strangelove Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Hello all, In the past few months my 12 gallon Nano Cube has turned into a 50 gallon tank and I wanted to know if anyone on this forum still considers a 50 gallon tank a Nano Reef. I still like this site and everything people here are doing to their tanks still applies in my case. Just wanted to get a consensus. My 12g Nano Cube got too full so I converted it into a refugium when someone gave me their old 50g tank. It's been a challenge to cycle the new tank with the filtration provided by the 12g Nano so I ended up building my own acrylic 20g refugium. pretty simple 18" by 18" design consisting of 4 chambers, 1 chamber for filtration consisting of a filter sock, bio sediment, liverock and activated carbon; which flows into the second chamber which contains more live rock, Mangrove propogules and a skimmer; which then flows into another chamber with even more live rock and macro algae like cheato and calupra; which finally flows into the forth chamber which contains the return pump and room for other stuff. The water returns through a SCWD and returns the water through two return pipes on the left and right of the tank giving a nice back and forth current for the tanks inhabitants. Anyways if my 50g doesn't qualify as a Nano anymore, then maybe my 20g refugium still does. Just wanted to share my reefing experience, thanks all. Link to comment
Fishfreak218 Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Nice light! and even nicer tank!! Link to comment
strangelove Posted June 15, 2007 Author Share Posted June 15, 2007 Nice light!and even nicer tank!! Thanks for the compliment, it's been slow going to get to this point, but now I think things are settling in. Link to comment
Fishfreak218 Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Is that a bowfront? If it is im assuming its the 46g. BWFRNT and you rounded up because otherwise I dont know of any 50g. BWFRNT Link to comment
strangelove Posted June 15, 2007 Author Share Posted June 15, 2007 Is that a bowfront? If it is im assuming its the 46g. BWFRNT and you rounded up because otherwise I dont know of any 50g. BWFRNT Right 46g bow front, I guess, got it used so I don't know the exact capacity. I just round it up. Water in the tubing make up the extra 4 gallons Link to comment
strangelove Posted June 18, 2007 Author Share Posted June 18, 2007 So I guess people here don't think 50 gallon tanks are still nano tanks. Link to comment
circusordie16 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 i like your rock work a lot, very nice tank. Link to comment
reefman225gal Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 just a tad outside of nano range. IMO Link to comment
dsoz Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 It's ok with me if you call it a nano. Compared to the 125 and 250g monsters that are common in my area a 46g bowfront is considered small. I have a 45g long. I started here because I was looking into an AP24, but decided to resurect my old 45 instead. LOL Will you consider it a nano as well? dsoz Link to comment
EnFuego Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 beautiful tank. How do you like those lights? How about some closer pictures? What is that bright orang thing in the front left in the tank? Link to comment
strangelove Posted June 18, 2007 Author Share Posted June 18, 2007 i like your rock work a lot, very nice tank. Thanks, I cycled the old rock that came with the hand me down bowfront for a month and reused the rocks from my 12g nano. At first it was difficult fitting the different types of rocks and shapes. Then I got this really nice rock from someone who was downsizing, $2 a pound, I got 30lbs. Since then the coraline has been spreading nicely. I like the bonsai garden look, so I tried making two mountains with lots of overhangs and levels for coral placements. My thinking on this is that some corals will shadow others, keeping them from growing over each other. So overhangs for branching corals, crevices for encrusting corals, shadowed areas for sponges, featherdusters and low light inverts. It's ok with me if you call it a nano. Compared to the 125 and 250g monsters that are common in my area a 46g bowfront is considered small. I have a 45g long. I started here because I was looking into an AP24, but decided to resurect my old 45 instead. LOL Will you consider it a nano as well? dsoz Yeah, I think Nano Reefs should include up to 50 gallon tanks, everything I did with my 12g I'm still doing with my 46g tank. Link to comment
strangelove Posted June 18, 2007 Author Share Posted June 18, 2007 beautiful tank. How do you like those lights? How about some closer pictures? What is that bright orang thing in the front left in the tank? Heres some closeups. I really dig the Solaris lights, can't say how much easier it is dealing with timers, temps, I've been following a thread under the lighting forum if you want to know more. LED lights are cool all the way around. The orange thing is a sponge I picked up at the LFS think it's called a fan sponge. Really bright orange. Frogspawn had a bunch of braches that I fragged and gave away to some friends. This one has split once since then. First SPS is growing well, Picillipora frag is one month in my tank. Zenia frag which is a transplant from my 12g tank Toadstool frag, this one is very picky about water current Deresa? happy as a clam Turbinia, was bright yellow when I got it, now is more yellow green, might have been color dyed yellow. Zoos, what can you say... zoos Feather Dusters and Red Mushrooms Mangroves attached to overflow, starting to root Link to comment
Toomin Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 reefcentral consider large tanks as 180g and above. Link to comment
Hekim Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Its your tank, if you consider it a nano, its a nano. Link to comment
nanoreefbro Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 I think anything less than 40 gal is a nano.. Link to comment
strangelove Posted June 18, 2007 Author Share Posted June 18, 2007 reefcentral consider large tanks as 180g and above. Yeah those RC guys don't mess around. This one guy I met that sells Deltech skimmers and is a RC nut had 3, 100+ gallon tanks, one just for anemones. I like the Nano scene, since there are a lot of DIY people here. I'm in the less is more camp. I like the minimalism that goes with Nanos and the best tanks I've seen invovle main tank + refugium, or just main tank + sump w/ skimmer. I have a picky toadstool that doesn't like too much current so I turned the circulation pump off in my tank. Now I've only got one Rio 2100 pump turning my tank. Been this way for 2 days and I've seen no ill effects. The SCWD does a great job of creating a back and forth current. Link to comment
dsoz Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Have you seen www.oregonreef.com ? Steve lives in my area (other side of town), and even hosted the local club BBQ last year (I was not into reefing then so I missed it). 850g!!! I heard that his tank crashed, and most of his corals died. So sad Next to a tank like that, 45g IS a nano! I also like this site better than RC, even though I have a 45g. I get better ideas, and the people are a little more... relaxed. Somewhat crude, and rather unrefined. Makes me feel like I am at work, even when I am not... LOL dsoz Link to comment
Withers Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Just hang around here and don't worry about whether or not they consider your tank a nano. The community here is so much better than any of the other reefing forums. Link to comment
strangelove Posted June 19, 2007 Author Share Posted June 19, 2007 Yeah I agree people on this forum are cool, some are lame, but lame in a good way, meaning they don't just take your word and go with it, it's good to question things. Thats why this forum is so good because you've got a lot of people asking, why do I need that on my tank, and some great DIY ideas comes from it. Reading someones post here got me to make my own refugium, I should post pics of it too. Wow if I had a 850 gallon reef tank that crashed on me, I'd be digging my own grave. Hope he was able to save something from it. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.