Noob Help - filter and lighting help.

[Big__joe]

Hey Guys,

Hope I posted this In the correct place!

I've got a 50x30x30cm nano tank

Completely new to the hobby of salt water, I've got two fresh water tanks and have had them for several years but now want to set up a salt water.

My question is in regards to two things.

First of all, do I need a filter? Hang on the back with chemi pure blue in and some crush up rock or is it best to leave it for the rock once the cycle process is completed. I've watched a few guys say they are just breeding place for dirt and nutrients.

Secondly, lighting? I defiantly want to get Into coral, start with some soft and then fingers crossed move on to LPS when the time is right, I was looking at the TMC V2 iLumenAir Nano - Marine White

Http://www.swelluk.com/tmc-v2ilumenair-nano-led-lights/

I was wondering if two of these would be adequate, do I need to mix the colours? If not is there anything else out there for under £100 roughly?


Thanks for any help and advice in advance.

[Small Heavens]

Hey there, well sure seems right enough for advice on nanos.

If people forget to clean the filters, the heterotrophic bacteria can kill the bacteria colonies that we work so hard on building. Otherwise there really is benefits to having the ability to remove debris and just rinse it out with the old water after water changes. I do not see any benefit in letting ALL of the debris stay in the tank

But leaving the filter uncleaned can destroy the bacterial filter after the finished cycle, so I can see how some would get such an impression. It happens because the heterotrophic bacteria multiply much much faster than the nitrifying beneficial bacteria (heterotrophic bacteria do not nitrify but eats solids in your water), and they coat over the filter and that cause bacterial dieoff in the nitrifying bacteria and subsequent release of the material that they had eaten before dying.

A good filter pulls all the water in the column through the same tiny place and achieving the same effect otherwise can be hard, so definitely go with filter.

The Chemipure Elite gets rid of phosphates and silicates as well, so perhaps that over the blue?

Otherwise you should at least consider carbon dosing. That activates the anaerobic bacteria (that lives deep in the liverock where aeration cannot reach) so that they eat the phosphates and nitrates for you.

With lighting, I'd say wait while you cycle the bacteria, so you can pick livestock types that you like first. Pick a light when you're ready to pick livestock. They live in shallow and deep waters, and need different things from light completely. As an example I keep a Nem that need high light, but not in blues, as it wants full-spectrum as it lives near coasts where water is shallow.

You cannot pick the light to buy before you know what livestock you just GOTTA have, but otherwise I would recommend the OceanRevive as a really really good low-cost light. If you figure out that you want high-light demanding livestock, you really need the exact PAR requirements and if the producer of the Aquarium Light does not volunteer up a full reading of the fixture that they are trying to sell you, I wouldn't trust them. I got a light that can give the required PAR for the Nem I wanted at any spot in the tank after looking up the exact specifications on the fixture and the Nem and I can only recommend the peace of mind of doing it that way.

I hope that you enjoy marine hosting and get a lot of good advice so you make fewer nooby mistakes than I did myself