Thinking about purchasing a nano

[ib4shore]

I am thinking about purchasing a nano. Does anyone have any negatives on them? Or are they worth the money? I need something that I can keep smaller fish in with some corals. The one I was looking at has dual bulbs and was priced at 199.00 I'm not sure what size it is looks about 20g or so.

 

[viper_930]

For about a 20 gallon, you can only keep 2, maybe 3, small fish. Small fish meaning only 2-3" max. length.
Then for the corals, you would need more lighting than the dual bulbs it comes with. I'm assuming by the total price you mentioned that the lights it comes with are normal output (NO) lights. Do you know what kinds of corals you want to keep? Some require less light than others.

 

[ib4shore]

possibly some mushroom, leather, etc. But I would only be looking at small fish possibly gobies, blennies, clowns small fish with plenty of character. And some anemones for the clowns. It's either the nano or i'll just set up another 20 H, but the 20 H is going to cost more $.

 

[clarkiiclo]

I like my nano- I did do some changes to the filtration and pumps. So far so good.....

 

[gibber]

What did you change in your filtration?

 

[clarkiiclo]

Got rid of the bioballs and ceramic things. Replaced with small pieces of live rock and macro algaes
Took out one of the foam blocks and replaced it with a bag of Chemi-pure
Upgraded the sump pump to a Rio 400, should have got the 600
Added an Eheim 600 powerhead to the display

 

[ib4shore]

Do you think it was worth it even though you changed those items? Or would I just be better off starting with a stand alone tank?

 

[dory36]

My husband and I started with the 12g Nano Cube just to see if we were interested enough in the hobby to go with a bigger tank and start spending $. We were, and once we got our 75, the Nano became our step-child. It was so much easier to maintain the larger tank and keeping up with the Nano became a real chore for me. So, we dumped everything in our other tank and sold our Nano. I was quite happy to see it walk out the door last weekend. I'm enjoying our 75 much more than I ever did the Nano. We also had issues with our filtration and nitrates that just about drove me crazy, but...that's just my opinion for what it's worth! :thinking:

 

[jellybowl]

I have had several tanks and had to downsize to a nano because of cash and space. I was tired of all the pumps, filters and skimmers everywhere. I wanted something simple and clean that I could care for and not spend tons of cash on.
That has been my experience thus far. My advice if you want one would be to keep it simple with some hardy corals and a fish or two max. You'll have to modify a bit, and do your water changes, but I think it's worth it right now.
I can have a tank that looks nice and doesn't have $1000 (or more!) worth of stuff that can potentially die!

 

[ib4shore]

Thanks for the info. I might feel a little more comfortable with the ability to keep more small fish though.