Downsizing plans - Opinions welcome

[Gizmo]

Ok, so my financial situation might be about to change and it's costing me £50-£60 on electricity alone to keep a large 4ft tank with sump going. I basically can't justify that cost especially when I then add on salt, equipment, food, etc.

So I'm looking to downgrade. There will be a fish/coral/rock sale at mine soon so watch this space, however in the meantime I don't want to lose my precious clownfishes.

I've had a cloned Bubble Tip nem for 2 years which they have lived in happily and the nem seems pretty content too and I want to keep it all going. I'm going to set too and get purpose built sump, tank and I'll put the cabinet together and in a much smaller scale to the current system.

It will be a system to host my nem, 2 small(ish) clowns, my breeding pair of neon gobies and 2 cleaner shrimp.

I'm fairly experienced at this game now and water management (touch wood) is coming as first nature so a smaller tank doesn't worry me providing I plan properly. So now the long winded build up is done, the real question is for opinions on what size system I can go with.

I currently have a 48x24x15 with a huge sump running about 350L system volume. My first thought is 36x12x12 with sump big enough for skimmer, heater and return pump. Having never done it, I don't know how much impact the nem is going to have on a smaller tank. Any thoughts guys and gals?

[Gaters]

Why is it so expensive to run your tank? Do you have alot of pumps, lights etc. There's loads of ways of reducing your running costs without actually changing your system that much. If you are going to keep a sump, skimmer, return pump, heater etc i wouldn't have thought you'd see loads of change unless you swap to a nano-which isn't for the nem. Also you may find it second nature now but with less water comes more headaches. What lights, pumps etc have you now?

[Gizmo]

I have 3x 54w T5's and a single T8. Then I have two Seio circulation pumps, a pump for the phos reactor, a pump for the UV, Return pump, Skimmer, 2x 400W heaters.

I was thinking of dumping the UV, Phos reactor, Seios. Flow will come from the OR3500 return and might need to add a 1000l pump, the skimmer in the sump still with media box for phos control and downsize the heaters or remove one. Lights would change to a single T5 unit with built in timer and reduced daylight hours as no corals.

I'm also looking at having less time on my hands for all the current cleaning I'm doing. Water changes will be smaller, cheaper and more managable.

[Gaters]

I have 3x 54w T5's and a single T8. Then I have two Seio circulation pumps, a pump for the phos reactor, a pump for the UV, Return pump, Skimmer, 2x 400W heaters.

I was thinking of dumping the UV, Phos reactor, Seios. Flow will come from the OR3500 return and might need to add a 1000l pump, the skimmer in the sump still with media box for phos control and downsize the heaters or remove one. Lights would change to a single T5 unit with built in timer and reduced daylight hours as no corals.

I'm also looking at having less time on my hands for all the current cleaning I'm doing. Water changes will be smaller, cheaper and more managable.

I only asked because i've just upgraded from a similar sized tank with 1x150 watt mh and 3x54w t5s. On the new tank (6x2x2.5) i am trying 2x65watt sad energy savers and blue 13 watt energy savers. The white light is quite yellow so you need the blue. For circulation i use 4 x sunsun 5000lph pumps at 12 watt each and an 100 watt return pump. Your heaters won't be on all the time but you could reduce your temperature to 24-25 and keep the room warm. I have a 2 foot (5 year in tank) heteractis crispa nem and it's doing fine.

You could gravity feed your skimmer-1 less pump- and i would say a 25 litre water change once every 3 weeks would suffice unless you have loads of sps. I would get rid of the uv-keep it for emergencies and keep the phos reactor but look at gravity feeding this also and on top of all this energy prices are going to come down by 30% in the new year apparently. Hope this helps:icon_wink::icon_razz: Happy New Year

[cl0wn]

I only asked because i've just upgraded from a similar sized tank with 1x150 watt mh and 3x54w t5s. On the new tank (6x2x2.5) i am trying 2x65watt sad energy savers and blue 13 watt energy savers. The white light is quite yellow so you need the blue. For circulation i use 4 x sunsun 5000lph pumps at 12 watt each and an 100 watt return pump. Your heaters won't be on all the time but you could reduce your temperature to 24-25 and keep the room warm. I have a 2 foot (5 year in tank) heteractis crispa nem and it's doing fine.

You could gravity feed your skimmer-1 less pump- and i would say a 25 litre water change once every 3 weeks would suffice unless you have loads of sps. I would get rid of the uv-keep it for emergencies and keep the phos reactor but look at gravity feeding this also and on top of all this energy prices are going to come down by 30% in the new year apparently. Hope this helps:icon_wink::icon_razz: Happy New Year

top advice as usual gaters, energy prices will be coming down quite a bit in the new year, bad time to be downsizing as tanks will be next to worthless. echo the above really, reduce the temp slightly, stagger the lighting to have maximum intensity in the middle of the afternoon and reduced either side. if you still wanna downsize i have a large bta in a perc 90, but i wouldn't go much smaller than that.

[Gizmo]

I've heard about the gravity feeding skimmers but not sure how it's done.. It would be an additional cost saving though rather than a way to keep the current tank. Good to know about the crispa which are theoretically a little more demanding than mine. I currently do 5% water changes twice a week as I found that I get the best health from my fish. The heat is running at 26c which was where I found my nem was more predictable and while the heaters aren't on all the time I don't like running the boiler overnight as there's no need so the heaters are on pretty much all night. thanks for the tips though and happy new year to you too! I want to try and get down to £10-£15 leccy then I'll be happy. My clowns mean the most to me to be honest and I just need a little more free time.

[Gizmo]

It's decided, going to downsize but after reading through the replies I am resigned to losing the nem. The clowns are going to have to live in a leather or something. I'm going to try and keep my clowns, neon gobies, royal gramma and midas blenny with a mixture of zoos, mushies and a leather for the clowns. Might get away with a 7th Fish but I'll play it by here.

So, gonna have some stock up for sale later this week.

I have worked out I can cut my leccy costs by at least half and still keep a reasonable size tank going.

[Gaters]

It's a hard choice to make but if you advertise the nem on here i'm sure it'll go to a good home. Well done and you never know when the time comes to upgrade again you may well get another clone from the same animal:icon_razz:

[Gizmo]

Thanks Gaters.

I'm going to get the new tank and sump ordered tonight then I can start knocking the furniture together. Guess I'm gonna have to break the news to my clowns some time soon. :icon_lol:

[marinemike]

any pics of nem and what price? also a strange question,but why not sell nem and hosting clowns,and then get some new clowns?