Hi

[nosferatu51]

Just found out about you guys today, wish I'd known before. I guess the guys at the Critter realized I'd been coming around often enough to think I must know other people here who reef. Anyway, just thought I'd say hi. I've been reefing for the last year or so and currently have a 20L and a tiny little 750ml pico that I set up this morning for the fun of it. I'll post pictures of the 20L in the morning.
Unfortunately, I may be moving in 2 months. That is, unless anyone knows somebody who can get me into Vandy's med school! I hope I can stick around and get involved with other reefers here though.
Here's pics of the new little pico. I'm trying to find some sort of little external water pump with a really small flow for some circulation in it. I think I will try a model train store tomorrow. Otherwise I think my options may revolve around creating an overflowing tank into a glass dish of some sort and having a submerged MiniJet 404 pump water back up at minimal output.

 

[fishdoc11]

[welcome]

....and to MTRC

Neat tank!

I'm guessing you've read the Coral issue about nanos.

Chris

 

[gflat65]

Wow. Two in two days. This place is getting busier. Welcome to the forum.

I've always wanted to set up something along those lines (in terms of tank size) just to show off pods, etc. if you haven't read the Coral Magazine article on nanos, you ought to try to hunt it down. An air pump might provide the flow you want (with tube embedded in the rock with no diffuser).

 

[luckyfish]

Put a 250 HQI over that and you'll really see some growth.

 

[nosferatu51]

Haven't read it, but I spend way too much time at nano-reef.com and it seems to be a good source of info.
I've tried an air pump that I have in there and it just pushes too much air. I'm also concerned with a pH drop from using an airstone in something so small. I've found a pump online that is used to model train scenery that should be able to handle the job well if I can get my hands on one. Here's hoping.
There's actually a ton of life in that little thing. I got the small pieces out of that fuge the Critter has hanging on the side of their coral tanks. There is a 20cm in bristleworm in there that scares the crap outta me! Also, there's a buncha small dusters, a christmas tree, 6 or 7 bristleworm, 8 stomatella snails, lots of pods, a couple mini brittle stars, and a blue hermit. I caught a bit of flack over at nano-reef cause I thought out loud about how cool it'd be to put a little yellow clown goby in it. Oops, I guess I should keep those thoughts to myself!
And thanks for the welcome.

 

[theop]

You might want to find a small peristaltic dosing pump to move your water. That might be an expensive solution, however.

How are you planning on maintaing a siphon on a external pump?

Also, are you having to top off water daily in that small a tank (with an open top). I would imagine that it wouldn't take much evaporation to alter the S.G.

 

[greystreet41]

I wonder how a sexy shrimp would do in something that small...

 

[nosferatu51]

Yeah, I had been contemplating a sexy shrimp (or 2?), but considering I saw them on Liveaquaria's website for $7 and AC has them for $20 it's hard to justify the cost. That and I'm not sure how well it would do so I don't want to throw away $20. Reefing on a college student's budget is hard!
Evap on it isn't horrendous, but it does require a little toppping off in the morning. My main concern I guess is the water movement, although I am wondering if perhaps my daily topoffs might be enough. It should be a fairly self-sufficient system if I do the topoffs and occasional water changes simply because there's nothing in it that creates a significant bioload.
I was also thinking that with such a small volume of water needing to be pushed, a slight temperature differential between the top and bottom might be enough. For instance if something raised the temperature of the water at the bottom even by a degree, it would cause it to rise and the colder water to flow down thus creating a cycle of the water which is completely imperceptible.
Now that I'm home I'll take some shots of the 20L and post them.

 

[nosferatu51]

GFlat - Just read your post and realized I hadn't fully understood it the first time. Are you saying that if I drilled a hole into a piece of LR and stuck the hose in there it would work? That might help prevent the excessive force issues I'm having using even my 1PSI air pump.

 

[nosferatu51]

I just added a bunch of shots of my 20L to my gallery. I'll post a couple of the more interesting ones here, but there are more if you just take a look.

FTS

Shamu

Slash and my new duster

My oldest corals. I apologize for the meddlesome wrasse in the middle of the shot. It was the only decent macro kind of shot out of the bunch so I decided an obstruction was better than out of focus.

Sorry if my photography skills don't seem up to par. I'm using a very basic digital cam with not much in the way of macro shooting.

 

[gflat65]

Yup. Just drill a hole in the rock and epoxy the tube in place so it can't move. You might try a needle valve of some sort to control air flow so you aren't bringing it to a rolling boil. That was one of the ideas mentioned in the Coral magazine article.