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Wow this thread is old. I just ordered simple 5 gallon tank for something to look at on my desk at work. As it is a small tank, I will probably only have 3 fish in it. Fish which are small and not aggressive. To this end, after some looking around I've decided on either 2 clown fish and a goby, or 2 clown fish and a bangai cardinal. I'd like input from you more experienced saltwater tank havers on whether or not these are easy fish for beginners, and if they'll be at all incompatible with each other. I'd also like to hear about what kinds of sand or gravel would be good in such a tank as the one I bought, as well as rock formations. Again, it's a small tank and will be real simple, with what seem like real lazy fish.
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Dec 8, 2016 00:24
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Honestly I'd hesitate to put ANY fish into such a small tank, and 3 fish of almost any species is probably too much, both in terms of bioload and room for them to swim around. Clownfish are pretty hardy but they can be territorial and a 5 gallon tank will exacerbate that. Certain gobies might be OK because they don't actively swim around much and like to stick to one spot, but again they are territorial and it's hard to say how they'd do in a smaller tank. I'd encourage you to stick to inverts as much as possible. Shrimps, snails, and hermit crabs are a ton of fun to watch and most of them don't give a poo poo about tank size as long as the bioload is manageable. In my 2.5 gallon pico I have 2 sexy shrimp and a mexican turbo snail but no fish. I understand why you'd want at least one fish swimming around for a more active-looking tank, but at 5 gallons I wouldn't do more than the one fish, and you'd have to choose the species carefully. Neon Blue Gobies are pretty active swimmers, quite beautiful, have some personality, but are small fish and might be a good choice. Anony Mouse fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Dec 8, 2016 |
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Dec 8, 2016 01:18
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goddamit. I should just cancel the order then, because the minimum tank size for those is 10 gallons. Unless some rocks, an electric orange and blue hermit crab, and a goby or a shrimp of some kind? lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Dec 8, 2016 |
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Dec 8, 2016 01:33
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I think you could get away with a small goby if they were the sole fish. Rocks are whatever looks good to you. A common recommendation is 1-2 pounds of rock per gallon of tank size. For a 5 gallon tank, 5 pounds of rock would probably be fine. You won't have a ton of room to "aquascape," just pile it up somehow that suits you. I piled mine up in a general "ramp" shape so that the front of the tank is lower than the back. Having a variety of elevations is good if you need to control the positioning of coral. Gravel vs sand vs barebottom is a complicated decision, generally it comes down to aesthetics since I don't think a live sand bed will have a major impact on biofiltration for such a small tank. I keep my tank bare bottom because it's much easier to clean up and I don't have to deal with sand, I can just vacuum the bottom of the tank with my hose when I do a water change.
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Dec 8, 2016 02:15
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Interesting. When you say rock, you mean the standing, structural rocks that could form a habitat right? The stuff that goes on the bottom is gravel/sand/barebottom? How many inches of gravel/sand should a 5gal tank look for? If I do inverts, which seems to be easiest, I'd probably put ONE fish in it. Something pretty like damselfish or a goby?
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Dec 8, 2016 02:25
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You're definitely going to want an ATO (auto top off) with a tank that size. Huge pain in the rear end to keep stable water parameters without one.
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Dec 8, 2016 02:33
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ATOs cost more than the tank I bought. A co worker has the exact same set up and he says he does about 10% every week. Not a big deal at all.
lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Dec 8, 2016 |
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Dec 8, 2016 02:46
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For a 5 gal an ATO can be as simple as an inverted jug over the tank with a tube that ends under the water surface. Even a weekly topoff of 10% is a large swing in salinity depending on what you're keeping.
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Dec 8, 2016 03:42
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Never mind. Cancelling the order. e: gently caress the aquarium is already on the way.
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Dec 8, 2016 03:52
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Id recommend you start a planted/freshwater tank instead. I have an 8g salt tank and a 3g planted and the planted is a pleasure to deal with compared to the salt. I think youll be happier in the long run doing that. Less setup/maintenance cost and easier to maintain in general.
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Dec 8, 2016 23:54
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New light arrived! AI Prime HD. lovely cell phone pic doesn't do it justice. Looks great and the built in control over color and timing is a godsend. Also I put my meteor shower cyphastrea colony low and kind of shaded in my tank because I keep reading that's what they like. But mine still gets plenty of light and seems to love it so I dunno.  That thing and my mystic sunset monti are the two fastest growing colonies in my tank. I used to have a red plating monti that was growing so fast I had to get rid of it. Meanwhile my seriatopora and poker star monti have barely grown at all. 
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Dec 10, 2016 00:52
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I haven't posted in a while, so here's my tank: It's a 10 gallon rimless with a 10 gallon sump. Mostly hammer corals and Duncans, but there's some other stuff as well. I really like hammers and I've tried to pick up interesting color variations of them.  I really like this guy. It's more brown/golden colored in person than it is in this picture.  This one's almost cyan. I'm hoping it'll start splitting soon, it's two heads and they've been slowly growing apart.  Top view showing a couple other hammers. The solid purple one is an ORA hammer; I really like the coloration and it seems super hardy, but it isn't growing as fast as I'd like.  Duncans! I got one head ages ago, and it's turned into this guy. The growth seems to have plateaued though, and I'd like to figure out how to restart it. When my tank was dirtier (and I was fighting algae issues) this guy was growing like crazy. I'm hoping I can get it going again with spot feedings, since I'd rather not let my tank get out of whack again.  Another shot of the Duncans  Another hammer. This guy seems to be growing nicely, it was 2 heads when I got it.  And my one fish! A yellowtail damsel that's kind of a dick, but provides a lot of personality to the tank. I used to have two, then one vanished. I added another one, and that one vanished too, so I'm thinking my limit is one.  Sump shot. It's kind of amazing how much algae grows under the light in there, and how little I get in the display tank up top. It's really a testament to the impact of spectrum. These were all shot under a blue LED, which makes color correction to how they appear in person a bit difficult. I'm thinking next time I'll shoot them during the day where I have some natural light.
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Dec 12, 2016 03:29
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Beautiful tank DeadlyMuffin! In not-so-beautiful tank news, the battle versus bryopsis continues. Kent Tech M was a definite failure, these shots are after 2 months of dosing up to 2400 mag with lots of water changes and manual removal. This growth is over just the past week.      My last ditch plan now is to try using Fluconazole, it's an anti-fungal that supposedly attacks the cellular structure of the bryopsis and is otherwise reef and fish safe. Oh, and it's most common usage is for treating yeast infections  My wife is going to try to get some through her doctor, and if that fails I'll see if our vet can prescribe it. Most of the info I can find is on non-english sites, so assuming I can get any, I'll pull a rock out and try it in a 10g qt tank first.It that fails, I'm pretty much at the point of tearing down and salvaging what I can, it's pretty demoralizing.
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Dec 12, 2016 20:16
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bryopsis is hair algae? I've missed the discussion so I'm sorry if you're repeating yourself, but what are your nutrient levels like, and how are you exporting nutrients?
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Dec 12, 2016 21:13
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DeadlyMuffin posted:bryopsis is hair algae? Naw, it's more feather like, not individual strands. Nitrates have always been under 5ppm, I run chaeto in my sump and use a GFO reactor for phosphates. And I've always done weekly 30-40% water changes. poo poo just showed up three months ago and has taken over.
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Dec 12, 2016 21:53
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That's brutal. Cutting nutrients is the only thing I could think of; I guess that's why you're looking into chemicals to knock it back. I guess my worry would be that there's some underlying condition in the tank making the growth favorable, and if you just clean it off and restart you'd end up back in the same boat later.
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Dec 12, 2016 22:14
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Thats awful Enos, I feel for you. poo poo like that just takes all the fun out of the hobby. For me it was apstasia for the longest time, now that I've solved that problem, I'm seeing little colonies of bubble algae popping up. I loving hate it. Water parameters and maintenance have been on point so I have no idea what the gently caress is happening. I'm assuming you've tried extended periods of lights out? Like maybe 4 or 5 days, then only like a couple hours of 50% light a day for a while? Starting over may be the best option you have at this point but that sucks too cause I would be super worried about using those same rocks or putting corals back in that have loving bryopsis roots at the base.
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Dec 12, 2016 23:07
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visuvius posted:Thats awful Enos, I feel for you. poo poo like that just takes all the fun out of the hobby. For me it was apstasia for the longest time, now that I've solved that problem, I'm seeing little colonies of bubble algae popping up. I loving hate it. Water parameters and maintenance have been on point so I have no idea what the gently caress is happening. loving aptasia :-( I hate that it never completely goes away. It always creeps back and needs to be knocked out again.
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Dec 13, 2016 00:19
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Beginners luck, but after about an hour of stirring instant ocean sea salt in a bucket, and running the filter for an hour and a half, salinity is at 1.028! Time to get nitrates in balance and start thinking of a few inverts and a fish.
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Dec 14, 2016 17:02
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lite_sleepr posted:Beginners luck, but after about an hour of stirring instant ocean sea salt in a bucket, and running the filter for an hour and a half, salinity is at 1.028! That's pretty high, and you should buy a cheap pump to circulate your mix, just drop it in overnight and it's ready to go in the morning!
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Dec 14, 2016 19:28
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That's what I meant. The filter/pump. It's running the whole tank through a charcoal filter and a 'biosponge,' so chances are the salinity will drop down to 1.024-6 by morning.
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Dec 14, 2016 19:34
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Frozen Pizza Party posted:That's pretty high, and you should buy a cheap pump to circulate your mix, just drop it in overnight and it's ready to go in the morning! My method is to have a 5 gallon bucket that permanently has a cheap pump and heater in it. For weekly water changes I pour in water + salt, plug in the pump and heater and let it mix. Once it's mixed I unplug the bucket, toss my ATO pump into it, and then vacuum ~4 gallons from the display tank into a second bucket. One I'm done I toss the ATO pump back and that's it until next week. It works pretty well for my little system at least, although I'm sure it helps that I run bare bottom. I always had issues over time with gravel or sand.
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Dec 14, 2016 19:50
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DeadlyMuffin posted:although I'm sure it helps that I run bare bottom :heh: I bet once the novelty and allure of trying something new wears off, and everything in my tank dies I'll maybe just keep a goldfish in freshwater. lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Dec 14, 2016 |
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Dec 14, 2016 20:02
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DeadlyMuffin posted:My method is to have a 5 gallon bucket that permanently has a cheap pump and heater in it. That's what I do, 5gal with pump/heater. Siphon old out, attach hose to pump, pump new in.
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Dec 14, 2016 20:07
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I'm already contemplating tearing my tank down and starting over, when I come home for lunch to this: My afternoon just got a lot more fun.
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Dec 14, 2016 20:16
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Enos Cabell posted:I'm already contemplating tearing my tank down and starting over, when I come home for lunch to this:  where is it coming from
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Dec 14, 2016 20:22
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Frozen Pizza Party posted:
No idea yet, hoping it's a leaky bulkhead on the return? Water is not on the floor, so that's a plus.
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Dec 14, 2016 20:32
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Well, it seems that there is a leak somewhere in that front bottom corner. Tank was one of those cheap 40g breeders from PetCo, and I haven't been too impressed with them. In any case, I had to pull everything out into a spare tank setup with an mp10, heater and my light. Think I'll be able to get away without a filter on this if I'm doing weekly 50-60% water changes? My goal is to do some tank shuffling, and set up a 4' 120g tank that is currently housing mbunas as my new reef. Going to have to pick up a bunch of dry rock this weekend and start it curing. Nothing like starting all over again =(
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Dec 15, 2016 01:17
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Easy, and not even that. I ran my 40br with an mp10 and a sump, with nothing in the sump but some live rock for years with no filter doing 25% bi-weekly changes. Maybe move the mp10 closer to the surface so that it ripples or even breaks the surface a bit to promote oxygen exchange. Or just add an airstone, out of all the things, light, heat, etc. Oxygenation is the most important. Frozen Pizza Party fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Dec 15, 2016 |
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Dec 15, 2016 01:40
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Right on, I'll go toss an airstone in now. Managed to find some dry rock for $1/lb already, so going to pick up 100lb or so this weekend and get it started curing asap.
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Dec 15, 2016 03:59
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I want to get a tank heater before I begin worrying about advanced water parameters. Current water temp is probably in the mid 60s right now, as it gets pretty darn cold in my office in a warehouse. I see that there are two types of heaters for a < 10 gallon tank: preset to 78 degrees and adjustable. I have only a 5 gallon tank, which makes me think something as simple as a Tetra WalMart brand of heater will work. My question is though, do I get the preset temperature heater, or do I opt for the heater with a thermostat? If I only plan on having 2 fish max and some snails, then do I need to have a thermostat I need to set?
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Dec 15, 2016 20:38
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I'd get an adjustable one. I like to run my tanks a little warmer than 78 though.
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Dec 15, 2016 21:20
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Get an adjustable one, mainly because I've never met a heater that could keep an accurate temperature on its own. I always end up adjusting it ignoring the numbers printed on the knob and rely on thermometers to dial it in.
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Dec 15, 2016 21:54
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They didn't have an adjustable ones so I went with the preset thermostat. Even with only two pounds of rock and this thermostat sticking to the back of the tank and a thermometer sticking to the side of the glass it's really beginning to look rather cramped :/ I'm being told by basically all the fish/pet stores around here that a 5 gallon tank is just too small for anything :/ Even LiveAquaria.com told me over the phone that their nano fish need a 10 gallon tank. The guy even said I should just empty the tank, make it freshwater and stick a single beta in it. I guess I'm out ~140 bucks for the tank and the few accessories I bought. A beta in a 5 gallon tank. lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Dec 16, 2016 |
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Dec 16, 2016 14:57
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It's not that it's not doable, it's just ... you're in for a lot more work with it. TBF it's easier for those of us who already have a bigger tank because it's easier to maintain the smaller tank off of things we're already doing to run the bigger one.
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Dec 16, 2016 23:33
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I'm fine with ONE fish and a few inverts. Maybe a pistol shrimp and goby pair with a few bumblebee snails, but the guy at LiveAquaria says a Goby needs a 20 to 30 gallon tank! I plan on doing a water change every week, or 2 weeks at most. Again, this fishtank is on a filing cabinet at work. I'm at work more than home which is why I put it there. e:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sri5niI4_BY
lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Dec 16, 2016 |
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Dec 16, 2016 23:36
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Yeah if fish or other swimming things are what you want then a bigger tank is pretty much a necessity. If you more enjoy corals (like me) you can do something with just about any size tank, all the way down to a gallon or two.
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Dec 17, 2016 00:12
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I have two plain rocks in my tank right now. Could I get some kind of real soft coral things and stick them on there with some snails? My co-worker (who roped me into this) has some soft pink, tree looking feeders stuck onto his rocks. I worry though I wont have enough filth for them to eat if I only have them and a few of snails. What are my options with a 5 gallon tank?
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Dec 17, 2016 00:18
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The pink tree looking things sound like Kenya Trees which are pretty easy. Other easy mode corals: devil's hand, xenia, clove polyps, toadstools, some varieties of mushrooms or ricordeas.
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Dec 17, 2016 00:28
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Yeah coral-only nano tanks are cool and doable for beginners, especially if you start with like xenia, shrooms and random polyp stuff like GSP. Difficult to kill, grow really fast, easy to frag. Skip leather/colt/kenya trees though because they get huge. I honestly wouldn't put a fish in any tank less than 10 gallons; maaaaybe a little clown goby if the tank was successful for 6 months or more.
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Dec 17, 2016 00:28
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