Hello, Starting out my first reef tank.

A

apederson86

New member
Hello guys and gals, My buddy told me to come on here and start talking to ppl. I received a great nano-cube 12gallon. I have this forum and its users to thank for that as it was given to me for free. So far I picked up some supplies today: A heater, live rock, live sand (fuji pink) and some media for the filtration system(more details to come).
This is after I added the water, waiting for the sand to settle. More pics to come.
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Any advices for newbies would be great. Id like this to go as smooth as possible.
 
Patience is your best friend in this hobby. Trust me I learned the hard way. And another thing is good testing equipment
 
Welcome aboard.

Totally agree patience is the number one, two and three recommendation for newbies. It's said far too often and too often dismissed, nothing but failure comes quickly in this hobby.
 
Thank you Im happy to be here, Ya im planning on a 2-3 week waiting period before I really start adding anything. Are there any signs of things I should look for that would indicate the tank is ready? Also are there any good tutorials I could read up in while im waiting.
 
You'll know your cycle is done after ammonia drops to 0 nitrite to 0 and nitrates are in the 10 ish range. Watch BRS YouTube videos on beginner reefs. They help a ton and clarify many things
 
hello and welcome , congrats on the new tank and good luck with everything. i totally agree with everyone above. what are you doing as for as water testing and water making . after your initial set up this is where i would look next to help you be successful.
 
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The water is starting to settle so any suggestions on live rock placement?


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Alex! Glad to see you made it on here! This is a great community, I have learned a lot from these people.
 
Think about how it will be to clean it and also coral placement. I like the island look.Seems to make adjusting the flow to have high and low spots a bit easier and I think it looks cool. I guess I'm trying to say make it practical .Looks nice
 
Howdy and welcome aboard, Im jelouse of that rock you scored it fits that tank perfect!

Having just ran a nano tank myself a little smaller then yours I found it cycles pretty fast, Live sand Live rock and I cheated here but I got water from a local fish stores reef tank but all said it took one week for my tank to start its first cycle.

Soon as you start seeing a brownish color on your sand bed go out and grab yourself a few snails (4 or 5 should be enough for your tank size) give it a few days make sure none of them die and if they hang in there I'd say your ready for a fish and some blue leg crabs within a week later.

Nano tanks take off fast when they start to cycle so dont be scared to toss the snails in the first or second day you start to see the brown start.

Only complant I Have and I guess I should stress about a nano tank is little fish that like to jump out... If you buy anything small that looks cool it will jump out so make sure the top is shut down solid. Just lost a 40 dollar fish that way :(
 
Looks good so far. Agree with everyone here that patience is crucial. As you are cycling, there are some great tutorials on cycling, but the basic end game is to generate ammonia, which will increase nitrate, (which will bring down the ammonia) which will increase nitrite (which should bring down the nitrate). Once you have had these parameters under control, you can consider adding some livestock...and I'd recommend starting off slowly.

I also agree that BRS youtube is a great resources.

Regarding rock placement, think about setting up corridors for your fish to swim through and platforms for your corals to sit on. more surface area is better! A monolith / wall is pretty easy to do, but not what I would recommend.

Good luck!
 
You didnt use tap water to fill it did you? that was my biggest regret in my first tank. living in lombard you have one of the greatest LFS in the area really close, [MENTION=9]AQUAPROS[/MENTION].
 
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