Cloudburst2000
Active member
Hello everyone, I have a couple nano tanks. A 16g Nuvo and a 14g Biocube. In the last year or so, I have had to be out of town alot for both work and my father's health issues. Because of this my husbandry has suffered somewhat. There are several times where the tanks had to go three weeks or so without a water change. The 14g Biocube shows no problems with this possibly because it has been set up for several years. I think it is just a very stable system. The 16g Nuvo which has been up a bit over a year has shown more problems with the lack of weekly water changes. My mother feeds the fish and corals while I am out of town. The first times, she did overfeed and
I ended up with some algae issues in the Nuvo. She has since learned how much to feed and is doing a good job feeding correctly and making sure the tanks are topped of with water. She even knows how to run some more RO/DI water should she need it, but that hasn't been an issue yet. However, I do not expect her to do water changes for me when I am gone for more extended periods. Feeding and topping off the tanks are one thing. Full on tank maintenance is another, and I certainly don't want to force that on her as this is my hobby not hers.
So I was looking at possibly setting up a system for automatic water changes on the Nuvo. Has anyone done an automatic water change system on a nano tank? If so how difficult is it to set up? What would I need to set up an automatic water change system? I am really leaning toward one of the systems where a bit of water is removed daily and replaced with new salt water. I eventually would like to keep SPS in this tank (I currently have mostly LPS and softies) and feel that the added stability provided by small daily water changes would help with SPS. What should I look at purchasing and can I use any of my current equipment to aid in these automatic water changes? I have listed all the current equipment on the tank as well as equipment that I have ordered but not yet added to the tank. I was thinking about just restarting the tank as I have never cared for the rockwork and I am having a bit of an algae issue since I was recently gone for an extended period of time. I just figure that it might be easiest to restart the tank in order to add all the new equipment onto the tank as well as redo the rockwork.
Current equipment on the tank is the Nuvo return pump that has a splitter to move water back into the tank in the rear middle compartemnt. I added a second small pump into this chamber to provide water flow into a HOB breeder box that acts as a refugium. I still have the media baskets in both of the overflows but I did away with the Nuvo sponge, carbon sponge, and algae pad that go in these baskets. They both have some filter floss at the top. The media basket on the right has a bag of phospate reducer pellets (I forget the brand at the moment) while the media basket on the left has a bag of carbon. There is also a Jager heater in the rear middle compartment. I have the two stock leds on the tank though I did add a third of the same light so there are three leds over the tank. This is it for equipment currently on the tank.
Equipment that it waiting in the wings. I have a Nano Box Duo LED to replace the three Nuvo LEDs. I got sick of all the cords associated with three lights. I also have a Nano Tunze ATO, a ReefKeeper Lite, and a Nuvo pellet reactor designed to fit into one of the side chambers. I was also considering adding a small skimmer to one of the rear chambers but am undecided on this piece of equipment.
I ended up with some algae issues in the Nuvo. She has since learned how much to feed and is doing a good job feeding correctly and making sure the tanks are topped of with water. She even knows how to run some more RO/DI water should she need it, but that hasn't been an issue yet. However, I do not expect her to do water changes for me when I am gone for more extended periods. Feeding and topping off the tanks are one thing. Full on tank maintenance is another, and I certainly don't want to force that on her as this is my hobby not hers.
So I was looking at possibly setting up a system for automatic water changes on the Nuvo. Has anyone done an automatic water change system on a nano tank? If so how difficult is it to set up? What would I need to set up an automatic water change system? I am really leaning toward one of the systems where a bit of water is removed daily and replaced with new salt water. I eventually would like to keep SPS in this tank (I currently have mostly LPS and softies) and feel that the added stability provided by small daily water changes would help with SPS. What should I look at purchasing and can I use any of my current equipment to aid in these automatic water changes? I have listed all the current equipment on the tank as well as equipment that I have ordered but not yet added to the tank. I was thinking about just restarting the tank as I have never cared for the rockwork and I am having a bit of an algae issue since I was recently gone for an extended period of time. I just figure that it might be easiest to restart the tank in order to add all the new equipment onto the tank as well as redo the rockwork.
Current equipment on the tank is the Nuvo return pump that has a splitter to move water back into the tank in the rear middle compartemnt. I added a second small pump into this chamber to provide water flow into a HOB breeder box that acts as a refugium. I still have the media baskets in both of the overflows but I did away with the Nuvo sponge, carbon sponge, and algae pad that go in these baskets. They both have some filter floss at the top. The media basket on the right has a bag of phospate reducer pellets (I forget the brand at the moment) while the media basket on the left has a bag of carbon. There is also a Jager heater in the rear middle compartment. I have the two stock leds on the tank though I did add a third of the same light so there are three leds over the tank. This is it for equipment currently on the tank.
Equipment that it waiting in the wings. I have a Nano Box Duo LED to replace the three Nuvo LEDs. I got sick of all the cords associated with three lights. I also have a Nano Tunze ATO, a ReefKeeper Lite, and a Nuvo pellet reactor designed to fit into one of the side chambers. I was also considering adding a small skimmer to one of the rear chambers but am undecided on this piece of equipment.
