ammonia spike in 3 days.

highly recommend one for your set up, they are about 10 bucks a pad but they last a good while...

and you can definitely have some cool inverts in there, i love inverts for nanos as the sky is pretty much the limit... they complement a few nice fish really well.

you can definitely keep soft corals in there too, think about some ricordeas zoas green star polyp and/or xenia... all great choices and good beginner corals easy to care for and tolerant.

 

awesome man! thanks for the suggestions. Looking forward to getting a few fish for the tank.!

 

welcome to 3 reef saltydoggy

Steve

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3Reef>>>>> Looking good....

 

Your going to make it hard for people to decide what to watch, the TV or the tank.
Most of the time the tank would win for me unless Football is on!

Be patient and it looks good--I the entertainment center is cool

 

Welcome to 3reef, hope you had a Merry Christmas