Pondering nano setup (1 Viewer)

[decimal]

I would be grateful if anyone could give their esteemed opinion on AIO setups vs Rimless. Do they both eventually require sumps anyways to hook up skimmers and all the peripherals?

i was thinking of 16g (+/-) AIO with a mod lid as a desktop. But It looks like after skimmer, you quickly run out of room for anything else So maybe a nano rimless with a sump is “cleaner” up top?

I guess for a few zoas + softies I don’t need too much peripheral equipment but any input would be appreciated.

 

[Luman01]

Tbh it depends on you. I’ve ran nanos and picos with and with out skimmers, high end and cheap setups. If your just gonna do a zoa heavy tank and a say a pair of clowns or something similar weekly 10% water changes are best. Rather put that money in a nice light. For a small tank having a sump I feel makes it not work it might as well get a bigger tank. The only thing I would say you need is an ato for sure. I never will run any size tank with out an ato.
Hope that helps a bit

 

[decimal]

evaporation in an AIO with lid shouldn’t be a huge deal or?

 

[Luman01]

evaporation in an AIO with lid shouldn’t be a huge deal or?

Even with a lid, if it’s glass then yes ato. If your gonna Do mesh lid then you can get away with topping off by hand but In my case Im to busy to worry about topping off the tank.

 

[-AnThOnY-]

evaporation in an AIO with lid shouldn’t be a huge deal or?

I have a glass lid on mine (10 gallon WaterBox) with just the back partition open to air and I lose maybe 1-1.5 cups of water over the weekend which is basically negligible. ATO would be nice, but for me I like not having extra stuff around, especially since its on my desk at work.