Planning New Nano

[Nemain]

My 9 year old daughter loves my tank and has been begging and pleading and beggina and pleading for one of her own. I finally broke down and promised her a little tank for her room for easter.

I have a larger tank, and most of my research on tanks has been geared towards bigger and better. She wants to learn so we have decided that she will pick each coral or fish for her tank, researching them first to see if they are acceptable.

My problem is: equipment. I am looking at between a 20-30 gal. tank, capable of handling sps and softies, fish and inverts.

I also want to get her a tank that she can keep for a very long time without major purchases toward equipment.

I guess what I am asking is what your opinion of the best of a nano tank would be?

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated, the easter bunny is used to chocolate eggs, I am just hoping I dont have to plan a fish scavenger hunt in the future o_O

Beth

[Bob I]

Ok I will try, as I have kept nanos for quite a while. I think I have a picture of my 20H on my website. If not I will post an updated one in this post later. My nanos are always skimmerless and sumpless. I do run a Fluval 104 on the 20, because I need a place to keep the Chemipure I am fond of.
As far as lighting goes I have a Coralife 2X65W Aqualight containing a 10000K and an actinic bulb on the tank. The tank also has a two inch sandbed.
The inhabitants are a lot of zoanthids, one small Toadstool, some Yellow Polyps, Green Star Polyps, a few pices of Montipora digitata, a piece of Staghorn, and a pice of Hynophora. There is one Stenopus zanzibaricus that never comes out, and one Six line wrasse, and a Purple Firefish.
About all I do to the nanos is clean the film algae off the glass, and very occasionally change some of the water. :eek: :biggrin: :mrgreen:

[BCOrchidGuy]

Beth have you considered a smaller tank? Lots of nice 10 gallon nano's I've used a 20 standard for a nano and had good luck with is, as well as standard 15 gallon. There are many small bow fronts as well to consider.

Doug

[Nemain]

I have considered a 10 - but she isnt very happy with this, mostly because she wants to keep a few fish. She wants them to be *happy* and in her mind that means a lot of room to roam.

I think a 20 will make us both happy =)

What shape would you suggest? I like the looks of a cube, she likes the hex look, buti think the hex would pose cleaning problems..she is only 9 after all.

Thanks for all your imput everyone =) I really appreciate it.

Beth

[LostMind]

Do a little cube or a bowfront. I think a hex has too many corners and hex's are usually tall and thin - not much swimming room for fishes.

I think the best thing about the nano is you can do a relatively small water change, and it makes a big difference (5 gallon water change on a 120 gallon tank is minimal, but on a 20 gallon, thats a 25% change! )