starting a nano and need guidance

[rawest]

hello i've always had fresh water tanks and now im thinking of taking the jump into salt water with building a nano tank. the idea is to house a green mandarin. upon reasearch i found out that they relish on pods eating every few minutes and require a large system unless culturing pods. it'd be nice to accomplish this but the fear is losing the system. or making costly amiture mistakes. if someone well experianced or educated in the matter i would greatly appericate advice. some questions and concerns i have is what other live stock would be ok to keep with the mandarin and not be compiton for food. crabs, stars, etc.. my plan is to either do 10 gal nano but if i have to im perpared to do 20 long with a ten gal fuge as well as cuturig pods in jars.

as i said i dont want to run into foolish problems losing fish and my system. i have the glass but desifering the mass disorganization of information about this topic to plan the next steps. do i go ten gal with store bought overflow filer unit. the subcurrent surface skimming aquarium filter recomended from my local pet store. for a fish live rock set up. i figure it'd be fine for a damsel, blenny and some crab. but how good is it to run a set up like that without a protien skimmer. the filter in which recomended is three stages fiber prefilter, activated carbon and bio balls with duals hoses that can be moved and directed as disired.

[dsaundry]

Manderin{Dragonettes} need bigger tanks..small tanks are death sentences imo. Stick to a nice pair of clowns and a nem.

[beefORchicken]

i have a 25g tank and a green mandarin. he's done really well but i have around 40lbs of lr plus an ac50 and ac70 fuge. i don't think one could survive in a 10g maybe a 20g. culturing pods could work but that's a lot of effort for a green mandarin. your call, make sure if you do get a mandarin that you have plenty of pods ready...before i got mine i had tons - at night they covered my sand bed. good luck with whatever you do do !

[rawest]

yea its been done long as there is enough food to eat. theres an article i found where buddy had one sucessfully for a few years before he got asked to wirte an artical for a reef mag. my concern is with keeping other fish and crab that eat pods too. there will be compition and my pods will be demolished. there are fish that'll eat pellet flake and blood worms. but going over page after page of different care sheets and compairing each is starting to get a little rough on the eyes. it'd be great if an individual would give me directiong on tank mates.
in the artical there were referense on other articles with links on being able to wein the dragonettes onto blood worms as a supplement. and the dragonette taking on tendancies of its tank mates. plus it gave other tips like picking lr that is porus with lots of surface area and arranging a spot where pods can live and breed without fish having access to this area. buried in the back. and he was injecting pods into a ten gal every couple of days. towards the end of the article the mandarin was eating frozeen mysis as well. there will have to be a lot of thought and research and its deffinatly not happening tomorrow so i have time to gather materials to culture pods to get that started when the live sand and rock are added right now its just tanks on my floor and an idea. but i knew i was going to get people saying not to do it. maybe culturing pods on such a scale to house a mandarin could be a lot of work if its just one nano. these are things i dont really know about i have an idea but in reality its easier said then done. and it always looks better on paper and in theory.

[intarsiabox]

Frozen eating mandarins come up for sale in stores very now and then and if you're lucky it may survive in a nano tank. Being as this is your first tank why don't you want to start off with more simple/hardier live stock to keep. A pair of clown fish, small flasher or fairy wrasse, small gobies, royal gramma, etc. All of these fish can have spectacular coloring and are entertaining to watch without any specialized care. Gobies and scooter blennies will bounce around the rocks just as mandarins do. Through some easy to keep soft corals in there, a couple of shrimp and snails and you will have an active, vibrant and easy to keep nano reef. If this turns into a hobby you really enjoy start a larger tank and get a mandarin when you feel you have the skill to keep one alive. Good Luck!

[rawest]

well as i said this isn't happening over night and the mandarin is not going to be my frist fish in the tank. this will happen in a couple years time. i plan on runing live rock and sand for a good six months to establish the system then add animals as need. algee crabs or something. just taking my time with it. i wanted a mandarin for a long long time. i love its colours patterns. my goal is to keep it happy. right now i need help with getting the set up started whats the best way to keep water clean and healthly. should i run a skimmer or will a fliter and water changes do. with macro in the tank. thoughts?