# 28 Gallon Nano Cube



## garuf (May 30, 2007)

erm, are you hoping to create a planted freshwater tank or a marine reef? because looking at the tank it suggests the later, and is therefore useless as a freshwater set up. also 28gallons further suggests a marine nano opposed to a freshwater one, many people on here use 2.5 gallons or 5gallons and a few like me use 10 and a variety of sizes inbetween.


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## Sinewygbm (Aug 30, 2007)

I was hoping planning to use it as a fresh-water planted tank. I thought that it would be less maintenance.


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## garuf (May 30, 2007)

hmm, I doubt that it would work, I guess you could change bulbs over remove the skimmer and such but I'm really not the person to know, I personally would leave well alone unless you want to go salt water.


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## soh15 (May 5, 2005)

That is a lot of light, I think that set up is more for a reef tank, I have a 24gal Aquapod as a planted shrimp tank and LOVE it. It works great for a planted tank. Foster & Smith has them for $169.(see link below). I have the one with 64w of CF. I use DIY CO2 and it really is a nice tank if you want to start out with planted tanks. I added 2 bags of Eco-Complete which it the perfect amount for the Aquapod 24gal. Also it would be alot cheaper then the reef tank you are looking at. With the stock lighting that comes with it I have been growing any plants I want. It has been running for 4 months now. I also got the stand which is nice. 


http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=13976&N=2004+62760


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## Sinewygbm (Aug 30, 2007)

Thank you sooooo much for the information. One question though: can there ever be too much light? I thought that a lot of light was a good thing. That's why I was looking at the tanks that came with the most I could find.


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## Fenton2 (Aug 13, 2007)

The NanoCubes can make sweet planted tanks but that's not what they're outfit for. Nanocubes are popular for salt tanks for three reasons:

1. Less maintenance
2. Sleek design
3. Lowest startup cost because everything you need for basic fish and corals is included.

The advantages they bestow don't carry over to planted tanks as much. You can outfit yourself for a planted tank of comparable size for less than the cost of that one. 

And yes, you can have too much light. Stay in that 2-3 watts per gallon range. But it's also highly dependent upon tank depth. You can get away with less wats per gallon in shallower tanks like 20L's and 40 breeders than you can with high tanks because the light has to penetrate deeper. So it's probably best to decide what tank configuration you want before you choose a light.


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## soh15 (May 5, 2005)

The 24gal Aquapod has 64w CF. Or 2.6 watts per Gallon. It is close to high light. Like I said there is nothing I can not grow. It comes with two 32watt bulbs of which one is a 32 watt Dual Daylight 6700°K/10000°K (Great for plants) and the other is a 32 watt Dual Actinic 420/460nm (Not as good for planted tanks). I use these two lights that came with the tank and love them together. If you want higher light then me just get an extra Dual Daylight 6700°K/10000°K 32 watt bulb and swap it out with the Dual Actinic 420/460nm , Link below. But really I do not think you will need it. You will like this tank alot, I really like mine, and was thinking of starting another. 



http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=11422&N=2004+113346


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

If you still like the Nanocube, they make freshwater lighting versions of their tanks though, I'm not sure if they have that option for the 28 gallon. I have the 12 gallon Nanocube DX, which has freshwater lighting (48W) and I really like it.


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## dufus (Nov 13, 2006)

4 wpg is the highest light you'll really want, up to nearly 5 at mamx.

If you like the look of the JBJ or aquapod, get the watered down version, it's more than sufficient, 2.5+wpg grows near anything honestly.

Too much light(and unusable spectrums like actinic) can cause a nasty algae feild.

we're just trying to save you money and that little algae problem mentioned before.


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## jaybugg13 (Sep 4, 2007)

Anyone who says that a "nano reef" is an inadequate setup for a planted tank suffers from a total lack of imagination. While it's true that most of the nano reef all in ones come with 50/50 lighting (which won't hurt your plants, but doesn't add to photosynthesis), with a little adjustment these setups can be far superior to most. For one thing generally these tanks will come with 2-4 WPG, and anyone who has done a true study of the planted tank understands that 1) the amount of light you can have is limited only by your plants ability to use it, and 2) many of the tanks set up by our "idols" (Amano, Navarro, etc.) have lighting levels far above even 4 WPG, especially in the "nano" category. http://www.fitchfamily.com/lighting.html This is a very good, albeit general study on the subject which suggests a 28 gallon tank could comfortably have 105 W or 3.75 WPG, and a 12 gallon tank could have 71 W or a whopping 5.91 WPG!! Bottom line, understanding what the needs of the plants you intend to keep will prevent you from setting up a system with more or less lighting than you need. Additionally most of the reef all in ones do not come with a protein skimmer, however they are constructed with chambers at the rear of the tank to contain such equipment. This represents a marvelous opportunity to hide most if not all of the addition equipment needed for CO2, filtration and heating, creating a wonderfully clean viewing space. My last point would be that the shape of the cube presents an interesting aquascaping challenge in that there is more depth to be taken advantage of. All this being said our hobby is one of infinite options all of which depend on your personal taste, in my humble opinion I feel these unique tanks give us just one more option that can fit our needs, even if not right out of the box.


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## dufus (Nov 13, 2006)

The wpg guideline breaks down in smaller tanks, although 28 gallons is a medium-large tank.

You can do more with less, but for some reason, it seems we like to do less with more when it comes to light.

Under 3WPG, you could probally grow any plant you want, with the exception of a few, and with enough depth penetration, you coulld do Hc and other foreground plants.

One thing to be noted on the nano cubes, the small sump filter in them will make any planted tanker crazy trying to keep co2 in.


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## 5380 (Jun 3, 2006)

You don't need the protein skimmer that is present in the Reef version, nor the wavemaker. You'll probably blow away freshwater inhabitants with the pump too. The 12gal DX is too much flow for my fish and plants, so I have to T the return and vent half back into the filtration chamber. Save some money


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## dougiefresh (Sep 5, 2006)

Yes they do make excellent plant tanks.
I have a jbj 12dx and 24dx and love them. I have looked at the aquapod and oceanic and think jbj looks much better. They also have a larger lid where you can get you hands into it. The only thing that I did was to change the bulbs out to all daylight.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

I have a couple of the JBJ DX versions and the tank is a great layout for planted tanks, but there are a couple of issues. you live in socal, which like my city is on the warmer side, with the cover down, the tank heats up like you have a heater on it. mine would get to 88-90F in an air conditioned office (77F), on the weekends with the ac off, it got in the mid 90's. what ever survived the first week of heated water is fine, but mosses and hc etc, like cooler water, and wont grow as well no matter how much co2 and ferts you pump in. i ended up dumping the hood and going with a dual 18w lighting setup with an open top (jbj 12g). plants and fauna are doing much better now. second, as mentioned before, the pump flow rate is way to high for most small fish and shrimp, i had to turn it down to almost closed to keep it from flying them around the tank like a tornado. if they made a version with an open top design, i would buy more in a heartbeat as cubes are awsome for scaping, but the heat issue is whats holding me back now.


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