3 & 6 gallon Eclipse setups at LFS, thoughts?

[ShagMan]

Guys,

I went to my LFS today, exploring the saltwater area of the store, and lo/behond, they have three different Eclipse tanks setup with invertabrates and livestock! One example was a Eclipse 6 (12 gallon) with a large chunk of liverock & sandy substrate, some anemone & live coral, a clownfish, and a starfish. The Eclipses all had one thing in common: they had NO other added equipment, no skimmer, no heater, no powerhead(s), nothing. Thoughts? Is this really feasable, or just something that the LFS struggles with to show falsely how easy saltwater setups can be? I'm no expert, but the fish/invertabrates looked like they were established.

-Josh Murrah

 

[Paul A. Ifkovits]

Do a search on nano reefs. It is very doable, though I would add a small skimmer...

[ July 16, 2001: Message edited by: Paul A. Ifkovits ]
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grapefruit marijuana

 

[DragonFish]

Well, I'll take this one. I have an Eclipse on my 29 and the only change I've made is to upgrade the lighting to PC. I have been closely monitoring my basic levels, and despite what i've heard I have no measurable nitrate. I am not using a skimmer at all, and have very little algae. I do plan to add one at some point, I'm just testing a theory. I also have a 12 gallon here at work that has been up for about 4 months and though I have a bit of green algae everything seems to be doing well. If you have any specific questions feel free to email me as I've had this eclipse for about 3 years now. HTH

 

[Quillen]

I have an eclipse tops and they work fine for a complete novice like me

. I have power compacts on the fifteen to be decent size.. and icecaps on the larger one. I wanted to get something till I learned more about proper equitment. I never have a problem with my powerhead burning up and putting oil everywhere this way. Before starting the hobby, I read up on fish and I should of read more about the equitment. I don't plan on adding a skimmer to it, it isn't a big enough tank to need it (in the experience of the master reefist that live around me). I think my next upgrade will be to a bakpak filter setup and to put the lights on a board (with plastic overcover).
If I move up to a 55 g or larger, I may leave the eclipse hood on and use it as a FO tank for the bedroom, changing the 15 g to sick tank, instead of the 10ish.