HELP! Starting a nano reef in my 8 gallon cube

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Flaka26

New Member
:smile: Hi everyone!

I am new to the site and forums, just joined today :). Well I'm in the process of getting my 8 gallon cube going and I want to get advice for the best way to get it going for a mini reef. I had it setup a few years ago and then it crashed on me and I just gave up and it has been just sitting for all this time. Last weekend I finally said "its time" lol. I went to my LFS and brought home a bucket of saltwater then I got home and got to work lol. I took out the filter, the bioballs, all the rock, siphoned all the old water out, shook all the sand around. I rinsed the rock, bio balls and filter out and then put everything back and filled it with new water. I also put a small sprig of caulerpa (long flat leaf plant) I think its called and have had the light running 24/7. The plant has sprouted a couple new leaves and I had the water tested yesterday and they said the water is perfect. Hmmm. Idk lol I had the stagnant water tested before I cleaned the whole thing out and they told me it was really high salinity and phosphates due to just sitting for so long and that when I got it going again my LR would probably be holding a lot of what caused the high phosphate so I would probably need a something to get rid of the phosphate once I redid the tank ?? what do you guys think? Its been a week since I got it running again. I put a few hermit crabs in last night and they are doing well.

What do I need to make it a mini reef with not so much work? or am I just going to have to deal with all the maintenance since its such a small tank? I would put maybe just 1 fish in there and the rest coral and inverts. Open to your experiences, ideas and expertise :)
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :dance:

To make a reef, you will need some lights that support corals, what king of lights do you have?
 
F

Flaka26

New Member
nanoreefing4fun said:
welcomefish.gif

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :dance:

To make a reef, you will need some lights that support corals, what king of lights do you have?
Click to expand...



Thank you for the welcome I have been surfing the site and reading so much great information! :)

Where do I start the tank thread? That would be great so I can share the progress and be able to look back at the process.

I have the standard lights that come with the cube. I don't have the upgraded light kit. I'm basically a newbie so my terminology isn't that great yet lol.
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Flaka26 Welcome to the addiction. I have the same tank so maybe I can help. First buy new bulbs!! Yes they are still lit but they have lost the spectrum you need for corals and will grow nothing but bad algae. With the standard lighting you will need to replace the bulbs about every 9 months to keep corals happy but on the other hand they do produce a good quality light and will grow most anything. Next and this is a personal opinion if you want to keep using the Bio balls you will need to remove them and clean them at least every 10 days. Bio balls do a great job but they end up being a N02 factory if not cleaned often. Next because the system is very small you will need to do water changes every week. I do 3g per week which is very easy but its a must if you have any fish. I know its costs some but buy your self test kits and dont trust the LFS. Might be a great LFS but remember they are in business to make money so they will tell you all is well so you will buy more livestock. Next wait to put anything more in the tank to make sure you dont go through a cycle. What are you thinking as far as a fish? Corals? How much live rock do you have?
 
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Flaka26

New Member
sirrealism said:
Flaka26 Welcome to the addiction. I have the same tank so maybe I can help. First buy new bulbs!! Yes they are still lit but they have lost the spectrum you need for corals and will grow nothing but bad algae. With the standard lighting you will need to replace the bulbs about every 9 months to keep corals happy but on the other hand they do produce a good quality light and will grow most anything. Next and this is a personal opinion if you want to keep using the Bio balls you will need to remove them and clean them at least every 10 days. Bio balls do a great job but they end up being a N02 factory if not cleaned often. Next because the system is very small you will need to do water changes every week. I do 3g per week which is very easy but its a must if you have any fish. I know its costs some but buy your self test kits and dont trust the LFS. Might be a great LFS but remember they are in business to make money so they will tell you all is well so you will buy more livestock. Next wait to put anything more in the tank to make sure you dont go through a cycle. What are you thinking as far as a fish? Corals? How much live rock do you have?
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Thank you so much for your insight! :) I will definitely get new bulbs as my white bulb is out so I will order all new ones. I'd rather not be removing and cleaning bioballs every 10 days so what are other options to get rid of the bio balls? I did buy my own test kit so I can monitor the water. Yea for now I will just have the hermit crabs in there and wait to see what happens. I have not thought of fish really as I thought if I just do coral and inverts I can do less water changes? If that's not the case then maybe I will look into 1 fish to put in there. As far as corals I like all the soft corals cause they bring movement to the tank and they have so many colors. I have I believe 10 pounds of live rock. I have to take a pic and upload it for a better idea of what it looks like but there is definitely a good amount of live rock.
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Looks great. You have plenty of rock. If you go "No fish" you could get away with WC every 2 weeks but to be honest with as small as the tank is I would do them every week anyway. As for removing the bio ball its a good idea. What to put in that section is up to you. Most run a bag of carbon and GFO or some other nutrient remover. I did it a little different then most. I made my middle chamber into a algae scrubber because my tank is always over stocked. In the past I have kept dwarf octopus in this tank which was fun but the tank really was to small. Another time I had 3 large seahorses in it that were missing the end of there tail. My wholesaler ended up with them and would not sell them. They lived for about a year. "I have kept and breed seahorses before"
One of the issues you will run into is temp swings. Make sure both of the fans in the hood are working. One thing I did was to take one fan out and turn it around. This brought fresh air in and then pushed it out. If one fan is not working you will see a 4-7degree change during the day. This is part of the reason that most of the new nano tanks are now rimless or open top. The down side to having an open top is evaporation but you dont have the temp swings.
As far as a fish I would make a suggest getting a clown goby. What ever you get do research and make sure it stays small.
Soft corals are a great idea for this tank. Things like GSP, xenias, leathers and zoas will do well in this tank.
If you find that your temp swings alot you can convert one bulb or both to LEDs which would fix it. At the moment I have removed my hood and am using an AI nano LED light but there are LEDs that will fit in the hood with some effort. I think that covers all your questions but if you have more please ask. Happy to help. I have had my 8g running straight for 8 years and I bought it used. I dont have a tank that grows more coralline algae. I have 6 different colors. which is great yet a pain as I have to scrape it every week or it will cover the glass.
 
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Flaka26

New Member
sirrealism said:
Looks great. You have plenty of rock. If you go "No fish" you could get away with WC every 2 weeks but to be honest with as small as the tank is I would do them every week anyway. As for removing the bio ball its a good idea. What to put in that section is up to you. Most run a bag of carbon and GFO or some other nutrient remover. I did it a little different then most. I made my middle chamber into a algae scrubber because my tank is always over stocked. In the past I have kept dwarf octopus in this tank which was fun but the tank really was to small. Another time I had 3 large seahorses in it that were missing the end of there tail. My wholesaler ended up with them and would not sell them. They lived for about a year. "I have kept and breed seahorses before"
One of the issues you will run into is temp swings. Make sure both of the fans in the hood are working. One thing I did was to take one fan out and turn it around. This brought fresh air in and then pushed it out. If one fan is not working you will see a 4-7degree change during the day. This is part of the reason that most of the new nano tanks are now rimless or open top. The down side to having an open top is evaporation but you dont have the temp swings.
As far as a fish I would make a suggest getting a clown goby. What ever you get do research and make sure it stays small.
Soft corals are a great idea for this tank. Things like GSP, xenias, leathers and zoas will do well in this tank.
If you find that your temp swings alot you can convert one bulb or both to LEDs which would fix it. At the moment I have removed my hood and am using an AI nano LED light but there are LEDs that will fit in the hood with some effort. I think that covers all your questions but if you have more please ask. Happy to help. I have had my 8g running straight for 8 years and I bought it used. I dont have a tank that grows more coralline algae. I have 6 different colors. which is great yet a pain as I have to scrape it every week or it will cover the glass.
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Since water changes are best every week then I will look into a small fish to have in there. I will look into the clown goby and I like all the colors of the mandarin but I've read a lot that they should be eating frozen food if I decide to take one home so that's probably a no -go lol. I use to have a ton of xenia in there years ago so I definitely want to get more :)

I will most definitely take out the bio balls, my LFS recommended matrix?

A dwarf octopus, that's pretty awesome! Must've been really cool! I looked into the seahorse but read they are really for experts lol so ill watch them from afar lol.

I will get a thermometer to monitor the temp swings
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
I am really happy when I explain to someone what they should or should not do "IMO" and they listen. Your tank is going to be fine. Glad you did a little research on mandarins and decided no. Your system is wayyyyyy to small for one since they only eat pods. Matrix should be fine but I have to admit i have never used it and dont know a lot about it. Others might know more about it and chime in on it. Yes seahorses are not easy but once you understand them they are not to bad. But like mandarins they normally need live food so it makes it tough. I live in FL close to the water so once a week I would go and collect grass shrimp "Ghost shrimp for salt water" Also all the seahorses I have kept were local species.
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Wait you live in FL! you could go and collect grass shrimp if you really wanted to. They are simple to catch. If you can find them you could have a sea horse. They dont require anything special accept somethings to hold on to and live food. Clean water just like any other reef. There is plenty of info on them on the Web. Then again it is a bit of a pain to go once a week or so to collect them. I set up a little 5g tank with a HOB filter that I housed them in. To be honest if your just feeding 1 horse you could collect enough shrimp for several weeks at a time. You can also have corals with seahorses
 
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Flaka26

New Member
sirrealism said:
Wait you live in FL! you could go and collect grass shrimp if you really wanted to. They are simple to catch. If you can find them you could have a sea horse. They dont require anything special accept somethings to hold on to and live food. Clean water just like any other reef. There is plenty of info on them on the Web. Then again it is a bit of a pain to go once a week or so to collect them. I set up a little 5g tank with a HOB filter that I housed them in. To be honest if your just feeding 1 horse you could collect enough shrimp for several weeks at a time. You can also have corals with seahorses
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I really appreciate all the advice and who better than the members of this forum that have so much experience :)

Yes I live in South Florida, that would be kinda cool to go collect some grass shrimp. Forgive my lack of knowledge lol but how?

Oh my those little guys are so cool!! Thank you for sharing the pics
 
newo11

newo11

Well-Known Member
Congrats on the good start and even more so on your willingness to listen to the good advice you are getting.

In addition to my RSM250, I have a 4 gallon pico I've had running for about three years. Great little tank, and if you set them up correctly, they can do very well for you.

A couple of things to think about as your tank cycles. If you reused your sand and rock, you may get some nuisance algae as your rock and sand will gave some trapped phosphates in it. If you started with new cured rock, then you may have greater earlier success.

The best thing you can do is read, research and then research some more. I agree - get rid if the bio balls. Consider running chemipure elite and purigen as your chemical filtration in addition to your biological filtration in your live rock. Softies are a great choice in that size tank. Zoas and Ricordea can look amazing and give you beautiful color.

I kept a yasha goby in my 4 gallon - check it out if you have a few minutes.

Some pics of my 4 gallon so you can see what's possible
03ad60214a2612a11c31ec56ab419abc.jpg
347d98c8306b3f2c52ebeb5515f1a49b.jpg
4daf07110f33a9439ba3e8d1748ae209.jpg
643395d1a97f121cbd30826da5a499ec.jpg
0ea260d8b33ba2927be4530867518a6d.jpg
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Grass shrimp are very easy to catch. Just get a dip net or a very large aquarium net and find a grass flat. Run the net down at the bottom of the grass and walk forward with the net. Bring it up and you will have them plus a lot of other cool things like seahorses and pipefish. You just have to find a grass flat. I dont know if there are a lot of them in Miami but I bet there are some
 
F

Flaka26

New Member
newo11 said:
Congrats on the good start and even more so on your willingness to listen to the good advice you are getting.

In addition to my RSM250, I have a 4 gallon pico I've had running for about three years. Great little tank, and if you set them up correctly, they can do very well for you.

A couple of things to think about as your tank cycles. If you reused your sand and rock, you may get some nuisance algae as your rock and sand will gave some trapped phosphates in it. If you started with new cured rock, then you may have greater earlier success.

The best thing you can do is read, research and then research some more. I agree - get rid if the bio balls. Consider running chemipure elite and purigen as your chemical filtration in addition to your biological filtration in your live rock. Softies are a great choice in that size tank. Zoas and Ricordea can look amazing and give you beautiful color.

I kept a yasha goby in my 4 gallon - check it out if you have a few minutes.

Some pics of my 4 gallon so you can see what's possible
03ad60214a2612a11c31ec56ab419abc.jpg
347d98c8306b3f2c52ebeb5515f1a49b.jpg
4daf07110f33a9439ba3e8d1748ae209.jpg
643395d1a97f121cbd30826da5a499ec.jpg
0ea260d8b33ba2927be4530867518a6d.jpg
Click to expand...

ohh I love your little tank!:fishbowl: It looks like its on your night stand, must be really relaxing to lay there and just watch it. :) Too bad my nano wont fit on mine but maybe later on I can get one like this one and put it on my night stand. Its true that tanks are an addiction I already told my husband I want a big tank too; I basically told him if it were up to me I'd have one in the living room and bedroom since the nano is in the dining room lol

Yea I'm a little worried about the phosphates that are trapped in the sand and rock, so when they told me the water was perfect I am skeptical about it. I haven't tested it with my own kit yet as I'm trying to be patient lol its kinda hard for me :wah: lol. I want to wait it out and see what happens with the reused sand and rock. If I see good test parameters I may not be able to resist running out and buying something lol. I have heard about the chemipure elite quite a bit so I will probably go with that and the purigen.

Oh since I'm just getting this tank going again, when should I start water changes? I know once the tank is established its recommended to do a water change once a week but when do I start doing that? Also how much of a water change?
 
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