Setting up a Nano (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

I have my 2-gallon in a Marineland explorer. I did have my powerhead on in there, but even a really small one was too much for my sexy shrimps. As soon as I turned that off, all my polyps and shrooms opened up more. I only have a little 6 watt, I think on my tank and everything is pretty happy. My shrimps are always flirting with each other. Today I will be adding my neon goby to finish the collection. My one snail keeps the algae in check, while my bugs, wormies and hermits keep the detritus in check. Hopefully soon I will have my pics posted, but I am waiting to buy my new lenses for my camera since I need some good macro shots.

 

[Aggie05]

Best way to do it for an office desk is to go buy a 2.5 gallon tank. Then get an aqua clear mini HOB for circulation. You can remove all the media. For lighting you can either get one or two 13 watt PC lights. I had 2 over my 2.5. Go to lowes and in the extension cord section there are lights called bookworm worklights or something similar made by a company called bayco. They are 13 watt PC lights with 6400K bulbs. But they come in a completely sealed tube with a reflector in it. Then all you have to do is make a little hood and use the clips that the lights come with to hold them in. A quick order from hellolights and you have new bulbs for them. I have a pic of my setup I will post later. Besides lighting, I would use a tronic 50 watt heater, since it can fit inside of the aqua clear and thus will be out of the tank. I do suggest not getting a fish, number one because it is simply too small a space for any fish, and without any feeding you won't have to do water changes all the time. When I had my 2.5 running with only coral in it, I would go at least a month in between water changes. It was actually the most stable tank I had. Live Rock and sand wil be enough filtration to take care of the tank. So basically if you get all that stuff you will have a nano reef ready to go for under 100 bucks.


Also, make sure to check out www.nano-reef.com you will find tons of info. And there are a lot of 2.5 and smaller size nanos on there.

 

[Aggie05]

Ok, for some reason my reply went directly below the first post. My reply was in response to Invincible's post.

By the way, here is a pic of my 2.5 in its infancy before I took it down. Oh yeah, i only took it down because i was tired of having three tanks to worry about. It was probably my favorite tank and got most of my attention.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/63492760/72381768rkGumV


Ok, thats really weird. Something seems to be messed up with the posting of messages.

 

[Guest]

I am thinking of setting up a Nano tank for my office. What do you guys recommend and what is needed? Do i need powerheads for this small tank? how would the water circulate? Besides the tank, light and livestock, what else is needed? Im only planning on having a small fish and coral banded shrimp. Nothing else. Thanks!!

 

[Guest]

I have had my 10G up and running trouble free since August. Start with plenty of good live sand and cured LR. Use RO water and a good salt mix. I have a Penguin Bio-Wheel Mini as my only filtration. For additional water movement I also run a small power head, but unless you need it for corals, I wouldn't bother. Get a clean-up crew, crabs, snails, etc. Change 20% of your water EVERY week. Top off daily. Top off is important, as salinity levels can swing quickly due to evaporation in such a small system.

That's pretty much it. I have 96W PC for lighting and keep monti dig., monti cap, torch, candy canes, zoanthids, ricordea, mushrooms, gsp, and xenia. I have an emerald crab, and a peppermint shrimp in addition to my clean-up crew. Everything is doing great. Good luck with yours.

 

[RR-MAN]

You can buy the Via Aqua 18/g for $180 complete online. It comes with 2X36/w PC and it looks really nice.

good luck,

 

[Aggie05]

here is the pic of the hood I built with the 13 watt pc in it. If you want to use two, there is enough room to put them side by side. It is held in place by the clip that comes with it.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/63492760/122812871LiEjgq

 

[fishcraze]

RR MAN, i think i saw that setup in Global store recently.. not sure how much is that?

 

[Cakepro]

I have an 11 gallon Via Aqua tank...it's quite beautiful, with bent glass corners. The PC lighting that comes with it is pretty cool too. The only other thing it needed was a little power filter. My mom kept seahorses in it before she got tired of it and gave it to me.

Here's a pic:

~ Sherri

 

[RR-MAN]

Fishcraze,
Actually, the first time I saw the via aqua was nano-reef.com, there are some cool looking tanks.

Sherri,
It looks really cool to do all softies...I prefer the 18/g, it comes with 2X32 PC and the 11/g comes with 2X18 PC.
So do you still have the seahorses in it or what?

 

[Guest]

How did your mom set it up for sea horses? I have always wanted some but never really researched them. I figured they were real picky about water and I would need sump, skimmer, ect after reading all the info at the New Orleans Aquarium.
Are you sure she was keeping sea horses and not sea monkies?

 

[Cakepro]

I actually set it up for her about a month before Christmas at my house with live sand, live rock, and water from my reef tank, along with a bunch of mushrooms, button polyps, candycane coral, monti cap, and a red tree sponge. On Christmas Eve while my parents were at midnight Mass, we transported it to their house (about 20 minutes away), set it up, and covered it with a big wrapped box. Hee hee. She loved it! We ordered the ponies from Premium Aquatics and they were raised on frozen mysis, so they were no problem. We added a cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp, as well as a threadfin goby and Sri Lankan red banded pistol shrimp. All of the corals in that tank, under two 18 watt pc lights, grew amazingly well. It was a beautiful tank. After a year or so, the ponies died and she tried a little clownfish and tiny velvet damsel. Needless to say, too much bioload. Hair algae took hold and the tank never was the same. She and my dad decided they wanted to start traveling more and she was tired of worrying about the tank while she was gone, plus the hair algae drove her nuts, so we tore it down and all the contents went into my tanks. It's sitting empty in my fish room.

The seahorses were captive bred, so they were no problem at all. It was a gorgeous little tank, and if I ever get ready to set up a nano, I learned a lot of things from her experience that I will apply.

Lots of people have seen and commented on my candy cane corals. The two colonies that I have on the sandbed, one green colony and one pink colony, came from her nano tank, and the green colony which now has about 27 heads originally started in her tank with only two.

~ Sherri