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Help me Design my Nano


howman

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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

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  • 1 month later...

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?

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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