howman Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Hi This is my first post. I am an experienced reefer with a 300g system at my house. I want to set up a nano in my office. I want to start it right to minimize future modifications. I don't want to perform water changes (often), so I want a skimmer. I want to keep softies and LPS, maybe a clam. I don't want to keep SPS as I don't want to deal with calcium supplementations. I see 2 options, please critique and add suggestions. 1) Buy a 16g AGA bowfront, or a VIA Aqua aquarium get a CPR backpack (or other skimmer) Metal halide pendant (icecap?) 70w or 150w 2) Or buy an acrylic setup from acrylicman http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...205589&tc=photo -get his best lighting system or put in my own metal halide with his fan (he said halide may melt his acrylic) -I think I prefer to get glass over acrylic (scratches) also, I prefer a bowfront type of feeling Please help with suggestions. thanks howard Link to comment
howman Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 bump back from my holiday.....could use some suggestions! thanks Link to comment
booboo Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 Sounds good BUT the thing with nanos is weekly water changes Link to comment
Generalee Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 Also a clam will use calcium, not as much as a tank of SPS, but enough where it isn't going to be "carefree". Water changes in a nano are not bad. Compare doing a 2-4 gallon change on a 16 nano weekly to a 30-60 gallon change on your 300g or do you not to water changes on that? Link to comment
rbaby Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 Even with a skimmer, you're still going to need to do often water changes. I don't think the skimmer will take out the nitrites... Truth be told, since you need to do weekly water changes anyway--I don't think a skimmer is worth it for anything less than a 20 (at least from all the nano reefers that I've spoken to). But that's just my .02 Link to comment
EnderG60 Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 an acrylic hood is not a good thing for a halide, you would want to do a custom hood out of wood with lots of cooling or a pendent. a setup like your talking about would not be to hard to do. If you kept a low fish load and alot of live rock you can get away with fewer water changes, but 15-20% every 3-4 weeks would be the limit. you dont NEED a skimmer but if you can get one, it helps. only other thing i would recommend is an auto top off. This will take alot of the work out of the equation and makes weekends and dosing alot easyer. Link to comment
howman Posted January 17, 2005 Author Share Posted January 17, 2005 thanks for the help now, with a little more reserach, i am thinking of the following setup: 16g bowfront aquamedic oceanlight 150W Metal halide pendant 2 maxijets for flow HOT skimmer (precision marine, bakpak--recommendations?) hang on back filter (hagen) to use carbon or a hangon refugium any critiques, comments or suggestions hm Link to comment
EnderG60 Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 only thing i dont like about bakpaks is the rio pumps..they are loud. I would replace them with maxi-jets if you do get it though. also you might want to look into mini or micro jets, maxi's are a bit large for a 16g. Link to comment
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