Pico/Nano Question: Advice wanted...

[tangboy]

Good morning all!

I have recently become the Principal of my school about a year and a half ago and I wanted to add some movement to my office. Space is limited but I was wanting to get a pico or nano somewhere in my office.

I have torn down all my tanks at home and currently only have a 75g tank in my classroom for my students to take charge of.

I have dabbled with 8g BioCubes, and was happy with them, but was wondering what people have experienced with LED technology coming around in the last few years.

What advice do you have for anything small, AIO, and great for zoas and other softies?!

Budget= $100-200 for equipment.

 

[Rikerbear]

I dearly love my IM 16 gal nano. The LEDs were fine for fish, and a few softies, but I found that if I wanted to keep any LPS or SPS an upgrade would most certainly be needed.
I can not speak to any of the other nano manufacturers but can only assume the same with their included lights.
Zoas, shrooms, and certain softies should be fine however

 

[tangboy]

what upgrade did you make? As in upgrading the LEDs to better LEDs or upgrading to MH? Seems like anything but LEDs would fry the tank... except PCs...

 

[Rikerbear]

I added an additional 16 watt LED from Wave Point giving me a total of 32 watts of 50/50 wht/blue combo.
I still don't plan to tary and keep any SPS corals as they really do not appeal to me, but the added light will allow me to keep happier LPS and some of the touchier zoas/palys and shrooms.
I agree MH is WAY to hot for such a small tank

 

[tangboy]

I have been checking out some of the 3g tanks much like the JBJ 3 gallon cube with the LED lights that is advertised in the competition but didn't know how people have been happy with them.

 

[Rikerbear]

It really depends on just what you are planning to keep. The light that comes with the JBJ 3 is an 8 watt light as I remember which would give you almost 3 watts per gal, so zoas, lps, and shrooms would be fine, but doubt you could keep many if any SPS.

 

[tangboy]

man what is the recommended light ratio for softies vs sps? I can't remember, I remember some X4 to X10 rule but that was probably gph for pumps and powerheads for water movement

 

[Rikerbear]

3 watts per gallon is a safe rule of thumb for softies and most LPS.....SPS is better at 5 X 1....but that can change depending on the type of light.
With LED it seems 3 x 1 is a safe way to go for most things...or so my research has led me to believe

 

[tangboy]

I'm surprised no one else chimmed in with 24 hours of a thread being up... I do appreciate your words of wisdom Rikerbear!

 

[Rikerbear]

No problem at all. Threads come and go so quickly that a lot of them are missed