mps9506
Well-Known Member
We have also noticed one of the latest trends in the industry, the Nano Reef or the Nano Marine tank. As someone that has seen some trends come and go, I'm slightly concerned about the notion that these Nano tanks are kind of "plug and play." When I was first started working in an LFS one thing that was ground into my mind was don't start off with a marine tank smaller than 20-55 gallons. Not so much from a profit standpoint, but because larger tanks are much easier to maintain.
I stopped selling nano cubes in my store hoenstly because the only people that bought them ended up back in my store every week with one problem after another, if it wasn't a leak from a jbj tank, it was cyano, or hair algae etc. The "all in one" filtration obviously wasn't suffcient to handle 2 clowns, a royal gramma and a damsel, or whatever combination of fish they ended up with. Then the single PC light over the top wasn't enough to support anything more than some mushrooms. Now I have seen new nano tanks from Current, basically promoting a plug and play reef, you can even get a 150watt hqi setup for serious coral growth.
What concerns me is that these tanks are marketed as a all in one solution, easy to setup easy to keep. How many folks (esp. the begining aquarist) are willing to put in the time and money involved in maintaining a reef tank in 6-24 gallons of water?
Why isn't the industry trend toward getting people started in a more appropriate sized reef tank such as a 40-60 gallon tank?
I stopped selling nano cubes in my store hoenstly because the only people that bought them ended up back in my store every week with one problem after another, if it wasn't a leak from a jbj tank, it was cyano, or hair algae etc. The "all in one" filtration obviously wasn't suffcient to handle 2 clowns, a royal gramma and a damsel, or whatever combination of fish they ended up with. Then the single PC light over the top wasn't enough to support anything more than some mushrooms. Now I have seen new nano tanks from Current, basically promoting a plug and play reef, you can even get a 150watt hqi setup for serious coral growth.
What concerns me is that these tanks are marketed as a all in one solution, easy to setup easy to keep. How many folks (esp. the begining aquarist) are willing to put in the time and money involved in maintaining a reef tank in 6-24 gallons of water?
Why isn't the industry trend toward getting people started in a more appropriate sized reef tank such as a 40-60 gallon tank?