Nano Maintenance

[jnmarshall]

New to the concept of a nano tanks. Last week I setup an 8 gallon cube at work. I used water, rock and sand from me existing tank at home so all is good with the water quality and was able to a pair of fish. What I am having problems with is salt levels and temperature.

First the salt. Evaporation overnite, and especially on weekends, is causing the salt to fluctuate from 1.025 to 1.030.
Obviously being at work a water topoff system isn't an option. I have a little 2gal jug I fill up with RO/DI from home and bring to work on monday.

Second is the temperature. The cube came with an eheim 75w heater which isn't even plugged in. It seems the builtin pump in the filter is maintaining a nice, but high 81-82 temperature. Again, location AND cost sort of prohibits a chiller.

What do you all do? I feel the salt swings and hi temps would prevent me from keeping anything like corals and possible the fish healthy for very long.

 

[M@]

Why can't you run an ATO at work? I have a 5.5 G at work and an ATO is a must. Do you have a hood on your tank? With an open top my tank stays at 78.

 

[jnmarshall]

@M@! wrote:

How is your ATO setup? I can't have a bucket of water with a pump feeding up to the tank. And it's definetly not worth the expense to buy an ATO kit! A gravity feed MIGHT be possible, but the valves would have to be UBER reliable. If it fails over a weekend and dumps water out on the floor the maintance people have been instructed to shopvac the water and pitch the tank.
I have a cover that only covers half the tank to try and avoid the evaporation. If I leave it off it has no affect on the temperature. It's defenitely the pump.

 

[M@]

@jnmarshall wrote:

I actually have a 1 gallon jug under my desk with an aqua-lifter and JBJ ATO. I got lucky and scored the ATO for cheap used at Exotic Aquatics. Before running the ATO I was drip filling using some airline. It worked OK to get through the weekend.

What kind of pump are you using? I'm running a Hydo Pico and it puts off hardly any heat.

 

[jnmarshall]

@M@! wrote:

The whole pump and JBJ is out. I could probably setup a drip. Not very scientific, but also nothing that could really fail unless the hose pops off.
The pump is an Aqua Gadget 8 rated for 13-92gph. It's currently running full open. Usually choking them down will cause heat.

 

[jnmarshall]

May have solved the temperature issue. I removed the flat diverter at the end of the outlet. I got less pressure and movement in the tank but more flow. The tank is holding a perfect 78.6 which is where the heater is also set. I even put the cover on the whole thing and still remaining constant.

 

[M@]

Glad to hear! One down, one to go. The drip system worked well for me. I would add just enough water to cover the weekend/weeknights. That way even if it dumped all the water in at once, or on the floor, it would not be catastrophic.