MiniBow 5 by AGA as a nano!

[bleedingthought]

Has anyone tried using one of these http://www.all-glass.com/products/aquar ... bow5.shtml as a nano reef tank? This would be my first nano attempt and I'm wondering if I would be able to use this thing and somehow change out/incorporate lighting for it. I guess I would try to see if a power compact change out would be possilbe. I appreciate all of the comments and recommendations in advace!

 

[alvintheclownfish]

hey that was just like my last tank, i have a thread in diy, and you could see how the lights could be done

 

[bleedingthought]

I'm not sure if that light would fit my tank though. I've got roughly 16"x5" if I were to gut out the back of the hood.

I wanted as much light as possible, at least 10000K 50/50s, while still keeping the tank at a manageable temp. Is that possible?

 

[bleedingthought]

Can this http://www.aquabuys.com/miva/merchant.m ... ct_Count=2 be enough to keep softies and maybe some LPS in that 14" deep 5 gallon?

 

[Meloco14]

I would say yes to softies, maybe to LPS. One thing you could do is change the actinic bulb to a daylight bulb to slightly increase the intensity. If you have 16" x 5" though I would go a different route. You can get 24 watt PC bulbs that are about 13" long. Even one of these bulbs is more intense than 2 9w's but you could fit 2 24w bulbs in that space if you leave the ballasts external. Another option would be 2 13w bulbs. Having the ballasts external will reduce heat, plus you can probably cut a hole in the top of the hood and install a small fan.

 

[bleedingthought]

Sorry, I posted the wrong dimmensions. The inside of the hood is 12", not 16". The tank itself is 13" long. That really limits what size light I can put on there. I wish I could throw a 24W in there. I might just make this a zoa tank... Still trying to decide, but would want enough light to maybe keep some lps up high.

Any more suggestions?

 

[Meloco14]

You could go with 13w bulbs. Off the top of my head they are about 7" long and 1.5" wide. You can probably fit 2 in there side by side with the ballasts external. I don't know if you could fit two of these in there but check them out:
http://www.hellolights.com/13watbalkit.html

Otherwise a way to do it with external ballasts would be to go to walmart or home depot and get 2 13w compact fluorescent worklights. Rip them apart, extend the wires from the ballast to the bulb as long as you need them, mount the bulb in the hood and the ballast behind the tank or wherever. The bulbs that came with the worklights I got were 6500K, so they are acceptable for reef tanks, but I just ordered 50/50 bulbs from hellolights and used those.

 

[bleedingthought]

Which type of worklights are you talking about? The only ones that come to mind are the halogen bulb ones, which I know aren't the ones you're talking about.

And how would one of those 6500K bulbs make the tank look next to an actinic from hellolights? Basically, two 13Ws: one 6500K and one actinic 03.

I e-mailed hellolights about their dimmensions on bulb + endcap on the 9W and 13W units. We'll see what they say.

Thanks for all the help so far, meloco! Hopefully, this will work out!

 

[Meloco14]

The worklights I used are yellow tube shaped lights. I will try to find a pic online. But they should be common at any hardware store. I bought mine for $20 each at home depot but read somewhere that someone got them for $10 at wallmart. When you look at them you can clearly see that it is a 13w PC bulb in there. It is a little work dismantling them, but once you get the first one apart the second will be easy. You will need some clips or something to hold the bulbs in the hood. I left the power cord connected up to the ballast, removed the tube shaped casing that surrounds the bulb, and cut the wires between the bulb and ballast. I made those wires a few feet longer so there was enough room for the bulbs to be in the hood and the ballasts to be behind the tank. I think using one 6500K and one actinic would be a great idea. Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

 

[Meloco14]

This is it:
http://www.absolutehome.com/web/catalog ... 20ECFEB12E

After looking at it I remember I used the switch too. Just cut a hole in the top of the hood and superglued it in. As you can see it takes a little work to get it apart to bare bones, but it works.

 

[bleedingthought]

Ok, I'll have to look for those at the HD.

And how well do the coralife screw-in PC bulbs work? The LFS has a 20W 50/50 for $15. How intense are they, really? Would just one work? Or should I try to rig up two of these if they're good to use?

Again, thanks for the help meloco! I'm getting excited about this!

My next question would be if I should have this nano be completely separate from my reef tank and deal with maintaining temp, salinity, and all the other parameters in check in the nano by itself. Or if I should go through the trouble of adding an overflow box to the back and go through all of the plumbing problems in order to reduce maintainace on the nano, since the water would be running through the 75G tank... Whaddaya think?!

 

[Meloco14]

I haven't heard anything about the screw in type bulbs. I would assume they would be adequate for such a small tank though. You could always try one and if it's not bright enough add a second. Mentioning that also reminded me of another option. There are desk lamps that use PC bulbs and if you are not opposed to having an open top you can take the hood off your tank and just extend the arm of one of these desk lamps over your tank. It is a little unorthodox, but if you get a nice lamp it actually can look pretty cool. The head of the lamp is long and narrow like a PC bulb so you can center it lengthwise along the top of your tank and it looks pretty decent. Finding one of these lamps that is the right size and looks good will be the hard part though.

As for plumbing your nano into your existing system, there are pros and cons to both. Personally, I am pretty lazy, so plumbing it would be great because I could slack off on water changes, tests, etc. The con would be the chance of contamination of both tanks with disease, out of control algae, aiptasia, etc. Also an overflow box in a little 5g tank might take up a lot of room. But if you do decide to plumb it, you might as well go all out. Upgrade your sump and skimmer, etc, and add a frag grow out tank, a seahorse tank, an aggressive tank, a frogfish tank, etc :wink: . That would be awesome. But seriously, with a small body of water like that plumbing it into the main system could make maintenance a lot easier. Although doing a weekly 10% water change on 5 gallons isn't exactly tough either. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

P.S. Why am I the only one replying to this thread? Now if something goes wrong it's all my fault .

 

[bleedingthought]

P.S. Why am I the only one replying to this thread? Now if something goes wrong it's all my fault .

I'm not sure, really. Seems like no one else really cares. But I really appreciate all the help!

 

[bleedingthought]

I haven't heard anything about the screw in type bulbs. I would assume they would be adequate for such a small tank though. You could always try one and if it's not bright enough add a second. Mentioning that also reminded me of another option. There are desk lamps that use PC bulbs and if you are not opposed to having an open top you can take the hood off your tank and just extend the arm of one of these desk lamps over your tank. It is a little unorthodox, but if you get a nice lamp it actually can look pretty cool. The head of the lamp is long and narrow like a PC bulb so you can center it lengthwise along the top of your tank and it looks pretty decent. Finding one of these lamps that is the right size and looks good will be the hard part though.

As for plumbing your nano into your existing system, there are pros and cons to both. Personally, I am pretty lazy, so plumbing it would be great because I could slack off on water changes, tests, etc. The con would be the chance of contamination of both tanks with disease, out of control algae, aiptasia, etc. Also an overflow box in a little 5g tank might take up a lot of room. But if you do decide to plumb it, you might as well go all out. Upgrade your sump and skimmer, etc, and add a frag grow out tank, a seahorse tank, an aggressive tank, a frogfish tank, etc :wink: . That would be awesome. But seriously, with a small body of water like that plumbing it into the main system could make maintenance a lot easier. Although doing a weekly 10% water change on 5 gallons isn't exactly tough either. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

P.S. Why am I the only one replying to this thread? Now if something goes wrong it's all my fault .

I'm not going to go with a skimmer for this little tank. I'm going to try and keep up with the water changes (1/2 gallon every week or 1 gallon bi-weekly) and probably have an internal or hang on filter with just carbon that i'll change out monthly. The biggest reason I had considered plumbing the nano to the reef was for the top off water. I'm just afraid that I won't be around to top it off one day or two and things will just go out of whack. I still haven't set everything up so I'm not sure how much evaporation I will be getting either. If it's anything like my reef, I'll be getting about 1-2% top off daily, which on this little tank should only be about a glass or two of water (which isn't much work).

I'm also not sure what fish and critters I'll have in there. Initially, I'm probably going to start with zoas, mushrooms, and some snails. Maybe a small hermit or two also. I still have to think about what to keep in there through. Maybe a star, a shrimp (or a couple), and a fish. Any suggestions??

So, I'm going to go with probably about 10 pounds of live rock, 2-3 inches of sand, a filter running monthly carbon, a small submersible heater, the 20W 50/50 screw-in coralife bulb (for now), a thermometer, weekly or bi-weekly water changes. I'm thinking that I won't even need to dose anything since the water changes should take care of mostly everything. I think that I'm going to start it all today. Just going to use water, sand, and rock from my 75 so there shouldn't be a cycle, right? Maybe a tiny one just from the plastic of the tank and filter, but I wouldn't expect it to be anything that would hurt the rock or frags, right?

I've never set up a nano before. So, anything I'm missing, forgetting, or that you would recommend again?

TIA

 

[Meloco14]

You are correct in stating you need to decide what to keep in this tank. From your current ideas, though, it looks like you aren't trying anything too ambitious and you should be very successful the way you plan to set up. With a low to medium bioload, hardy low light corals, and 0-1 fish you will be fine with no skimmer or dosing. The weekly/bi-weekly wc's should be sufficient. If you decide to do stoney corals or a couple fish you might have to change your setup a bit. Right now you look fine. By using rock, sand, and water from your 75 you shouldn't have a cycle, but you should still wait a week or two before adding livestock. This gives you time to get used to the fluctuations in your tank. The key to a successful nano, as you probably know, is maintaining stability. Take the time to take notes and see how much water you need to top off each day, how your nitrates rise between water changes, how your temp rises and falls with lights on/off, pH swings, etc. You won't have to worry as much about things like Ca, magnesium, strontium, or iodine. But still keep a watch on your ca/alk balance. Once you have a decent idea of these you can add your soft corals and hardy inverts. Then after you know the tank well you can go with more difficult species. As for suggestions on stocking, I have always wanted a little tank full of ricordea and anemone shrimp or porcelain crabs. It would be really low maintenance, but fun to watch. And the small scale of everything would fit well. If you want a fish, you could go with a pistol shrimp/goby pair, or just small gobies.

 

[bleedingthought]

What about a seahorse?

 

[Meloco14]

I know very little about seahorses. From what I do know, most will need more room than a 5 gallon tank. There are dwarf seahorses that would be well suited for a nano, but they require daily feeding of just hatched brine shrimp nauplii IIRC. Way too much trouble IMO. For better info on seahorses check out seahorse.org or PM greenighs. She is a moderator over there I believe.

 

[bleedingthought]

Yeah, researched it and gave up on them. I'm back to a small fish (I'm really leaning towards a clown goby right now) and a small shrimp. Maybe even two sexy shrimp or 2 peppermint shrimp. No stars unless it's like a baby serpent or brittle star. I might end up having open spots on the hood for the heat to stay down, so I'd be looking for fish less likely to jump out. What do you think/suggest, meloco?

 

[Meloco14]

A clown goby would fit perfectly. I have heard some people complain that they bother their corals because of all the perching, but for the most part people enjoy this behavior. Also, they prefer to perch in SPS corals which damages the polyps. Since your tank will be all softies and some LPS, hopefully this won't be a problem. Any of the small gobies would work well in this tank. Any of the shrimp gobies, even if you don't get a shrimp, would do well. I have had a yellow watchman for 3 years that I love. Always curious and watching me. He never strays more than 3-5 inches away from his burrow so he would be fine in a 5 gallon. There are lots of smaller gobies as well, like the yasha shrimp goby, or the high fin red banded goby (Stonogobiops nematodes). Both really cool fish. All three of these will be on the bottom, as opposed to the clown goby which would be in the rocks. Neon gobies would be another good choice for the rocks/middle of the tank. I had a pair of neon gobies for a couple years and half the time they were perched in the rock, the other half they were swimming in the water column. They are also commonly tank raised which is a plus. Potentially, any gobies can be jumpers but I personally have never had my watchman or neons jump from my open top tank (in 2-3 years). My highfin banded gobies were in a nanocube with a top so I dont know if they would have tried to jump. For shrimp, 2-3 peppermints would do well as the only shrimp in there. Sexy anemone shrimp are very small so you could get up to 5. They are supposed to be social so a small group would be fun to watch. Another alternative would be glass anemone shrimp (Periclemenes brevicarpalis). These are similar in size to the sexy's but different coloration. They are a little more colorful IMO, but I don't know if they exhibit the swaying behaviour that the sexy's get their name from. Here is an example:
http://www.marinedepotlive.com/glass-an ... hrimp.html
Another cool shrimp if you can find it is the Pederson's Cleaner shrimp. Etropicals used to have them but no longer. I haven't found them online anywhere else yet. FWIW I would be careful with a serpent star and a small fish or shrimp. Certain serpents have been known to kill and eat small fish. A small brittle star would be great if you can find one. I was lucky enough to get a couple as hitchhikers on some corals I got. The disks are about 1cm in diameter and the legs are about 3cm long. Perfect for a nano. HTH

 

[bleedingthought]

Ok. So I have it setup and running now! I have a big rock full of fuzzy mushrooms in there (about 7 pounds!), a bigger blue shroom, a couple of green palys, a small kenya tree, a red gorgonian (doing well so far), a rock that has a couple of cup corals/candy canes (not sure which ones, really), small porites, some zoas, xenia, and a small frag of GSP.

The whole thing's been running for about two weeks and has been fine, with the exception of the loss of two nassarius snails and a small zebra hermit crab to the PH intake (I have a aquaclear that looks HUGE in there but just bought two micro-jets 450 yesterday that I will pop in there soon). I also have two astrae snails and another hermit crab in there in addition to the corals.

And as far as the fish, considering your advice, Meloco, and the availability of it in my LFS, I went with a red-headed neon goby (Elacatinus puncticulatus) for the nano. I'm very happy with and am trying to find out if it can form symbiotic relationships with any pistol shrimp and might go that route if possible. If not, I was also considering getting another one of the same goby (what do you think?) and possibly a small fire shrimp.

The tank's temp has been stable and I ended up going with that screw-in bulb for now. The only problem is that I don't get as much light on one side of the tank and I might try to put in a second one. I have a HOB powerfilter (that came with the tank) running carbon and purigen but it stops up sometimes, which I think might be due to the no name brand. Should I replace it for another one? Anyone you might recommend? Maybe even big enough to do half chemical/half tiny fuge? I have been topping off with about half of a cup of RO water. I started to get some diatoms over the sand but did a 20% water change yesterday and it seems to have subsided.

When getting in there to put in the micro-jet, I'm also going to break up the big rock into a lot of smaller pieces to work with the aquascaping and will post pictures as soon as it looks good. :wink:

Let me know what you think! Thanks!