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Eclipse 3g Roll Call


ocellaris

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ocellaris

Alrighty,

 

To my surprise, there are a number of us nano-reefers using the Eclipse System 3 (3 gallon) for a nano. So far, I found that the following people have Eclipse 3g's:

 

Pulse13

Jahkaya

gerwerken

gustavo1999

Supernip

ocellaris (me)

 

Anyone else care to add themselves to this distinguished list? Just thought we might be able to our insight and practical experience with one another regarding creating a nano out of this little tank.

 

- ML

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  • 1 month later...
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You can add me to the list. My nano is about a week old now. I'm not sure how much I can contribute but I have read A LOT so I think I have some book (web) smarts. I'll add some first hand experience to that as my nano develops.

 

Exciting stuff!

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Thanks!

 

Overflowing with corals huh? Sounds great. Can't wait until I get to that point. I'd love to see a pic and some info on what you have in there from equipment to invertebrates, etc.

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Add me. I've had mine going for almost 2 years. (I took it down for a few months in between tho). Now its a zoanthid prop tank.

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The Best Pics I can get are the Crappy ones from my cell phone. I can give you specs though.

 

Lighting - 1x9watt 5500k; 1x9watt 7100k blue (mini Might) 1 Book worm 13watt 6500k(soon to be 10k 50/50)

 

1x104 zoo med mini

1x304 zoo med (carbon Run on occasion)

 

Live stock:

 

Green Favites, 4 different types of zoos, Orange Montipora Digitata, 2 types of shrooms, Xenia Elongata, Frogspawn, Brownish purple colt, green sinularia, Green star polyps, Candy Cane, 3 worthless blue legs, various hitch hiking snails and slugs, and one catalina goby(2weeks new, so far so good).

 

These all have room to grow and half will go into the 20 in roughly 3 weeks or when the cycle completes. you can always stuff more in there, but then it just looks cluttered. I have to rescape it, regardless.

 

I have no heater as the tank stays 74-78 maybe to 80 on a hot day. (just went home to turn the air on it as it may reach 90 outside today)

 

That's about it.......for now.

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Korbin:

 

I didn't know you once had a "real Nano" Welcome to the club.

 

I like to think the "real Nanos" are ones that are 5 gallons or less. I guess Mini Bows 7's and Eclipse 6's count too, but I like the idea of the super small tanks. They are just more what I picture nano's to be. My 20 seems like a huge system.

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Wow! Awesome! Look how many Eclipse System 3 users there are!

 

Thanks for your specs Jahkaya. Korbin and m301, I'd love to hear about yours as well. I'd/we'd appreciate any advice you experienced 3G'ers can give us newbies :)

 

Right now, I'm at the very early stage of the game. My cycle seems to be complete and stable so I'm going to do a 20% water change tomorrow and then add two or three hermits and a couple of Astrea snails. I wouldn't mind a cleaner shrimp as well but with their tentacles they look like they'd be too big for the Eclipse.

 

One of the many questions I have is in regards to stocking the tank with various corals. Where can I get the small frags that I need? Everything I see at my LFS is rather huge for our 3G tank and obviously we need to keep things small yet still replicate a real reef. This is like the Bonzai of reef keeping.

 

Of course, I still have to sort out the lighting as I'm still running on the stock 6W NO. I've looked around for some Bookworms but can't find any locally. I'm going to try calling Bayco directly or maybe just order them online through paperdirect. Alternatively my LFS has some 10w 50/50 CFs with a bulb type socket so I could always rig something up with a couple of those.

 

Sorry to ramble on like that but I'm just very excited.

 

I'm using the HOT filter minus the filter media and biowheel as well as the stock lighting. Temps stay between 78º-80º day/night so I don't have a heater in there. I do have a Rio 90 standing by in case I need more flow. Not sure yet.

 

Here's a pic of my tank as it stands today. Not much to look at just some aragonite and LR.

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this all sounds very intriguing. i may be able to save loads of money by using this tank. my lfs has one of these fully stocked for sale "on sale" at $249. that seems a little high to me, so i just may do it myself. anyway, i have a question. What type of heater would i use for such a small system, and is cooling this small tank ever a problem?

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Penguin87, frankly $249 for a set up system does not seem too high at all. If you need to buy all the bits and pieces yourself it can certainly come up to that much. Especially if the tank is fully stocked.

 

However, what you will be missing out on is the experience/fun/joy of setting it up yourself and all the learning that goes with it. As much as I want to have a nano reef all set up and ready to go, it's the journey that is interesting.

 

In regards to your questions, you can find small 25W heaters at your LFS that will suit this tank just fine. Just look for the smallest one you can possibly get. Whether you need one or not is something that you will have to find out yourself. Some of us use a heater, some don't. I guess it depends on the ambient temperature of the room where your tank is located. What I would suggest is to leave out the heater for now and just buy a $2 thermometer. While you are cycling, monitor your water temperature in the morning, afternoon and at night. You'll find out pretty quickly whether you need a heater or not.

 

Cooling might be a problem though; especially if you have a lot of lights under the hood. Options are to leave the top lid open, remove the little bit of extra plastic where the wires exit the hood or get a small fan.

 

If you do a search on the names of the individuals that are listed at the top of this thread you read their posts and find out what they have done to get some extra ideas.

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cool. i guess $249 is about right, but i was going to do it on my own either way if i go with the eclipse 3. It would probably go in my finished basement which maintains basically a constant temp. all through the year, so i guess my only real problem would be cooling.

thanks!

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cooling will be a problem, but more so the stability of the Temperature. If you can keep a tank at a consistent 74-76 you are fine and the same goes with 82-84. The key is stability!

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Things are doing well in my tank so far, but I've kept it as a fowlr. I just came back from a week long trip to new orleans and the front and sides are full of algae. Time to whip out the credit card....

 

-ML

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do you guys use the stock filter? and what kind of lights do you get to fit the hood? if this works ill probably get an eclipse 6... thanx for your info guys ... great board we got here! B)

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ch0ch,

 

I think most of us take out the stock filter and lighting. On the 3g, the best fit are the bookwork lights with hello lights 50/50's. I also use a microjet powerhead that measures 2"x2"x2.5" - works well.

 

-ML

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Well, I went out to my LFS last night and got me a cleanup crew. Here's what came home with me.

 

3-blue legged hermits (they're tiny tiny)

2-Astrea snails

1-Peppermint shrimp

 

I took my time and acclimated them over a 3.5 hour period slowly adding a teaspoon of tank water every 15 minutes to their bags. For now they seem to be doing fine and chowing down on the algae.

 

Q - I took out the HOT pump and put in a Rio 90 this morning since I didn't feel like I was getting enough water flow. With the HOT, all the visible movement seemed to be directly under the place where the water flows back into the tank. On the other side of the tank things looked quiet though obviously there is flow since that's where the pickup tube is.

 

The Rio on the other hand needed to be turned down quite a bit 'cause at full force it was way too much for the Eclipse.

 

I don't know. I'm kind of torn. I like the HOT cause I can add filter for an hour or so if I want to polish up the water. It's small and doesn't take up much space in the tank itself. On the other hand, does it provide enough flow? (I kind of did a little test and I am guesstimating that the Eclipse HOT pumps out roughly 50 gph which is pretty damn impresive.)

 

What do ya'll think? Rio or HOT?

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Caius,

 

By HOT, do you mean the stock filter that came with the tank? If so, the it's rated at 35gph. Even when run with out the media, I found that there were some stagnant areas in the tank.

 

ML

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Thanks ML. Yeah, I found that when the water level was all topped up, the flow seemed quite slow but if took the water level down about an inch or so then it seemed to be quite turbulent right underneath the water spout. Still, like you said, there was some dead spots in the tank. Now that I've had the powerhead in there for two days I can certainly see the difference.

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Oh BTW, here's a picture of my tank as it stands today along with it's cleanup crew. Man, I'm so addicted to this new hobby - it's so much fun and I'm learning so much!

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I need to add a powerhead to mine one of these days. I just got my hellolights 50/50 bulb, looks much better than the 6500K. I also started dosing B-Ionic, the Ca is a little low at ~300ppm. I'll get some pics with the new light soon.

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hey guys new to this board. i have an eclipse three as well. this is what i have on it so far:

 

3.5 pounds of live rock

5 pounds live sand

2-13 watt pc / actinic and 10000 k

mini jet power head

visi therm 25 watt heater (i think)

3 scarlet leg hermits, 3 snails (not sure what kind)

1 cleaner shrimp

 

my lights are pretty bright, no problems with heat as long as i pop the top lid thingy up. i like my three gallon cause it doesnt take up that much room and everything is under the hood so it looks clean on my bar. i took the filter out and my biowheel and just using the top part just for water circulation. i'm going to add some coral frags soon, probably some shrooms and polyps. keeping it simple.

 

any input or comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

thanks!

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That shrimp looks as if he is thinking 'im king of the tank' hehe. I like your choice in clean up crew...and the peppermint makes a good centerpiece for the tank! Are you thinking of getting a fish or just making it a reef?

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Thanks Katydidit. The shrimp is a pretty funny character. He just recently learned to swim upside down on the water surface when I drop some food in there. He goes nuts for it. I do plan on adding 1 small fish and some corals of some sort. All slowly to make sure that everything is settled down.

 

I am still learning as I'm going along and I don't want to kill any of my livestock. Unfortunately one of my Astrea snails died a couple of days ago, I'm guessing due to high Nitrate levels (20 ppm). The hermits were all bundled up in the nooks of the rock and didn't move the hole day. I did a 20% water change, followed by a 10% the next day and another 10% the following day and they all seem to be okay now. Phew.

 

Obviously, I still have to get a good water change routine as right now I'm all over the place. Can't seem to get my Nitrates below 10 ppm. I'm going to be doing every second day water changes starting tonight and I've cut back on the feeding from every day to every 3 days in hopes that it might help.

 

Mainting proper water parameters in a 3 gallon is indeed challenging. Anyway, until I get that sorted out I don't want to add anything, so like I said, I'm going to go slow.

 

Montaay, glad to hear that we have another Eclipse 3G'er on board. How old is your tank. Got any pics? I'm also interested in your lighting as I still have to sort out that issue.

 

Got a couple of questions for you. Are you using the Eclipse water pump (minus filter and biowheel) along with your powerhead? Does that not take up too much room and is it too much water flow? What's the gph of your powerhead?

 

Reason why I'm asking is because I'm still torn between using my Rio 90 powerhead or just the Eclipse pump? I'd love to use just the Eclipse pump but by itself it doesn't seem to provide enough flow. I have an idea of rigging up some good sized tubing to the outlet of the Eclipse pump and distribute that to the corners of the tank and see if that's any better. I also want to try blocking off those outlets and seeing if I can rig up a surge device. I tried it with my fingers and there is definitely enough flow. Just need some time and the right size tubing to try all this out. Hopefully one day this week.

 

Sorry to go on and on...

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hey caius glad to see that im not the only one that has a three gallon. all my friends said im retarded for trying to start a three gallon but im proving them wrong.

 

the tank used to be freshwater and i had some old lights my old roomate had laying around. both lights were mounted in a reflector and all i did was mount the lights where the stock ones are. it goes in there pretty clean, but i had to snip pieces of the reflector to make the lid go on perfectly. i hear of everyone that has a three gallon on this post using bookworm lights? i have no idea what these are but im sure they work just as well. when i get the change i'll take a few pictures of the lighting and show you how they are mounted in my hood.

 

im using a little mini jet power head that i picked up at jeffs exotic fish in torrance (i think theyre in torrance, i forgot) along with my stock eclipse filter thats in the hood. theyre really really small and clean looking, i believe that someone on this board is also using the same power head. it can be hidden behind rocks or just be put on the side of the tank. you might want to experiment with the powerhead locations to create good water flow. the flow is pretty good, its adjustable so it wont create a storm atmosphere in your tank. if you aim it at where the water flows out of the tank it'll create a pretty cool current. just fiddle around with it.

 

hope this answered some of your questions. sorry if i'm rambling. i might put up some pics later.

 

peace...

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