Nano Virgin

[VoodooMach]

Welcome to the darkside

I have a similar background, kept saltwater for years and just got a nano started this July.

- ask lots of questions
- MAAST, Reef Central, and Nano-Reef are my fav places for info (although, personally, the nano-reef boards are way to harsh for my liking)
- 28 gallon JBJ HQI, with actinic upgrade . It only took a couple months for me to come to the conclusion the biocube didn't have enough light for the corals and colors I wanted to see.
- hide your credit cards 'tis expensive and addicting in saltwater land

that's an understatement hahaha.

[TinyTanker]

I dont think a NANO will ever need a chiller, Rather a cheaper way to chill the water are the blue Reusable Ice packs for coolers, and depending on how well it does you can gauge what size you put in the overflow area. Steve at Horizon Aquatics has the full setup with a good deal on coral attachments. Its nice and a comfortable way to acquire the complete setup and have a great place with good advice. Try to convince him you want his mettallic mushroms. LOL

[zcatzmeow]

I dont think a NANO will ever need a chiller, Rather a cheaper way to chill the water are the blue Reusable Ice packs for coolers, and depending on how well it does you can gauge what size you put in the overflow area. Steve at Horizon Aquatics has the full setup with a good deal on coral attachments. Its nice and a comfortable way to acquire the complete setup and have a great place with good advice. Try to convince him you want his mettallic mushroms. LOL

Hmmm...I never thought about the reusable ice packs. Wouldn't that keep your water temp in constant state of flux?

I can only speak for my nano experience and say that with my JBJ HQI it was not possible to run it without a chiller. I keep my AC pretty low in my house and tank temperature kept creeping up above 84 and upwards towards 86 sometimes.

I'm pretty sure JBJ realized that even with their extra fans and extra vented top that the halide would be challenge to keep. Their 2008 stand was designed specifically to house a chiller. So now I run a chiller on my system and the water is nice and cool.....but, that darn chiller creates so much heat that my office is now too hot, LOL I've had to add a ceiling fan and a stand-alone fan just to keep the room comfortable.