what features would your ideal nano tank possess??

[mxpro32]

i am just curious what you all would want in your ideal nano tank. if you could design every little detail about it what would you want. what would be the dimentions? would it have a refugium built in and how big? shape? would it have any sort of built in filtration such as a slot to put a carbon pad? what type of hood would it have? i am interested in hearing what would be the ultimate nano tank.

[tinyreef]

tall and thin, like my women!

 

serious tho, tall and thin (16+" x 6+"). tiny hob skimmer (test tube-like), slim hob power filter for carbon and such. a couple of vho's (day and actinic, if possible 4-tiny alternating placed ones). plate heater on the back wall versus an immersed heater.

 

the rock (aquascaping) is the most important detail imo. it's the hardest part to get just right. you can always trim/frag corals to look the way you want but rock is harder to sculpt ime. fiji or marshall config but not much 'deeper' than the tank allows (that's why it's 6+"). maybe something like the fake background cell-pore has out but sculpted to resemble a reef's base rock.

[belamy]

regular size 10 gal w/built in (out?) attachment for 5gal refugium/sump for external attachments (carbon, heaters, top-offs, etc). built in powerheads w/sweeps that work.the back wall plate heater is a good idea. lights with interchangeable parts to easy upgrades from NO to PC to VHO. all in one low cost..

 

 

the rocks,sands and inhabitants provided by me...

 

aaahh...that would be nice

[ajroahkni]

I'd love to have/see a 10 gallon that's long and squat (8X10X36?).

 

It'd provide an interesting exercise to scale it down - looking like a full blown 250 g reef, but 4% of the size and with far less lighting $$$$.

 

Keeping everything scale to enhance the effect - small corals, small fish, small everything. Photos would fool everyone that it's a mega reef tank.

[Physh1]

I think I've got my ideal nano now....

 

-7 gallon bow

-Metal Halide

-Evaporation Makeup system

-HOB filter with themometer/chiller/temp probe inside of it

-Surface skimmer

 

I've wanted my nano that way for a while and now I got it....not really anything different I'd want at the moment.

 

Cameron

[Pikelet]

Self stocking

Self cleaning

Auto top-off

Built-in auto water changer

Built-in lighting timer

Self feeding

Disco lights

Built-in plasma TV and DVD player for when I get bored looking at snails

[BCOrchidGuy]

lol @ lighting timer... everything else would be great... doh... wait.. lighting timer would be good too....

 

Im thinking... hmm... 7 gallon display with oh.... say a 24 gallon built in refugium... Oh wait, thats what Im planning...

 

Seriously, I love the 7 gallon bows, I think a 7 bow with 3x32 watt PCs and some exotic corals that grow fast and I can frag them to sell them to the pet stores and pay for my hobby that way.

[tgrupert]

Pikelet, very good, but you missed the one most ideal feature, FREE!

[tinyreef]

hey pike,

i've been meaning to try that disco light (mirror disco ball) feature. (really!) to replicate the rippling effect one gets from mh's and point light sources, scintillating!

 

just like in the Modern Coral book by fossa (sp?) and (oooo, some german name) whatever. X) sorry. i've always wondered if that really worked or not. :

[SLOreefer]

i like cube tanks...some form of cube around 20ish gallons would be great. a gravity fed refugium...halides...calc reactor....kalk reactor....no testing and nive oak stand and canopy. lots of rock and lots of corals....oh oh and a rose anenome that would stay put and stay small....that would be great

[SteveC]

I'll second the cube tank. Actually, 20" x 18" would be great. Kind of like the Oceanic 37 gallon but 4" less width, and maybe a little shorter too (say, 16" tall). That works out to just about 25 gallons. Make it out of glass, drill it, plumb it, add overflow box, and I'll do the rest.

 

Heck, I'd settle for a 20" x 12". The standard 10 gallon is just a little too cramped at 20" x 10".

[Xavier]

Originally posted by Physh1

-Evaporation Makeup system

 

Had to toss that in eh?

[mxpro32]

so a built in refugium in the back would be ideal? how about flow, would the powerhead flow from the main tank to the refuge or the other way around? would the fuge just be an open area behind the tank or would it have a place for carbon or bioballs or any other feature you could have. i love imagining how you could make something the absolute best it could be. i have made some acrylic tanks and i want the next one to have all the best features. i want it to be my perfect nano tank. thanks for the ideas.

[tgrupert]

Originally posted by mxpro32

so a built in refugium in the back would be ideal?  how about flow, would the powerhead flow from the main tank to the refuge or the other way around?  would the fuge just be an open area behind the tank or would it have a place for carbon or bioballs or any other feature you could have.  i love imagining how you could make something the absolute best it could be.  i have made some acrylic tanks and i want the next one to have all the best features.  i want it to be my perfect nano tank.  thanks for the ideas.

 

I have this setup. It's really simple. All filtration is in-line from the display to the fuge. The reason is the siphons back to the display will NOT KILL anything. just make sure you have several siphons just incase. I want to install a float switch so my pump in the display can't unload all of the water from my display. For now I will place the pump high in the tank so I may ruin the pump, but I won't ruin the carpet.

[SoS]

I agree with Steve C

 

short and deep. I've been planning to build my own acrylic tank.

 

20 long X 16 deep X 14 high 19 gallons