Sean's 5.5 Gallon reef tank

[Sean1123]

Hi all,

Here is my 5.5 gallon nano reef journal. 
I started the tank in August with TBS live rock and sand

 

Here are the specs on the tank

Light: ABI par 38 blue and white bulb

Pump/filtration: Hydor Nano 240 gph pump, Aquaclear 10 gph hob filter

Heater: Hydor 50w 

 

Fish/invertabrates:

Clown Goby

Pom pom crab

blue clawed hermit crabs and an unidentified hitchhiker hermit crab

snails 

featherdusters, tunicates, barnacles, pods, spaghetti worms 

 

Coral/anemones:

Xenia

Acanthastrea

Duncan coral

Green star polyp

Candy cane coral

Green sinulara 

Rock flower anemone

various hitchhiker curley cue anemones

hitchiker cup corals

unknown species of gorgonian (if anyone could ID it that would be great. Its a purple body with big brown polyps)

 

Macro algae: (all of it came with the rocks)

I really have no idea which species they are. Theres the cactus kind, the red bumpy kind, the red smooth kind, the brown kind, and two species of calurpa, which I have to remove regularly.

 

I try to change 3 gallons of water once every week, but this usually doesn't happen and I end up changing it every other week. My nitrates pretty much stay negligible though because of my low bioload and my large amounts of macroalgae

 

Live rock and sand added to aquarium

 

First corals added

Pom pom crab added

Green sinulara added

Clown goby added

Rock flower anemone added (w/ hitchiker hermit crab underneath)

Candy cane and Acan added 

Aquarium at current date

 

[Sean1123]

Overall my time up to this point has been relatively problem free. I have not lost anything that I added to the tank yet which is pretty nice 🙂. Most of the large tunicate colony and the barnacles died after a while due to lack of food which was expected but unfortunate. However, a lot of the life on the rock has remained and began growing and reproducing. I notice new tunicates and feather dusters every once in a while and have some barnacles left on my rocks and one of my snails. Unfortunately, I witnessed the brutal murder of my second hitchiker hermit crab the other day so I am down to one of them. 

I also noticed some red flatworms on my mushroom coral (which I freshwater dipped and then gave back to the shop that I got it from because I read that they detach themselves from rocks) and got coral dip to help get rid of these. I have been monitering it closely and only notice one or two on my xenia, which I remove with an eye dropper. Any advice on this would be great. 

Thanks for reading my journal! All advice, comments, and critiques are appreciated

[Sean1123]

I'm also looking to get a small shrimp or crab to liven the tank up a bit. Any suggestions? I am currently looking at bumblebee shrimp, blue coral banded shrimp, and pederson's anemone shrimp. 

[Tangina20]

8 minutes ago, Sean1123 said:

I'm also looking to get a small shrimp or crab to liven the tank up a bit. Any suggestions? I am currently looking at bumblebee shrimp, blue coral banded shrimp, and pederson's anemone shrimp. 

I would suggest cleaner shrimp, coral banded need bigger caves for hiding and only come out at night

[Wonderboy]

I really like bio-diverse setups like this - looking great so far!

 

IMO the blue coral banded would be fine without any spontaneous movement swimming around him, although an arrow crab might eat the planaria, too. I think that the planaria "issue" is best approached optimistically; find something that eats them because it's a free food source for your inhabitants. You could do a couple blue velvet nudibranch, a green spotted mandarin, a scooter blenny, and/or also try temporarily putting a very small halichoeres sp wrasse in there (with lid).

 

Good luck!

[Sean1123]

1 hour ago, Tangina20 said:

I would suggest cleaner shrimp, coral banded need bigger caves for hiding and only come out at night

Alright thanks 🙂 Do they get too large for such a small tank?

 

25 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

I really like bio-diverse setups like this - looking great so far!

 

IMO the blue coral banded would be fine without any spontaneous movement swimming around him, although an arrow crab might eat the planaria. I think that the planaria "issue" is best approached optimistically; find something that eats them because it's a free food source for your inhabitants. You could do a couple blue velvet nudibranch, a green spotted mandarin, a scooter blenny, and/or also try temporarily putting a very small halichoeres sp wrasse in there (with lid).

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks! I haven't seen any since I posted this but if I see any more I might borrow a scooter blenny from the fish store. What do you mean by any spontaneous movement swimming around him? 

[Tangina20]

Cleaner shrimps are about half the size of coral banded! It will definitely fit!

[Wonderboy]

I'm talking about bigger fish swimming by or smaller super active fish - these movements tend to shy away crustaceans, except cleaners lol - without tank-mates like so, reclusive species tend to test the aquarium's boundaries well outside of their standard cave-dwelling tendencies.

[Wonderboy]

14 hours ago, Tangina20 said:

Cleaner shrimps are about half the size of coral banded! It will definitely fit!

Blue coral banded shrimp are way smaller than CBS

[Tangina20]

4 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

Blue coral banded shrimp are way smaller than CBS

Yes but blue aren’t as common and an lfs may not carry them..

[Sean1123]

11 minutes ago, Tangina20 said:

Yes but blue aren’t as common and an lfs may not carry them..

I have a pretty good one nearby that said that they see everything that I mentioned once in a while so I'm just waiting until they find some. 

[Sean1123]

8 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

I'm talking about bigger fish swimming by or smaller super active fish - these movements tend to shy away crustaceans, except cleaners lol - without tank-mates like so, reclusive species tend to test the aquarium's boundaries well outside of their standard cave-dwelling tendencies.

Ok great. My goby is about an inactive as they get so it won't be an issue