Pico/nano Tank - 20L (~5 Gallon)

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Ok you got me interested, How do you go in summer? Do you need a water chiller? I live in Northern NSW  and it gets hot here. Like I said I would love something like that but need lots of info, I have a new 30 liter cube doing nothing, and I am not afraid of spending a few bucks.
 
This is my Betta cube, I got all the Anubias at a LFS each plant was between $15 and $20 and the cube was $129 the heater was $50 and the filter $29. Im not saying this to boast rather showing that Im not afraid of parting with a few bucks because I enjoy nice tanks.
 
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I have exactly the same question as NickAu. How do you keep your tank water cold enough in the summers? In my house the temp gets up to 80+ F, in the room it's in.
 
That's a beauty of a betta cube! I love it Nick
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I'm happy to share my saltwater noob learning anytime! It is really enjoyable and the challenge stepping up from fresh is a lot of fun.
 
In hot weather, I use a surface fan that screws onto the side of the tank. I have it plugged into a timer that starts it around 8 or 9am and turns it off about 7pm. I leave the heater in the tank and on in case it gets too cold! I've seen it produce a good 10 degree difference from ambient, no problem. There is a switch on the fan and I just turn it off if the weather isn't going to be overly warm. I try to keep this tank at 24-26 degrees.
 
For a small tank this works quite well. I just have to be cautious that I am not 'over cooling' my tank and of course I need to top it up much more religiously because of evaporation.
 
Here is the fan I personally use:
http://www.aquariumgalleryperth.com.au/collections/heaters-chillers/products/cooling-fan-2-fans-aus-plug
 
This is my local LFS
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Ok I have one of those for my Betta tank. Do you use fresh water for top ups? I use Ro water for top ups, Because while water evaporates the solids do not, I would think its the same with salt.
 
You're on the money - it's the same with salt. Because it's such a small tank, I buy 4 litre bottles of distilled at the shops. I mark a line on the side of the tank so I know how much to top up. I top up daily and a 4 litre bottle normally lasts a week or two.
 
Small update: I pulled the skimmer and cleaned it; the intake was clogged. I noticed the pump wasn't working either, and ultimately found it was unplugged! :O Lots of debris flying around the tank now!
 
Now thing seem to be settling down :) I will be pulling the rock this weekend, removing and fragging the toadstool coral and having a crack at removing some of the algae. Hopefully the water is clean enough now that the algae will stop growing.
 
Another small update; chaotic week leading to no time to do work over the weekend! My new zoas closed up a bit, hopefully it's just something in the tank (chemical warfare) that has bothered them.
 
The colours are a little bit weird, but here it is as of 5 minutes ago - I still plan to empty the tank this weekend if I can and do some major works.
 
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It's certainly on the mend! :D Just wait until it's in its full glory though!
 
It looks gorgeous! Good job fixing it back up. What sort of major work are you going to be doing?
 
Cut down the toadstool coral, give the sand bed another deep clean, secure some of the loose structures on the live rock with reef gum. Remove a couple of frags that haven't recovered. Fresh phosban! Remove as much green hair algae as I can, manually. Try to remove some of the green star polyp or at least reduce its taking over the live rock. 80% water change.
 
I wouldn't normally do so much stuff, but this is what happens when the tank isn't maintained properly. All he had to do was a 50% change once a week!
 
Hope it settles for you.pain having to go in to tank so much.
 
Wow, a lot of work!
 
Lets hope once you do these last few jobs that things will start to go back to what they should be to your satisfaction.
 

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