24gal Aquapod

[john0087]

Hi all,

I have been keeping a 37gal reef sucessfully and I want to set up a 24gal nano for another room. I was looking at the Aquapod 24gal, but it only has 64watts of PC. Thats only 2.6wpg. Can that support a reef? I have seen the LFS using them with reefs, but I want some opinions from you guys that have set up nanos.

I could go with the aquapod 12 which has 48wats, 4wpg, but that may be too small for what I want.


Thanks

John

 

[Biggen]

WPG is the "old school" method of determining lighting methods. Its really only used in FW nowadays...

What are you planning on keeping? That will determine what kind of lighting you need. If its going to be an LPS, softie, shroom tank than 64w of PC lights will be fine. I'd shy away from SPS and clams though with that kind of light setup. I'm not exactly sure what an "Aquapod" is but Coralife makes tons of light kits that can be added onto tanks so you could always buy one of those and then put it on top of your tank.

 

[melosu58]

I was going to say that you could probably get a light system to match what you want somewhere out there.

 

[john0087]

Sorry,

Aquapod is a brand name for a pre-fab nano tank by Current.

I for sure will not be keeping SPS's. Probably LPS, maybe some shrooms. The tank wil eventually be a seahorse tank, so everything in there will non-aggressive.

So, if wpg is "old school" how do know what you can keep with which lighting? Is there a new train of thought?

Thanks

 

[Hara]

I think you also need to consider the depth of the tank. It may very well be that the tank is so short that the lighting is sufficient. What depth is the tank?

 

[tecwzrd]

So, if wpg is "old school" how do know what you can keep with which lighting?

The main reason it’s “old school” is partly because it doesn’t always make very much sense. For example look at the following tank sizes and the comparable “watts per gal” rule using lets say 2 96w pc bulbs for a total of 192 watts.

20 (long) 30 x 13 x 13 wpg = 9.6
33 (long) 48 x 13 x 14 wpg = 5.8
55 48 x 13 x 21 wpg = 3.4
100 73 x 19 x 20 wpg = 1.92

Considering that pc lighting is all over lighting and not spot specific like mh 192 watt lighting is going to provide roughly the same amount of light on the 20 long tank as the 33 long tank. But if you take wpg into consideration you might think that the 20 long was ok for higher light corals but the 33 long is not.

Same with the 55 gal and 100 gal both being roughly the same height. With the 55 gal you might think your lighting is decent for low and maybe some medium light corals but with the 100 gal following the wpg rule you would probably not even attempt corals even though corals in both tanks would receive roughly the same amount of light.

Depth & the type of lighting ie: pc, mh, vho, & no lighting all have to be considered when considering the type of corals you want to keep along with tank flow.

Wpg is a decent guide similar to the 1” per 5 gal of water for saltwater fish but knowing the particular requirements of fish/inverts is much more important then using a simple rule that doesn’t always “fit the mold”

 

[john0087]

ok,

that makes sence. The nano tank will 20" tall.

Ok, let me get a little off topic. My 37gal is about 30"x12"x18" I have been able to keep an open brain's and a colt very nicely with two 65w PC. Given the above info, will an anenome have enough light?

 

[tecwzrd]

Depends on the type of anemone. Some require very little light and others quite a lot. What kind of anemone do you have? If it’s the kind that require a lot of light then it will do fine for a couple of weeks/months but slowly die from not being able to process enough light.

The Open brain also requires a decent amount of light because it relies on the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae hosted within its body to provide the majority of its nutritional requirements through photosynthesis. You probably have enough to support the brain.

Hara’s site is also an excellent resource for determining fish & invert's needs.