=Jwin's 9 GALLON MANTIS CUBE - Nano Wave 9

Well, I had a thread up earlier about putting a mantis shrimp in the relatively new tank system called the Nano Wave 9 made by Aqua Medic. It's a really really nice setup, I just wasn't sure what to think of it because it seemed cheaper and "unknown". Well, my LFS has just sold off their 3rd shipment of 10 of these things (meaning 30 of them if you're good at math...you know, 3 x 10 = 30...yeah) so apparently everyone in the Chattanooga Reef Club and beyond is buying this tank.

Including my mom.

I'm away from home from Friday to Saturday at 3, and I come home from a conference to find out my mom bought my "birthday present". She tried to hide it, but I'm an 18 year old teenage boy. You can't hide what is inside So, here's the start of my Mantis Shrimp cube tank. 9 gallons. I want to put a Purple Spotted Mantis in there (gonodactylus smithii) if I can get ahold of one. By the looks of it, I can definately get ahold of one. My LFS apparently can get me almost any kind of mantis I want, Peacock, Zebra, whatever. The LFS "manager/employee", as in the guy who doesn't own it, has a mantis of his own in a 14 gallon cube. So, that sent my hopes skyrocketing

Wish me luck as I record this adventure!

 

sounds cool, good luck with it and make sure to post pictures when it' set up

 

Oh yeah Justin....pics, pics, pics. Big time. I wanna see.

 

And everyone wants pics. Cause that's how we do it on 3reef. So, here you go guys.

The tank will remain in our "fish room" aka our old bar through my mom's office where all the other fish are while it is cycling. After cycling, we hope to move it to a nice spot between two windows by my mom's computer desk, and across the room from our 46. Should give the little guy something to watch all day, either my mom working/staring at him, or the tank across the room.





And now, for what's under the hood ;D


PC lighting, I'm not experienced with it, and I'm not sure what to think of it, but people use it so I can't complain. It's not like I'm gonna be growing LPS corals in this tank. Just a shrimp and maybe a little damsel buddy.


Small Venturi skimmer. Everything pulls out of the back for easy cleaning. Looks good! Hopefully it performs well too.


Refugium light. Heck yeah, this thing has a fuge.


Fuge "basket" that the sand or mud is gonna go in. I'm thinking of just using sand...I'm not sure what to think of fuge mud. Suggestions?


There's also a biomedia tower in there after the fuge with these little ceramic cylinder thingies. They look like marshmellows...yum.

So that's that. I'm gonna fill her up with freshwater tonight and let it run for a while. The filtration is pretty beastly in my opinion. The water goes from skimmer, through a sponge, to the fuge, through the biomedia, then back into the tank. I just hope everything's high quality as well. Aqua Medic is pretty reputable, so I'm feeling good. Mantis shrimp don't mind dirty water anyways.

I guess you can count this as a review on the Nano Wave as well. Some website has them listed on backorder for $165. My LFS has them for $90

 

Actually, it was 79.99 - pretty amazing price. I want one now. My wet bar has already been converted to a fish room. May as well just go ahead and convert the rest of the house.....

 

That half bath down stairs would make a great fish room if we were to put in an in-wall setup. Or a U shaped design that wraps around from the den to the office with the bar and half bath closed off as the fish room with the equipment. Come on, you know you wanna! A 700 gallon wrap around would look sweet!

 

lol, looks great guys! Can't wait to see what you put in it.

 

I always wanted a little orca....

 

Looks good keep us posted on how it gos.

 

That's a cool little tank! Let us know how it works out.