Help me Downsize from a 90 gallon bow-front. Thinking of a bare-bottom corals only setup? Ideas?

PILLJEDI

PILLJEDI

Cleaner Shrimp
#3
#3
inhabitants are: 2 blue/green chromis, lawnmower blenny, niger trigger, 1 male 2 female lyretail anthias, royal gramma, 3 banghai cardinals, diamond watchman, gold stripe maroon clown that I might like to keep. The rest need a new home. Whatever I go with it will be live rock and no sand. I plan to have mushrooms softies and some macros. The plants in my 17g biocube are going bananas. I'll be able to transplant some of those. I can keep my LED light and get a 70 or a 55 and just go sumpless. i met a guy that just used a HOB filter as an ATS for his. That coupled with a canister filter are the only ideas I have so far.
 
zombie

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
#5
Honestly, a larger tank is easier to make self sustaining because parameters stay much more stable. The biggest thing to making it self sustaining is automation irrespective of tank size. I'm sure you probably have other reasons to want to downsize, but if it's just to make the tank "less work", you wont help yourself by downsizing.

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PILLJEDI

PILLJEDI

Cleaner Shrimp
#6
#6
You are totally right. Thanks for the input. I guess one of my my beefs with the tank is how tall it is. I have to be shirtless to reach the bottom and I like to "tinker" with the rock and corals sometimes. Plus it's a pain every time the algae clip falls to the bottom. There's a joke about your tank only being as deep as your shirt sleeve. I've decided to try out a 55 gallon and make a HOB ATS. I'll get to keep my lights, use my canister filter, and my ATO that's still in the box. Once I get it up and running I'll have some rock and fish to trade and then the tank. There's a wavemaker too that I think is too strong. I'll post a link to it later.
 
zombie

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#8
#8
PILLJEDI said:
You are totally right. Thanks for the input. I guess one of my my beefs with the tank is how tall it is. I have to be shirtless to reach the bottom and I like to "tinker" with the rock and corals sometimes. Plus it's a pain every time the algae clip falls to the bottom. There's a joke about your tank only being as deep as your shirt sleeve. I've decided to try out a 55 gallon and make a HOB ATS. I'll get to keep my lights, use my canister filter, and my ATO that's still in the box. Once I get it up and running I'll have some rock and fish to trade and then the tank. There's a wavemaker too that I think is too strong. I'll post a link to it later.
Click to expand...
If you haven't already picked up a 55g, I would suggest a 75g reef ready. That solves your height problem but leaves enough depth front to back to still have smaller tangs and a neat aquascape.

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PILLJEDI

PILLJEDI

Cleaner Shrimp
#9
#9
Haven't bought anything yet. Depth is one of my concerns too for light reaching the all the corals. A slope front to back is better than a sheer cliff.
 
neil82

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#10
#10
I've seen some pretty nice looking AIO tanks lately. You don't have the sump and also gives you space for filtration. Maybe that is a good solution? Unless you want to customize the whole build which I totally understand.
 
PILLJEDI

PILLJEDI

Cleaner Shrimp
#11
#11
The length of my shirtsleeve and what will fit in the back of my car are poor parameters for choosing a new tank. Looked at some low cost diy ats plans last night that can adhere to the wall of your tank or sump. But I got to thinking since I'd like a planted tank with a lot of macros and if I used an ATS the macros would have to compete for nutrients.
 
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