Is AI Nano light an overkill for 3g pico?

dasickle

New member
Hi all,

After taking a few years off from this awesome hobby I decided to jump back in with a 3g pico tank. One thing i wanted to do different this time was go with much better lighting then the stock T5 that came with the Picotope tank.

Would using AI Nano LED 35w on such a small tank "cook" my corals? Should I run the light at a much lower percentage with the controller?

The light is mounted 7 inches away from the water level and about 15 inches from the sand bed. I rigged up a pretty cool DIY adjustable mounting bar so the height can be changed on the fly.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

BTW...below is the setup so far:

- 3g JBJ Picotope tank
- AI Nano LED 35 Watts
- 8 lb of very porous live rock from the Caribbean
- 5 pound of fine substrate + 1 pound of substrate from a well established system
- Rio 50 pump
- AC50 filter
- Tiny self-regulating heater
- Still deciding on my ATO options: Tunze ATO or AutoAqua Smart ATO
 
Sounds like my setup! 8lbs sounds like a lot of rock though, might want to stick to 2 or 3 at the most!

That light should be fine though, you're able to turn it down to about 25% then I'd go from there. Some thing to note depending in your corals plan on changing about a gallon twice a week. If not the nutrients start to slip and algae will grow. Fish are kind of out of the question too as I couldn't imagine dealing with that nutrient load and keeping a clean tank for a long period of time.
 
Sounds like my setup! 8lbs sounds like a lot of rock though, might want to stick to 2 or 3 at the most!

Don't know where I got the 8 pounds from. Looked at the receipt this morning and it was 4.2 lb of live rock.

Thanks for your feedback. I noticed that you are using AutoAqua Smart ATO on your nano. How do you like it. I am thinking about getting one. is the lens/probe pretty small inside the tank?
 
Don't know where I got the 8 pounds from. Looked at the receipt this morning and it was 4.2 lb of live rock.

Thanks for your feedback. I noticed that you are using AutoAqua Smart ATO on your nano. How do you like it. I am thinking about getting one. is the lens/probe pretty small inside the tank?

I love it, set it and forget it really.

The lens is really small and I had room to just put it next to my filter and it's out of the way. No real quirks I can think of other than making sure you turn it off before you start a water change.
 
You can dial it way down. But, yes, as far as a fixture goes and price... it's overkill. Just find a good while/blue LED bulb and throw it on an outlet timer.
 
You can dial it way down. But, yes, as far as a fixture goes and price... it's overkill. Just find a good while/blue LED bulb and throw it on an outlet timer.

Nooo, we are far beyond white/blue at this point. If you really want to do it right go with the nanobox tide.
 
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