Do I need protein skimmer?

[jl71]

Hi folks

I am thinking of starting a 6 gallon nano tank with a couple of shrimps, hermit crabs, snails and low light (9watts) corals, mushrooms and zoos but NO fish.

Do I need some sort of a protein skimmer for such a setup?

What sort of corals can I have with such low wattage lighting?

Thanks

 

[Narkon'n'more]

Why 9w instead of 13? They use the same size bulb lenght.

Well it kind depends on if you will be feeding this tank anything besides light, and if so how much algae you will tolerate.

Short answer is "no"
Long answer is "no" also.

You will need to do weekly water changes, but since it is .6 of 1 gal it isn't a lot of work.

PS a 6 gal is a nano not a pico. :wink:

 

[dragon79]

Hi folks

I am thinking of starting a 6 gallon nano tank with a couple of shrimps, hermit crabs, snails and low light (9watts) corals, mushrooms and zoos but NO fish.

Do I need some sort of a protein skimmer for such a setup?

What sort of corals can I have with such low wattage lighting?

Thanks

Hey there and welcome to nanotank. :gh:

I think with the nano size tank you'll be getting, you'll be able to squeeze in more lighting as narkon' mentioned. You can even go two 18 watts (like me) The results are real nice. As far as the protein skimmer, you wouldn't need it for a tank so small, as doing weekly water changes would be more than enough. I personally own a 1.5 gallon pico, and the galaxia coral, redsea pulsating xenia and green mushroom i have in there are happy. I also have two sexy shrimps, 1 blue neon goby, 1 hermit, 1 N. snail, 1 black snail. The maintenance is a snap. Let me know if you have other questions. Also, when you do get it up and going, be sure to post in the nano section, I know we'd all love to see the pics

 

[Narkon'n'more]

Steven how do you keep the water temp down under 18w lighting?

 

[jl71]

Thanks all for the advice. Let me see if I can do anything about upping the lighting

 

[dragon79]

Steven how do you keep the water temp down under 18w lighting?

It would seem that my two 18's would overheat my tank, but it doesn't. It's set high enough where temp is not a factor. It stays at 78 to 79 tops. Only time I saw it raise to 81 was when the apt was all closed up windows and all and it was like 80 out in Anaheim. When I got home I opened the door, windows and it naturally went back down. Other than that, in this current weather, the temp itself is fine.

 

[Narkon'n'more]

Mine is sitting in the Eclipse 3 canapoy, so my 13w will over heat my tank in a few hours. I am putting ice cubes in a cup in the water to lower the tem down to 82. I am thinking of putting on a fan to circulate the air.

 

[incysor]

You shouldn't need a skimmer on the tank even with a small fish as long as you do weekly water changes.

Your choices for corals are all considered low-light tolerant which is good. However 9w over a 6g tank isn't sufficient to keep them. I have some of those same corals in my 6g minibow, and I have a 32w pc light over the tank. I think you could probably get away with 18w, although some zoos and mushrooms prefer more light and you might still lose some of them with this small amount of light.

B