tpallas

Thanks for all the replies. Does anyone have any experience with Lifereef skimmers?

(and here is my current sump setup)

I'm currently running an ETSS Reef Devil on my 40g cube....not a bad skimmer but is very touchy and eats up a lot of watts. I'm thinking of upgrading in the next several months and wanted to take a poll and see what the best recommendations are. The tank is stocked with SPS and I'm thinking of upgrading to a 60g in the future so it would need to be able to handle that. What do you think? Thanks!

I'm running a Biocube 8 with a Sapphire Aquatics skimmer in the back. It works rather well. I don't believe they produce it anymore. I've also run a 10g which I plan on setting up again in the future with a Tunze Nano skimmer. Very good choice. It is easily possible to run a nano by doing weekly water changes without a skimmer. Of course, you could run a 200 gallon tank in the same manner. But a skimmer can't hurt if you dont mind paying the extra money. It gives me additional peace of mind, particularly when I travel. One caveat - watch the extra heat produced by the powerhead.

True! My dad's name is also Tom (I am the 3rd), and he always says that Tom Selleck put us Toms on the map. For whatever reason I've always been fascinated with small aquariums. I remember seeing one in Congressional Aquarium when I was 13 or 14 - it must have been 15 gallons max - and thinking it was truly amazing. It had LPS and other easy-to-keep things, but it got me started. Also at the time, Julian Sprung had a 15 gallon which was pretty famous (though, in all fairness, if I remember correctly it had a 75 gallon sump). I'm glad to see that nanos have taken off but I have always wanted to make a smaller tank on the same type of setup as a larger tank (i.e. sump, skimmer, CA reactors, etc.). I think I got this from my "other" hobby of R/C airplanes (not to mention my third "other other" hobby of Civil War reenacting) in which I've seen huge models which look terrible and small models which are phenomenal. Why not the same in aquariums? Water parameters, sure, but this is manageable! Anyways, I won't even get started collecting materials until I get moved in September, but I am looking forward to it - this tank is 15 years in the making! Cheers Tom

How do the pipefish fare in a tank with high water flow? Are they fragile swimmers, or can they hang in a tank with high turnover?

That could be a good way to get a shimmer effect without adding a MH to your tank.

Which LED system are you using?

Yeah, I plan on keeping mostly Monti's, 3-5 frags at the most and growing them out to fill up the tank. I don't plan on adding fish for at least six months to allow the tank to get established. I plan on automating the tank as much as possible to keep water parameter fluctuations under control, and because my job will keep me working late. So far I'm planning on an acrylic 10 gallon with a 2-sided internal overflow going down to a custom sump underneath. I'd like to order from myfishtank.com, but as they ship from California, shipping prices are very high. Does anyone know of any similar companies on the East Coast? I'm going with a Tunze nano skimmer in the sump, a product I've had great success with in the past. I'd like to mount a small calcium reactor in *somewhere*, it's hard to find a small one so a DIY may be in order. The CO2 tank will be remotely located. I'd also like to DIY a small phosban reactor chamber (any good local sources for clear acrylic tubing?). The sump will also have a Tunze ATO installed, which I've used over here in Germany and absolutely love. I'll also use a ReefKeeper2 controller to keep temperature and PH in check. I haven't decided if a chiller is necessary or not yet, but that may be yet another consideration. Inside the tank I'd like a pair of Tunze 6055s controlled by a Multicontroller operating at about 10-20%. I know this may sound like overkill but I swear by Tunze and it's easily upgradeable. Lighting is something which I've been debating, but I've been leaning heavily towards the Solaris 14" LED unit. I think it is more than enough to keep Montis (and acros or clams if I so decide) and has phenomenal features. The other option is to install a pair of T12 VHO actnics with a 150W HQI. The problem with this route is constructing a suitable glass UV shield. It's going to take a good amount of time to get this going (I don't think I'll even order the tank before September), but I'll be sure to post a build thread. This is something I've been waiting to do for quite some time!

Hello everyone, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Tom and I grew up in Rockville, MD. I've kept aquariums as long as I can remember! I started keeping saltwater aquariums when I was 12 years old or so in 1992 and became obsessed with small aquariums (then called micro reefs, now called nanos). That obsession is still with me to this day! If anyone remembers Marine Care Specialists which was in Rockville on Rockville Pike, I worked there from 1998-1999. I attended college in Nashville and since 2003 have lived in Germany in the Army, and for the past 14 months attended graduate school in Heidelberg, Germany. I'm set to return to Alexandria next week and look forward to setting up my dream 10 gallon SPS, which I've wanted to do since I was a kid. Anyways, I look forward to returning to the DC area and meeting everyone at meetings, etc. Cheers Tom

Yeah - you can both control color temperature up to something like 22K and also the output when the light is too strong for the setup. Pretty cool IMO!

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/10/review/view http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2 And if you are electronically inclined: http://www.ledtronics.com/ Solaris LED: http://www.solarisled.com/

There are a couple of options: - Add an inexpensive LED strip to add shimmer effects (daylight) and moonlight to supplement a T5 or T5 flourescent system - Build a complete LED system yourself. There's a couple of DIY threads on the nano-reef.com forums which are interesting but the guys doing it show relatively considerable electrical skills. - Buy the commercial system, which as you note, is quite expensive. I'm going to try this for a 10 gallon which I am currently planning (Solaris 14" system). It was either that or a MH/T12 combo, which, after those components, moonlights, controllers, and electrical costs, comes out to about the same as the LED system. Plus, the LED system has great effects (365 moon/sun cycle, etc). The Solaris system are supposedly putting out the same amount of lighting as a 400W MH @ 15k. Advanced Aquarist did an online review of the first systems which came out two years ago where you can get reviews on PAR, etc. I think on a shallow nano tank, LEDs should be fine for SPS (I'm going to try in my 10g with Montis). I know people are having problems with their SPS in deeper tanks (esp. the Solaris H and G series - I hope the problems in the I series will be rectified). There is of course always the danger of over-exposure but luckily these systems can be powered down by percentage.