Nano-reefs?

[mytoysdammit]

I was at a major marine LFS today and saw these little nano-reef tanks that
come complete with lights, filtration, etc. This sounds like a fun way to
put a small reef in the bedroom. The couple I saw set up were very
attractive with live sand and rock, a few inverts, some corals, etc. Main
issue I can see is that such a small biosystem would be very sensitive to
change of any kind.

Anyone had any luck with these and what sorts of life would you recommend. I
can't really see a fish in one of these, but maybe a shrimp?

'kat

--
"I would've been a terrible mother, because I'm basically a very selfish
human being. Not that that has stopped most people from going off and having
children." Kate Hepburn

[RedForeman ©®]

i've been drawn by the same kind of tank, and the ones I've seen do have a
peppermint shrimp, or whatever, and a blue damsel, or a domino damsel in it,
but no other or larger fish....

and yes, they are very sensitive to changes.

www.nano-reef.com will give you lots of ideas...


"mytoysdammit" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> I was at a major marine LFS today and saw these little nano-reef tanks
that
> come complete with lights, filtration, etc. This sounds like a fun way to
> put a small reef in the bedroom. The couple I saw set up were very
> attractive with live sand and rock, a few inverts, some corals, etc. Main
> issue I can see is that such a small biosystem would be very sensitive to
> change of any kind.
>
> Anyone had any luck with these and what sorts of life would you recommend.
I
> can't really see a fish in one of these, but maybe a shrimp?
>
> 'kat
>
> --
> "I would've been a terrible mother, because I'm basically a very selfish
> human being. Not that that has stopped most people from going off and
having
> children." Kate Hepburn
>
>

[Vicki]

mytoysdammit wrote:
> I was at a major marine LFS today and saw these little nano-reef tanks that
> come complete with lights, filtration, etc. This sounds like a fun way to
> put a small reef in the bedroom. The couple I saw set up were very
> attractive with live sand and rock, a few inverts, some corals, etc. Main
> issue I can see is that such a small biosystem would be very sensitive to
> change of any kind.
>
> Anyone had any luck with these and what sorts of life would you recommend. I
> can't really see a fish in one of these, but maybe a shrimp?
>
> 'kat
>
> --
> "I would've been a terrible mother, because I'm basically a very selfish
> human being. Not that that has stopped most people from going off and having
> children." Kate Hepburn
>
>
I have a 10g tank that will be a reef sometime after Christmas. The
only thing besides inverts will be my clarks clown.

Taking it slow and steady,
Vicki

[emolsen]

>
> Anyone had any luck with these and what sorts of life would you recommend.
I
> can't really see a fish in one of these, but maybe a shrimp?

I had one set up for about 7 months. Low light corals only. I built the

tank myself out of 5 panes of glass I had cut to my specifications from

a local glass shop. I also set up an auto-top off system using a float
switch.



Honestly, it was a real pain to maintain, which is why I took it down.



In particular, it was _very_ hard to maintain the ph and the calcium levels.
The ph would

get very low in the morning - which then prompted me to set up a refugium on
reverse

lighting. That really didn't help the ph problem (not enough bio-mass?).



Also, the thing was overrun by some kind of green plant.

I'm sure that wouldn't have been a problem with some herbivorous fish, but
since the

tank was so small, I didn't feel comfortable putting fish in there, and I
quickly got tired

of hand pruning the plant.



Anyway, after about 7 months, the xena started to be real stressed (I think
it was the ph),

and it started dying (along with the mushrooms) which finally prompted me
to dismantle it.



That was my second tank ( I had a 50 gallon salt-water, fish only tank
several years

before that when I was in grad school).



I learned some valuable lessons for my next tank which I plan on setting up
next year

(I recently bought a new house and I need to finish the basement first).

Lessons:

1) Go big.

2) Automate the hell out of it.



Frankly, spending a bunch of time trying to micromanage a reef tank is not
fun (at least for me).

I'm skeptical of those people who claim to have 5 gallon reef tanks that
they only do maintenance

on once a week.



Good luck.

[Harris]

"mytoysdammit" > wrote in message et>...
> I was at a major marine LFS today and saw these little nano-reef tanks that
> come complete with lights, filtration, etc. This sounds like a fun way to
> put a small reef in the bedroom. The couple I saw set up were very
> attractive with live sand and rock, a few inverts, some corals, etc. Main
> issue I can see is that such a small biosystem would be very sensitive to
> change of any kind.
>
> Anyone had any luck with these and what sorts of life would you recommend. I
> can't really see a fish in one of these, but maybe a shrimp?
>
> 'kat


How about having one of these small tanks with a 50 gallon sump?
should be easy to look after!