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5 Gallon "Mini-Hawaii" Project


Shigshwa

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Hi guys, I saw that this was a great site for people who keep reefs, both big and small, and I thought that this would be a great place to share my project.

 

I visited Hawaii this summer, and swam with the fish on the coral beds. It was so mesmerizing, that I just had to have a piece of it in my bedroom! And so, this reef project was for the sake of emulating that.

 

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My background in the aquarium hobby has been in the intermediate level, I've owned freshwater tanks as large as 40 gallons, but I currently manage a 20 gallon freshwater. I have not considered a marine tank until recently. This is my first expedition into the saltwater realm, and I know that a pico sized tank is not ideal for the beginning saltwater keeper, but if much of the good maintenance habits of a good freshwater tank can be carried over into the saltwater tank, then I don't mind putting extra elbow grease to make it happen.

 

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For my setup, this is a 5.5 gallon tank from Petco, with a 0.5-2 inch aragonite sand bed (sloping). For bio filtration, I've purchased a whole 10 pounds of live rock, arranged as shown in the picture below. A 150 gph power head blows a stream into a cavern that I have created with the rock formation, and the majority of the water exits upwards. A smaller stream flows out and gently runs into the sand bed up front.

 

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For lighting, I have chosen the Coralife 12W 11" T5 fixture, fitted with a 50/50 mix of 10,000k and actinic. Heat doesn't seem to be a big issue, for my temps stay close to 78 degrees with the help of my 50W heater.

 

Water parameters are around 8.3 pH, KH at around 240, and nitrogen cycle related compounds are pretty low right now. SG is being maintained at around 1.024.

 

The goal of this pico reef is to house a show of bright corals, and inverts to match. I'm unsure about fish yet, I will have to see how the tank does with the invert bio-load. For now, I'll let the rock settle and stabilize before making the next move. The next item to consider adding may be a skimmer, perhaps a home made one, and a night LED.

 

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Jackal_Knight

Hello and welcome, looks like your off to a good start. I'd skip the fish and skimmer on a tank this small your fish options are very limited, and water changes will be more than enough. If you just wanna dabble and make a diy skimmer go ahead might be fun

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I started with a 5 gallon tank as well and have a 6 gallon running on my desk at work. Personally I like the challenge of these little tanks and find them enjoyable to maintain.

 

You definitely don't need a skimmer on a tank this small as water changes will be more than sufficient. I have had good success using a AC70 with a InTank media basket on my tank. Allows you to run filter floss and have a place to keep your heater and any media if you choose to use it. I would go that route if you want to add some additional filtration.

 

Many of us have kept an Azure or Yellow Tail Damsel in a tank this small. One of those combined with a cleaner shrimp makes for a neat little tank.

 

If you haven't already, make sure you check out some of the tanks in the Pico section. I learned a lot by studying some of those tanks when I was starting out. Good luck!

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Awesome. My powerhead contains an attachment to make a stream of microbubbles too. I'd like to use it to make a very small stream of microbubbles, but I've heard about the potential effects of bubbles to corals. I can tie a knot in the tube to limit the flow of bubbles to nothing more than a tiny stream of mini bubbles, just enough to notice the bubbles flowing with the water. Would this be alright?

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Week 3, and the tank is experiencing an algal bloom. Excess nutrients? It doesn't seem to be a bother, and the snails will love it.

 

here is a guide. don't know if its elsewhere on here...

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

 

nice tank, I like the patience.

 

hopefully it will be all you want! look forward to the progress.

 

I wouldn't do the bubbles. sounds like you would be intentionally introducing micro-bubbles?

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Awesome. My powerhead contains an attachment to make a stream of microbubbles too. I'd like to use it to make a very small stream of microbubbles, but I've heard about the potential effects of bubbles to corals. I can tie a knot in the tube to limit the flow of bubbles to nothing more than a tiny stream of mini bubbles, just enough to notice the bubbles flowing with the water. Would this be alright?

The problem with microbubbles is they build up on the bottom sides of your live rock and grow into bigger bubbles. In those air filled cavities you will have a lot of die off and little pockets of not so good water/gas, so when then bubbles get released either by you moving the rock or they build up so big that they move all of the gas/water with the dead organics gets released into your water. That and the fact that to many microbubbles makes it look like a sandstorm in your tank is why people try to eliminate any and all microbubbles.

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  • 2 weeks later...

First month. The diatoms have started to die off. The tank seems to be performing beautifully. All forms of life (hitchhikers) have started to appear, including a few bristleworms. The nerites are loving the abundance of food, and in preparation for a few more inverts, I have hired a nassarius into the cleaning crew. I could not find him at the time, I'm sure he was buried somewhere. I am always amazed when he pops out of nowhere like a ninja when foods are introduced. One more check of water params and I'll start adding corals in.

 

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11174726_10203854685447479_5428109600972Close-up of a nerite and a sea slug.

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welcome to saltwater!!!

 

and i started with a 3g and now have had

an 8g cadlights for over a year. it is a fallacy

that these small tanks are hard for beginners. not so.

 

but you do have to do weekly cleaning and water

changes. leave it 10 days, and things go wonky.

 

having said that, i enjoy my tank cleanings, and with

easy corals like mushies and flower nems, i basically

haven't checked my numbers for months. ha!

(i would if anything looked awry, but things have been

holding good and steady for a while.)

 

good luck and have fun!

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A few more friends join the janitor crew. Sexy shrimp, and 2 hermits. Also snapped a pic of the nassarius with his submarine tube sticking out. The LFS did a water test for me, and reported good numbers for calcium, salinity was at 1.022, I'm confused, because the calibrated refractometer reads 1.024. KH and pH were a bit low, so I'm dosing some buffer for it. He said that with the numbers looking good, corals can be added!

 

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  • 5 months later...

It's been a while since I've updated. School has come and gone, and with that out of the way for now, I can focus on reefing once more!

 

Since then, The tank has had quite a few corals added, an emerald crab added, and the lighting system upgraded!

 

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Some nice zoas,

 

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Hammer and frogspawn corals.

 

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Now, this pipe organ has been acting funny lately. every now and then, it tends to close up like this in the day, but seems to open up to feed in the night. I'm worried about the growth to the side of this frag, what is it? Is it harmful?

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ReefSafeSolutions

That looks like aiptasia to me...a fairly invasive pest anemone. Chances are good the aiptasia is causing the funny behavior on that frag.

 

I've been lucky enough to avoid it in my tank, so I don't really know the best way to get rid of it. Someone will surely chime in, but I think there are several threads about killing it. I think the key is to get rid of it ASAP so it doesn't spread to the rest of your tank.

 

Tank is looking great!

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Mr. Microscope

+1 to aiptasia on the pipe organ. I'd remove the coral from the tank and attempt to pick off the pest anemone with some tweezers. If you fail to get it all, then it will grow back, but then you can simply remove it again. Repeat until it is gone. With luck, the first try will be successful. You'll see the coral open up again once it's no longer getting stung by the nem.

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Actually, went to the LFS for Aiptasia X. How effective! The poor thing imploded, and is no more.

 

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However... I've also been noticing a pistachio-like thing attached to my candy canes. Whenever something bugs it, the shell closes, and when I feed, I see a stream of water emitted from it. What is this?

 

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The pistachio-like thing's a bivalve of some kind.

 

Aiptasia-X has worked each time I've needed it... be aware that you might need to follow up treat again in a week or two if there's any daughter/clones growing at the base that pop up now that the big one's dead & gone.

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Tank is looking great!

 

Aipatasia x...i keep this on hand. Love it. Always use it when the aips is small, as they get bigger it takes a few tries.

 

In a tank that size you could get a small goby. Many ppl have had success keeping small fish in pico tanks.

 

The first 2 are clown gobies- they seem to swim around quite a bit from what I have seen

The third is a yellow watchman. They find a rock and stay in that area.

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Tank is looking great!

 

Aipatasia x...i keep this on hand. Love it. Always use it when the aips is small, as they get bigger it takes a few tries.

 

In a tank that size you could get a small goby. Many ppl have had success keeping small fish in pico tanks.

 

The first 2 are clown gobies- they seem to swim around quite a bit from what I have seen

The third is a yellow watchman. They find a rock and stay in that area.

 

That would be such a lovely addition! Honestly, my bio filtration is pretty overkill for what I currently have (unless I go insane with feeding, nitrates are practically 0), so it's always possible to add a single goby in there.

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Bldgengineer

Pretty sweet little tank! It's exactly what I'd like to get going for my desk at work....of course, I gotta get mine going at home first ?? lol

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If you have a good system and you are diligent with weekly water changes, vacuum your sand(not deep sand beds), use a turkey baster on rocks/dead zones, and watch over feeding, a clown goby should be fine to add. They stay very small.

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North Borders

+1 to the clown gobies. There's also one called the Panda Goby that's OMGWTF adorable! Some of the small blennies are fun and full of personality too. Tail spot would be a good pick.

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Well, I noticed a special frag at the LFS. It looked like a tan/gold under their LEDs, but it looks like I picked up an interesting color morph of an Acan!

 

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It's blue and orange under regular lighting

 

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And fluoresces the same colors under actinic!

 

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I may be running out of room for any more specimens. I'm thinking about moving the green frogspawn elsewhere, the hammer below looks much happier with the less intense lighting, although I'm not sure why the frogspawn hasn't been extending, even before the hammer was added.

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