Nano Tank Coral Questions

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by bland8126, Jul 9, 2015.

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  1. bland8126

    bland8126 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
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    Location:
    North Carolina
    So when my 29 Biocube is over a year old (it's 7 months now) I planned on adding coral. I have seen other people's nanos with amazing pieces of beginner coral and I thought now would be a good time to plan ahead. I know the basic requirements but I have some questions.

    The Questions:
    1.What are good types of coral for a nano tank?
    2. Do they need to be specially fed and supplemented and when? (It's a dumb question, I know)
    3. Is a calcium reactor or automatic topoff needed for a nano?
    4. Is a refugium needed for a nano?
    5. What are some tips and pointers to keeping coral in a nano?
     
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  3. NU-2reef

    NU-2reef Montipora Digitata

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    Water change, water change and oh yeah more water changing. Really it's the best thing you could do for a nano. An ato is good to have especially if you evaporate lots of water.i don't have one so I top off once a day. Twice in the summer. I would get a good skimmer. Tunze makes good nano skimmers.

    As for coral. Start with easy to keep softies and Lps like frogspawn and go from there.

    What kind of lighting do you have?
     
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  4. AnotherMike

    AnotherMike Fire Worm

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    Location:
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    I would think the biggest challenge in a nano would be consistency. NU is spot on with water changes, but with such a small volume it's critical that you keep your parameters consistent. Personally, I would suck at a nano. I'm over 300g system and I can be pretty sloppy with my WC because it's pretty hard to move the needle on my water. My hats off to you nano folks.

    As for your questions...
    1) really any if you have the proper lighting. Start with some softies, alas or shrooms.

    2) I don't target feed any of my corals, but I use LRS reef frenzy to feed my fish and the corals get plenty of scape.

    3) I didn't need a calcium reactor or dosing on my system until my SPS really started to grow. You should be able to keep in check with WC, but may need to dose here and there. Def do not need a ca rx.

    4) not imo

    5) consistency
     
  5. Piano10

    Piano10 Aiptasia Anemone

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    The important things for all tanks are weekly water changes, testing your water regularly, and proper lighting is important.

    Reactors, sumps, refugiam are not necessary to have. Some have their systems set up with them and others don't

    If you don't have an autotopoff you just top up your water daily, sometimes twice a day depending on evaporation.

    As for feeding/supplementing, it all depends on the corals you keep.

    Good beginner corals: mushrooms, ricordia, xenia, zoa's, frogspawn, leathers

    Its important to research the corals you like.
    a good site is liveaquaria.com
     
  6. bland8126

    bland8126 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
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    Location:
    North Carolina
    My lighting is the standard Biocube lighting which is two day LED bars and one moonlight LED bar. By topoff do you people mean replace the evaporated water from that day with RO/DI?
     
  7. Piano10

    Piano10 Aiptasia Anemone

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    Yes, thats what we mean for top up. Some buy an auto top off while others manually do it.