[HaoleBoy]

I got this for free and want to see what the experts here think I can do with it... It looks to be a 3 gal tank. tall.. It has 2 power compact 9w bulbs in it 1 super white . and an actinic. It came with a penguin hang on filter. I'd like to try a nano reef with this. How would it work doing weekly water changes with dsb and lr?? What kind of samll corals would thrive with this lighting? The Penguin seems to cause a good amount of flow... Maybe too much? Any suggestions would be helpful!

Thanks, Scott

 

[hooked]

I would not worry about a deep sandbed. I would just put about 1/2 - 1" of sand in. I would put about 2-4 pounds of rock. Doing weekly water changes would be great. The only thing I can tell you is to keep up on top-off. If you do weekly changes and don't keep up on you top-off your salinity will be way out of control. I would try some mushrooms or some type of leather coral. Most LFS have frags you can get real cheap so you could get a few different things in your tank. I got a 1" piece of montepora digiti (sp) for like 3 bucks. It is really small but will grow

Good luck

 

[ylmaya]

Ditto on the water top off - I have a 12G nano running and it drives me crazy. It is next to impossible to keep water parameters constant which makes it really hard for livestock. Sounds like you have good lighting but lookout - it tends to heat up the water - I leave my top open while lights are on - but that only leads to more evaporation.

It is possible - but get ready to pretty much do daily maintenance.....Good luck!

 

[HaoleBoy]

Thanks for the replys. My worry was the lighting . If it was enough to support some corals. And the peguin filter. I knew i would have to add water every day. It used to belong to my brother inlaw and was sitting in his garage for a couple of years. So I got him to give it to me. hehe If anyone has anything to add please do! Thanks guys!

Scott

 

[Geoff]

3 gals is tough. it is all about keeping the water a constant s.g. i found i could only really keep a fish and some crabs. most corals could not handle the salinity changes that happened during the day. you have the lights though. water changes will be tough if you do not have an established reef to use as supply. i found this made it easier. the reef water was better than the nano, but was not as shocking as freshly made ASW.

HTH,

G~

 

[hooked]

Keeping a 3g is not impossible but will take some daily work. I had a 2.5g for a few months but took it down. If you want good info in nano tanks go to www.nano-reef.com . You will find all the information you will ever need at this site. I will say that be careful what you say on this site and do some on site research before asking a question, you could get flamed.

 

[Rick O]

You could top off in the morning and the evening. That should take care of your SG swings.

I've seen an all mushroom tank before and it was real nice. That's what I would do with that tank. There's plenty of different colors to keep your interests up.

 

[hamburglar]

Geoff has good advice.

I kept a 5 gallon for a year (got tierd of it). I changed water weekly or bi-weekly exclusivly from my 70 gallon reef tank. I never had to add anything else to it

Also don't waste you money on little skimmers or any of that stuff. The water changes will be all you need.

I think you should be able to keep just about any soft corals in there. Mushrooms, Yellow polyps, Xenia, and Star polyp would be a suggestion.

I kept some small SPS frags in my 5 gallon tank with two 13 watt PC's. They did not grow very fast. But, they did grow a little.

Have Fun!