nano reef aquarium

 

Building a nano reef aquarium seemed to go against everything that I had learned many years ago when I had a 180 gallon reef tank. How could I possibly keep water parameters stable enough to house live corals with a small tank? I had read articles on this subject and decided to give it a try. I also decided to keep SPS corals, which seemed even more to be a doomed attempt. I purchased the a Current Aquapod 24 gallon aquarium with the 150 watt 14,000k HQI metal halide and 6 each of the blue and white lunar lights. A separate small power head was installed and comes on twice a day to change the water flow.

I started by setting up the aquarium and mixing the saltwater. Then I added a two inch layer of live sand and allowed to settle before restarting the pumps. After running for three days the water cleared and it was time to add the live rock. The nice thing about a nano reef aquarium is, it doesn't take very much live rock to fill the tank. After running the tank for about a week, I checked the water quality for nitrites and ph level. It was now time for the fun part of adding corals, fish and invertebrates. Over the next month I slowly started adding AragaMilk to eventually raise the calcium level to 450 ppm.

I have been running the tank for 2 1/2 months now and the SPS corals are already showing signs of growth. The coralline algae has colored up nicely and is also showing signs of growth. I had to remove one of the live rocks to make room for some of the corals at the top. It is easy to keep up with the weekly water changes and doesn't cost much since I only change 2 1/2 gallons per week. I buy distilled water for water changes and topping off evaporated water. At $.64 per gallon, it doesn't make since to buy a reverse osmosis water purifier for water changes.

Nano reef aquariums are great for SPS coral frags. To attatch the frags to the live rock, I use Marineland's Hold Fast, which is a two part epoxy similar to plumbers epoxy. The glue will quickly be overgrown by coralline algae or the coral itself. Many SPS corals are now aquacultered leaving the ocean's natural reefs preserved.