Is it worth ruining the zen look for performance?

[bk_market]

I recently set up a nano in my living room.I went with a sleek look of IM fusion 30L tank with LED prime light. The whole zen thing.

Now as I start buying new equipment for the tank, the back sump area became a cluster with so many different gears/tubings/pump. It looks messy and also because I have so many pumps and back sump's area is small, they are making a lot of micro bubbles.

My question for you guy is: Do you think it worth running all these gears for performance and ruin the look of it?

A few example would be:
-Remove cheato reactor with a regular refugium section in the media basket
-Remove carbon and GFO media reactor and replace with 2 GFO/carbon bags in high flow area

 

[Bill Nye]

I never used a refugium so I can't comment on that but I wouldn't give up my GFO reactor. If you run carbon separate you could do that passively.

 

[Lsufan]

Have U tried going without the chaeto reactor to see what happens? I don't think a small fuge would do anything but take up space. So I would maybe try taking it offline & see what happens.

As far as gfo & carbon, u definitely get better results with the reactor. Do u have to use gfo at all times. If so I would probably stick to the reactor, but if u only use it on occasion then a bag may be able to do what u need. Carbon is the same, better results with a reactor but a bag can work too. If u use it 24/7 u may want to stick with the reactor.

What type of reactors do u have? The BRS mini reactor would be perfect for that size tank. I like to use them seperate but if space was a issue I would mix the gfo & carbon together & only use one reactor. I can also set the reactors up under the stand, they don't have to be in the sump or tank.

 

[michael.lemke]

What about getting a canister filter that can sit under the tank for the carbon and Gfo? Yea, you could argue that all that stuff is important or not. I think they are, that's why I have a basement sump. I like a clean tank and inside and out including the equipment. You may be able to get rid of the cheato as many don't use. You could also spend a day cleanly running the wires and such.


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[ReefCowboy]

My opinion is the tank can look zen if you want to keep low maintenance corals, light bioload. As you get corals with more demands you will be required to add equipment to keep up with their needs.

I watched a video from Marine Depot where they "pimped out" a tank like yours and the end result was horrible with equipment sticking out of the rear of the tank as you stated. It ruined the look of it.
That is why many of us prefer a sump inside the stand, to hide stuff and keep the zen look while an efficient tank for any type of coral.

Going back to your questions:

Running GFO in a reactor is way a more efficient way to remove phosphates. You can do it passively and use it in a bag in a high flow area, but you will need to check your phosphate levels more often and replace /knead the media often.

The chaeto will need light and room to grow in order to absorb nutrients, as long as you can provide these in a media basket, it should work

 

[bk_market]

Thank you all for your comments.
I will probably spend some time this weekend to rewire everything so they are a bit cleaner.
The tank is pretty new but I got all the equipment set up already. I think I will keep the cheato inside a chamber part of the sump to grow cheato and pods instead of the cheato reactor as I cant handle the micro bubbles.
For the GFO&carbon I think I will run them in bags for now and maybe later on when I have heavier bioload I will bring back the minimax reactor.

 

[bk_market]

I watched a video from Marine Depot where they "pimped out" a tank like yours and the end result was horrible with equipment sticking out of the rear of the tank as you stated. It ruined the look of it.

This is exactly what happened to me. I bought all the fancy equipment and now my tank look so bad and I hate seeing all my equipment sticking out of the back of the display.

There no argument for running reactor vs no reactor because it's obvious reactor is always the way to go. I just hope that by removing them and run media in bags doesn't put me at any major disadvantage.

 

[ReefCowboy]

This is exactly what happened to me. I bought all the fancy equipment and now my tank look so bad and I hate seeing all my equipment sticking out of the back of the display.

There no argument for running reactor vs no reactor because it's obvious reactor is always the way to go. I just hope that by removing them and run media in bags doesn't put me at any major disadvantage.

All you gotta do is watch feeding and check your levels initially to acess how much gets absorbed by gfo. If you notice a bit of algae, add more gfo in the bag. It is not a big deal, GFO usually sucks up phosphate within hours when ran in a high flow area, so you can correct the issue quickly if needed.

Issues with algae are usually due to negligence or high phosphates long term.