How much do YOU know about nano-reefing? Saltwater vets, need your help!

sabanero24

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#1
Hello fellow saltwater enthusiasts!

I am currently gathering research on building a 30 gallon reef. I chose 30 gallons because its the largest size I am willing to maintain, and from what I've read, the greater the amount of water, the easier the parameters are to maintain, but even that is still up in the air.

Which brings me to my questions
  1. Which all-in-one setup is most tailored to keeping corals, and will need the least amount of additional purchases?(i.e. lights, skimmer, etc.)
  2. Given the tank size remains at 30 gallons, what corals are best suited for a tank this size? given the appropriate amount of lighting and other factors
  3. What resource can be used to identify which corals need similar water parameters to thrive? the goal here is long term growth, so i expect to be purchasing frags to grow
  4. SPS vs LPS corals: Safe to mix? Which are easier to maintain? Whats the difference
follow up thoughts:
what has been your experience with coral supplements? Necessary? waste of money? best to stay away until growth stalls?
in your opinion, what are the most vibrant looking fish that are safe to have with corals? assuming a mix of soft and hard corals
Mandarin goby: yes or no?
I appreciate all your advice and insight, experience is the best teacher after all.
Note: I do have previous experience in saltwater, but that setup was a bare bottom 100gl long display, 60 gal Deep sand bed sump set-up, FOWLR tank. (Wanted it to be a shark tank, ended up just having a humu-trigger and some chromis before I had to sell it off piece by piece because of maintenance costs, hence the smaller tank size, and different approach this time around. )
 

dontavo27

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#2
Hi Martin. Those are some great questions.
Starting with tank size, I really do think larger tanks are easier to maintain, for example
When it came to keeping my parameters in line on my 240gal, I was able to keep stable parameters without a doser for a heavily stocked tank (large clams, sps, lps, zoas etc) , for a longer period of time, however the water changes where large, like 40 gals biweekly, due to my heavy feeding of coral and fish. With that said I think it also depends on each individual person and the way they choose to run there system.

As for staying within the 30gal range with the least amount of purchases, it sounds like you would be aiming towards the nano cube tanks or something similar.
I suggest something that would have a built in overflow with a sump, that way in the future when you want to add a reactor or two, or need to keep something, like a fish in a different part of the tank, you at least have the sump, and will also add for a little extra water volume.
I have seen some really nice custom AIO with larger filtration Areas , but that depends on your budget.
As for for Coral best suited for that tank size, you really can keep just about anything, although some lps can get fairly big fast, and require less flow then sps. The best thing to consider if youre going with a mixed reef, is Coral placement, for example Lps and softy on mid to lower Half of the tank, sps much higher, itll allow you to keep higher flow up top for sps and and left over flow gently dispursed at the bottom for lps and softys. Both lps and sps can be kept together, but In my experience, I believe your system needs a longer time to mature for sps.
I hope you can clearly understand what Ive written, kinda just typing and trying to make some sense while not really spell checking.
 
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#3
For what you want to do, the easiest tank to do just about everything comes in the jbj 28g intermediate and advanced.

Plenty of individuals have learned on them just about everything that is needed to learn outside of basic sump development, and aside from a skimmer, heater, and possibly a chiller, the only other thing you will need will be a skimmer. I recommend the aqua c remora series.

You can purchase the tank itself with the stand for free from dr fosters and Smith, typically for the best price. Search online for a coupon, and you can save quite a bit of money.

The difference between the int and adv is your ability to keep sps and other high light corals.

Some folks buy the 28g hqcl and buy a retrofit kit for the advanced leds from companies like rapid led, but that takes s bit more work.

Every setup you choose, you will still need to purchase a complete setup of substrate and rock, salt, and possibly an ro system, but those only make up about 1/10 your total cost.
 

sabanero24

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#4
Thanks Dontavo and Nick,
Im leaning towards the coralife biocube 32, based on their overall build quality, more reliable lighting that it comes with (Apparently the jbj's have a known issue with the led's burning out) and the larger filtration area.
As for the corals, Im going to ease into it and start with some LPS, softies, mushrooms and colony polyps, maybe will get into SPS given enough experience haha
 

dontavo27

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#5
Sounds like a good choice based on your research. If they make the biocube with T5 for lighting, I would go with that and just supplement with a blue LED strip, youll get great even growth and still have the led effect with a strip.
 

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