HumblePie

@Exodus Your findings for the protein skimmer were spot on with mine. I've had a couple different ones in the past which were OK but not great. I found that frequent water changes and an ATO were the key to a more successful tank. I'm pretty sure I'll go with the larger refugium. That, essentially, doubles my water volume which will help keep the tank more stable and, as you point out, will give me more space for a larger (and hopefully better) skimmer. [ EDIT ] - Almost forgot. With my last few tanks, I spent a disproportionate amount of time on the nano-reef.com forums (same username and image). Haven't been back in several years, though. I'll take a peek and see how those forums are these days. Thanks for the pointer.

@pdxmonkeyboy - Yeah. Good point about the HOB filter. I haven’t ever really run those before so wasn’t quite sure what the results might be. I’ve used the fuge options a couple times but never had enough macro growth to outcompete the bioload in the tank. As for the protein skimmer, I’ll have to make some compromises. The tank is going in the Family Room right next to the TV. If the tank is loud the family will revolt and banish it to another room...and that would be a bad day. So the challenge will be to find a fairly small skimmer that is deathly quiet... I’m guessing that would mean an air stone skimmer since the last Venturi skimmer I had was quite obnoxious. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I was using it last night but noticed today when reviewing the post that my mentions were posting in BBSCode instead of the forum formatting. I'll give it another go later tonight or tomorrow.

Hey all, I know that there's no "one size fits all" answer to my question but I thought I would see what has been successful for folks on this forum. I'm in the early planning stages for a new tank and have been going back and forth between a large refugium with some baffles for filter floss/sponges and media or having a smaller refugium and adding something like an AquaClear 70 to compliment it. Right now the larger refugium is winning do to the extra water capacity and fewer intrusions into the main tank. For reference, I am thinking the tank will be a 6g long that will primarily house softies and maybe a small fish or two (e.g. goby, etc.). The goal is to have a low bioload so things don't get out of hand too quickly So, with that said, what seems to be working (or maybe hasn't been working) for folks...especially if you are running smaller tanks? If possible, it would also be helpful to know how long you've run the setup and if you changed from a previous one in the past. Any information is appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks @pdxmonkeyboy. I've done quite a it of modding in the past so think something like this I'd be able to tackle . Unfortunately, I had considered that option but figured if I were to go that route I would have to keep it as a secondary/backup unit as it would have to sit pretty low in the tank to avoid the surface turbulence. I haven't done much digging on this but did come across AutoAqua Smart ATO which seemed pretty small. Does anyone have any experience with that hardware?

Thanks [mention=13424]Exodus[/mention] and [mention=15306]TheClark[/mention]! great points about dual sensors. I just wish they were a bit cheaper. [emoji20] Also because of the small dimensions, I’ll be really confined on space so I’ll have to do some digging on different options. Right now I am just in the planning stage and don’t have any of my old equipment so everything is on the table. As for the Apex, I’ll have to take a look at that. I don’t recall if that was available back when I had my prior tanks. I used to have an old Reefkeeper Lite controller and it worked great but that was years ago so I’ll have to see what options are available now. The ATO was the first snag I ran into while noodling the equipment. Unfortunately, on some of my previous picos and nanos water parameters got out of sorts very quickly without an ATO to help keep the evap in check. Fortunately, in my last tank I had a filter compartment that I could throw my equip into so this was not an issue. Thanks for the feedback.

Hey all, As I am struggling to piece together ideas for a potential new saltwater setup, I stumbled upon a small issue I'd like to get your feedback on. Currently, I'm leaning toward a 6g long with a second 6g long as a refugium sitting at a staggered height behind the main tank. Because of this setup, I'm pretty sure I'll need to have a float switch or ATO sensor in the main tank versus in the fuge. My thinking is that since the fuge is at a staggered height, I'll be using a powerhead from the main tank to push water into the fuge then a large bulkhead will drain back into the tank. In doing so, I think that the water level will remain constant in the refugium while the main tank will fluctuate. If that's accurate, then I'll need to place the ATO sensor in the main tank. So that brings me to my question, with a high level of surface turbulence is there a compact ATO that isn't going to trigger falsely as the ripples in the current fluctuate the height of the water? Maybe folks have other thoughts for an ATO design/option that might work better? Any feedback is appreciated.

Hey all, I stumbled across this site as I was researching a new project tank. I used to post on another site focused on small reef tanks but stopped when I left the hobby. It’s been several years since I had a saltwater tank and I’ve been really thinking of getting back into the hobby. I’ve maintained several nano/pico tanks but haven’t stood up anything larger since I lost my 30g to a catastrophic acrylic failure that resulted in a flooded den. That was probably ten years ago or so. After that disaster and epic cleaning session I was a bit too hesitant to venture into the med/large tank arena again. When I retired my last pico tank I ended up giving away pretty much all my equipment and all the livestock. As such, any new saltwater adventure I undertake means I’ll have a blank slate to start from. Until that time I’ll just be spending some time reading through the site to get caught up. But before I do, I wanted to post here and say a quick “Hello”