I've been thinking of investing in an Elos Mini, and thought I would find more information, builds, pros/cons, and user opinions here at Nano-Reef. Suprizingly however, I find very little. Is the cost of the system generally not thought of as "worth" while, not enough "bang for buck"? Most of what I've read has been very positive with the tanks build quality and customer satisfaction. The only real "complaint" is the price. I believe I'd be purchasing without the E-Light, which I can't see being worth 8-900 dollars in any case. Thoughts?

If I could do it over again, I'd buy it without the light.

The e-lite is nice, but certainly not worth the extra money. You'll also have to see if you're lucky or not with the microbubble issue. There are a handful of us who have Minis here on NR.com, MOST of them are not stock, so keep that in mind. Despite the price, these tanks are far from perfect.

there amazingly great looking tanks. if i had extra money i would get one. but with $1000 i would rather buy a 250G then a 30-50G system. i guess thats just me.

$1000 can barely buy you a skimmer for a 250g....

The price currently is 899 and I thought that with the glass sump (not so common on AOI's), the Eheim (sp?) pump, the skimmer (which could be changed to a Tunze 9002 from what I've read), and it's compact size, that if I was to piece together something of equal quality and componentry new, I could easily reach 899 and perhaps even more. This is assuming of course that I would be completely happy with ALL the pieces I would buy individually and making my wife happy with whatever stand I managed to scrounge up. The tank is supposed to be going into the bedroom near the bed, although not at the head, it would either be mid or towards the foot of the bed. I am a little worried about noise, but have read that the Eheim pumps are the quieter ones out there.

I need to be careful about the "togetherness" and overall appearance of the system since getting it in the house and into the bedroom past my wife is a feat in itself.

If you can afford it, I say go for it. At the end of the day, its whatever makes you happy. The price is high, but your paying for quality and exclusiveness. I don't think many people on here can rave about the quality of there AIO.

Have you been to the elos forum on rc? There is a lot of build threads over there.

why dont you just buy custom for the same price or less?

I'm open to suggestions....

Riddle me this....

For a tank of the same dimensions and capabilities(i.e. sump,skimmer,plumbing,ATO,drilled w overflow,cabinet, and filtration) what would everyone suggest with real world priceing.

price is dependent on location.

where I am in southern california, and with internet shopping I would estimate a system to be as followed:

18in cube, low iron glass: 275-300
16in sump: 75
stand: 50 bucks homemade, 120 prefab
skimmer: tunze 9002 ~100 shipped used
plumbing: 25

total:~620.


The other benefit to a custom is that you get exactly what you want, and can fix the flaws inherent in a prefab bundle

I appreciate the ideas...keep them coming...

I'll give ?all glass cages? a call and see what a Starfire tank custum built would cost with corresponding sump...EDIT...Glasscages starfire sump, tank, and stand, reef ready and delivered within 4hours of my location is $710.

I looked up an Eheim Compact+ 2000 in the $80-90 range.

New Tunze 9002 $160 or 9005? at $290, used I'd need to find.


710 sump, tank, and stand
085 Eheim Compact
240 Tunze 9002 vs. 9005
025 Plumbing
$1060 so far

Prefab stand?? I'll need to search and/or find a local craftsman(UGgggH)



The quest continues....

Glass cages sucks. Find another builder. I personally like the elos mini. If you got the money go for it.

are you open to acrylic tanks? It might drop the cost way down

My heart was dead set on the Elos Mini. But because of the price I wanted to see it in person. An aquarium store in Manhatten has one setup so I stopped by to take a look. I will probobly get yelled at for this but I have to admit the light coming out of the LED's just seemed yellow. I have since changed my mind and am looking at other options. I am also waiting until inter-zoo when rumor has it they will be showing off a new LED light. Do yourself a favor and go see it for yourself before you take that big plunge.
Also, take a look at the CADLight 39 Pro series. Cheaper, still high quality and you get a sump, MH, etc..

Good luck and let us know what you end up choosing!

You're talking about the place on 37th by the Javits Center right? I think I was the one that told you to check that out. They have an older light set up, that's definitely very yellow. From my understanding Elos has one that has 3 extra royal blues instead of whites, the color is much better. My personal fixture is modded as such and looks great.

I have an Elos Mini. It's a great little tank, but it is flawed. The sump design is retarded and results in a lot of microbubbles. If I had to do it all again I'd get an Elos mini again but re-work the sump as I've seen done before. The E-lite fixture itself is second to none looks-wise so you have to figure out if you want to pay a premium for asthetics.

Hi BumbleBee,
Yup, that was the place i went to, thanks for that heads up by the way. They had some really nice setups there. The Elos 120 was something out of a "tank of the month" winner. My wife went with me and she kept looking at the Mini and then the 120 and saying "and why dont you want to get this instead?" lol! So it looks like i have the OK from the wife when i do pull the trigger on a larger system.
Back to the elos light, I could definetly be wrong but I could have sworn I looked under the light and saw that they had the "marine" version with the three blue LED's. Thats good to know about the sump, again. waiting for inter-zoo. hopefully its re-worked

The "marine" version supposedly has 6 blue LEDs not 3. The 3 blue LEDs is the standard e-lite that most of us have. To be honest, get the bigger system! The System 70 or System 120 (xl) should be on your wish list for the near future

Just skip the Mini and go big

You seen the 65 gallon Red Sea Max 250? That is my next tank. Soon as I make some more money next spring.

I disagree on the "get bigger" statement. Get 2 minis and have one be a Carribean Biotope!

I wish I could.

I got a 75 gallon free from a friend and had my wife all hyped up about it, but then she changed her mind and doesn't want it in the house. HENCE...I have convinced her to let me start a smaller tank in the bedroom, as a test run . My master plan includes making her fall in love with the beauty of the nano, and thereby pave the way to the larger tank. Either way, I will have A tank of some sort at least.


I was never planning to purchase the E-lite and would prefer a very small MH for shimmer or perhaps a MH/20" T5 HO combo if they exhist.

I don't know how to go about "designing" a good and compact sump to house what I need and yet function properly. Maybe it's not rocket science.

LEDs shimmer sir!

This is know, but I feel that the E-Lite is overpriced and enough isn't known regarding LED's and marine growth.

I was researching MH/T5HO combo fixtures and a decent "looking" with one with a small(150W) MH and 4- T5 slots from Current USA that seem reasonable.

There are a couple of others that I still need to look at.

I'd prefer a 20" fixture rather than the 24" but haven't decided on the use of a CF over a T5HO,any thoughts?

Divorce the wife and go big.

LOL. I'd say first attempt to convert her to a reefer before any talk of "divorce" ...

The mini would be a good choice to get her interested in the hobby, good luck.

I am curious to learn more about the e-light and LEDs in general. My local LFS owner took the LED's out of a display tank, apparently it was bleaching some of the SPSs. In addition to this, the LEDs have been failing on certain customer's tanks. I think they were using/selling Solaris fixtures.

Have any of you experienced anything like this? Are these problems unique to Solaris? How do you find the light coverage from the e-light?

I'd really like to pull the trigger on an Elos Mini.

Thanks,
Richard