Nano questions, a few..

[Anonymous]

I had a decent 80g reef for about 8 years. My life changed and the tank had to be torn down and sold. I'm in a position now again to do a small tank, something that I'll have in my studio apartment. The catch is, I live there 4 days a week, and in another city 3 days a week. My other tank was almost automatic and didn't need to be baby sat. If I do a 5g nano, will I get into trouble if I'm not around part of the time? I can build about any auto system I need. Any ideas for a small tank? I really don't want a back filter and would like to keep it clean and neat. I could also build the tank as needed. I really miss having a tank. It's time.

Regards, Eric

 

[brandon4291]

sure its possible to go that long at that size with conventional means...a high dollar led light setup would run bright and heat-free keeping your evaporation preserved nicely

a huge key in my opinion will be your fish bioloading, keep it small or none. some of the popular reef dosers, the peristaltic doser modules that can be mounted to a wall, will set a constant drip of freshwater and you can tune this by learning the tanks evap rate before you start leaving it along consistently. you wouldn't have to find a perfect set point where the salinity doesn't shift at all, rather just a longer ramp-up between .023 and .025 that covers your away time. These items cost money but are easy automation controls. at that gallonage an untouched tank is a little tricker than larger ones but still no problem. The tank in my avatar was a half gallon reef that ran that long without any work because it was sealed and didn't evaporate at all...large tanks are harder to design sealed. thats just to illustrate it can be done

also look into hamster bottle top off builds. two of them would likely be an easy setup and take your tank out to five days topoff control.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Brandon, one of the things I need to get up to speed on is the LED lighting. That wasn't around when I had my 80g. Sounds promising. I imagine most online suppliers are selling these now. What should I be looking for as far as amount of light over a 5 or 6 gallon? Oh, and I'm thinking no fish, perhaps some zoos and polyps, crabs etc.

Regards, Eric

 

[brandon4291]

Me personally I don't use LED. If that were my tank Id just buy a 70w mh viper light from jbj so the corals would grow powerfully and then have the doser topoff control set, if I knew Id be having to leave it alone consistently Id do a larger tank with more stand alone capability. My friend Kathryn just reminded me this weekend what happens when you are separated unexpectedly (snow storm) from a small reef, things get tense~ they dont allow for unforseen variables very well especially in the light of shortcuts
one shortcut is using a gravity drip feeder as the topoff doser which you'll see if you look around, subject to inaccuracies from line pinching/occlusion, the level of the fluid affecting the drip rate, etc
only a digital/electronic doser would I trust to run that tank with me gone.
It would only take a week or two to learn the evap timing in terms of drips per minute to roughly offset the tanks natural evap rate.

 

[Anonymous]

Me personally I don't use LED. If that were my tank Id just buy a 70w mh viper light from jbj so the corals would grow powerfully and then have the doser topoff control set, if I knew Id be having to leave it alone consistently Id do a larger tank with more stand alone capability. My friend Kathryn just reminded me this weekend what happens when you are separated unexpectedly (snow storm) from a small reef, things get tense~ they dont allow for unforseen variables very well especially in the light of shortcuts
one shortcut is using a gravity drip feeder as the topoff doser which you'll see if you look around, subject to inaccuracies from line pinching/occlusion, the level of the fluid affecting the drip rate, etc
only a digital/electronic doser would I trust to run that tank with me gone.
It would only take a week or two to learn the evap timing in terms of drips per minute to roughly offset the tanks natural evap rate.

Good advice Brandon...I'm thinking I'll use a sump for some added water volume. I'll be looking for a cabinet this week and will base the build around it. I'm going to hit the big box stores and see if I can get a damaged cabinet bottom for cheap. My apartment is real small, one room, so I'll be building for quiet as well.

Regards, Eric

 

[brandon4291]

that sounds sharp that will enclose all the pumps nicely and keep sound low. this may sound like anti reefkeeping but really I don't think id recommend a refugium use for the sump area either. your tank strikes me as better if there's not as many catch surfaces for detritus, sometimes just the extra gallonage alone in a super bare tank where you can siphon out all the waste is a really nice boost and it doesn't cost the tank in extra bioload. the trend for the last 7 yrs has been refugium but its not critical to success, the extra gallonage still relying on the main tank's balance of bioloading and surface area is a great cheat/gives room for error in both topoff and temp control if you get the corvette light

 

[brandon4291]

I have seen old refugiums to be really diverse feeding systems for larvae and plankton, and in the right ratios good nitrogen fixors with the macro algae, but most of the time the net gains aren't really that impressive unless the refugium approaches the size of the main tank. I don't think its beneficial to have one every single time, in this case I envision a tank with controllable oxygen demand, low organics that will run clean with low work. you actually don't want alot of living material unnecessarily in a captive reef where you plan for variables in temp and topoff possibly, simplest is best just my take on things.

 

[Anonymous]

I've thought along those same line Brandon. I was thinking of going bare bottom display, a sump that could hold the entire volume of the tank. In my 80g, I had a sump, a refugium and a settling area. It was fine and worked well, but there was more maint. than I'm looking for. I'd like to do a lot of water flow and not having sand would be a plus. I've seen some great bare tanks where the rock work and lights were the attraction. I've already decided the planning of this is going to take a while. It took me 5 months to get the 80g going.

Regards, Eric

 

[brandon4291]

perfect thats a great example of a planned build for success we allow excellent pic hosting on reefs.org so post yours when you can!
these guys have provided quite amazingly over the years I might say approx a bazillion bytes of reefbowl storage pics alone lol
B