Nano reef

[wolffm76]

I have been researching nano reefs on the net for about a year. I found a lot of nice setup using a variety of tank all with light mods. the most common seem to be the mini bow by all glass. 2.5gl, 5gl, and 7gl,
the lighting on these tank stock are incandescent screw in for the smaller two and t5 14 watt for the 7gl. I know some soft coral like mushrooms can survive with the 2 watt per ga of the 7 stock. but I found that Alamo pets has a 20watt screw in 50/50 with I did buy to try in my 10 gallon salt with had 2 10wat comp fluorescents. the one 20 is by far brighter then the 10watt know knowing this, if the 20watt will fit the mini bow 5 that would give me 4watt per gallon if the bulb will fit because it is longer and larger in diameter then the 10watt.

What do you thing or has anyone done this yet.

My current tanks are
3yr old 10gal salt
2yr old 55gal salt
6m old 20t salt

10gl fresh
20l fresh

[Brett Wilson]

I think the current trend is to get one of the nano Cubes... at least that is my impression from reading over at nano-reef.com. I think Hammer on this board has one of the new glass versions...

I've seen a 10 gallon with the two screw in 20w or 25w 50/50's you can get and the corals weren't the 'happiest' but they were mostly surviving. It could have been water quality but the tank was fairly well maintaned....

You could always hang a small 70w or 150w DE metal halide over it...

Remember that watts per gallon is not a good way to measure light. Whether your tank is 200 gallon or 2 gallon a better measurement of light is intensity at X depth. intensity at 1 foot depth in a 200 gallon tank is the same as it is in a 2 gallon tank. however, of course, in a small nano tank you pack all the corals in right under the bulb so you can get away with a less intense setup.

I have had various 20 gallon setups and so far the best growth/color I got was when I had a 150w light on one for about 2 months.
It seemed to look good on a 10 gallon as well.

HTH
-Brett

[cvonseggern]

I have a Nano-Cube that I bought from another member earlier this year...it doesn't have any SPS but the zoos, shrooms, frogspawn and candy cane are doing very well under 32w of 50/50 PC. I have two upgraded fixtures (32w ea) in the tank but am only using one at the moment.

Water quality has somehow been continuously high despite the low volume and lack of intensive maintenance (I do weekly 5% changes and that's about it). I've gotten curious lately about the possibility of trying to keep SPS in this tank, but I don't feel quite that adventurous yet.

Chris

[wolffm76]

I also have a PC 13 watt that I would modify to fit. I want to set up something between 2.5 to 7 gal.
And am looking at the Mini Bows by All-Glass. I saw the Nano Cube at Nano-Reef.com and thought about it.
It is either a 12 or 14 gal and runs for $96 to $149 depending on where you get it. I like the setup but a bit larger then I would like to go. I originally was going to get the eclipse system 3 a 3gal, but all the salt reviews I read were not the best more reefer where using the MiniBows because you can hang filters on the back which would not block light and is cheaper the eclipse. What I would Ike to do I make a 5 to 8 gal out of acrylic but I have not found a cheep place to buy it yet. It would cost me more to make one then buy one.

Right now just looking for the chaepest tank setup.

[mharris7]

here's what I did for my 6 gal:

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/data/500/7309tank_w_halide_2-med.JPG

You can make a 70 watt halide like this one out of a 300 watt regent halogen fixture from home depot. Just need a bulb and ballast.

[mharris7]

here's a thread on how to do it:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16346