Opinions on Finnex 30 gal glass???

[bamaboy333]

I am seriously thinking of purchasing the FINNEX 30G GLASS T5 HO 24W X 4 LIGHTING, NEW IMPROVED SKIMMER, REFUGIUM AND WET DRY FILTER. Good purchase??? Adive, input, criticism welcome. Thanks to Ritsuko N for the link and recommendation on where to find it. Also, anyone know the actual tank size minus the refugium?

 

[Ritsuko N]

Whatcha planin' to keep in your new future glass box? If you mentioned that in an earlier thread I appoligize in advance as my memory is failling me! Refresh me please on the game plan.

Your cetianly most welcomed for the link, it aint nothing really, just helping out where I can. I have no idea about how much actual usable space there is and this is one thing that has kept me thus far from getting one without first seeing it and measuring it. I wish the manufactures would include this information in regards to ALL AIO tanks!!! 30 gallons sounds big but if 10 gallons worth of space is being taken up by the filtrations system...then 30 gallons aint that big! Sorry I just havent seen that particular model, so I can even take a guess.

 

[bamaboy333]

A tank i saw on another site add this list along with a pic, and it was in a 24 gal i believe. I like most of what i saw, but i want a few more fish than he had. I would go with a couple percula clowns, maybe a spotted mandarin, black velvet damsel, skunk shrimp, maybe a crab, the usual clean up crew, and i would like to add something really cool (yet to be determined), or just a drop jaw fish.

Coral
• GARF purple bonsai with green polyps
• Orange montipora
• Barney purple montipora digitata
• Neon green bali slimmer
• Reverse pokerstar montipora
• Devil's hand with neon green polyps
• Green polyped toadstool
• 5 varieties of florida ricordea (yellow, neon green, army green, orange and blue)
• Tangerine yuma
• Green apple yuma
• Blue rhodactis mushrooms
• Pink Hairy mushrooms
• Purple, brown, and blue rhodactis mushrooms
• Mint rhodactis mushrooms
• Red mushrooms
• Green mushrooms
• Hambali pulsing xenias
• Neon green candy canes
• Green Australian duncans
• Red/green open brain
• Assorted zoanthids and palythoa (Devil's Armor, Tub's Blue, RPE, Dragon Eye, Coco's Pink, Purple Dream, Terminator, Yellow Ultimate, Nuclear Green, Rainbow, Sunburst)

 

[Ritsuko N]

Woah---!

I would most seriously recommend against a Madarin of any variety unless its eating frozen food repeatedly when its fed over serveral consecutive days unless you have a very mature 75 gallon plus tank thats being over ran by "Pods gone wild". I will also say the same thing about any of the "Scooter Blennys" as well as they are in the same boat so to speak. These fish eat copepods and are very difficult to get trained over to taking frozen food in a best case situation. I will grant you that they are pretty smoking hot looking fish, stay small and are pretty cheap, but they are not the best fish for smaller tanks and should be reserved for the more experienced with bigger sized reef tanks.

Black Velvet Damsel...they look cute when small, but get duller looking and belegrant well out of proportion to thier size! They are very hardy easy to care for fish, but dont let it fool you. It will get to 3-4 inches long, be kinda ugly colored as it gets older and will be the terror of your tank considering its small size. There are far better selections that you can make, but be careful on which species of Damsel you choose if you want a damsel.

The Clowns are okay for the species you have chosen. Thy are one of the less aggressive species when it comes to others like it in the tank. They are also one of the smaller species of clowns.

The Jawfish would do nice in a tank with a 4-6 inch sand bed...something I doubt your going to be willing to do in a small nano. It will get about 4" long too making it a bit on the big size. It is a very interesting specimen though for sure.

My suggestion...Keep the two clowns and perhaps get a Blenny or Shrimp Goby if you must have a third fish in a tank under 30 gallons. I know that sounds pretty skimpy of a list and there are hundreds of people out there that will tell you that you can have more or bigger fish but were talking Nanos here not 240 gallon reef tanks with 100 gallon sumps and 100 gallon refugiums to process all the waste that fish create! Almsot every Nitrate, Phosphate, algae issue in a Nano are a result of a heavy bio-load of fish and too generous feeding habits and are nearly impossible to solve until some of the fish are gone. If you have corals, especially SPS cortals they will take a nose dive on you in a heart beat. Do youyr self a favor and keep the fish to a reasonable minimum and choose fish that you really and truely want to keep.

Generally you can cram a tank to physical capacity with corals as long as you respect the Chemical Warefare and account for Sweepers that some corals will send out stinging other corals to death as they via for space and self preservation as they do in the wild. This is one reason I am such a certified coral freak, I can have dozens of them in a Nano unlike fish!!!

 

[Ritsuko N]

If you are considering SPS corals...then the T-5s with quality reflectors will be okay. You should get decent growth if the tank is not too deep. Colors of your corals should be pretty good but maybe not optimal on some of them. But lighting is just one of several variables required for successful results. This is why some can pull off a great SPS collection with VHO's and now as they are proving with T-5's. That being a given...I would strongly suggest that you select a fixture with a 150 watt halide using a 12,000k to 14,000k bulb with 2 x 24 watt T-5 actinics or 2 x 65 watt PC actinics. You will most likely find that you get better growth, and if water quality is optimal excellent coral colors.

Under T-5's you will find that you get excellent results with all Soft corals. LPS corals. You will also do well with SPS corals such as Pavona, Stylopora's, Pocillapora's, Montipora's such as the Capicornis, Digitatas and encrusting forms. Acroporas will probably do pretty good under T-5's you will most likely find you get the best results with Halide lighting.

Lighting is a sensitive subject thats grounds for a blood bath of discusion amongst reefers. We could debate this issue until the third comming of christ and still probably not arrive at anything that resembles a consensus on the subjet. Im just sharing my own personal opinion based on my previous 6 years of experience of almost exclusively keeping corals and growing out frags in frag tanks.

The rest of the system seems to be plenty adequate. I will highly recommend the best Skimmer you can cram into the system especially if you have fish. There are those that get by just fine with freaquent water changes and those that insist a Skimmer is neccessary. Im a member of the freaquent water change crowd but as of late Im starting to embrace skimmers on these smaller tanks more and more.

JMHO...

 

[bamaboy333]

Thank tall so much for all the info. I will most likely go with the clowns and maybe the jawfish (they are just to cool to me). As far as lighting should a get a tank alone and get the lights I need or go with the t5's? I like the tank because of all it comes with but the coral is the most important thing. I don't want to sacrifice color are quality. At the same time I don't want to get to expensive to fast I am air I will need the money to upgrade and correct along the way. Its hard to find a nano in the 20 to 30 gal range by itself so that was the reason for the combo. Plus it has all the filtration and what not included and since I am knew I figured it would make it a lot easier on myself. Thanks again guys and let me know what you think. Sorry if the spelling and stuff is a little off I have been doing most of this from my cell phone while at work (and I don't even have a tank yet not good)

 

[Ritsuko N]

You can go with this tank and I would just hold off on the Acropora species until later when you can upgrade the lighting to a 150 watt halide at which point there really aint much of anything thats photsynthetic that you cant pull off in style. T-5's will be more than adequate for Zoanthids, Ricordia, softies, all LPS and a good number of the less light requiring SPS's

Yes the AIO's do come with a majority of the equipment required making it easy on the new aspiring reefer getting into this hobby. Some are just more superior in design than others. Finnex is a top shelf quality product and while it might not be the best depending on with who you argue with, its a tough tank to top!