Ron Reefman
Lets Go Snorkeling!
Reef Squad
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Article Contributor
Tampa Bay Reef Keepers
MAC of SW Florida
I'll start here with a question of curiosity. I know there are a lot of new AIO (All In One) tanks on the market. But mine is just a plain rimless tank with a HOB filter, a heater and an ATO. I dose alk and Ca every morning and test the water once a week. Everything seems quite stable for now. I'd be interested in 2 subjects. Talking to anyone who has a simple nano tank that is NOT an AIO system. And hearing from anybody who had a simple nano tank and switched to an AIO system and can share their thoughts about what is better or worse with that switch.
Some of you may know me already, I post a lot about snorkeling and beach collecting and I'm pretty knowledgeable about RFAs, but I'm kind of new to this forum. For the last 20 years I've had bigger display tanks, at one point I had a 425g system in our dining room. But I frequently have smaller tanks of 5g, 10g 20g or 40g going that typically house critters I've collected while snorkeling in the Florida Keys (5 hours from home), or at a local beach/estuary or even off the beach on Sanibel Island after a cold front in the winter. I also had a 16g tank dedicated to breeding RFAs which was only marginally successful.
But I've never really tried to keep just a small reef tank for the main tank in our house. My change in approach is due to the fact that my wife and I are doing a lot more traveling now that we are both retired. And we were never really comfortable leaving our big tanks full of coral and fish to a couple of friends who also take care of our cat when we go away. If a pump failed, or a fish died, or worse yet, a leak of some kind started, we couldn't really ask them to do the work of fixing things while we were on vacation.
So, I've sold off our 90g DT and most of the hardware associated with it. I've even sold off or given away a lot of reserve or spare equipment I kept on the shelf as back ups. Now I have a 16g rimless tank that I built from spare glass used in other builds. I also kept a 5g, a 10g and a 40g standard tank... just in case. I want to keep feeding anything to the tank at a minimum. And I want this system to be almost bulletproof in terms of pumps and leaks. That way we have far less to worry about when we are away and even if something does fail, it probably won't be catastrophic and may be easy for our cat sitter to fix. After all, it's not that hard to change out a HOB filter system.
I'm kind of starting over with this 16g tank. I sold all my livestock except for one expensive and uncommon RFA, a hermit crab that got missed when moving out the livestock along with a couple of zoas. I did keep some sand and rock which I used in the set up of the 16g tank. I have a big HOB filter system in use and an older 16" Photon led light. I also have a small in-tank skimmer which is not in use at this time.
I set up the tank with sand and a few rocks. I put the RFA (which is in a PVC end cap), the crab and zoas in the tank. Everything seems to be going smoothly so far. So, I bought some coral frags, mostly lps and sps, to start populating the tank. It's my intention to not have any more fish that is absolutely necessary. That means less need to feed anything to the tank.
Tomorrow my wife and I leave for a 3 day snorkel trip to the Keys. I intend to collect some astrea snails, some cerith snails, some nerite snails, 1 or 2 small serpent stars, a very small yellow sea cucumber, any RFAs I can collect and maybe a decorative algae if I can find one. Of course I may not find all that I am looking for, and I'm always willing to consider anything else that I might find that would work in this tank, like a coral banded shrimp, a small emerald crab or maybe a couple of small hermit crabs.
Anything I collect will get held in a small holding tank for some period of time, a few days to a few weeks depending on conditions. I have collected many times in the Keys and have never had anything cause a problem in my big DTs. Both my wife and I will take photos and I'll post them here next week along with a list and photos of anything I collect. There may even be updates from the Keys.
Ron
This is the 90g tank I just sold off.
Some of you may know me already, I post a lot about snorkeling and beach collecting and I'm pretty knowledgeable about RFAs, but I'm kind of new to this forum. For the last 20 years I've had bigger display tanks, at one point I had a 425g system in our dining room. But I frequently have smaller tanks of 5g, 10g 20g or 40g going that typically house critters I've collected while snorkeling in the Florida Keys (5 hours from home), or at a local beach/estuary or even off the beach on Sanibel Island after a cold front in the winter. I also had a 16g tank dedicated to breeding RFAs which was only marginally successful.
But I've never really tried to keep just a small reef tank for the main tank in our house. My change in approach is due to the fact that my wife and I are doing a lot more traveling now that we are both retired. And we were never really comfortable leaving our big tanks full of coral and fish to a couple of friends who also take care of our cat when we go away. If a pump failed, or a fish died, or worse yet, a leak of some kind started, we couldn't really ask them to do the work of fixing things while we were on vacation.
So, I've sold off our 90g DT and most of the hardware associated with it. I've even sold off or given away a lot of reserve or spare equipment I kept on the shelf as back ups. Now I have a 16g rimless tank that I built from spare glass used in other builds. I also kept a 5g, a 10g and a 40g standard tank... just in case. I want to keep feeding anything to the tank at a minimum. And I want this system to be almost bulletproof in terms of pumps and leaks. That way we have far less to worry about when we are away and even if something does fail, it probably won't be catastrophic and may be easy for our cat sitter to fix. After all, it's not that hard to change out a HOB filter system.
I'm kind of starting over with this 16g tank. I sold all my livestock except for one expensive and uncommon RFA, a hermit crab that got missed when moving out the livestock along with a couple of zoas. I did keep some sand and rock which I used in the set up of the 16g tank. I have a big HOB filter system in use and an older 16" Photon led light. I also have a small in-tank skimmer which is not in use at this time.
I set up the tank with sand and a few rocks. I put the RFA (which is in a PVC end cap), the crab and zoas in the tank. Everything seems to be going smoothly so far. So, I bought some coral frags, mostly lps and sps, to start populating the tank. It's my intention to not have any more fish that is absolutely necessary. That means less need to feed anything to the tank.
Tomorrow my wife and I leave for a 3 day snorkel trip to the Keys. I intend to collect some astrea snails, some cerith snails, some nerite snails, 1 or 2 small serpent stars, a very small yellow sea cucumber, any RFAs I can collect and maybe a decorative algae if I can find one. Of course I may not find all that I am looking for, and I'm always willing to consider anything else that I might find that would work in this tank, like a coral banded shrimp, a small emerald crab or maybe a couple of small hermit crabs.
Anything I collect will get held in a small holding tank for some period of time, a few days to a few weeks depending on conditions. I have collected many times in the Keys and have never had anything cause a problem in my big DTs. Both my wife and I will take photos and I'll post them here next week along with a list and photos of anything I collect. There may even be updates from the Keys.
Ron
This is the 90g tank I just sold off.
