My first nano

[Yankees9191]

Hey everyone! This is my first nano tank. Please give me any suggestions or recommendations.

16g Bowfront
25lbs live rock
20lbs live sand
2 koralia 1 pumps
80 watt satellite pc

Looking to go with a octopus hob or maybe try no skimmer at all if i keep my water changes precise.

Looking to keep some soft corals, zoos, and shrooms

Would this setup be okay? Any suggestions?

 

[mnat]

What were you thinking for fish? I think you will be fine without a skimmer. You could also look into a HOB refugium and put carbon and phosban in there and forego the skimmer.

 

[Yankees9191]

i was thinking a clown, six line, and perhaps a royal gamma...would this be too much?

 

[mnat]

You should be able to do 3 fish in a 16, but those can all be pretty aggressive fish. Six lines can also go after inverts.

 

[Yankees9191]

Any recommendations for fish? I'm always up for suggestions.

 

[mnat]

You can really pick almost any fish from a few groups. A pair of clowns is always a crowd favorite and you can choose between many colors/patterns. If you do a pair of clowns you would be able to do maybe one other fish. Gobies you can do 3-4 of them and choose from many different ones and even get a goby/pistol shrimp pair which is awesome to watch. If you have a hood, you can look at firefish or a jawfish. Those are a few of our favorites, a lot of websites will have nano fish sections which will give you an idea or what fish you can keep in there.

 

[Yankees9191]

Thanks, I really appreciate the help...I'm trying to learn all i can before i put any livestock in my tank.

 

[mnat]

It all comes down to preference. We love ornamental shrimp and have a pair of cleaner shrimp in each of our tanks. We also like fire shrimp although they hid a bit more.

 

[Yankees9191]

Yea i was thinking of the fire shrimp..there very nice...any suggestions on a good cleanup crew?

 

[mnat]

Go with like 5-7 hermit crabs scarlet and blue leg. You don't need a ton of them and they can be nasty little things. We use cerith and nassarius snails to stir up the sand bed and astrea snails. You don't have to go nuts with a cleanup crew because the hermits will eventually hunt your snails and you have to add more anyway later on. If you can find the orange chestnut snails we like those just because of their color.

 

[NikkiT]

What mike (MNAT) forgot to tell you is don't get too attached to the orange color of the chestnut snails- ours are now covered with pink coraline.

 

[onefish2fish]

personally i dont like any hermits because of their need to kill snails. i also find snails are better algae eaters to begin with. crabs in general seem to cause problems and IMO your best bet is without them.

 

[fantom555]

I have a six line, perc, bicolor blenny and lookign to get a royal grammer in my 24 nano cube also have a few shrimp...they all do fine together, the shrimp cleans the 6 line if hell hold still