New Nano Setup

[Matthew5664]

Looking good

 

[@ombomb]

The false floors an interesting idea...

Have you found any pics of this sort of setup working?

I'd be very interested to have a look at the end resut.

 

[Aquascaper]

It was the guy's Nano on the link you PM'd me that gave me the idea. He has drilled the bottom of his Nano and plumbed everything in from underneath the stand to give it a really clean look.....go check it out

 

[@ombomb]

Oh yeah... I knew that really...

 

[Themuleous]

It was the guy's Nano on the link you PM'd me that gave me the idea. He has drilled the bottom of his Nano and plumbed everything in from underneath the stand to give it a really clean look.....go check it out

Would you mind posting that link so I could have a look, Im totally FW but I like all things nano so would be interested to see how this works?

Sam

PS in your experience are nano reefs harder or easier to keep than large reefs? By easier I mean should a newbie start with one? I have a fair bit of FW knowledge but dont really want to venture into the large reef tank side of things just yet. Also, I think I could get anyway with having a nano reef but the misses wouldn't allow yet another larger tank!

The fish selection of nano's seems quite good to

 

[Aquascaper]

The smaller the saltwater tank the tougher the challenge

Bigger tank = more volume = more dilution if things go wrong

Link PM'd (as its a competitor forum)

 

[Themuleous]

Right, cheers. Will stay away for the time being.

 

[@ombomb]

As long as you do your research and take things slowly and carefully, there's nothing to stop you going straight in with a nano. I think that's what most people (including Steelhealr) did!

 

[Themuleous]

As long as you do your research and take things slowly and carefully, there's nothing to stop you going straight in with a nano. I think that's what most people (including Steelhealr) did!

Oh right, cheers. Given recent threads I dont want to be a newbie pain the 'a**e' saying im having problems. It probably wont be for a bit of time yet anyway, gives me plenty of time to do lots of reading.

 

[@ombomb]

I think the only newbies that are a pain are the one's that:

A - Don't take the advice they are given

or

B - Ask innane questions without reading through any if the pinned threads or even a thread on the same page!

Being new to this myself I like to think so anyway!

 

[Aquascaper]

Anything is possible if you prepare and understand how to do it.

Saltwater tanks are not a 'learn as you go along' hobby, you need a certain level of knowledge before you start to ensure that you don't fall at the first hurdle. As long as you are patient and prepared to research (and understand) the requirements of a Nano there's no reason not to IMO.

 

[Themuleous]

Well as I say wont be for a while yet, but I've just started the whole EI planted tank due to having read stuff on that forum, and to be honest, I can't read enough stuff on it, its interesting more than anything. I would hope that I'd be the same with SW, just a case of reading enough and getting to grips with it BEFORE taking the plunge!

Ill try and keep my 'innane' questions to a minimum when I do finally get one

Cheers for the advice

Sam

 

[SkiFletch]

just a case of reading enough and getting to grips with it BEFORE taking the plunge!

Its the same, just with more reading IMO

 

[Aquascaper]

Ok, i've had a pretty good idea with regards to lighting the Nano.............

Having looked around for decent tubes for my existing luminare and failing i've decided on the following (bear with me):

Equipment I have -

1 x 400w Metal Halide Ballast & 14,000k Bulb (almost spent)
1 x 150w Metal Halide Ballast & 10,000k Bulb (1 month old)
2 x T8 Ballasts & 30w Actinic Tubes (1 month old)
4 x T8 Ballasts (to run tubes 12" to 48")

Equipment is was planning to buy -

2 x T5 Power Compacts & 10,000k Tubes (for the sump)
2 x T5 Power Compacts & Tubes (for the luminare)

Now the story......the 400w halide is unused as the large tank is being dismantled so I was going to sell it. The 150w halide on the current tank is fine but I was thinking of upgrading it and wanted to use the 400w ballast to run a 250w halide (400w on a 36g is a little overkill ) but that's impossible unless you 'use up' the spare 150w. The only way to do that is to run another halide in series off the ballast but I have nowhere to run the second halide, that was until I figured out I could run it on the sump

So, run a 250w over the display tank and a 150w over the sump, all off the 400w ballast - easy. That leaves the current 150w ballast that's running the display tank halide free to use on the Nano

So all I need to buy now is a halide mounting for the sump, a mounting and 150w tube for the Nano, a 250w tube for the display tank, wire it all in and everythings illuminated brighter than Blackpool

Plus i'll have 4 x T8 ballasts to sell off and less clutter in the sump area

A lot of wiring and money but should be worth it.............anyone see any issues with a 150w over a 10g Nano (apart from heat obviously)? And any ideas for the halide mountings would be appreciated, can you use any 'floodlight' mounting?

 

[Aquascaper]

Well i've got the tank out of the cupboard and i've put the powerheads in in roughly the places where I want them. Just got to nab some acrylic from work and cut the false floor to go over the top before I can do anything else:

Each powerhead will have a small length of tubing attached to the outlet to bring it through the false floor and above the substrate surface, the two at the back will be higher and be hidden behind the live rock to prevent dead spots. I am planning the glue substrate to the tubing as well to make it more hidden so it's less obtrusive in the tank.