Itty-bitty, teeny-weeny Nano Tank-Will it work?

[imsuzibo71]

I have decided to take over my daughter's 1.6 gal tank. (due to multiple homicides on the part of her silver shark, we were forced to turn him in to the LFS) I have a VERY cranky maroon clown in my 30 that I am hoping I can eventually put in here. My question is this: Is this tank too small to work? Everything I have read so far on Nanos only goes down to a 3 gallon. I have a piece of LR and a Damsel and 1 Scarlet legged crab in there now, all seem to be doing ok, but I WANT MORE. Any advice would be great...

Thanks!

[The Man]

I don't think more will happen in the way of live stock, thats an awfully small tank. Personnaly I would get rid of the Damsel and add a Pepermint shrimp or two, maybe a few bottun polyps if you have good light. Damsels are kind of territorial, and might/will attack anymore critters(specially in a small tank). Also, when you get into the 1-2 gallon tanks, there called Pico's.

[hooked]

What type of lighting to do you have? What type of filtration/water movement are you using? I think your biggest problem would be salinity lvl. Good luck.

[imsuzibo71]

I have a 10 watt mini compact by Corallife light. It's a 50/50 bulb (10000K) and it screws into the regular light fighture that came with the tank. Won't that give me about 8 1/2 watts per gal.? As far as filtration I am depending on the algae growth on the LR. And I have air bubbles for movement .(coming out of a cute little treasure chest LOL) I have some Xenia and button polyps and such im my 30 gal, I am hoping to try some frags of those in here. As far as the damsel, I am just using him to get it cycled.

[ckreef]

It can work.

If it was me I would remove the damsel right away. He's already released enough amonia to cycle that small of a tank.

FOr inhabitants I would go w/ just a few corals frags and maybe a couple of snails as a cleanup crew. Skip any fish or any type of invert that would need feeding. No food means much less biological activity and a much easier tank to maintain especially being that small.

Xenia, some button polyps and maybe a shroom or two.

Also throw the idea of wattts/per gallon out the window when dealing w/ Nano's. Thats a big tank rule that really doesn't apply. What would be a better rule is watts/per surface area with some type of factor for depth. Also is it the 50/50 bulb or the 10k kelvin bulb. They are both on the market. I have the 10k kelvin bulb over a Minibow 2.5 for a crab tank and it should work for the low light corals mentioned above in your size tank.

[imsuzibo71]

i was uder the impression the white light side was 10000 k and the other atinic. also i am curious to the productive life of this type of bulb if anybody knows??????

[hooked]

I tried a 3 gallon with not much luck. I had it up for about 2 months. I also used that 10w standard socket bulb. I had a very small filter on back that I took the pad out of, just used for flow. I had about 1 inch of sand from another tank so it had life in it and about 3 pounds of rock. I had 2 shrooms and small frag of xenia. I ran the lights for 8 hours. The xenia melted down after only a few weeks, not sure why. The shrooms did ok but from what I have found they are one of the hardest things to kill anyway.

[ckreef]

Originally posted by imsuzibo71
i was uder the impression the white light side was 10000 k and the other atinic. also i am curious to the productive life of this type of bulb if anybody knows??????

From reading that statement you have the 50/50 bulb. You are correct --- one side is 10k and the other is Actinic. That particular bulb would be refered to as a 50/50 bulb.

They also make a bulb that is refered to as a 10k bulb where all sides are 10k kelvin.

That is why I was a little confussed because you sort of referenced both bulbs and I was trying to figure out if you really had the 50/50 (which you do) or if you had the straight 10k bulb (which I have).

Usefull life should be at least 6 months and probably could be stretched to 8-12 months depending on whats in the tank. I imagine the bulb will fire for 2 or 3 years but it's usefull life (for reefs anyway) will be long gone.

[Ray1214]

The biggest problem I had was temp control. but I managed a 3 gal eclipse for a wee bit.
Ray

[imsuzibo71]

First of all Thanks for all the great advice and information! But as always, now I have another question. I just got a electric flame scallop and put him in my 30 gal. I am really worried he just isn't going to get enough to eat. I am wondering if I wouldn't be better off putting him in this nano since there is no skimmer and I would think it would be easier to feed him. ALSO, he has got a chunck of coral that is stuck in the corner of his mouth, it's about 2 inches long. The guy at the LFS tried to get it out when I got him, but it seems to be "Stuck" to him on the inside corner of his mouth. Should I just leave it? I say yes but my old man says no. LOL