chain
Member
Ive got a couple of these tanks still in the boxes. I was going to use them as gifts to family members, however now I find myself tempted to open one and set it up. I can always buy another right?
My ideas were fairly simple considering the tank itself and the HOB canister it comes with. I was opting to remove the filter media and the filter top, retrofit a small light above the canister filter and grow cheato inside to function as a small refugium. Possibly running some activated carbon or a small bag of chemi-pure beneath the cheato if possible.
Im not sure of the room in the filter and if its not do-able then I will not attempt it. The main lighting which comes with the setup seems OK, the only issue I have is putting soft coral in such a small body of water. As many of you know they are bad about releasing small quantites of toxin when crowded and in that small of a water volume it will be hard to keep water parameters steady. Possibly very small frags and watching water quality diligently would help to keep this down. On such a small tank, considering im going to be using a small fuge, would you opt to use a protein skimmer? I always have used them on any and all tanks, however real estate in this tank is going to be very small.
Heater of course
A hydor koralia nano would probably suffice for water movement. Of course your standard live rock and sand bed (probably going to go deep on the bed; at least 5 inches.) As far as livestock is concerned, I haven't even considered this. I doubt I would be adding even a single fish, but possibly a very small goby.
The main things which turn me off to this tank, are the obvious facts that the top is completely open, and I would have to have an acrylic top cut to fit, and even then if I opted to add a skimmer there would be large openings in the acrylic to allow for all the of hanging equipment. The open top also will definitely increase the evaporation, causing top offs to be needed relatively often, of course water changes will be something that will be needed frequently anyway.
Having typed all of that, Im starting to sway against the idea of using this as a pico reef. I suppose I have sort of convinced myself against it. I will say finnex does make good products in that I use their LED heaters in my tanks and they are really nice. The temperature probe gives you a direct readout in LED numbers what your temp in that section of the tank is. I use multiple heaters in all of my tanks so these I use as a secondary source usually in my sumps or fuge so I can easily check the temps in that specifc area of the tank.
Give me your opinions or ideas? Im well aware of the difficulty of smaller volumes of saltwater, and am fairly confident in my ability, my concerns lie in the equipment and the soudness of my design. Any ideas and tips would greatly be appreciated and defintely will be incorporated if I do indeed decide to setup one of these tanks.
Here is the link to the specific tank itself, http://www.finnex.net/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=187&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=61&vmcchk=1&Itemid=61
My ideas were fairly simple considering the tank itself and the HOB canister it comes with. I was opting to remove the filter media and the filter top, retrofit a small light above the canister filter and grow cheato inside to function as a small refugium. Possibly running some activated carbon or a small bag of chemi-pure beneath the cheato if possible.
Im not sure of the room in the filter and if its not do-able then I will not attempt it. The main lighting which comes with the setup seems OK, the only issue I have is putting soft coral in such a small body of water. As many of you know they are bad about releasing small quantites of toxin when crowded and in that small of a water volume it will be hard to keep water parameters steady. Possibly very small frags and watching water quality diligently would help to keep this down. On such a small tank, considering im going to be using a small fuge, would you opt to use a protein skimmer? I always have used them on any and all tanks, however real estate in this tank is going to be very small.
Heater of course
A hydor koralia nano would probably suffice for water movement. Of course your standard live rock and sand bed (probably going to go deep on the bed; at least 5 inches.) As far as livestock is concerned, I haven't even considered this. I doubt I would be adding even a single fish, but possibly a very small goby.
The main things which turn me off to this tank, are the obvious facts that the top is completely open, and I would have to have an acrylic top cut to fit, and even then if I opted to add a skimmer there would be large openings in the acrylic to allow for all the of hanging equipment. The open top also will definitely increase the evaporation, causing top offs to be needed relatively often, of course water changes will be something that will be needed frequently anyway.
Having typed all of that, Im starting to sway against the idea of using this as a pico reef. I suppose I have sort of convinced myself against it. I will say finnex does make good products in that I use their LED heaters in my tanks and they are really nice. The temperature probe gives you a direct readout in LED numbers what your temp in that section of the tank is. I use multiple heaters in all of my tanks so these I use as a secondary source usually in my sumps or fuge so I can easily check the temps in that specifc area of the tank.
Give me your opinions or ideas? Im well aware of the difficulty of smaller volumes of saltwater, and am fairly confident in my ability, my concerns lie in the equipment and the soudness of my design. Any ideas and tips would greatly be appreciated and defintely will be incorporated if I do indeed decide to setup one of these tanks.
Here is the link to the specific tank itself, http://www.finnex.net/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=187&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=61&vmcchk=1&Itemid=61
