My nano-reef tank

[Nich]

I know some of you must have reefs. This is my 12 gal nanocube, for those interested it has 50 wats of PC, 250gph of total circulation. Its been up for 3 years now and fully selfsufficient (no additives, feeding, nothing but water added). All the plants are from the liverock, all corals are captive raised....my little ocean.

 

[Thoth]

Sweet setup, any fish in there as well (can't tell from the pic).

I planning on setting up my own soon just trying to find a good pc light fixture to fit the 7 gal. bowfront I have.

What corals do you have? Looks like you got a couple of leathers and xenia?

Also do you use a salt mix or get the pre-packaged filtered seawater (like they sell at Petco et c.)

 

[Nich]

No leathers, I have;
Xenia, the long pulsing variety
Metallic green brain
Maxima clam (yes they can survive for sometime under pc's....mines about a year old)
Star polyps
Zoo's
sebae anemone
Montipora capricornis
I have a clown fish (far upper left) that has been doing great.
With my tank i only have to add fresh water every couple of months, Ive only aded salt twice...the nano cubes have very little salt loss/ or evaporation. Check out the mini pc fixtures on ebay....http://cgi.ebay.com/16-inch-power-c...oryZ3212QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I you just gut the fixture and screw in the new one. Straight up with no wiring.

 

[spiDERanged]

well done! nice setup.

I rescued a 29 gallon established tank from a friend who was losing the maintenance battle do to his laziness (haha). That was about 4 months ago and have just recently moved it into a 46 gallon show that was taking up space. I just couldnt cram anymore rock in it! 70+ lbs, im told, is a lot in a 29, hehe. Ive done lots and lots of fresh water for about 15 years now and decided to just jump right in to the salt and so far so good. Ive just found homes for the fish (various damsels, blue velvet, humbug, blue devil) that were residing in the 29 so now its time for corals. Ive got some neon green zoo's that were taken from a friends clump and about 5 different types of mushrooms. Mosy of what ive done so far has to do with experimentation of water chemistry and uncured rock :0 Its fun and in such a short time ive leaarned more about marine tank aspects than some of my friends who have been fraggin for years! its certainly addictive and i look forward to the next steps as soon as i figure out what they are!! Then there is that 125 gallon plexi sitting in my storage room collecting cobwebs....hehe. ill post some pics soon.

btw, nich, i use to go to fairfield high back in '92... Been a while since ive been to cow town!

 

[tarsier]

very nice. and i admire the fact that you only have captive raised coral :clap:

 

[Nich]

well done! nice setup.

btw, nich, i use to go to fairfield high back in '92... Been a while since ive been to cow town!

I miss those days! Its a bit more richmond like now......

Tarsier;
i only keep captive corals. I thinkg the whole industry in the uS is generally shifting towards them.

 

[P. Novak]

WOW very nice setup!!! Good job as well! You think you can get some closer shots, that we can drool over.

 

[Goliath]

Very nice tank Nich! Here is my 12 gallon nanocube.
Mike

 

[Nich]

Nice tank Goliath, I had tube anemones @ one point buy they ate my orgininal inhabitants (a baby maroon cown, and a goby)! I also like the sun corals....very nice

Ill try to get some close ups, the tank needs a scrub down, ill post some "post" scrub pics when i get a chance.

 

[spiDERanged]

here is one older pic of the 29 i was speaking of. New pics of the 46 will come soon...

nice nano as well goliath! Oh how im itching to have tons of nice corals! Soon enough, hehe.

Need to work on making a sump as well so i can get rid of the unsightly equipment that hangs and dangles everywhere. Certainly contributes to the overall cosmetic appeal but hey, my first marine tank and that giant thing hanging off the back with all the tubes and whirly magigs... Well, thats the flux capacitor and if you dont know what that is then I cant really tell you, hehe!

 

[Malkavian]

I like hte idea of a nano (esp since I don't have the room for a big salt tank) but I've heard they can be mighty unstable....what say you guys?

 

[Thoth]

I like hte idea of a nano (esp since I don't have the room for a big salt tank) but I've heard they can be mighty unstable....what say you guys?

The experienced nano keepers will have more insight , but based on every thing I've researched as long as you do regular weekly water changes of about 20% all you levels should remain stable

 

[Jeff_C]

Can I share too????

Nice tanks guys/gals...

Here's my nano-slice of the ocean (A 26g Bow Front with a 200g sump/fuge ):

 

[Goliath]

Nice tank Goliath, I had tube anemones @ one point buy they ate my orgininal inhabitants (a baby maroon cown, and a goby)! I also like the sun corals....very nice

Ill try to get some close ups, the tank needs a scrub down, ill post some "post" scrub pics when i get a chance.

Thanks Nich. I really like the tube anemones but mine too have a taste for pepermint shrimp, chromis, saron shrimp and any other thing that gets too close.

Very nice Jeff. That tank is really nice, looks like a nice little acro city you have there, got to love SPS. Very nice LPS's too, some nice Euphyllia species there too.

Mike

 

[Ewok]

Right now I have a 5 gal nano reef, with mushrooms, button polyps, finger leather, and green sinularia(sp.) I used to have a 20 gal with more coral but downsized to my 5 gal.

 

[xgrafcorex]

wow jeff! that tank is incredible!! :clap: :worship: :drool:

 

[Hoosier]

What do you mean by self sufficient? Do you still need to make water changes? What do you feed the invertebrates? BTw, how long do you leave the lights on for the tank? Thanks..


BEAUTIFUL tank

 

[spiDERanged]

wow jeff!

i change stuff in my tank so often i would be afraid to touch it if it looked like yours! thats an impressive amount of stuff you have in there! how long has that tank been going? and did i read that right? "200 gallon sump"!!??

 

[Jeff_C]

wow jeff!

i change stuff in my tank so often i would be afraid to touch it if it looked like yours! thats an impressive amount of stuff you have in there! how long has that tank been going? and did i read that right? "200 gallon sump"!!??

Yep, 200 gallon sump...plumbed through to the basement. It's been up for about 2 years now and going strong. But, since it's such a small display environment (and I can barely get my hands in there) I can't play with it much and have decided to let nature takes its course as far as the SPS intermingling. I can't imagine how you guys with smaller nano's deal with mounting frags and such.

Jeff

btw the details are here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=337387

 

[Nich]

What do you mean by self sufficient? Do you still need to make water changes? What do you feed the invertebrates? BTw, how long do you leave the lights on for the tank? Thanks..


BEAUTIFUL tank

No feeding (fish food, anything, no supplements, i have had a stable pop of inverts and macro algaes which the crabs and fish feed from. I have never performed a water change.


Jeff.....that is truly amazing. I plan on going up to a 30 gal oceanic cube with a 150 gal rubbermaid sum sometime soon. Im still under PC's so the sps are still abit outta reach except the basic ones like montis. One to aim towards....:worship: