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Starting a 5 gallon aquarium.


shrimpo

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This is going to be my first saltwater aquarium, I already have freshwater and brackish aquariums but I know nothing about saltwater.

I want to keep inverts and corals that can be kept in 5 gallon tank: what do you guys recommend? is there any suplements that i need to add? what light to use? and finaly can i change the water using distilled water?

Thanks

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Since this will be your first marine aquarium I strongly recommend getting a bigger tank than 5 gallon.

Such a small tank will be extremely vulnerable for sudden changes in water parameters.

I would say at least 20 gallons for your first tank :)

As a nice bonus you can keep a lot more fish, invertebrates and corals! :D

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I already have enough aquariums around, my space can only afford a 5 gallon at this moment..and I am not planing to keep fish, just inverts and corals.

I'll keep searching to get this thing started.

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Mr. Microscope

5 gallons will be fine as long as you do your research. My 3 gallon aquarium was my first attempt at SW. I'm pretty happy with it. Most issues can be fixed with water changes. Take a look at all the 5 gallons around here and see what they are doing for equipment. Pay attention to pumps, lighting, and special modifications. I read up for about two months before purchasing equipment. If you have everything you need from the beginning, it'll be smooth sailing. That requires a large initial purchase, but hey, this hobby isn't cheap.

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Thanks guys for your help, I got live sand and live rocks..the water is at 1.023 right now, haven't added any inverts/corals yet, I don't know what species can get along and stay small in size for a 5 galon tank.

any help on what & where to get them? Thanks.

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let me tell you from experience. I started with a BioCube 14G at my house. I loved it. THen I went to a 20G at my office... super easy to take care of and I am never at the office. Then I decided to get a Pico 5G Experiment for the fun of it. This takes a lot more work to care for than a 14G or a 20G. Because of heat it evaporates like crazy... the Salinity is probably the hardest part to maintain. You have to be extra careful when you do water changes.

I had a heatwave over the summer and lost everything in that tank. took me 2 weeks to clean it out.

 

Get bigger if possible....

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Thanks guys for your help, I got live sand and live rocks..the water is at 1.023 right now, haven't added any inverts/corals yet, I don't know what species can get along and stay small in size for a 5 galon tank.

any help on what & where to get them? Thanks.

You will want the tank to go through a cycle and the parameters (ammonia/ nite) to hit 0 if you don't have a test kit the local fish store can check a sample of water for you. Then start adding things slowly , too much too soon could cause another cycle. As for inverts all depends on what you want I have porcelain crabs,pom pom crab,bumble bee shrimp,cleaner shrimp,fan worms,scarlet crabs and snails but I like inverts it really depends on what you want. Most good lfs can order what ever you want.

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let me tell you from experience. I started with a BioCube 14G at my house. I loved it. THen I went to a 20G at my office... super easy to take care of and I am never at the office. Then I decided to get a Pico 5G Experiment for the fun of it. This takes a lot more work to care for than a 14G or a 20G. Because of heat it evaporates like crazy... the Salinity is probably the hardest part to maintain. You have to be extra careful when you do water changes.

I had a heatwave over the summer and lost everything in that tank. took me 2 weeks to clean it out.

 

Get bigger if possible....

Pc bulbs are heat factory , T5 or led lights cut down on heat, plexiglass lid reduces evaporation, air conditioning helps with heat the most.

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gulfsurfer101

Here's my 2cents. Get an automatic top off(ato) or build one yourself. You can research this on here or youtube and for lighting you can use one of the par 30's or par 38's led fixtures to keep heat down and you'll have less evaporation. With an ato you can control salinity that way and dose whatever your tank inhabitants will require with a little more research. Good luck and enjoy the hobby.

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If i have room for bigger tank I would get at least 100 gallon...

Before adding anything I 'll wait for the tank to be cycled, that's what I do for my other fresh & brackish tanks, I got the live sand and rocks from a close by hobbyist, his tank been running for years. I am assuming the cycling will take less time. .couldn't buy the corals he got because they are big and not for pico reefs.

 

Here's my 2cents. Get an automatic top off(ato) or build one yourself. You can research this on here or youtube and for lighting you can use one of the par 30's or par 38's led fixtures to keep heat down and you'll have less evaporation. With an ato you can control salinity that way and dose whatever your tank inhabitants will require with a little more research. Good luck and enjoy the hobby.

Do you think adding distilled water once the aquarium water level drops a little can take care of the evaporation issue? do I have to mix anything with the water?

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If i have room for bigger tank I would get at least 100 gallon...

Before adding anything I 'll wait for the tank to be cycled, that's what I do for my other fresh & brackish tanks, I got the live sand and rocks from a close by hobbyist, his tank been running for years. I am assuming the cycling will take less time. .couldn't buy the corals he got because they are big and not for pico reefs.

 

 

Do you think adding distilled water once the aquarium water level drops a little can take care of the evaporation issue? do I have to mix anything with the water?

The salt stays in the tank it does not evaporate , I use distilled water for top off and to mix my salt water . As long as you use a reef blend salt for weekly water changes you shouldn't need any thing else.

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The salt stays in the tank it does not evaporate , I use distilled water for top off and to mix my salt water . As long as you use a reef blend salt for weekly water changes you shouldn't need any thing else.

I will be using Instant Ocean sea salt for water changes, and I'll follow your advice on toping off with distilled water.

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I added few mushrooms and macro algae.. the tank starts to clear-up now so I took some pictures. I know there is lot of mistakes (one of them I added too much sand...).

Here is the pictures any way.

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post-55730-1283797054_thumb.jpg

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sandbed looks a little deep, but the tank looks nice :)

get working on that ATO, it will make life much easier for your pico.

Looks like the starting of a nice reef what light did you decide on?

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Looks like the starting of a nice reef what light did you decide on?

I want to use LED lights as suggested before to reduce the evaporation issues, right now I use 14w daylight spiral light bulb.

I am also thinking about DIY auto top off.

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I want to use LED lights as suggested before to reduce the evaporation issues, right now I use 14w daylight spiral light bulb.

I am also thinking about DIY auto top off.

There are some writeups on the gravity feed top off in the diy section. If you can find the 50/50 bulb with actenic would be a good choice for the corals till you get your leds.

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There are some writeups on the gravity feed top off in the diy section. If you can find the 50/50 bulb with actenic would be a good choice for the corals till you get your leds.

I like the gravity feed idea, i have some acrylic containers sitting around that i might use.

Now i have question about the green and red macro algae that i added to the tank, do you think it is ok to do so, to help reducing nitrate and unwanted algae?

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it depends on the macroalgae and how invasive it is.

All macros remove waste, even hair algie but it all depends on what you want to look at. Can't tell what the red is but the green looks like the sump only type. If it is in a ball and strands as thick as pencile led bad, as thick as a strand of hair good.

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I don't know the name of those algae but they were in a sump from 2 different tanks that I bought the live sand/rock and mashrooms from.

I tested the water today:

-Nitrate 40 ppm.

-Nitrite 0 ppm.

-Ammonia 0 ppm

-KH 300 ppm

-PH 8.2

I bought 3 blue leg hermit crab, 8 bumblebee snails.

When the light is off, i can see some worms look like bristleworm..I am wondering if bumblebee snail will eat these worms!

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Water change done to reduce high nitrate. added some empty shells, 2 of the hermit crabs replaced their shells already and the third one thinks his current shell is better.

So far so good exept the large bristleworms that I a trying to get rid of, I also want to add saltwater plants if that is even possible in 5 gallon tank, all my other freshwater and brackishwater aquariums are planted.

Some corals on order, I'll post more pictures when they arrive.

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Water change done to reduce high nitrate. added some empty shells, 2 of the hermit crabs replaced their shells already and the third one thinks his current shell is better.

So far so good exept the large bristleworms that I a trying to get rid of, I also want to add saltwater plants if that is even possible in 5 gallon tank, all my other freshwater and brackishwater aquariums are planted.

Some corals on order, I'll post more pictures when they arrive.

Dont worry about the bristleworm. I have 5 of them in my 5.5, all they do is eat extra fish food and other waste.

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