Small Coral/Invert for begginer

[dfh_03]

I've heard of simple tanks from five gallons to as small as one gallon with nothing but a little live sand, a small piece of live rock, and a single small shrimp. Just cirulation and lighting. Is a tank like this possible? Feasible? I know fish in nano-reefs, especially small ones is a risky venture. I saw the 3/4 gallon setup on this site and it looked damn cool. Could I, as a begginer in saltwater(but not aquariums), keep a setup in a 5 gallon or smaller tank? I was thinking something like 2-4 gallons. Just a bit of live sand, live rock, and a small powerhead to circulate the water. No fish of course. Aside from the live rock, and a few small pieces of coral, what critters could I keep in it? Snails? Shrimp?

[clownfish4]

First of all, you need a filter. Live sand, rock, and a powerhead will not be sufficient for live stock. I use this on my 5g and it is great. As for other critters, look here and look here for corals. I would not recommend such a small tank for a beginner to saltwater. Saltwater is a lot different then freshwater, so no matter how long you've had an aquarium, you will be starting fresh. Before starting, read, read, and read again. Also, consider the following. Saltwater tanks are a lot of work, especially nanos. With normal tanks, you should make monthly water changes. With a 5g, your looking at once a week. And with less than 1g, you are looking at everyday. Secondly, reef tanks cost a lot of money. I have a 29g and have put close to two thousand dollars into it. You MUST be ready to accept all responsibilities and costs for it. And again, READ!!!

[maroonclown]

Originally posted by clownfish4

First of all, you need a filter.  Live sand, rock, and a powerhead will not be sufficient for live stock.

 

Wrong! The liverock is the filter. That is all you need, other than a heater and kick-ass lights. Thoguh it never hurts to use one. If you are going to use a filter, get the AC mini. A 5 gallon is a good start, but you must keep up with it. One system I have found is an 8 gallon bow front by Jali. it costs about $70 and comes with a good, but not great, light. This will give you a few more options. For animals, I really like the porcelin crabs, scarlet shrimps, if you can find it, a Pederson's shrimp. Almost all softies and polyp corals are good for beginners. clownfish4, you have little room to talk, as far as I can tell, you're still a newbie.

[clownfish4]

Ok, let me rephrase. I would use a filter as an extra precaution/help. I admit, I have only been at the hobby for 4 months. However, I have been researching for over a year. So with my extensive knowledge and moderate experience, I give you what I would do.

[dickie52]

I always like to kill 2 birds with one stone. The filter gives you circulation and can help polish the water.....

[dfh_03]

So a filter like that will work for saltwater? I've seen that filter before, it comes on many small tanks and beta tanks. I was under the impression that saltwater needed a different type of filter, as I've always read. If I could get a few opinions on it that would be great. Anyways, Wal-Mart and Home Depot often sell 500w Equivalent flourescent worklights, since they're flourescent they only use around 25watts if I remember correctly, and put off almost no heat. I've seen them and they are extremely bright. Would it work, or would it be too dim or too bright?

 

I see most saltwater in glass tanks. Is there a reason glass is favored over acrylic? In terms of 1-10 gallon tanks there are some very nice acrylic ones, and I really like how the edges are smooth and rounded, and perfectly see through.

[Dingo]

For a 5 gallon tank, a filter is not necessary, but it is nice to be able to add carbon for when your water gets yellow (which it will). You do need circulation and live rock to handle wastes. Worms and such that come in on the LR will take care of solid waste for you.

 

Search on lighting for proper light sources. Spectrum is as important as brightness.

 

Glass is cheap and hard to scratch, thats all.

 

I had a 5 gal for years with only 18W of Power compact lighting, a 50W heater, and one of those powerhead mini-filters. I kept the tank cover on to limit evaporation. I bought two pounds of live rock rubble from the LFS. Now days, I would recommend more light than that.

 

My most successfull corals were mushrooms. Also kept successfully in the tank was a leather coral, yellow polyps, and with somewhat less succcess, zoos.

 

I would recommend NO fish in a tank that small, because the wastes will lead to red slime. A shrimp or two for display and some snails to clean algae would be good.

 

I used NO testing whatsoever. The key to success was 1 gallon water changes each and every week. There were times when I got lazy and left it for a month or two, but that always led to disaster. Either some corals would fade away to nothing, or I would get red slime all over everything.

 

Also, watch your temperatures. You need an oversized heater to keep the tank warm at night, and you may need to set your lights up a little bit to keep them from heating up your tank. I would take a few days with just water in the tank to make sure you have the temperature stable.

[maroonclown]

That 25watt light is only good if it is a natural daylight bulb. Otherwise, it's worthless.

[dfh_03]

Thanks for the advice. I completly forgot about spectrum in lighting. Would a powerhead like the

mini-jet 404 be suuficient? As I read here, flow rate should be 7-10 times the capacity of the tank(I'm assuming in GPH), so this tiny powerhead sounds ideal. Shrimp are hermaphrodites, correct? So wouldn't it be best to just have one to prevent any possibility of them breeding in the tank?

 

While I'm at it I might as well ask, is there anywhere online that sells SMALL quanitites of live rock/sand? I doubt it's available locally, and online usually you have to buy it in boxes of 25-50lbs, way too much for this purpose.

[maroonclown]

Yes, there are places that sell small amounts of liverock and sand, but it tends to be less economical to ship smaller lots of rock. In otherwords, go to your LFS and save a few bucks. I haven't heard of shrimp being hermaphrodites, but if they spawn, it won't cause any problems. Infact, the sperm, eggs, and larve will become a good source of plankton in the tank. I like to turn at least 10 times of the tank volume over. The true key isn't how much water, but how random it is. Corals hate it when the water flow is point directly at them. HTH

[KCReefNC]

Been awhile since I was here but I started mine a little over a year ago.

 

To answer your original question...I have an Organ Pipe Coral and a Peppermint Shrimp in a 7 gal bow with an 18 watt 50/50, a Whisper 10 gal size HOB and an Aqua Med Power head sitting in the corner for current. The Organ Pipe is very healthy and seems to get bigger everyday. It loves the current and closes up if the Power Head quits (Coraline algae loves the plastic and tends to grow into the rotating part and I have to take it out and scrape it off from time to time)

 

The live rock has some featherdusters in it and that's all I have (mainly because I got "down-sized out of my job last year and had to take $20,000 a year pay cut ). I did have a Fiji Blue Devil Damsel in there, but he died right after I was out of power for 4 days during an ice-storm last winter. The peppermint came into the picture after aiptasia nearly took over the tank...Mr. Peppy took care of that in about a week!

 

I think mine does well because I ignore it and don't test it to death worrying about small changes. I use well water, change it when I think about it, and feed the shrimp about twice a week. I just have a simple timer on the lights to turn them off. Nothing fancy but it works.

[b_artman]

as a beginner myself let me give you some advice.

the first thing you need to do is research, then research, then research some more. i researched for about 2 months or more before even buying a single thing. also ask questions. there are some very informed and helpful people on this forum and they can give you some great insight and advice.

a small aquarium will generally be harder to keep because maintaining water parameters in a small tank is harder to do since there is less room for error. ie: a small error in a larger aquarium will result in less damage then a the same size error in a small tank; less buffer.

i myself have a 10 gallon tank, with a 13 pounds of live rock for filtration and two hang on back filters that are used for water movement and as a sump(the aquaclear is large enough for a 50 watt heater) and maybe some media when needed.

deffinetly troll the forum, and read what others have posted, the information gained is invaluable! happy reefing!

[tylernt]

I don't know about you guys recommending against small tanks. This is nano-reef.com, where we thumb our noses at the guys with big tanks! I started with a 2.5g and it's doing fine, thank you very much. If you put a lot of light over it, evaporation is a pain, but with low lighting and a well covered tank, you should have no problem.

 

dfh_03, just go slow and understock at first. I think, IMHO, that a 5g is fine. I have a Minijet 404, it's great. You'll want snails regardless -- get a variety, nassarius are cool. A couple hermit crabs, a few mushroom corals, a couple feather duster worms, maybe some macroalgea, and you're set. A trio of sexy shrimp should be fine too... I think Caja (a frequent poster here) has some in a sub-10g tank.

[dfh_03]

Yeah, a 5 gallon would be good. I have one 5 gallon freshwater tank, and I was thinking it would be neat to get another of the same tank and set it up next to the freshwater. To everyone that's telling me to ask questions, what does it look like I'm doing? I'm not in any hurry to start this, and I'm not even thinking about buying anything. The reason I need to order liverock is because there is no local fish shops. There's a few petshops like Petco, but I didn't see anyhting but a few sorry looking clownfish the last time I was in there.