Setting Up an Aquarium at the Office

Mixed Nano Reef Aquarium

My boss approached me yesterday, understanding my obsession with and knowledge of this wonderful hobby, and asked me to set up an aquarium at the office. I was immediately surprised with the proposition and set off to find the ideal location. There are really only a handful of suitable places for an aquarium and my options are fairly limited. This leads me to two options. My first option is to set up a nano aquarium on a lab bench or in an office (i.e. my boss’s office). The other option is to get a 3 to 4-foot Aqueon (aka All Glass Aquarium, aka Oceanic) aquarium and set it on the one semi-empty wall we have. This is still in the “talking and pre-planning” phase at the moment, since we haven’t even gotten approval to purchase the setup yet.

JBJ 24-gallon Nano-Cube DX

For the nano aquarium, I’m heavily leaning toward the JBJ 28g Nano Cube HQI. I like this option because it’s large enough for a diversity of life and has a canopy built onto it. The canopy is essential, as the lab I work in gets a ton of traffic. I could easily add a locking mechanism to the aquarium to keep people out of it. I would also ditch the factory protein skimmer and replace it with a Tunze 9002 Nano Skimmer. I’ve used these in the past and they work very well. The tank would probably be placed on a lab bench, where everyone could enjoy it. However, it might end up in the boss’s office if other people decide they want to feed the fish or dump something harmful into the aquarium.

Oceanic Illuminata Rimless Reef Aquarium

For the larger aquarium, this is going to be a tougher call. It will be a quite bit more expensive and will take up a lot more room. Additionally, it will require a larger time investment. I, of course, don’t mind this at all, but we’ll see what happens here. For equipment, I’m looking at the Aqueon 65-gallon reef ready aquarium with stand and canopy. The sump will probably be a Precision Marine sump since they are relatively inexpensive and will suite my needs just fine. The protein skimmer will probably be a Super Reef Octopus 1000 Internal. Lighting will be provided by an IceCap T5HO pre-wired setup, which includes the ballast and everything else except the light bulbs themselves.

Livestock for either setup will have to be simple. I will probably load it with soft corals and a few LPS corals. The fish will also be hard, commonly found fish that are not to sensitive to water quality or disease/parasites. I’m not trying to do anything super fancy here, just something decent to look at while at work.