Hi Nano-Reefers,
I'm coming back into reefing after a 5 year vacation and I find myself addicted to nano-reefs, spending hours at a time looking at all those beautiful little tanks in forums and galleries. Anyways, I've decided to startup a nano-reef in the twenty-something gallon range. I was initially very attracted to the all-in-one tanks: Nanocube, Aquapod, and M-tank (glass). The costs seem to be very reasonable and the refined looks are unbeatable. I started out planning to go with the stock fixtures, but then was persuaded by my cousin (who is a very serious reefer) to go with a MH because he'll be able to leave me some SPS fragments. I find myself looking at MH options in these all-in-ones and found out AHHHH! They're EXPENSIVE! Being a poor student coming back to school, cost is a big factor for me. I started looking for other ways around the situation and thought about going with an AGA or small acrylic aquarium setup along with a good MH fixture. I keep going back and forth between the two ideas and about to go CRAZY!
Anyways, I'd appreciate any recommendations from nano-reefers who'd had experience with these tank setups. Will I be missing much if I go with an AGA setup? Any real technical built-in advantages from the Auapods or M-tanks? (The M-tank was sorta appealing because it comes with a filter-chamber and protein skimming).
I'm coming back into reefing after a 5 year vacation and I find myself addicted to nano-reefs, spending hours at a time looking at all those beautiful little tanks in forums and galleries. Anyways, I've decided to startup a nano-reef in the twenty-something gallon range. I was initially very attracted to the all-in-one tanks: Nanocube, Aquapod, and M-tank (glass). The costs seem to be very reasonable and the refined looks are unbeatable. I started out planning to go with the stock fixtures, but then was persuaded by my cousin (who is a very serious reefer) to go with a MH because he'll be able to leave me some SPS fragments. I find myself looking at MH options in these all-in-ones and found out AHHHH! They're EXPENSIVE! Being a poor student coming back to school, cost is a big factor for me. I started looking for other ways around the situation and thought about going with an AGA or small acrylic aquarium setup along with a good MH fixture. I keep going back and forth between the two ideas and about to go CRAZY!
Anyways, I'd appreciate any recommendations from nano-reefers who'd had experience with these tank setups. Will I be missing much if I go with an AGA setup? Any real technical built-in advantages from the Auapods or M-tanks? (The M-tank was sorta appealing because it comes with a filter-chamber and protein skimming).
