[TEBMSU97]

I have read a lot about people who have setup micro reefs in as little as 6 gallons of water. Has anyone here tried this. I am very interested in giving this a go, something as simple as some live rock with a clown fish and an anemone would be great.

Are anemone suited for an experiment like this, or are they rather fragile?

[fisheyes95]

To tell the truth, I have just started one. But it takes a lot of work. I only say this because it is so sensitive to just about everything. You have to make sure that it is still really good quality equipment. Mine, I cracked the tank twice and have wasted money on it I shouldn't have had to. So my word of caution is, if you do, take extream care to not brake it. But go for it. The smaller aquarium is really really amazing and awsome once you get it up.

[volitan_fa]

I had a 10 gallon as my first. They are a lot more sensitive to water condition changes, and you'll need to do water top-offs every day. I tried about the same setup, 13 lbs of live rock, a clarkii, and a sebae anenome. That's also how I found out that anenome need a lot stronger lighting than most nanos are setup for.

So I wouldn't recommend the anenome, but with the right setup you could keep some softer corals and still have the clown

[TEBMSU97]

Have either of you tried the nanocube, aquapod, or elipse all in one setups in this type of format.

I don't think the elipse will put out enough light to support much of anything, but the nano/aquapods have upgrades available that will should handle the lighting needs. Only problem there, is the enclosed top seems to limit the ability to add protien skimmers and the like to the system.

If you have succesfully setup a 10-20 gallon system, what equip did you use?

[Clowny72]

I have had a 14gal Oceanic BioCube for almost 3 months now. It has coral, live rock, live sand as well as a clown, anemone and quarter size Dory and everything has been great. The only thing added to it are turbo snails (3). I wouldn't add anything else.

[volitan_fa]

Here's another one that I've found interesting, the Vision Cube. It has good T5-HO lighting and built-in filter, only $100...not a bad way to get your feet wet.

As for the protein skimming, if you get an all-in-one setup, you are going to be kind of limited. There is one brand (can't remember off the top of my head) that has a built-in surface skimmer, but that's as good as you're going to get. I've heard a lot of people into the nano reefs say that protein skimmers aren't that necessary as long as you keep up on your weekly water changes/daily top-offs.