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newbie with a nano and a lot of questions

2K views 7 replies 8 participants last post by  houseofcards 
#1 ·
hey guys Im pretty new to the planted tank thing but I would really like to try it out and see how fun it is. I have had salt water reef tanks for a long while in my life and just would like to see if the planted tank life is any funner or even a little bit easier. Here is my first question I have a 3 gallon tank with a aqua clear 70 and a led set up that I used for a reef setup. It was cleaned up nice and soaked and sat for a few mths now. I was wondering if this stuff would be usable for a planted tank or if I would need a new filter or light.

pics

 
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#5 ·
You can slow the flow down on the ac70 a bit, but it'll still be way too much flow, plants like flow but not as much as in a reef tank. The light is also probably way too much. For a low tech no co2 tank, a general rule I go with is 1/4 the light of a LOW light reef tank.

I have 4x24watt t5ho over my 20 long reef, but for a planted tank w/ no co2, I'd only go w/ 1 bulb. Not sure how it'd translate to LEDs though.

Good luck though!
 
#6 ·
Maybe use a different impeller on the ac70? I've read that some of you pico reefers use an ac20 impeller on their ac70 as an option to slow the flow. I'd still keep the ac70, just clean it up abit. Another idea:

Pitabread of AquaticPlantCentral said:
Here's a closeup of the filter. The heater is submerged with a heater guard around it, to prevent it from touching the edges of the filter. You can't quite see the guard in this shot, though. I also stuck the filter sponge in front of the outflow to soften the water movement.


To make the filter work on such a small tank, I needed to mod in the intake tube. I used a piece of flexible plastic and an intake filter from an Aquaclear 30 filter. I used a piece of sponge and aquarium silicon to seal off the edges. The end result is that even using the AQ 70 impeller, it puts out a lot less flow than normal. In fact, I think it even puts out less flow than my AQ 20 on my 10 gallon QT.
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#7 ·
Another picotope! Woohoo!!!! When I was reefing, I was seriously looking into the picotope with AC70 set up like you have. But that filtration is definitely too much for a planted tank. Do you still have the stock filter? It'll work. Its not my favorite and I plan to replace my stock filter with a small canister filter soon. But its doable. The light will probably be overkill though unless you lift it up higher. But that also depends on how much light you want in it. Was it a low set up for your reef?
 
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