6 gallon tank

[zjhoward]

Hello everyone,
Unfortunately, my sister has peaked my interest in this hobby with her reef tank, and now I need to start my own. I am in college, and I want a 6 gallon nanocube. I found a certain "tuner" website where I will buy my nano, and I'm considering either a model with a 70w hqi metal halide lighting system with an open top, or a 54 watt 50/50, 10000k and Actinic Blue combo light hood. I was wondering which is better for coral and inverts. I have heard that harder corals do better with halides, and they're about the same price. I do know that the hoods tend to overheat, so I'm leaning towards the halides, or maybe a chiller. Also, do I need a protein skimmer or a reverse osmosis kit for such a small tank? And what do you guys think woould be good chemicals to use on my reef?
Thanks

 

[chipmaker]

I think I would be doing a lot more considerations on using MH on a 6 gal tank. I know who yur talkin gabout and for the most part nano-tuners are over priced.....you would be better off dealing with another online source, forget MH, and the chiller, go with a hood and fan assembly, as be satisfied with what can be grown under decent PC lights, which in all reality is a pretty darn fair amount of stuff. It doe snot take much to heat up a 6 gal tank with MH, and short of a chiller thats whats its gonna need, but do not be lulled into that peltzer type chiller as they leave a lot to be desired. I would go for a protein skimmer inplace of MH lights and chiller anyday.......and also favor the RODI unit as well as both skimmer and rodi unit is more essential than usiing MH on a 6 gal nano.
YOu will be surprised at how many different types of corals you can actually grow and keep under PC lights. As to chemcials, my usual recomendation is nothing should be put in the tank unless its needed. Calcium perhaps, but yiu need a test kit for any and all items you place in the tank. 99% of all tanks do not need any additional elements added with the exception of perhaps calcium if its a reef tank, and even that is not a guarantee. Basic rule read ingredients of whatever your using for a supplement, and buy a test kit for those items. If an item does not give a list of ingredients, odds are its snake oil anyhow and I will not use it if I can not test for what I ama doseing with......

 

[zjhoward]

Yea, I am worried about it overheating with both sets of lights, so who knows what I'll do. If I went with the hood light setup, would I need to buy a heater then, or would the ambient light heat be enough to keep it warm?
About the RO/DI units, do you have a favorite and how do most people hook them up in their house? I don't know if my parents would really go for it unless I could somehow keep it from taking a ton of room, and I also will not need much water for my little tank, so it might make overkill pure water for me.

 

[zjhoward]

So I went down to the old LFS today, and a guy in there told me that it is too hard to keep a tank this small, and that I'd never be able to keep all the parameters from fluctuating all the time. IT WAS A REAL BUZZ KILL. Then instead, he tried to get me to buy a 12 gallon NanoCube (LFS doesn't stock 6's). Is it really that hard to get a tank this small, or was he just trying to sell me a 12? All I've ever heard is that as long as you do proper water changes and don't add anything you can't test for, you'll be fine. Any opinions?
On a side note, I am so excited for XMAS so I can get my tank!!! WOOT!

 

[whiteelite]

i have a 5 and a half gallon that ive had running for 6 months. like you my LFS told me i couldn't do it. so i did it anyway to prove them wrong and i havent had 1 problem with it and everything is happy and healthy.
GOOD LUCK :joy:

 

[quaos]

Keep up with top offs! Don't overstock. Those two things probably have the biggest impact on that small of a tank's success.