The Weald Aquatics Blog

I have set up an impressive small 30 litre Nano tank.

The Aquael nano reef is a "plug and play" marine system. It comes with a hang-on external filter with a pump that turns over 1200 litres an hour, a 50 watt nano heater with built-in thermostat, and twin 11-watt marine bulbs (one white and one blue) that have their own switches. This allows you to simulate a night time setting by just running the blue bulb.

I have never set up a small marine system as they can be overly complicated and notoriously difficult to maintain, but I must say that so far I am really impressed.

The equipment goes together very simply and I had the tank up and running in around 20 minutes. I am really impressed with the power of the filter pump, not only for keeping the water clean but also the amount of water circulation it provides. This is important when keeping corals.

I have added a lot of "Live Rock", not only to decorate the aquariumm and provide places for the fish to hide and corals to grow, but also to act as a 'living filter' and I think this is essential for a stable marine system.

I have used salted RO water in the aquarium (which we now sell) and fitted a small external thermometer to make sure I can keep an eye on the temperature.

The tank has been running for several weeks now as it begins to mature. The water quality is incredibly stable and the aquarium is getting a 25% water change every week.

This tank is perfect for small fish, shrimps, crabs and soft corals. I have already put in a pair of small yellow gobies and an algae blenny which are all doing really well. I have begun to put in some very small pieces of coral such as Xenia, Pulse coral, Organ pipe, mushrooms and Daisy coral. They are all doing really well and spreading faster than I expected; this light unit exceeded all our expectations!

I will continue to put corals in over the next few weeks as I think a system like this is better suited to lots of small soft corals and shrimp than fish, although I may pop a couple more in.

This really is a simple set up targeted at the beginner when it comes to marine keeping. The only way I can see people going wrong is by putting too many fish in because let's face it, there are so many amazing fish to choose from. But there is always a bigger aquarium!

If you have any questions you can always send us an email or better still, come in and have a look for yourself. In about 6 months time this little tank will be a knock out!
 
See you soon.