New Red Sea nano max 26 gal

[Bigwoodsreef]

Hey everyone! New here! I recently set up a 26 gal Red Sea nano max peninsula AIO for my daughter. Love the tank and cabinet combo. Out of the box it’s awesome. But I’m already making some changes and have a few questions.

1. I just ordered the Red Sea ATO+ 3 in 1 to replace the small little ato that comes with the tank. …. I also just hooked up an RODI set up to a holding tank with auto shut off and refill the the red sea ato is going to be set up in to top off the tank.

2. I hear mixed reviews, but I a just
Ordered a filter upgrade for the tank. I’m replacing the sock with hard tube and media. If I don’t like it then I’ll always just out the sock back in.

WHAT I NEED HELP WITH NOW

3. I really want to add a c02 scrubber to the tank as my ph is pretty low. Don’t have a digital tester, but from what I can see it’s just under 8 but above 7.5. My guess would be around 7.8. I would love it to be around 8.3 another reason I want to add the scrubber, there are 3 people constantly in the room and a dog. Come winter time there will be a fireplace lit often. Right behind the tank is my garage, which I have no problem running the scrubber out there or the “inlet tube” out there for “fresh” Air

4. I keep seeing uv sterilizers. I would really like to add one to help with maintenance ( trying to make it as simple as possible) With the factory ato box removed. I have plenty of room to run hoses to mount sterilizer under the tank in the cabinet ( where my fresh ro water container will be stored) Any suggestions on what watts and or what unit to run? Would I use factory pump to pump down to sterilizer and then another pump to pump back up to tank?

5. Thinking of running apex for monitoring the tank. Want to get Alerts if levels go off Is this something apex or another brand can do? Help in which unit to run?

6. Eventually would love to get into dosing. I see a lot of people running (2) of the Red Sea 4 head dose units. Right now I’m only running basic corals. Zoas, Duncan’s , mushrooms , gsp and leathers. Soon to come are anemones, hammers and would love to get into sps and what not

7. I’m currently running the factory Red Sea 50w led light. Not sure if I will have to upgrade down the road for different corals or not.

I know this is as a long post and I appreciate everyone who has read through it and appreciate any tips and info. Used to have 180gal reef tank about 12 years ago, and today I can see how different things are compared to back then. I’m just trying to get this tank to run and look amazing so my 4yo daughter doesn’t lose
Interest. This tank was purchased for her but obviously I’m the one who has to maintain it and what not.


Thanks again!!

 

[blaxsun]

1. Should work slick.
2. I ran standard filter floss in the top chamber, ChemiPure Blue in the middle and some bio media in the bottom chamber (if available).
3. This is a bit more challenging without a skimmer. You may find running a skimmer helps with your pH (with or without the Co2 scrubber).
4. For the size of your tank something like the AquaUltraviolet 2000 (they make both barbed and hangar versions) would probably be more than sufficient. You could potentially run your return pump through this and then back to your return outlets.
5. If you stick with regular water changes and manual testing you'll probably be fine without a full Apex setup. Maybe an Apex Jr would meet your needs?
6. Again, with regular water changes you'll seldom need to dose (if so, manual dosing once a week is probably sufficient). You may want to look at something like Tropic Marine All For Reef with a ReefDose 2-head (that's all you'll need).
7. The Red Sea light will be perfectly fine for all your coral needs.

Plus with the Red Sea gear: you can control/monitor it all through the ReefBeat app.