# A Nano nano tank



## ninoboy (Jan 26, 2004)

My main concern is if they decide to commit suicide:icon_idea Any cover?


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## corigan (Feb 22, 2004)

I wouldn't even keep a betta in there. I won't keep bettas (or any other fish) in under a 5g. Guess that is just my personal preference. What would be cool is if it was just planted or a small little live rock salt setup. That is what I have seen most people do.

Matt


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## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

ninoboy said:


> My main concern is if they decide to commit suicide:icon_idea Any cover?


It did not come with one but I made one.


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## Dapple (Dec 14, 2003)

I have a betta in mine. That little filter is really good. Endler's would work well in there too or perhaps a couple dwarf frogs.


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

That filter is great, the tank looks too small. I have a 2.5 with that filter and a few endler's and they love it. Another concern with that tank is keeping it heated.


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## jbarone (May 31, 2004)

Why not try some shrimp and snails?
I'm raising baby platys in my deco art tank,
and it serves that purpose, but once they're grown
I think I'm going to try snails.

There are a lot of things I'm sure you could put in there
that don't move a lot.

White cloud minnows?


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## Joe (Apr 20, 2004)

How about a pair of sparkling gourami's?


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## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

Thanks for the advice all. I will take her to look at some of these.


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## Daemonfly (Oct 1, 2003)

I have a few of these tanks, and theres no way I'd put anything in other than something like a single shrimp.


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## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

Daemonfly said:


> I have a few of these tanks, and theres no way I'd put anything in other than something like a single shrimp.


And you have "several" then with single shrimps in them?


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## John P. (Apr 10, 2004)

I saw one of these at a LFS with a mini reef in it. It looked unbelievably cool. One little (.5") clownfish, anenomes/corals, & live rock.


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## mpb (Jun 6, 2004)

Tee,

I have one of these. On mine, you can reduce the flow of the filter.


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## Hassler (Jul 26, 2004)

This is an idea... its a saltwater tank... not mine... Ive got one with live rock and no corals yet, still cycling. But heres the image...


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## aychamo (Jun 27, 2004)

God, that above tank, is freaking cool. 

What is in that? What kind of substrate? Is that live rock, or is that coral? What is the diff between live rock and coral? Saltwater seems so complicated!


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## Hassler (Jul 26, 2004)

Ya, that tank is pretty cool looking! It was my inspiration for starting my nano reef tank. 


The substrate looks to be crushed coral or sand. The main centerpiece is a piece of live rock with corals attached to it. The difference between live rock and coral is: 
live rock-> live rock is formed from dead corals and the remains make up the rock. The reason it is called 'live' is because it contains micro/macro organisms and bacteria collected from the oceans. 
Corals-> all the interesting things people attach to the live rock. sometimes called frags.

Saltwater nanos can be REALLY tricky. The main reason is evaporation. As water evaporates, the salinity goes up. A small tank will have huge fluctuations whereas a larger tank, the effects of evap are less noticeable.

whew! if youre curious, check out http://www.nano-reef.com or http://www.reefcentral.com 

As far as freshwater goes... heres a pic of someones Deco Art tank with a mangrove or porthos?? Dunno, the description was vague, but heres a shot..


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## bluecrush (Jul 27, 2004)

Where did you find those pics?? I have a tank just like that, that is empty right now and I've been looking all over the net to look for ideas. Is there a website that has pics like that??


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## Hassler (Jul 26, 2004)

Actually, what I do is... if I stumble across something unique or interesting, I'll save the picture to my harddrive usually w/ a note. Both of those pictures came from http://www.nano-reef.com , where people had posted some pictures of their tank in the forums. I have yet to find a site dedicated to the Deco Art vases.. I personally think theyre really cool.


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## nanoaddict (Feb 23, 2004)

Yeah, those little pico nano tanks are awesome. They are about .75 gal give or take. To aid with evaporation, I've seen people put sawran wrap over them. If you are doing saltwater, you would probably need to upgrade to at least a 50/50 bulb or possibly a dual 9w setup with a 10,000k and an actinic to maintain coralline growth and keep your corals happy. :fish: 

I got one for my girlfriend for valentine's day last year. Its still a work in progress but its really interesting. The red sea filter it comes with is perfect. I took out the filter pad/foam and just use it for flow. Its also adjustable. I have the same filter on my 2.5 nano reef tank. I've also seen people cut down the neck height so the light is closer to the water line. My website www.nanotank.com focuses on tiny nano reef tanks like this if anyone is interested. Here's a pic of her tank:


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## aychamo (Jun 27, 2004)

Hassler said:


> Ya, that tank is pretty cool looking! It was my inspiration for starting my nano reef tank.
> 
> 
> The substrate looks to be crushed coral or sand. The main centerpiece is a piece of live rock with corals attached to it. The difference between live rock and coral is:
> ...


Hey thanks for the little breakdown, that is actually better than I've been able to find info on  So the main diff between salt and freshwater is that I'd have to monitor the salinity on a pretty constant basis due to evaporation? 

Do you know what the purpose of the actnic bulbs are? It seems salt water people use the actnic and the 10kK (new shorthand usage? ;-) )bulbs, where we freshwater tend to use the 6500/6700K bulbs. I think I've also read they cycle the tank with live rock? And then just like buy some corals and put them on? Odd! So cool though  And they make the water salty with instant ocean?


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## nanoaddict (Feb 23, 2004)

The salinity, Calcium/Alklinity, trace elements, and pH swings are the primary concern of these little nanotanks especially when you are doing tons of ro/di water topoffs. I would say that the main difference between a salt and freshwater nano is that the salt nanotank would require weekly water changes. I don't believe freshwater nanos require such maintenance. Yes, actinic lighting provides for coralline growth on the live rock. The coralife mini aqualights would be perfect for this application. Hope this helps!


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## putty (Nov 19, 2003)

The substrate looks like crushed coral or aragonite (aragonite is the Flourite of the reef world). 

Live rock is actually dead coral skeletons with other plants and animals living on it, that has aerobic and anaerobic zones that aids in filtration. 

You would put whatever corals you want on top of the live rock.


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## Ibn (Nov 19, 2003)

The substrate in the first picture is aragonite (texture of the particles rules oolite out), which is pretty fine by itself. I used to run a pretty deep layer of this in both my 10 and 40 mini-reefs, but wanted something finer and went ahead and swapped it out for oolite (sugar fine sand).

Looks like the rest of the tank is pretty barren other than the mushroom (hairy), receding sun polyp (lower left hand corner...on second look, it looks like the skeleton of one...), with some astreas snails and a microhermit. The live rock seems to be coming along nicely too, looking at the coraline growth on it.

BTW, nanoaddict, nice tank that your gf has going there. Those frags of torches looks very healthy, sitting on the oolite.

As for keeping nanos, it's takes quite a bit of time to maintain stability in such small systems (hence the reason why others have them piggy-backed to something else).

For additional info, you definitely want to visit the nano-reef forum. I post on there also, but haven't lately, but I haven't posted to this one either :icon_redf .


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## the_anti_honda (Dec 19, 2003)

http://www.oc-creative.com/reef/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1720&PN=1
sorry i had to just get in on this. that link above is to my pico reef in a .75gallon red sea aqua vase.


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## the_anti_honda (Dec 19, 2003)

i recomend some of you check out these two sites http://www.oc-creative.com/reef/index.asp and www.nano-reef.com i am a moderator at the first. some great places to learn about nano reef aquaria. i find that some peoples views on nano reefs are very flawed. nano reefs have to be one of the most easy to keep of all aquariums.


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## creepingdeath086 (Aug 21, 2004)

live rock is rock from the ocean that contains small organisms and bacteria, corals however are small organisms that live in a group or colony together and have a symbiotic algae that lives inside them, they are partially photosynthesetic...


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