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Question about nanos

njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
Question for you guys.

Toying with the idea of getting a nano tank for my office. One major concern I have is a failing heater causing a fire.

Thoughts?

Thanks
James
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
My opinion......all heaters need to be attached to a controller. It saves you from the "stuck ON" failure of the heater. And all heaters will fail. If you don't have an overall tank controller, than consider something like a Ranco to control the heaters. And for you James, a DIY should work just fine for you. I'll see if I can find some links for a simple DIY and get back to you.
 
njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
trio91 said:
Can u hook up your controller to act as a failsafe?
Click to expand...

I can't do that because I don't want to bring something untested like that into my job (also I don't want anyone to messed with it)

trio91 said:
Do you have a nano tank?
Click to expand...

No I don't have a nano tank. Still in the thinking phase. I also not sure how I would handle the changing of the water, mixing saltwater, top off and what not.

Any brand/system I should look at/stay away if I do decide to move forward with it?
 
njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
redfishbluefish said:
My opinion......all heaters need to be attached to a controller. It saves you from the "stuck ON" failure of the heater. And all heaters will fail. If you don't have an overall tank controller, than consider something like a Ranco to control the heaters. And for you James, a DIY should work just fine for you. I'll see if I can find some links for a simple DIY and get back to you.
Click to expand...

Paul agree about the heater that why its my number one concern lol
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
It's in water, any fire is immediately put out.

Seriously, I have 2 nanos going, softies only - I'm done for the time being with computers, dosing, and massive WCs.
I'm running an IM10 and an IM25, both all in one systems.

The IM10 runs about $199 with light, though I've seen it for around $100-$110. The light is a 'Skyye' light and is standard on or off. It runs 3 whites and 3 blues.
I've got the light set to a timer for 6 hours a day. Oddly enough I was looking at this tank this morning and was impressed at how well my zoas and other softies are doing under this light, I was so impressed I was going to post about it but you've given me an outlet here.
Aside from that the tank has about 10# aragonite, a 12# chunk of rock, an used Tunze nano ATO, an upgraded media basket ($24, those socks they give you with it are garbage), and a spin stream ($20) for random flow in tank that works amazingly well.
I do have a heavy bioload at the moment do I'm running a used IM ghost skimmer. Really can't recommend this tank enough. When I see them on sale again (hopefully around $100) I'm planning to pick up one or two more.
Heater is a Cobalt 50w, set at 80 degrees. Its been running for over a year now with no concerns. I'm planning to drop in a 25w backup just in case of main heater failure.

The IM25 is a shallow lagoon. I broke this down and was planning to sell it, but while in hospital and messing with ideas I decided to run with a massive zoa only tank, hopefully raising some rare ones as well.
This tank has the same excellent build quality as the IM10, with lead free glass panels. Obviously price tag is much steeper ($250 tank only an additional $299 for stand). I'm building the internals of this tank on the cheap with some ebay pumps, a couple of power heads that were laying around, a Finnex hang on fuge, 20# of dry base, 8# of live rock, bare bottom. Lighting is a Hydra 26HD. This is a fantastic sized tank and looks great on the stand.
Heater is this one is an Aqueon 100w Pro which was bought new. On my previous 90g I ran 2 of these Pro heaters at 80 degrees for over a year with no concern.

I've read the horror stories online of people finding dead tanks due to melted heaters or folks narrowly avoiding fire. I've never experienced any of this first hand and can't imagine it to be as dangerous as people say with the tens of thousands of heaters in tanks ranging from kids rooms to full reef setups. I wonder if it really is as dangerous a situation as its often made out to be and tend to think that if it was so dangerous there wouldn't be an aquarium based hobby to begin with.

Edit: If you're going to look into buying the Cobalt controller, you may as well just snag a Cobalt heater, which has the controller built in.
 
njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
Well decided I am not going to put a nano in my office. I really do miss having a tank up and running. I was just looking at different nano tanks wondering if there was a place at my mom's where I could set it up. I then thought it would be cheaper if I could just find a place for either my 36g bow front or my 54g corner. Getting bills paid off and getting into a house can't come fast enough lol
 
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