Setting up 6.5 pico, equipment advice needed!

[Brie]

So.. i'm about to delve for the first time into the keeping of a nano, well, technically pico, tank keeping.. I'm having trouble getting answers on other larger forums so maybe you guys can help me out.. I just really want some opinions.

 

Here's the set up I have planned.. Today I purchased the tank, heater, filter, a coralife digital thermometer and 12 gallons of prepacked sanitized sea water... So now all I have left to buy is the skimmer, substrate and a powerhead/pump.

 

 

I plan on sticking with Softies and LPS. I've read that they're the easier to maintain and are forgiving(as far as corals go) to n00b errors.

 

 

Tank

6.5gal elongated tank

24 x 8 x 9

 

Skimmer

AquaC Nano Remora sounds good. But does anyone have any other suggestions to a very small nano skimmer thats worth buying?

 

Lighting

Coralife 24 Inch Aqualight With 1-65W Actinic / 1-65W 10,000K Lamp Straight Pin Base (with fans)

 

But do you think this would cook such a shallow tank with softies and LPS? I really wanted something with an actinic light as well... If anyone has a better suggestion, please tell!

 

Heater

25w Visi-therm Stealth

 

And this is where it gets tricky. With such a small tank, and lights, plus a heater, will this tank seriously cook? I'm sure the lights will keep it fairly warm during the day, but what about at night when the lights are off? I'm worried about the flux in temp.

 

Filter

The tank kit comes with a small HOB filter, but I personally think its way too small, so I picked up my filter of choice, an Aquaclear 20. I'll probably only use a peice of floss pad, and carbon once a week or so. Or is this a bad idea? Thought on filters?

 

Circulation

Eheim 1212 Aquaball Powerhead (Would this model be too powerful?) or a

Tunze Turbelle NanoStream Pump 6025

 

Substrate

I really would like to use CaribSea Aragalive Indo Black sand. But is buying live sand in a prepackaged bag worth it? Or is it just going to be loaded full of dead bacteria and nitrate? I might also just snag some sand from a friends 240gal reef as well since I'll only need 6-7lbs of it. I just really like black sand. lol

 

Also, any good recommendations as to test kits? Especially calcium?

 

Now for what i'd like to stock it with.

 

I'm thinking Colt, Hammer, Mushrooms, Ricordea, and green star polyps.. For shrimp i'd like a Fire shrimp. And 1 goby, species i'm still deciding on. I wanted a Catalina REALLY badly, but alas they're a cold water fish. So I might end up going with nice green clown goby, or maybe a red headed goby.

 

And I know everyone is going to explode when I say this, but i'd like to try to keep a young maxima clam, once the tank is firmly established and all the bugs are worked out. I'll be giving it to my friend with the 240g after about a year or so(or as soon as the clam gets too big). I understand all that is required for keeping clams, so no worries. I know what i'd be getting myself into. lol. The question is lighting. Is it at all possible to keep soft corals and LPS in such a shallow tank along with a clam?

 

Anyone, any wise words or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

[dtfleming]

Sounds good, whats the wattage on the light? I would suggest an AC50or70 for flow with a powerhead. Live sand will work to help the cycle along with purchasing some LR 6lbs. You might want to try a microjet powerhead.

[Brie]

Sounds good, whats the wattage on the light? I would suggest an AC50or70 for flow with a powerhead. Live sand will work to help the cycle along with purchasing some LR 6lbs. You might want to try a microjet powerhead.

 

65w per bulb. So it'd be a total of 130w on a 6gal shallow tank.

 

I planned on buying live sand, but wanted to know if buying it prepackaged was worth it, or if everything in the sand will just be dead, negating the point of buying it to begin with...

 

Thanks for the powerhead recommendation, i'll look it up.

[Sushi]

That's a beautiful tank, with great dims. May I ask where you purchased it?

[dtfleming]

You've plenty of light, maybe too much light for that size tank. Live sand has bacteria in it to help the cycling process, but it's up to you to use it or just regular sand. Make sure you get a test kit that tests:ph, ammonia,nitrate,nitrite,calcium.

[Diskusting]

I would go for an AC 70 with the Fuge mod. Works like a charm. As far as a clam under pc lighting is very questionable most say that MH lighting is required by clams. On another note for when you purchase live rock may I reccomend http://www.premiumaquatics.com/ and there nano live rock. Its the perfect size for a small tank like 6.5 and 5.5's when I got mine I was impressed. Good luck.

[Brie]

That's a beautiful tank, with great dims. May I ask where you purchased it?

 

Petco. 49.99 for a kit that includes the tank, a small HOB filter and a strip light. Its called the "Executive Bookshelf aquarium", whatever that means.

[jg7]

Skimmer

AquaC Nano Remora sounds good. But does anyone have any other suggestions to a very small nano skimmer thats worth buying?

 

 

I'm currently using the AquaC Nano Remora in my 5 gallon minibow. Some people on this forum don't like it, while others like myself do. During the 6 months I've had it, I've been happy with the performance. There is a break-in period where the skimmer will produce a lot of noise for a few weeks, but once the period passes it will die down a lot. Another skimmer that I've heard good things about is the Tunze Nano skimmer.

 

On a side note, there are people on this forum that will say skimming in a nano reef that is as small as yours and mine is overkill. There are debates in numerous posts that argue on whether it's necessary and that skimming in a small volume of water can remove valuable trace elements.

 

Personally, I haven't noticed any negative effects since I started using a skimmer in my nano 6 months ago. I try to do weekly water changes, so I'm guessing that if any trace elements do get removed it also gets replenished with a water change. I think it also helps to keep the skimmer off for maybe 2 days out of the week. Of course, all of this is just my opinion.

 

 

Lighting

Coralife 24 Inch Aqualight With 1-65W Actinic / 1-65W 10,000K Lamp Straight Pin Base (with fans)

 

But do you think this would cook such a shallow tank with softies and LPS? I really wanted something with an actinic light as well... If anyone has a better suggestion, please tell!

 

I'm using a Coralife 20W 50/50 bulb in my 5 gallon, but I'm only keeping mushrooms in my tank. Mushrooms seem to live well with less light. The 130W that your Aqualight puts out should be adequate for soft coral and LPS, but you might want to place soft corals like mushrooms in a lower level of the tank so they won't get irritated by the intensity of the light. To prevent over heating during the hotter months, I use a temperature controlled fan (click on the link in my signature for details) to blow across the surface of the water. This will increase the frequency of your water top-offs, but it should help keep things cool without too much temperature fluctuation.

 

I hope that some of this advice helps you...

[avalanche1201]

as for LS you dont need to get a pre-packaged...since ur tank is 6.5 gal Im sure ur friend would let u snag like 7-8lbs of his sand, its already well established so itd be far better then any bag purchase....or u could just get 3-4 lbs of it to seed the black sand u want

 

 

as for skimmer, u dont need them on such a small tank, especially if ur not going to have a heavy bio-load...and from the sounds of it, ur going to have a relativly small bio-load

 

as for the AC20 id suggest stepping it up to a bigger model, but since u have it...im looken to get one for my 3gal to get from 140 to about 200gph...how long is the AC?

[Fanof49ASU]

Nice size tank! Good luck.

[coral_addict]

That is a beautiful tank and I've seen a few people used them before. However they do complain that it scratches very easily so it will be a mess later on. Regarding an AC filter, you can get the largest unit and then change the propellor to a smaller version. This way you get much water volume without the sand storm since your tank is so shallow. Search on AC fuge and you can see how they did it. Also search 6.5 pico and you can some other people have done this before and it looks great but the scratches absolutely kills them. Good luck!