Noah's 20 gallon marine "nature aquarium"
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MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
Can easily be gotten for around $200 if you wait for their next sale (probably Easter). A single Prime 16 or Kessil A160 is not enough to adequately light a 24” tank, especially if you want to keep SPS. You say you want a natural looking tank, a tank without even light is not natural looking. Also, for the Prime and A160, with the mounting hardware and controller (with the Kessil) you’re looking at $280-$350.
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
btw, im going with a spectrum like this
and not something like this
ik i dont need as strong lights to get the 1st one cause most people run the whites really low which = lower avg par. i want to max on rgb porportionally & then have whites high on the spectrum too, @Lasse's tank has a similar spectrum which makes the lighting very crisp but it still shows the flourescence
and not something like this
ik i dont need as strong lights to get the 1st one cause most people run the whites really low which = lower avg par. i want to max on rgb porportionally & then have whites high on the spectrum too, @Lasse's tank has a similar spectrum which makes the lighting very crisp but it still shows the flourescence
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
heres what im thinking for total equipment and stuff.
jebao slw 10 55
smart ato autoaqua 65
viparspectra lighting w/ a nice frame or support 150
17 lbs nano special gulf live rock shipped 1-3 day (im in the 3 day zone) or 10 lbs with overnight to your door. idk how much i will need. does anyone have like a picture or something of 10 lbs of rock vs 17 lbs of rock? i want a fairly minimal scape that allows for room for growth. starting at $78 (10 lb 1-3 day shipping) -$184
i do want to also make a custom lid sometime but i have all the tools for that already and/or i know people that do. heck, i could get a full custom laser made lid for just the cost of the sheet & like 10 minutes on inventor
ik no filtration but i will have the real live rock & i might get an el cheapo HOB later on. right now, i am planning on just getting like 2 fish and a lot of coral then letting it grow in on autopilot until the summer
jebao slw 10 55
smart ato autoaqua 65
viparspectra lighting w/ a nice frame or support 150
17 lbs nano special gulf live rock shipped 1-3 day (im in the 3 day zone) or 10 lbs with overnight to your door. idk how much i will need. does anyone have like a picture or something of 10 lbs of rock vs 17 lbs of rock? i want a fairly minimal scape that allows for room for growth. starting at $78 (10 lb 1-3 day shipping) -$184
i do want to also make a custom lid sometime but i have all the tools for that already and/or i know people that do. heck, i could get a full custom laser made lid for just the cost of the sheet & like 10 minutes on inventor
ik no filtration but i will have the real live rock & i might get an el cheapo HOB later on. right now, i am planning on just getting like 2 fish and a lot of coral then letting it grow in on autopilot until the summer
AnotherReefHobbyist
Well-Known Member
sounds good to me! I use the jebao slw 10 and absolutely love it, easy to control, has some great wave patterns, and is very minimalistic.
MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
If you’re wanting to do SPS, you’ll need two of the SLW 10s, if not two of the 20s. I’ve got two of the 10s in a 28g cube (along with two 250gph returns and a 90gph powerhead behind my rockwork), and I it’s just about perfect for a mixed reef, for an SPS reef its probably inadequate.
As for the live rock, 10lbs will be nowhere near enough for a 20g high, 17lbs is even borderline inadequate. If you’re wanting to emulate the reef in the bottom photo, that’s got rock nearly to the surface. 17lbs will make a rock structure that will be around halfway up the tank. In a nano, you’re not going to be growing massive colonies, your not going to need 10+” of open water, it will just be wasted space (fish won’t really use it, most nano sized fish stick close to the rockwork).
Also expect really high ammonia if rock takes 3 days to get to you. Mine was 8 ppm and had to do 100 percent water changes to preserve life and it was shipped overnight in wet paper towels. Which is what gulf still does pretty sure.
Pretty sure Lasse does not subject his cycling fish to that sort of torture.
Pretty sure Lasse does not subject his cycling fish to that sort of torture.
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
i decided on 1-3 day thanks for reminding, idk anything about t5 which is the problem there
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
ok heres new lighting options
1. t5 (how many and what ratio of bulb colors to get a crisp spectrum)
2. two 2x24 t5 lights with a kessil a80
3. metal halide
4. viparspectra
5. nicrew 100w
1. t5 (how many and what ratio of bulb colors to get a crisp spectrum)
2. two 2x24 t5 lights with a kessil a80
3. metal halide
4. viparspectra
5. nicrew 100w
MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
Do you have a photo of your current tank?
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
they dont grow like crazy but here . i dont have much cause my puffer ate a lot of my coral and i couldnt buy that much to replace it
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
mabye what i'll do is the nicrew 100w hyper reef as many people have reccomended it and the reveiws are good. along with that, i will get a nicer pump. with this combo i will have an easier time setting it all up. cause the nicrew has a bracket. i want a pump that gives a nice surface agitation and helps with shimmer on the lights.
MaxTremors
2500 Club Member
If you want to do SPS, a pump(s) that are controllable to create random turbulent flow will really help, at the very least get a JBJ wavemaker that will switch back and forth between two pumps at whatever variable you choose (10s-90m). Having constant laminar flow isn’t ideal for any coral, but SPS especially need random, turbulent flow.
Bribo12
Well-Known Member
I don’t see any corals in that video. Skimping on equipment in areas can work but if you want sps especially acros you’ll need good flow, lighting and consistent parameters. I’d start with softies and easier lps before you attempt acros.
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
ok, thanks for the feedback. i wasnt planning for sps to start, the only possibility could be a small acro snub i have that i got as a freebie last december that has grown from like 1/2 to 1" i might put it in there if i have higher PAR & it will not be messed with by the puffer. im thinking like a couple leathers, that other softie kinda like kenya tree but not kenya tree (colt coral) big polyp long tentacle zoas, mushrooms, etc
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NoahLikesFish
2500 Club Member
huston, we have a problem no bueno 20h, 4 things, 1. i gotta have the tank on a dresser, no room for an ato. i need an ato to fit on the dresser. 2, its pretty heavy. 3, i cant get a lid lazer cut so i gotta find a good premade lid, 4, i cant afford 20lbs of lr. with these 4 changes to my criteria i gotta change the plan. i did some research to find the right one using the engineering design process. i chose the 13.5 cause its slightly smaller, and its also affordable. for $40 more than the lighting, i get tank, lid, lighting, aio, pump and all that goodness. a heater is $15 although i could use the heater that came with my 1st tank
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