New 6 Gallon Nano
 

Hey guys. Just had a few questions for ya. My girlfriend and i bought a 6 gallon tank and a 150 watt HQI metal halide from a forum member and have it set up. We are gonna have it just as a zoa tank and maybe the odd Lps and sps. How high over the surface of the water should I run the halide? And also, what's a "safe" temperature fluctuation throughout an entire day? Thanks for the help guys, and we will post pictures of it in the next few days!

If there is nothing in the tank yet i would put a thermometer in it and raise the lights and see what the temp fluxuations are. The less the better. Most with small tanks and halides have fans blowing across the surface of the water to help keep it cool.

I run the same setup on a 24 gallon nano cube. I found that the temperature would swing by 8 degrees and worst on really hot days. Now, I no longer have to worry about it. I would highly recommend that you purchase a controller such as the Digital Aquatics Reef Keeper lite. Have it hooked up to your HQI, heater and tank mounted fan.

I would also suggest an Auto Top Off as the fans will cause a lot of evaporation.

it actually has an auto top off built right into it. i set it about 12" off the water and the temp fluctuated 2-3 degrees all day. the next thing im curious about is how long should i have the light on per day?

Great advice. 25W per gallon seems a little over kill to me, but you can just about grown anything you want in the tank if the parameters are all in check. I would keep the light on for 5-6 hours for starters and see what kind of nuisance algae you get, gauge it from there. If you got algae growing crazy then throttle back to 4 or 5 h/day. Since you have an auto top off already, you know you don't have to worry about water vapor but a controller will still come in handy.

Sounds good guys thanks for the input. I have had it up for 4 days now and with the fan and everything on, it fluctuates 1.5 degrees through the whole day which isn't bad at all. I want to run a moon light or something so I cAn see the zoas and stuff even after the halide is out. What would be the best kind to run? All the ones I have found are like 6-10 LEDs and are ment for like 30 gallons... What should I run

Any 1 watt moonlight would work. If you decide to go with a controller, they often sale a moonlight module that is really nice. But also quite expensive and not a necessity.

Great! Thanks for the help guys! I will be starting a thread with pics in the next day or so!

Hey NanoReef, this sounds like a cool little tank. I would love to see some pics of this system.

finally got some time! here are a few pics of it all set up
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P8310523.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P8310534.jpg

my favorite "kriptonite zoa"
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P8310533.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P8310529.jpg

another of my favs
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P8310527.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P8310525.jpg

"alien acne"
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1314583048

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1314572934

thats it! what do you guys think so far?

sorry, got my Nikon back so got to take 2 more decent shots!
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3338.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3339.jpg

That looks friggin awesome!!!! Like the rock work!! cant wait to see those zoas cover the rocks. :D

Thanks! We are pretty excited about it. Last night we ordered this moonlight too.
http://www.marinedepot.com/R2_Soluti...LTFIML-vi.html

Now we need some suggestions for a clean up crew. Keep in mind it's only 6 gallons, bare bottom, and I dont want to be picking up knocked over frags every 5 minutes either

Looks good Eric. You need the SWC led light fixture I purchased for it originally. :D. No overheating then.

With the bare bottom, I would say just snails are required. Dont recall the name but the turbo,s that flip themselves over is the way to go, IMO. They have the black feet. Keep my 20g fairly clean.

I have some red scarlets and they pick at stuff but I dont think contribute much in the clean up way. I believe I still have some that are well over 5 or 6 yrs old though. I also have a couple smaller emeralds to help with the {Mikey bubble algae}, :lol:. Dont think they do to much either.

My best clean up item is the siphon hose on water change day, both for the bare bottom and crap/algae on the rock.

Thanks Doug. I have heard mixed stories about L.E.D and zoas. I have heard good things and I have also heard that zoas don't do as well under L.E.D. I would love to run them just for the light balance adjustability but don't know if it's a good move for the tank or not. With the halide, we actually only see a 1 degree bump through the whole day (from 78 in the morning to 79 when the light goes out) the temperature isn't nearly as up and down as I thought it would be

alright we took a few new pics of a couple of the frags. and a fts. we are waiting on a frag of tubs blues, blue hornets, and darth maul zoas that we should be getting in a couple weeks! and we also got a pic of the little cardinals now that they are big enough to take a picture of (about the size of a zoa!)
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P9170615.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P9170616.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P9170618.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P9170620.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/P9170621.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3378.jpg

http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3382.jpg

Great looking little tank. Love the cardinals! I used to have one tiny like that, he grew into a big lug that was so picky about what he ate :razz: Great collection of zoos also.

thanks christy!
after the tank running for about a month, we noticed that the filter wasnt as wide as the water column so it wasnt filtering all the water.
here is what the flow looked like. notice how a fairly large amount is passing by the right side?
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1316567830
stock filter out.
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3392.jpg
so i cut 3 of these for "levels" for the new filter
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3386.jpg
then i used an 80 tooth saw blade on the table saw and cut some acrylic
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3388.jpg
here is the acrylic weld i used
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3387.jpg
so i built it 3 sided, so i can put the media in the open side, and the outside wall of the tank acts like the 4th side. here it is
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3389.jpg
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3390.jpg
and here it is with filter floss in the top, carbon in the middle (waiting on chemi-pure for 3rd chamber)
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3391.jpg
and here it is in action
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/...O/DSC_3394.jpg
notice how the whole water collumn is going into it now! it actually cleared up the water after a water change about twice as fast. let me know what you guys think

Small update. We got some new zoas in the tank and re scaped it. Here are some pics!

Hornets
http://emob1187.photobucket.com/albu...lueHornets.jpg

Lunars
http://emob1187.photobucket.com/albu...g?t=1319216789

Tubs
http://emob1187.photobucket.com/albu.../TubsBlues.jpg

Joker zoas
http://emob1187.photobucket.com/albu.../JokerZoas.jpg

Swamp gas and Eagle eye
http://emob1187.photobucket.com/albu...asEagleEye.jpg

FTS
http://emob1187.photobucket.com/albu...ober282011.jpg

What do you guys think

Hi! I had to say that your the first other person I have came across with the exact same nano tank as me! I actually have two! One of these smaller ones and one of the 25 gallon nano's. Incase you didn't know they are now discontinued but were made by reef octopus and had matching stand originally! I had this 6g nano with the matching stand and canopy! I've had the tank cycling for a few weeks now but I've had the 25g for about 10 months. I LOVE your filter mod btw! These tanks are amazing with the built in ato!

I will post some pics for comparison! I use a mp10 in mine and a aqua illumination sol nano led light.

for a 6 gallon tank you could probably get away with a single 1 watt moonlight. (about $10-$15) :) Zoa's look really nice under moon light

here is mine, same tank as you!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y51...h/IMG_0284.jpg