starting a nano and need guidance

[gobytron]

I kept my pair of Mandys in a 12 gallon aquapod for over a year, never fed this tank even once.

The key?

the tank was already established for 2 year and the left most rear chamber was jam packed with LR rubble in the bottom 2/3 and chaeto in the top 1/3.
This chamber creates a microfauna paradise that the predatory fish cannot access and deplete the reproductive potential.

At lights on, the sand literally looke alive due to all the micro fauna this system produced.

If you're serious about doing a mandarin in a nano, the aquapod or biocube is a fantastic way to go.

you will not be adding any fish to it for at least 6 months though.

[toytech]

intarsia a scooter blenny is a scooter dragonet , same as a mandarin . There easyer to train to eat frozen or flake thats all ,there are lots of people training mandarins to eat frozen food , just do some reaserch and you will see its posible . Im going to do the same thing with a 15 gal long and my lfs has 5 madarins that all eat only frozen for sale when my setup is ready for them .

[ScubaSteve]

I think everyone has covered it here but it's doable to do what you are aiming for.

For keeping the mandarin:
-Live rock rubble pile that you feed everyday
-Use old rock from an existing system. Helps seed the tank with pods faster.
-Let the tank mature (I was able to get a mandarin after 7 months)
-Feed rotifers, nannochloropsis, coral freny, etc to help keep the pod population up
-You can probably ween the mandarin onto frozen in time. I've never had to do this. The mandarin is nice and fat and I've never seen him do anything other than pick at the rocks
-You can use a pod production system like they do in non-photosynthetic tanks but that's probably a little extreme for just a mandarin. You could to a miniature half-assed version though.
-You can keep almost anything with a mandarin as everything else just seems to ignore them. Watch out for crabs, lobsters, etc that will go for slow moving fish though. Hermits and shrimp are fine with mandarins

As for a set-up:
-Go for a 20g. Trust me. You will want to upgrade within 3 months if you have a 10g.
-Plan on some corals. It will happen.
-Use a sump if you can. IMO they're cheaper and more effective than the hobby filters with more flexibility in what you can do with them. You can make it into a sump/refugium and crank out pods from there as well.
-On a tank this size you can get away without a skimmer if you are good about your water changes. I ran a very packed 20g with just water changes (10 to 25%) and a aquaclear HOB filter for a good 8 months very successfully before upgrading to a very packed 40g with a skimmer.
-Don't get a maroon goldstrip clownfish. They're a$$holes.

Over all, it is possible to keep a mandarin in a smaller tank; you just need to go about it smartly and be prepared that you might have some "hiccups" along the way. When looking for information on how to do things in reef aquariums you will find that you can ask two different reefers on how to do something and you'll get three different opinions. Do your homework, make your own informed decisions and come up with a plan to achieve what you want. I do (or have done) a lot of things that people say don't work or I can't do but I have done them with success.

[rawest]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

I think everyone has covered it here but it's doable to do what you are aiming for.

For keeping the mandarin:
-Live rock rubble pile that you feed everyday
-Use old rock from an existing system. Helps seed the tank with pods faster.
-Let the tank mature (I was able to get a mandarin after 7 months)
-Feed rotifers, nannochloropsis, coral freny, etc to help keep the pod population up
-You can probably ween the mandarin onto frozen in time. I've never had to do this. The mandarin is nice and fat and I've never seen him do anything other than pick at the rocks
-You can use a pod production system like they do in non-photosynthetic tanks but that's probably a little extreme for just a mandarin. You could to a miniature half-assed version though.
-You can keep almost anything with a mandarin as everything else just seems to ignore them. Watch out for crabs, lobsters, etc that will go for slow moving fish though. Hermits and shrimp are fine with mandarins

As for a set-up:
-Go for a 20g. Trust me. You will want to upgrade within 3 months if you have a 10g.
-Plan on some corals. It will happen.
-Use a sump if you can. IMO they're cheaper and more effective than the hobby filters with more flexibility in what you can do with them. You can make it into a sump/refugium and crank out pods from there as well.
-On a tank this size you can get away without a skimmer if you are good about your water changes. I ran a very packed 20g with just water changes (10 to 25%) and a aquaclear HOB filter for a good 8 months very successfully before upgrading to a very packed 40g with a skimmer.
-Don't get a maroon goldstrip clownfish. They're a$$holes.

Over all, it is possible to keep a mandarin in a smaller tank; you just need to go about it smartly and be prepared that you might have some "hiccups" along the way. When looking for information on how to do things in reef aquariums you will find that you can ask two different reefers on how to do something and you'll get three different opinions. Do your homework, make your own informed decisions and come up with a plan to achieve what you want. I do (or have done) a lot of things that people say don't work or I can't do but I have done them with success.

yea everything is a possibility ive been thinking about using the 10 gal as a sump refuge i just think its small for both. if im going to have a fuge id like it to be display as well. maybe a hemit or two somthing like that. if ou could any other tips on eliminating some of these hiccupps.

[Rbacchiega]

there are some fantastic HOB fuges that would easily double as a second display...just hang them on the side of the tank if you can rather than the back....just an idea.

[rawest]

yea i think i'll turn my ten into a sump/refuge. i took out the tape measure and i think i can lose 6" three on either side for filter and return. i'll run the filter and bubble traps down the 3 x 9.5. leaving 14 x 9.5 inches for a fuge. from there i'll have a 20 or 23 long main tank. if i have to i can throw on a over hang aqua clear as a second refuge for pod prduction fill it full of sand and crumbles of live rock if needed. i just need to figure out the piping. i know a few ball valves will be a must but pipe size and return pump power. do they make return pumps with adjustable flow? or do i just wire one in on the circuit.

[Rbacchiega]

just put a ball valve on the output of the return pump and dial it back that way...actually a bit of backpressure on a pump sometimes helps it be more quiet

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by toytech

intarsia a scooter blenny is a scooter dragonet , same as a mandarin . There easyer to train to eat frozen or flake thats all ,there are lots of people training mandarins to eat frozen food , just do some reaserch and you will see its posible . Im going to do the same thing with a 15 gal long and my lfs has 5 madarins that all eat only frozen for sale when my setup is ready for them .

Never said it wasn't a dragonet but in my experience the common scooter blennys I have had have eaten what ever I put in the tank right away, are cheap, easy to get and may be a good candidate to try out in the dragonet family. I found them really easy to keep but maybe I have just been lucky? The red scooter blenny may be a different story but I'm not sure. Actually the fish that is giving me trouble right now is my watchman goby, he has been residing in my overflow chamber for 3 months now and I just can't get him out and actually he seems quite content to stay where he is.