help planning to set up of my new Nem tank, please

[Ballyhoo]

i just ordered the Red Sea Nano Max Gl, dim 21.4 "x21"x22" h.

I guess the first thing I'm wondering is can I use the tank water of my current red sea 200. I finally got it dialed in and the coral and all the species are doing well, although it is dependent on a phosphate reactor. in my current sump from the "mother tank "I have a large live rock to donate, plus i have many small polyp stones. should I transfer them actually? Do I use any of my current water, stones or rock, sand from mother tank so that I can have a semi cycled tank? i'm nervous about live sand in a bag because I really never know what's in Live bagged sand like anaerobic bacteria, which may create a real difficult phase but LfS encourages me live sand is fine. I definitely want to buy a mini phosphate reactor for nano tanks. I guess I want BTA and similar type nems. there some many species out there. I'm not sure how long would it take for me before I hope the species I already have a pretty well cycled tank that I can draw from, though maybe if I wanted a higher level of perfection then my current tank I would start completely new and just long-haul it with dry sand and dry rock. thank you any ideas for setting up new nem tank appreciated.
if you're gonna ask me what species I want I haven't figured it out yet. I just know there are a lot of beautiful species out there and I would imagine one of the species would be a BTA.

and why am I doing such a thing when I've only had my first tank for less than five months? Well the sheer beauty of the nem tanks I have seen has enthralled me to this point.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Yes, using the stones in your sump will insta-cycle the tank. I actually add more rock to my sump if I'm preparing a new build. The nitrifying bacteria lives on surfaces, not free floating in the water, so there is no benefit to using old tank water. In fact, its basically dirty change out water, I would not want to start a new tank with dirty change out water.

IMO, no need for "live" sand. Its basically just regular sand with some bacteria added to it. The rocks will do the trick anyhow.. Although, its a good idea to use a couple of scoops of sand from the old tank to help seed the new sandbed.

 

[TX_REEF]

agreed, use mature rock and new water. Also, for flow, I'd recommend just using the return pump turned up so you don't have to have powerheads which are always a ticking time bomb in nem tanks. BTAs especially don't need very much flow. pics when setting up pls

 

[Ballyhoo]

thanks a lot for the advice!
well, not even like a gallon of tank water from after the water change on the mother tank? Would not a gallon of mother tank water help bring in Copapods and other species that might otherwise take a long time to cultivate?

 

[TX_REEF]

thanks a lot for the advice!
well, not even like a gallon of tank water from after the water change on the mother tank? Would not a gallon of mother tank water help bring in Copapods and other species that might otherwise take a long time to cultivate?

nope, no need, the mature rock will give you all those benefits.

 

[Ballyhoo]

so tomorrow I'm getting my tank my second tank. It's the red Sea nano max, 29 gallon cube with a little back sump. As stated in this OPI I'm pretty excited about this, but I'm really wondering what other type of sea life can coexist with nems in general? I mean, I still haven't decided which nems I will be getting, I think BTA but i know i will have a period of time until i get the parameters suitable for the first BTA or a Carpet . That last one's big maybe. I have decisions to make about species to get, but really what I'm interested in learning more about on this topic is what other types of inverts can i get? Snails, shrimp? Starfish? i know certain species of any genre will be a negative, but some species should be ok for each gente as well? For example can conche live along BTA? i see my conche is a major adventurer so im not sure how that would work out w Bta's etc.
maybe some members can can be some ideas of what other species of sea life you have in ur nem tanks besides Clownfish.
thanks all!

 

[TX_REEF]

so tomorrow I'm getting my tank my second tank. It's the red Sea nano max, 29 gallon cube with a little back sump. As stated in this OPI I'm pretty excited about this, but I'm really wondering what other type of sea life can coexist with nems in general? I mean, I still haven't decided which nems I will be getting, I think BTA but i know i will have a period of time until i get the parameters suitable for the first BTA or a Carpet . That last one's big maybe. I have decisions to make about species to get, but really what I'm interested in learning more about on this topic is what other types of inverts can i get? Snails, shrimp? Starfish? i know certain species of any genre will be a negative, but some species should be ok for each gente as well? For example can conche live along BTA? i see my conche is a major adventurer so im not sure how that would work out w Bta's etc.
maybe some members can can be some ideas of what other species of sea life you have in ur nem tanks besides Clownfish.
thanks all!

BTAs will not harm most creatures, you can have them with whatever you like except perhaps seahorses and pipefish that are not strong swimmers.

 

[Ballyhoo]

omg where to start! at least yesterday finished installing my RO Odi system.

 

[Ballyhoo]

well, I couldn't wait. I have set up my Nem tank, but it's just full of live rock and salt water. took a plunge and got a bubble tip and anemone for the mother tank Yesterday. I placed it on this rock work and it kind of just really likes it. It stays there but sometimes burrows underneath and I couldn't find it and then pops back out again.

 

[Ballyhoo]

here is the nem tank. Unfortunately I have no LED installed yet because red sea didn't package a second power cable attachment. I decided to use aragonite dry gravel . I just like the looks and don't like not knowing what is in live sand, although it's been quite cloudy since I filled it up with water, decreasingly every hour.

 

[Ballyhoo]

new nano is coming along. But I guess I was spoiled having the 200 G2 max. Like in this nano, I cannot adjust the pump and the sump is so small. The nano skimmer really has no adjusting mechanisms that I see, but it's OK making me be more Hands-on will increase my skills. with my other tank, everything can be done through the app pretty much. I'm not sure how I'm gonna do with the heater inside the aquarium if the Nems get into. Also I made a major mistake or a minor I don't know, as I added my rodi water I but didn't rinse my aragonite first. It has been very cloudy, decreasingly so I'm not sure if I should change so a major water change due to not rinsing the aragonite , I've read maybe I'm gonna have high silicates and dyno etc. should this be a concern? already ordered my Krakken lid. I had to put a sketch for a hang on nano phosphate reactor that I bought. A couple of the large live rock are from the mother tank. Others are new from LSS. Also, I kept several poly lab bars in my mother tank, but I don't wanna take too much from the mother tank and disturb that system so I just took two polyp lab bars into the new tank.

Harry and Moe seem happy enough

thanks all!

 

[Ballyhoo]

Nem tank is coming along so far. I transferred a lot of rock, sand and polyp brick from the mother tank a and bought a BTA yesterday and a couple clowns several days ago. noticed a hitchhiker . Not a hermit crab, but a real miniature looking crab that has two claws as hands and grabs for like my parrot grabs food, like my little conure parrot grabs her food. Yes I will admit. I took a couple coral into the tank as well.
and understand the may be sacrificial lamb. I still need to plan exactly what kind of coral I want. Any ideas of appreciated. Carpet seem Cray Cray seen that they kill Fish. hitchhiker crab.
heartbreaker took accelerate cycling and or from the previous clinic. at not permanent fixtures. I'm impressed with the size of the sump on this nano literally 20" x 4" x 20" so the sun gifts a lot of opportunity to automate the tank. it's nighttime now so nothing is too much active.
I was worried about the heater so I stuck it inside the spa area but very high area in the sump. I'm gonna remove the top off for an ATO plus and that extra room I'm gonna use for a phosphate reactor.