Aqueon 15 coloumn nano

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ElectricBlueSeanBurch

ElectricBlueSeanBurch

Piranha
MFK Member
Nov 24, 2010
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Panaque Paradise
So my 1st child is due on may 4th, and my birthday was last week. Well my wife and I did the baby's room with a fish theme. (her idea, I swear) Well she surprised me with an aqueon 15 coloumn today as a belated birthday present. Well the decor in the nursery is mainly saltwater fish, because as it turns out there isnt a big calling for CA/SA cichlid baby decor...go figure. Well my wife flat out asked if we could do this tank salt water and I caved. I have never done salt water before. I've been doing freshwater for years, and as my sig states i've got some decent setups at the moment. But I dont even know where to start with saltwater. Truth be told even posting on this side of the forum feel....well wrong. It came with a small aqueon filter, But I have a larger (30 gallon) aqueon filter that fits nicely. It comes with a small T5 bulb, but I plan to add 2 or 3 ecoxotic Stunner LED Strips. I plan to get a nano hydor powerhead as well. I have a heater already so thats handled. my questions

1: Will this filter be good enough?

2: Will this lighting be good enough for any corals or anything cool?

3: Which powerhead would you get and how many?

4: What sand should I get and how much? I know I want white sand. The footprint is like 13x13 roughly. How deep should the sand be?

5: How much Live rock should I put in there?

6: What would YOU stock it with?

Wow that alot of questions. I just need a starting point I guess. I have a good saltwater lfs near me, I just never go in there lol. Thanks guys,
Josh


(P.S. please be nice to the saltwater newbie)
 
Well let me be first to congratulate you on defecting to the SW side..... lol. :thumbsup: That being said, I'm a newblet too and most of these guys are pretty cool over here. Terribly helpful, I know, but Welcome nonetheless!
 
Here's my input:

  1. Yes, that filter will work, but I personally wouldn't use it in favor of a sump. If you do choose to use it, then use it solely for mechanical & chemical filtration; I suggest using SeaChem Purigen in it as well as some form of sponge and/or filter floss.
  2. It all depends on the PAR values of the lights; make sure that you have a good mix of actinic & high intensity white lights in order to make the fish look their best. I can say for sure that you will be hard-pressed to keep any corals & other photosynthetic critters towards the bottom due to the height of the aquarium.
  3. I would use that powerhead that you have and add more as need be. The goal is to prevent as many dead spots as possible.
  4. Use enough plain aragonite sand to have a 0.5-1.0" layer. Do not waste your money on "live" sand, and do not use any non-buffering sands.
  5. The general starting point is one pound per gallon. I recommend using mostly dry rock with a small chunk of live rock for seeding purposes; doing so will prevent the introduction of parasites & such plus will make the start-up process very easy.
  6. Since it's for the baby's room, I would go with low stocking levels of active critters in order to entertain the baby as well as make maintenance easy on you. I would do a pistol shrimp, a small goby (maybe a yellow prawn goby), an ocellaris clownfish, and maybe another small fish of your choosing; this aquarium is going to be too small for a pair of clownfish, though. Don't forget to have a clean-up crew consisting of dwarf blue leg hermit crabs & small snails; maybe have six of each, if that. Add the clean-up crew & shrimp as soon as the cycle is over, then add one fish per week or two after that while keeping an eye on the water parameters.
 
I can't answer much but I've got some of the basics down..............

~At least one pound of live rock per gal of water
~I'd say at least enough sand for 2 inches. (No clue how many pounds that would be, sorry)
~As far as lights go, I understand that anything with 10,000 K or better will do fine for corals. Make sure there's a separate actinic blue light so you can put them on timers independently.
~The filter's fine. Your primary filter's your rock. Double check this, but I've been told to take all the media out of my filters and fill them will LR rubble. I believe that if you have a bubbler or some sort of means of aeration, you don't even need a filter, again, double check that.
~Powerhead - I'm clueless...


Stock: I'm personally madly in love with my clowns. I've got two percula clownfish, the female is my persona thing. I also think blennys are fun.


So, SW Pros, How'd I do?
 
KellyFrancis said:
Well let me be first to congratulate you on defecting to the SW side..... lol. :thumbsup: That being said, I'm a newblet too and most of these guys are pretty cool over here. Terribly helpful, I know, but Welcome nonetheless!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words, and oh how tempting the darkside is...



Wiggles92 said:
Here's my input:

  1. Yes, that filter will work, but I personally wouldn't use it in favor of a sump. If you do choose to use it, then use it solely for mechanical & chemical filtration; I suggest using SeaChem Purigen in it as well as some form of sponge and/or filter floss.
  2. It all depends on the PAR values of the lights; make sure that you have a good mix of actinic & high intensity white lights in order to make the fish look their best. I can say for sure that you will be hard-pressed to keep any corals & other photosynthetic critters towards the bottom due to the height of the aquarium.
  3. I would use that powerhead that you have and add more as need be. The goal is to prevent as many dead spots as possible.
  4. Use enough plain aragonite sand to have a 0.5-1.0" layer. Do not waste your money on "live" sand, and do not use any non-buffering sands.
  5. The general starting point is one pound per gallon. I recommend using mostly dry rock with a small chunk of live rock for seeding purposes; doing so will prevent the introduction of parasites & such plus will make the start-up process very easy.
  6. Since it's for the baby's room, I would go with low stocking levels of active critters in order to entertain the baby as well as make maintenance easy on you. I would do a pistol shrimp, a small goby (maybe a yellow prawn goby), an ocellaris clownfish, and maybe another small fish of your choosing; this aquarium is going to be too small for a pair of clownfish, though. Don't forget to have a clean-up crew consisting of dwarf blue leg hermit crabs & small snails; maybe have six of each, if that. Add the clean-up crew & shrimp as soon as the cycle is over, then add one fish per week or two after that while keeping an eye on the water parameters.
Click to expand...

Really good info.
I was just goind to use the HOB for mech and chem, I figured the live rock would do the bio

I don't know alot about the lighting. PAR values doesnt mean a whole lot to me. Which lights should I get if i'm getting 2 of them?

sounds good on the powerhead

sounds good with the sand as well

I will go see what the lfs offers for base rock tomorow

And lastly thats pretty much what I was figuring for stocking. A couple smaller fish with a good amount of shrimp, crabs and snails
 
ElectricBlueSeanBurch said:
Thanks for the kind words, and oh how tempting the darkside is...





Really good info.
I was just goind to use the HOB for mech and chem, I figured the live rock would do the bio

I don't know alot about the lighting. PAR values doesnt mean a whole lot to me. Which lights should I get if i'm getting 2 of them?

sounds good on the powerhead

sounds good with the sand as well

I will go see what the lfs offers for base rock tomorow

And lastly thats pretty much what I was figuring for stocking. A couple smaller fish with a good amount of shrimp, crabs and snails
Click to expand...

Do you want to use T5 fluorescent bulbs or LEDs? You'll get better energy savings and light penetration with the LEDs, but they cost a bit more, especially if you don't assemble them yourself; LEDs also just plain look better. Metal halides are out as they will heat the water too much if you don't have a chiller. Can you post a picture of the hood and top of the aquarium? That will give us an idea of what all you can fit without having to make any modifications.

Order the rock online; you'll save money even with shipping and will get better rock as the stuff that most stores sell is very dense whereas you can get some nice porous stuff online. I bought my rock from Reef Cleaners because they have reasonable prices and will take your requests into account, e.g. say what sort of aquarium it's for, and they'll do their best to select rock that will work well in it.
 
well it comes with an 8 watt T5 bulb built into the hood. There is room for atleast 2 of the led strips. I thought with the combination I could cover the lighting needs of some coral and maybe an anenomne twords the top. I will post a pic of the hood tomorow. It seems like it will be easy to mod.

I will look into that website, seems like the answer for me. Thanks again for the replies.
 
I would replace that T5 with an actinic bulb, if possible, as it's probably pretty low intensity (maybe 6700K) and just get high intensity white LEDs (get Model #8015 as it has the most 12000K LEDs if the product data sheet is correct). You might be able to pull off some low light corals and/or an anemone at the top, but I make no guarantees.
 
Tanks to small for hosting Anemones, would be fine for smaller ones like Curly q's but then corals would be out of the question - the nem's would kill'm. Also it's gonna be tough to keep coral friendly water parameters in 15 gal with 3 fish - you'd be changing water everyday and even then no garuntees.

Your water flow should be at a min. 10x the 15 gal - so 2x hydor nano's rated @ 75-100 gal per hr saltwater. Purgien in the HOB is a good option so is chem-pure elite. Most of the corals, esp. stoney's get too big for 15 gal + 8w lighting - your light and tank would be fine for mushrooms and ricordea corals.
 
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