What makes a great nano/pico tank? What are some of your favorites?

Daniel@R2R · Apr 25, 2022

This week we're all about nano/pico tanks!! Let's have some great conversations about these small tanks of greatness! Here are a few questions for our discussion.

What do you like about nano/pico tanks?
What makes a great nano/pico tank (what separates the average from the exceptional)?
What are some of your favorite nano/pico tanks? (feel free to show pictures, tag owners, link threads...)

One of my favorites by @eschulist!

chipchipbro · Apr 25, 2022

one of my favourite nanos:

I love SPS Nano's and know its very hard to have a stable system (trying it myself)
I like it because I can have one in my office

DannoOMG · Apr 25, 2022

This is one of the pictures that inspired me.

The nano tank appealed to me cause you can have a tiny landscape localized on your desk. Making something look big in a tiny space was interesting to me.

Unfortunately I assumed that smaller meant easier. Oopsie Doodles! My tank is a mess so until it actually looks cool the inspiration hasn't caught up to my final product.

i cant think · Apr 25, 2022

DannoOMG said:
The nano tank appealed to me cause you can have a tiny landscape localized on your desk. Making something look big in a tiny space was interesting to me.

This is also what inspired me into the nano side (Aside from the Griessinger goby haha).

steveschuerger · Apr 25, 2022

Here’s my 30 long.

Reefbuds · Apr 25, 2022

1. I love Nanos because they are easy maintenance and you can place them anywhere.
2. A healthy thriving ecosystem that resembles that of a larger tank.
3. Of course I love my own

frizzayyyyreef · Apr 25, 2022

wallace said:
1. I love Nanos because they are easy maintenance and you can place them anywhere.
2. A healthy thriving ecosystem that resembles that of a larger tank.
3. Of course I love my own

Nanos easy maintenance? Gotta disagree here Maybe if your retired, got thousands for equipment like apex and all that I’ve had a 36 gallon and I hate it it’s insanely harder to maintain then my 120 gallon reef tank I had for 8 years ….

Jack Ravensbergen · Apr 25, 2022

wallace said:
1. I love Nanos because they are easy maintenance and you can place them anywhere.
2. A healthy thriving ecosystem that resembles that of a larger tank.
3. Of course I love my own

Easy i don't think so .
The less volume of water , the more difficult it is to keep that stabil.
So respect to those that keep a small size tank beautifull

DeniseAndy · Apr 25, 2022

I love nano tanks because you can have some of the cool animals that would be lost in anything larger than a 20g. I love Eviota and Trimma gobies and pompom crabs, sexy shrimp and porcelain anemone crabs. They can be seen and more of a focus in a nano or pico tank.
I run a 6g.

minus9 · Apr 25, 2022

I certainly miss my 22g. It was so packed that this was the only way to see everything.

Ef4life · Apr 25, 2022

Picos are great because you can scrape the glass and do a 50% waterchange in about 5 minutes.

the biggest hassle I have with my pico is remembering to swap out the ato bottle every 3 days with a fresh bottle full of Kalkwasser so it doesn’t run dry

zheka757 · Apr 25, 2022

Daniel@R2R said:
This week we're all about nano/pico tanks!! Let's have some great conversations about these small tanks of greatness! Here are a few questions for our discussion.

What do you like about nano/pico tanks?

What makes a great nano/pico tank (what separates the average from the exceptional)?

What are some of your favorite nano/pico tanks? (feel free to show pictures, tag owners, link threads...)

One of my favorites by @eschulist!

This tank must have a 100 gallon sump under it! Growing sps in a 12 gallon tank?

Karen00 · Apr 25, 2022

I had to go the route of a pico (5g) simply due to space constraints so the big plus for these tanks is that they fit anywhere. I haven't had too much trouble maintaining stability but I watch it closely everyday which some might consider a downside. I also don't keep anything super sensitive so slight swings in parameters aren't a concern. For me though the biggest downside is the space limitation which means I'm not only limited by how much I can keep but what I can keep.

I thought my 5g would give me a lot of room for corals... well that's a big "no" when you factor in grow out. I also worked hard to keep everything in the tank tiny so it looks properly scaled then I went and bought a clingfish. I thought this guy was small. Nope, he's a few inches long so when he comes out to be fed he looks like Godzilla in my tank compared to everything else. LOL. He's such a sweetie though so he's not going anywhere.

There's also not a heck of a lot of room to do maintenance. I'm forever knocking things over when my hands go in the tank. All said and done, even if I find the room for a bigger tank I wouldn't tear this one down.

noonelikesadrytang · Apr 25, 2022

I’m a big fan of nano tanks. A doser, and a product like all for reef makes them fairly easy to stabilize.

Heres a couple photos of my 8 gallon Goni and Alveopora garden tank.

kiswanson · Apr 25, 2022

The best thing about my 3.8 gallon Pico reef is that I can have it at my office and look at it at work. Also really shows off certain things like rock flower anemones, sexy shrimp, and clown gobies

rmorris_14 · Apr 25, 2022

kiswanson said:
The best thing about my 3.8 gallon Pico reef is that I can have it at my office and look at it at work. Also really shows off certain things like rock flower anemones, sexy shrimp, and clown gobies

I was going to share yours if you didn't!. I have been watching from the beginning and I am just amazed at what you have created in just three months!

Morgan Freeman Applause GIF by The Academy Awards

chipchipbro · Apr 25, 2022

minus9 said:
I certainly miss my 22g. It was so packed that this was the only way to see everything.

wow thats nice man! did the colonies grow to that size?

Reefbuds · Apr 25, 2022

Maybe easy maintenence is misleading. I do find the maintenence easier on my 29g than when i had my 55g but only because the water changes are quick and simple and it takes a smaller amount of additives to produce the same results.
I do a 3 gallon water change once a week, run a HOB filter with carbon 24/7 , no skimmer and microbacter 7 with fritzyme 9 once a week. I do have to fill top off water once a day and dose alk/Calc every night tho. I keep it simple but I could see how it could get complicated.