LR for a nano?

[filishy]

Hi,

I'm in the planning process of a 7 gallon mini bow. While I like some kinds of corals I have no problem in having certain amount of diverisyt in this new little tank.

Do you guys at TBS have a minimum of pounds you can sell? I wopuld love to get some 8 lbs for this nano. Another question, do you think it'd be appropriate to use your LR for this set up? I ask because I once emailed another aquacultured LR vendor here in FLA and his answer was that there would be too much life for such a small volume of water.

So, what do you think? Would it work? I will not run a skimmer... well, maybe I will, I have not decided on that quite yet but, having so many years of experience with FW, I am quite used to changing water on a weekly basis.

Thanks!

 

[snooter1]

Just a sugestion, but with such a small tank, why not find a happy TBS rock owner in the area and buy a rock off of him and get the 7 gallons of water from a water change. Instant cycle......no problem. You could likely replace the bought rock with one you buy from TBS. Seems like the smaller the tank, the harder the cycle is with so much live medium on the rock. You would be swapping water 4 times a day. Another sugestion would be to increase the water volume by placing the whole tank into a larger volume of water (rubermaid container) until the cycle is completed. The more water the easier to maintain acceptable levels. Just my two cents. Good luck whatever you do.

 

[landlord]

I like your idea and if you are willing to make the drive down to Tampa I think Richard will sell rock by the pound, and you will be able to go digging through the big vats of rock to choose your own pieces of rock. I realy enjoyed digging around because it gives you the opportunity to choose rock with the stuff on it that you most desire. When I picked out my "package" I scored some really nice brain corals, rocks with good macro algae growth, and some really neat octo corals. I am not saying that Richard couldn't do this for you as well but it is always more fun to dig around yourself IMHO.

I have seen several 7 gallon mini bows with live rock and various hardy soft corals run quite successfully without skimmers. A fish bioload will undoubtedly make the skimmerless option more difficult. Frequent small water changes would be essential.

snooter1's idea has some good points. If you had a mechanism in place to get water from the bow into a much larger volume of water (say a hidden sump) the water will be much more forgiving. Not to mention a place to hide a skimmer!

Have a Blast!

Kurt