# 8 gal nano



## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

My first salt water tank - Bought it used last year. I was going to get a 100+ gal tank to put in the basement, but keep holding off as the time it takes to keep this nano alive and well is already quite a bit, so I can imagine what kind of effort a 100+ gal will take. How much time do you guys spend maintaining your reef tanks on a weekly basis? Btw, I use a 20k Metal Halide bulb for lighting, hence the very blue'ish color.


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## explor3r (Mar 14, 2010)

For what i know 100G is diferent to a 8g or 20 g, bigger tanks are more stable and easy to manage.
For example i do weekly water change in my 20g, in a 100g u might be able to do it biweekly.
My personal choice is to spend lot of times looking and observing whats going on in my tank, i enjoy it and relaxes me as well.
I guess u dont have to be a slave of your tank as long as u keep your routine with water changes and water test in order to have a healthy enviroment.
After that all u have to do is sit down and enjoy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

With top-off and dosing automated, I do visual inspection daily, with some glass cleaning if necessary.

Every weekend Skimmer gets cleaned and ATO resevoir gets refilled. 

Water change occurs bi-weekly. 

Still, significantly more work than a freshwater tank.


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## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

concidering how small your tank is its quite beautiful. does not look so small so i guess your caorals are all little still. in regards to tank size i went from a 10 then 20 then 37 then 55 and finally my 90 and its becomes less work as you go bigger.. i remember with my 10 and 20 having to test my water params constantly but now it takes a long time for things to go out of whack and i dont even test anymore as ive learned the visiual signs of stress in my corals and fish and know its time for a water change.


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

Based on the comments here, I think I will move to a bigger tank much sooner than what I originally planned for. What is the best way to move the livestock and corals from a 8 gallon to a 90 gallon? Fill the new tank with 80 gallons of water, go through a cycle, and then move the corals, livestock AND water from the nano tank to this new tank? Also is a skimmer a must for the larger tank? Thanks.


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## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

well you gonna need a ton of live rock (cured 100 percent) and it will need to cycle for a few weeks as the sandbed will need to populate bacteria. when you make the switchover after the big tank is settled make sure to transfer over all the water, sand and roock from your 8 gallon to help seed the new tank with a more diverse population of bacteria and orginasisms. its gonna take a few weeks but it will be so worth it. you will go through algae blooms and diatom blooms.. if you can keep the eight gallon going about 2-3 months while the new tank cycles and stabalises and then your corals will go through less stress.


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## Windowlicka (Mar 5, 2008)

Your tank looks awesome - hard to believe it's a mere ~8G~ in volume...

...I for one am looking forward to seeing what you do with that 220G reef that you're inevitably destined to build!


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

Didn't get my 100g tank yet, but managed to pick up a used JBJ 28g Nano tank about 5 months ago. I managed to move everything over from my 8g without too many major problems (fighting some cyano issues currently though). Hoping this will give me my fix until I have space for the bigger tank....

Pics of the new nano tank.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

Awesome tank!


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

wow, nice cavern. i really like the look of this tank. the cavern you've built is really cool in the upgrade

Selling the 8gal cube? PM me lol


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## aquanutt (Aug 27, 2010)

I wish I had that much purple in my tank...
nice nano man

cheers


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

Bought a Crocea clam for the 28g this weekend. Since this is my first time with a clam, is it normal to have the clam open up with the mantle spread this wide??? The mantle sticks out so much, it is almost like a pair of wings.... And no, the hermit crab beside the clam is not sunbathing, it is actually molting.. Weird place for it to molt though, as it is so exposed....


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## aquanutt (Aug 27, 2010)

I like your tank man, very nicely done and nice simple setup.
For me simple does it...

cheers


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

Thanks for the compliment. Although my intention was never to make it "simple" but fill all the empty spots with corals


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Fantastic... I have no idea on the clam however. D: Any change today?


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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

what kind of lights are you running in your biocube?


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## ozi (Aug 23, 2007)

you're clam is perfectly fine. you should be worried if it looked any different.
keep an eye on your hermits and cleaner shrimp (if you have any) as they sometimes pick at the clam's mantle.
also try not to move it around. you could damage it's "leg"


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

ozi said:


> you're clam is perfectly fine. you should be worried if it looked any different.
> keep an eye on your hermits and cleaner shrimp (if you have any) as they sometimes pick at the clam's mantle.
> also try not to move it around. you could damage it's "leg"


Thanks. I haven't seen the hermit crabs attacking the clam yet, and I have no cleaner shrimps, only anemone shrimps. Will keep an eye out for sure.


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

caker_chris said:


> what kind of lights are you running in your biocube?


150W 20k Metal Halide.


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

Just setup another nano tank as a quarantine tank over the Christmas holiday week. It's a rimless starfire tank from Aqua Inspiration. I think it's a great looking tank - awesome clarity, even though the water is still a bit cloudy, but for some reasons, it looks so much clear through this glass...


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

very nice. I wish to have someting like this one day.

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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

that's the beauty of it sig, you will.. yes you will. :3


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

Thanks Sunstar. I hope that one day.... 
Now I am just trying to arrange priority.
On Sunday, I moved out my 50G Freshwater. and now I have my two weeks old 29G and 80G FW. In April will try to make 80G as a SW. Will see than

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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

Bought a new camera yesterday (Sony NEX 5N), and trying out the HDR mode. Loving the camera so far (might have to get rid of my DSLR). These pics were taken hand held with HDR enabled and I think they look rather nice.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

stunning pics... holy crap


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## Tristan (Aug 15, 2011)

I love the lack of silicone on the ai tanks. Everything just looks sooooo much cleaner. Makes you wonder why all the other manufacturers don't do the same thing.


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## Bayinaung (Feb 24, 2012)

dude, you definitely have the talent for building tanks. love your aquascaping. yeah sony NEX is one good system! take a few more detail pics and post them on RC or nano reef. I bet one of your tanks can win award for tank of the month.


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

beautiful nano!


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## kamal (Apr 21, 2009)

sublime tank


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## explor3r (Mar 14, 2010)

Beautiful tank and pictures


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## cityhunter (Feb 15, 2010)

Bayinaung said:


> dude, you definitely have the talent for building tanks. love your aquascaping. yeah sony NEX is one good system! take a few more detail pics and post them on RC or nano reef. I bet one of your tanks can win award for tank of the month.


Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't have much time these days to do any "trimming" so today the tank looks quite overcrowded with corals growing too big and fighting for space. I am just going to wait till I get a bigger tank so I can move everything over and re-scape it.

With any luck I can get rid of my 7 gal nano and keep just one salt water, and one fresh water tank. Eventually, I am going to downsize to one tank which I think will be salt water... You can see my FW tank in this thread.http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23649&page=2.


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