New Nano Setup

[Siamese Fighter05]

Sounds like an interesting idea but you've lost me a bit with the lighting (Sorry)

the 400W and the 250W are going to have nothing to do with the nano? So your just swapping things around to free up a 150W MH for the nano? I think i get it now

The nano has no sump right?
Just wondering how you are going to fix any problems with the powerheads or perform maintenance on them every month? I think you might have said something about this but m a bit out of it ATM
The only way i can think you are going to do it is by removing everything out of the tank and then putting it all back?

I guess you're planning on SPS with such high lighting? Wish i had got the 150MH now

Looking Good
Dan

 

[Aquascaper]

There's no real maintenance that is required on the powerheads, as long as they don't get clogged. This will be unlikely as there will be filters on the downpipes leading to the bottom chamber. The powerheads themselves are 'maintneance free' and i've had the same models running in another tank for well over 18 months with no issues.
All that's going to be in the tank is one large piece of live rock and substrate. Should the worst happen and the powerheads require mainteance the live rock will be removed and the floor lifted along with the substrate so not as bad as it seems.

Still not sure about the lighting side of things, if i can find tubes i'll stick with low lighting I think.

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

What brand is your 150W MH? If you get the tubes and don't need it, i might be interested
How long is the fixture and do you have the stuff to hang it?
Cheers
Dan

 

[Aquascaper]

The halide ballast that is over the reef tank at the moment would have to be stripped out of the pendant and a new reflector, holder and bulb purchased before it could be setup on the Nano, this is why i'm only considering doing it.

This would leave the pendant ballast free with a reflector and holder and all that would be needed would be a 250w bulb put in and the 400w remote ballast wired up. Another 150w halide bulb, holder and reflector would need to be purchased for the sump setup and this then wired to the same 400w ballast.

For all Halide lighting i'd be looking at buying:

1 x 250w halide bulb (14,000k) = £37
1 x 150w halide bulb (14,000k) = £49
2 x RX-7 bulb holders + reflectors = £30 (if I can use halogen floodlight mountings)

Total = £116

For Halide and T5 lighting i'd be looking at buying:

1 x 36w Twin T5 Power Compact = £31.50
2 x 'Daylight Plus' 36w T5 Power Compact Tubes = £22
2 x 18w T5 Power Compact = £26.50
1 x 'Daylight Plus' 18w T5 Power Compact Tube = £9
1 x 'Daylight Blue' 18w T5 Power Compact Tube = £9

Total = £98

As you can see there's not much in it cost-wise as long as standard halogen floodlight mountings can be used (I don't know about this), it's just down to what I want to keep in the Nano really

 

[SkiFletch]

Lookin pretty good so far

What size acryllic are you planning on using?

 

[Aquascaper]

Whatever's kicking about at work that I can pinch

Really not sure about setting this Nano up now so I may just get it all together and sell it as a complete setup with LR & LS

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Why the sudden change of heart?

I've been at that stage more than once i can tell you, before i had mine setup as well.

Just keep going and once you see it setup with your fish in there you will be so glad you stuck with it

 

[Aquascaper]

The problem is I have the reef tank as well and i'm not sure if I can give two tanks the time and attention they require. Plus my fiancee is not the worlds biggest fish fan and another tank may just tip her over the edge, if she got into fish again then it would be a different story I guess.

And the money would be useful from selling the Nano

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

I can see where your coming from i guess, especially as you have another reef tank on the go.
I can't wait to finally sell my cory fry in a month or so as i would prefer to put all my attention on my nano.

So maintaing another salty must be real hard work

Luckily my mum is really into saltwater fish (Diffently not FW) and she would encourage me to setup a 150G + tank once we have finished decorating this house and moved into a bigger one if i could afford it (sadly not)

I'll stick to a nano for now though....

Dan

BTW how big is your reef?
I would check it out but i'm on the laptop ATM and it's as slow as hell so i don't want to go looking for hours for it. I'll take a look tommorow when i'm on the comp

 

[Aquascaper]

Well the story of my tanks goes:

1 x 20g Coldwater
1 x 20g Coldwater + 1 x 36g Tropical
1 x 20g Coldwater + 2 x 36g Tropical
1 x 20g Coldwater + 2 x 36g Tropical + 56g Tropical
1 x 36g Tropical + 1 x 36g Marine + 1 x 56g Tropical
2 x 36g Tropical + 1 x 56g Marine + 1 x 10g Nano
1 x 36g Tropical + 1 x 36g Marine + 1 x 10g Nano
1 x 36g Tropical + 1 x 56g Marine
1 x 36g Tropical + 1 x 120g Marine
1 x 36g Marine

That's over 3 years

The main problem is that if I set the Nano up it will have to be on show for it to be worthwhile doing. That means putting it in the living room but there's no room and the 36g reef is in there anyway so

I don't want to go to all the effort of setting up the Nano to have it forgotten about and become a chore to maintain.