Test Kits
 

Hey all I am just curious about what Test kits are the best for a nano reef tank sysytem. I am currently building up my supplies for an 18 gallon set up that will be housing mainly softies and possibly a frogspawn and maybe a few lps corals. I will be running a fluval 206 canistar and a modded Aquaclear 110 for my refugium for added flow i have a 240 gph koarlia powerhead. What test kits are the best for read-ability and consistantcy?? I have heard red sea is the best but I was hoping to get a master kit with all that i needed enstead of buying them all seperate. thanks a bundle


I was also curious about heating, I am looking at a finnex titainium heater 100watts, is this too powerful for an 18 gallon tank? what are the best heaters for intank, and what is the best inexpensive protien skimmer for hangon systems.
-Jayden

I use API saltwater master kit and I should say they are good (although not very accurate) for beginning a tank. Red seas are the best (and very expensive) but I don't think it is necessary till you keep very delicate livestocks.

I use a mariland 50W heater in my 20long and it always keep smy temperature at 78F. Although 100W is suggested for a 20long, but 50w does the job for me.

For protein skimmer, you can get rio HOB ($40) to reef octopus (~$150). Obviously the more expensive ones is going to be better. But just my personal opinion, I don't think you would need expensive ones because once in a while, you will have to change your water and the water might not have enough debris to be skimmed by the expensive ones. I use rio nano skimmer and is very pleased it with (bang for the buck!).

I also suggest API for the common tests like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.
But for anything like calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels I prefer Red Sea. They offer great value for price compared to other brands like Elos IMO.
I am going to try out their coloration pack once I get more SPS since I was so impressed with the reef essentials bundle.

Thank you very much for the feed back thats awesome news Im heading to Big al's and Pices tomorrow to get some stuff for my 18 gallon as well as my new start up 2.7 gallon :)

Ill make sure to get some good API testers and reasea for sure later.

Pisces is just TOO expensive :| (I don't know why but their tag price is always like 25% more than big Al's).

Thanks thats great to know I am going to Big Al's first anyways so thats a bonus to know.
I am also wondering about the flow rate I need in my 18 gallon sumpless, as well as Im doing a 2.7 pico tank with a ac 30 hob and the fluval led fixture from the spec (2gallon) What is the suggested live stock for a pico???

Any other helpful hints or information I can get on the hobby would be greatly valued and utilized :) Thanks again for all the wonderful help.

When you go to Big Al, talk with Jeff (the fish manager). He is as AWESOME guy and always gives you the BEST advice and will not just try to sell you stuffs (he always stops me from buying things that I would think is necessary but actually not).

For my 20long I have the following stuffs to aid the flow:
1. 2x125gph aqueon HOBs
2. 1x110gph rio nano skimmer
3. 1 maxijet 400 (110gph)

But you can obviously add more (I have seen people using two koralia 2x240gph).

For the pico, you can take suggestions from this link:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...opic=74703&hl=

Thanks a bunch Thats awesome info. I hope you dont mind all my senseless questioning. I just dont wanna spend all this time and effort and have it fail.

Haha. Talking about "senseless question", I am a newby in saltwater too so nothing seems like a "senseless question" to me :P

ok heres one for you, for my pico should I mod my ac 30 into a refugium or leave it as is?? pros cons??

Just throwing it out....

If I was you, I would put a chemi pure bag, a carbon bag and a handful of chaeto and put a small led clip light over it...should be an overkill filtration (according to me ofcourse)

api for nitrate should be all you really need.....in a tank that size, it's doubtful that you will have enough coral in it to deplete Ca, Mg and DKH to the point that you will need to dose between W/Cs.....if you want to test for those tho, then go with either elos or salifert, by far the best kits available to hobbyists

Thank you very much. What would be a good stock list for this tank. I was thinking just some sexy shrimp porcelain crab maybe a pompom crab and a fish.. but what Linda fiah can be happy in such a small tank.

According to a post in nano-reef, the following can be your possibility (but limited to just one I guess):

-Blue Neon Goby
-Catalina Goby [cold water]
-Clown Gobies
-Eviota Gobies
-Panda (Clown) Goby
-Redhead Goby
-Trimma Goby
-Yellow Neon Goby
-Citron Goby
-Green Banded Goby

BTW where will you be getting a pompom in Calgary? I would love to get one too :D

I work at a lps and can order them in so if i can get miine i can get one for yyou but its pay up front though. I work at the petland in shawnesay and we order marine from little fish but only as special orders. I will have my pin pin porclian and sexys by next wednesday

Oh cool :D

How much would it cost? I am actually thinking of getting a pompom crab (mayb a couple if the price is fair for my wallet :P) and a maxi mini anemone. I think you can keep those in a 2.5g too. Any clue how much those might cost? You can PM if you don't like to put the price over here :D

My levels on my fish tank on day one are

Ph- 8.0-8.2
No3- 20-30ppm
No2- 0
Nh3- 0

What is the best way to get my nitrate down?? Ideas!

Simple: regular water change :D

So the tank is well my Ph seems to be kind of erratic cause i tested this morning and its sitting at about 7.8-8.0 a little low so Im kind of concerned lol. Also with my tank When should I be doing water changes, I was always a once a week kinda guy but inorder to get my levels down should i be changing it every few days about 5-10% or more??

Since you have like 20-30ppm and you should want it between 0-10ppm (I am assuming you are using API), so I think you can do like 10-20% water change in every couple of days till you get your desired level and then can move to weekly.

Thank you very much so Ill do a 15% today and test again tomorrow to see if I have my required results :) thanks again

You are welcome :D

Hey I have a question for you when would I be able to add my hermits into my tank? cause im starting to get a bit of die off from the LR? ammoina and no2 are at zero and after my water chage i suspect nitrate between 0-5ppm

I don't think you have to add hermits any time soon. I added my cuc (just two turbos) after like 3/4 weeks of the tank running and when the rocks were filled with diatoms.

Plus keeping hermits is a debatable topic too.

I think you don't have to worry about cuc right now since most probably they will just starve to death if there is no algae/leftover food.

Sounds good to me :)