Building Plans for nano-reef

[RAV-65]

Hi all, intending to build a nano reef, but no sump, no DSB, juz purely Berlin method... Live rock and skimmer.

Intend to use the following :

Tank: 2x1.5x1.5 Glass tank.

Built in IOS to cater for stuff like rowas, mechanical filter, GAC

Skimmer : AquaC Remora

Lights : 3 or 4 tubes of T5s

AC fan to run 24/7 at surface of water

2x Sicce Idra pumps to provide constant water flow to be hidden among rocks.

May have :

1 or 2 Seio 620 if neccessary

Keeping : some boxfishes and SPS frags...

Any comments?? Toying with this idea for a while liao, would it work??

[Joe_P]

Hi all, intending to build a nano reef, but no sump, no DSB, juz purely Berlin method... Live rock and skimmer.

Intend to use the following :

Tank: 2x1.5x1.5 Glass tank.

Built in IOS to cater for stuff like rowas, mechanical filter, GAC

Skimmer : AquaC Remora

Lights : 3 or 4 tubes of T5s

AC fan to run 24/7 at surface of water

2x Sicce Idra pumps to provide constant water flow to be hidden among rocks.

May have :

1 or 2 Seio 620 if neccessary

Keeping : some boxfishes and SPS frags...

Any comments?? Toying with this idea for a while liao, would it work??

Putting a external overflow box to this reef of yours and a sump might be a good idea..... gives you much more space in the already small area...

The additional water volume thru the addition of a sump would definitely help in the stability of watyer parameters....

Anyway, if this idea of yours ever come to pass.... Welcome to the world of the Nanos.....

[RAV-65]

Actually, it's just to keep a few mini boxfishes, maybe 2-3 in a "species" tank.... coz they dun like boisterious tankmates and at the same time, since the bio-load gonna be extremely low, thought can keep some frags of SPS and see if the can colour up real well, will be using a manual drip-top-up system on a daily basis to cover water losses..... Intend to keep it on a desk, so the sump is out....

[tineng]

boxfish might have problem with the current requirement pf SPS.....

[marinebetta]

Hi all, intending to build a nano reef, but no sump, no DSB, juz purely Berlin method... Live rock and skimmer.

Intend to use the following :

Tank: 2x1.5x1.5 Glass tank.

Built in IOS to cater for stuff like rowas, mechanical filter, GAC

Skimmer : AquaC Remora

Lights : 3 or 4 tubes of T5s

AC fan to run 24/7 at surface of water

2x Sicce Idra pumps to provide constant water flow to be hidden among rocks.

May have :

1 or 2 Seio 620 if neccessary

Keeping : some boxfishes and SPS frags...

Any comments?? Toying with this idea for a while liao, would it work??

With the IOS and what you are planning to put into the tank - x2 idra pumps +- seio - you will not have very much space for anything!

The IOS will effectively make your tank about a 1.5 ft cube; the idras and not small and will take up space needed for LR if you are intending to go without a sump; and the seios, although good for the tank size, take up considerable space - I temporarily have a 620 in my 1.5 ft and find it taking up valuable space and restricts aquascaping - had to pull yumas out of the intake more than once!

Take Joe_P's advice and connect up to a sump - the larger the better. You can then put pretty much all your filtration equipment etc there, out of sight of the main tank.

Forget about the IOS and consider drilling the back wall to link to a sump. Think it would be neater than having an overflow box.

...oh, and I would use starphire, or any other low iron glass

This is what I would have done it I had to re-do my nano again.....

[DeepBlue]

it would be very tough to find starphire glass of that size...may have to wait for reefers to do one with it and share the cost. I was told they come in one big piece.

nano's are hard to control due to the effects of the fluctuation of water parameter ...takes a lot of dedication.

Maybe can read up a little more in depth how danano managed his and get him to give a detailed writeup and advice what nano tank owners need to do ...

(must tap on nanoguru's expertise)

I used to dream about having a shroon and zoos paradise.....hmmm...

[surfedelic]

Welcome to the world of Nanos

I think Boxfish will nip on the Polyp of the sps - just for your info.

They are not reef-safe and the beak are pretty destructive. And also bear in mind that the dice-looking fish looks cute when small but become quite ugly when they are grows bigger when the color fades

[DeepBlue]

SPS with small gobies!!! Like Yashia or eviotas

That's what Joe did! Garden eel too

[surfedelic]

DB,

Yah ... I was thinking of garden eel too .. they looks cool... but not sure how deep a sandbed is required as i am not a fan of DSB.

Tried a team of yellow-tail blennies but 2 of them went for a hunger strike - now left 1

[Joe_P]

DB,

Yah ... I was thinking of garden eel too .. they looks cool... but not sure how deep a sandbed is required as i am not a fan of DSB.

Tried a team of yellow-tail blennies but 2 of them went for a hunger strike - now left 1

Hehe..... Nanos with gobies are a good way to start them...

Surfedelic, I have my sand bed only 1 inch thick and the deepest 2 inches in my reef. The two garden eels so far in my reef's doing pretty fine.

[Plenum]

Hi

Im also thinking of a nano for the longets time (3X2X1.5)... not really a nano but will partition the nrear portion, about 1/2 to 1 ft for sump/refugium. there this fella's nano in nano-reef.com damn nice. Sporean, think his nick is ck33 or something like that, but he did it without an external sump and it looks fantastic. check his tank out.

[Joe_P]

it would be very tough to find starphire glass of that size...may have to wait for reefers to do one with it and share the cost. I was told they come in one big piece.

Jus wondering if there are any other reefers out there keen on starting up Nanos,

Maybe could get them together, get a reliable tankmaker and order in a large sheet of starpire glass, get it cut into suitable sizings and making multiple tanks.

Jus wondering how the sizings and price of 6 mm starppire glass? and what the total cost of each unit would be like?

Anyone interested?

Eh... RAV 65, sorry for the off topic post..

[RAV-65]

No problem... all the contributions have sent me back to my drawing board, but indeed there are many factors to consider.... The basis of the nano is out of love for the little cube-shaped fishes, wanting to have a species tank for them, and I thought if that's the case, since bio-load is so low, maybe I can keep some SPS!!

But now, flow-rate and water volume has come into consideration... so gotta re-tink...

Anyway, ever since this sub-forum has started, dun seem to have much posts, so it doesn't matter if the thread goes off-topic from my plans, at least got some discussion going and can spread some expertise about nano-reefing!

[surfedelic]

Hehe..... Nanos with gobies are a good way to start them...

Surfedelic, I have my sand bed only 1 inch thick and the deepest 2 inches in my reef. The two garden eels so far in my reef's doing pretty fine.

Joe,

Cool man ....Any pics of your garden eel ?

[surfedelic]

Actually if it is a nanos .... Acrylic tank is also not a bad idea. Given the cost and the clarity. Definitely the scratches will be a headache but if you do it cautiously ... it will not be so bad ... but the height this time is much more shallower so the maintenance will be very much easiler .....currently my glass tank got too much tattoos on them and I hope I have an acrylic tank so that I could remove all the scratches..

As for the coraline aglae growth for the acrylic tank - it will not be that bad if you use 14K or 10K .... if you switch to 20k lighting - it will be a different story, you might end up cleaning them up on your front panel. Another idea I was thinking is to have a sligthly bigger tank says 2.5 ft width for lighting with a 2 x 2 light coverage so that the lighting will not fall on the glass panel at least not directly.

[Joe_P]

Joe,

Cool man ....Any pics of your garden eel ?

Not yet...

as the eels dun normally surface often so gonna be a little difficult to get some pics....

will try when I'm feeding them...

[limbssg]

This chap built his starphire glass tank just cost ard USD$30 with an overflow partition that's within the tank.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...20&pagenumber=1

[Joe_P]

Joe,

Cool man ....Any pics of your garden eel ?

Here's the link

[Terryz_]

Jus wondering if there are any other reefers out there keen on starting up Nanos,

Maybe could get them together, get a reliable tankmaker and order in a large sheet of starpire glass, get it cut into suitable sizings and making multiple tanks.

Jus wondering how the sizings and price of 6 mm starppire glass? and what the total cost of each unit would be like?

Anyone interested?

Eh... RAV 65, sorry for the off topic post..

Joe, this sounds great but will the price still be very high...