That's a lot of Rock 5.5 gal

[Saltslinger]

I wasn't sure I was going to post this online but I want to have somewhere to keep track of how my first saltwater aquarium is progressing, plus after lurking I decided I liked the community here. I filled this 5.5 gal tank around 2 months ago, I'm already in love ☺️ For the future I will keep adding mixed coral (with an emphasis on the softies) and maybe get some sexy shrimp. I've already decided no fish. No adding anything that's going to require any additional mag/calc/phos testing. Honestly I won't be checking the "basic" parameters besides salinity on a regular basis sooo... 😅

 

Things in the Tank:

5.5 gal "generic brand" aquarium

1x old heater that hopefully won't boil my tank

2x hydor koralia nano 425

hipargero aquaknight LED light

13 lbs of live caribsea rock

caribsea sand

 

I have to build a support for the light to screw onto because it 1) wouldn't screw on an aquarium with a rim. 2) even if it did, it wouldn't be centered over the aquarium but sticking out too far. I am hoping this will also help hide wire & it creates a black background on the tank without painting the glass.

 

When I went to the LFS for rock, got carried away and I came home with ~13 lbs, probably a mistake for a tank this small ohh well and I like how it looks. I can tell it's going to be a PITA to do any tank maintenance or cleaning, only two panes of glass aren't touching rock and it's a close call.

 

 

[Bailyfox]

looks good, i got about 10ibs for my 7 gallon.

[Saltslinger]

I added some liquid ammonia with the live rock to help it through the cycle and after about a month of waiting and trying to decipher the elusive colors of the API master test kit, I decided that my tank was probably cycled enough.

 

Also I had a beach trip (hoping to score some free macro algae) and came home with more live rock that had been washing ashore complete with dead coral encrusted on it, of which I rinsed and threw in, damn be the consequences 😅

 

About a week later I water changed and bought my first inhabitants, scarlet hermit, red mushroom, GSP, and stylophora. It's been two weeks now they seem to be doing good with exception for some reason the mushroom has not fully opened up. It might need more light but I'm going to wait a couple more days before I try to move it just in case it just needs time. There was an incident where I started to bleach the stylophora which I will elaborate on, but especially on a small tank like this even cheap lights like the aquaknight can be (too) powerful. I'm honestly glad I did not spend the extra money buying one of the "good brands" people recommend or I probably would have killed all the corals. 

 

18 minutes ago, Bailyfox said:

looks good, i got about 10ibs for my 7 gallon.

Thanks! 🙂 I really like the look of crevasse / cave-like structures so having more rock than recommended looks cool to me. I've seen it mentioned that live rock can trap detritus, and build up high nitrates in older tanks. So I guess I'll get to see first hand if this tank lasts that long

[Saltslinger]

So before I went to my LFS I was only expecting to bring home softies. But the frag of stylo was pretty cheap AFAIK and I thought it was so pretty I had to have it. When I first put it in the tank it was doing good, I decided I need to raise the lights cause SPS needs more light right. Especially since I bought a cheap light I needed to crank that baby up to full power to make sure it gets enough rays 😲

 

Then I left on a 2 day mini vacation and came back and it looked like this. The picture sucks but the polyps looked rougher, shorter, and the bone of the coral was looking a lot lighter. Luckily I caught it before any polyps died and it looks as good as it did when I first came home with it. I've also noticed it starts looking bad with any amount of the "whites" on. I didn't realize how susceptible to bleaching it would be honestly I'm surprised I thought if it would die from not enough light if anything.

 

Through all these shenanigans, both the mushroom and the GSP seem unaffected. So the next time I go to the LFS I'm going to try really hard to only come home with more softies 😅

[RedCrow]

Not sure why but corals need time yo acclimate to LEDs. Lucky for me my lfs has LEDs over everything and they acclimate them to it before they offer them for sale. 

Your tank is looking good btw!

[debbeach13]

Hi saltslinger welcome to NR. Nice start. Some how the scape does not look like it is too much rock. Like you mentioned it will be hard to clean the glass. There is nothing wrong with a softy tank. Maybe try some LPS. Good luck. 

[Saltslinger]

Well I finally got some new corals, a tiny cyphastrea, favia, a paly, and a zoa. I really wanted a softie tank when I started this but I decided not to buy anymore right now. I think the light is just too bright for them. I'm not able to raise it anymore and it's on the lowest setting, blues only. My mushroom just looks like crap from too much light & flow. I removed one of the powerheads, hoping that will help it some. Everything is still alive and all my other corals look good, so I'm pretty much content.

 

Also with the light on the lowest setting I can't put any of the corals higher up on the rock or I think they will burn. So all my new frags are just sitting on the tiny gap of sandbed between the rock and the glass 😖 I'm kind of torn between just removing some of the rock and moving everything into a larger aquarium like a 10g. So gonna think on that, maybe go to petco and snag a 10g while they're still doing the dollar per gallon either way 😅

 

I was thinking about how cute a yellow clown goby would look in there, that might motivate me enough to switch to a 10g. 

[debbeach13]

You can have a clown goby in this tank. Just make sure to have the LFS feed the fish so you know it will eat. Try making a screen lid DIY it very inexpensive or get a simple pc. of glass for a lid to help if you have to much light.

[Saltslinger]

37 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

You can have a clown goby in this tank. Just make sure to have the LFS feed the fish so you know it will eat. Try making a screen lid DIY it very inexpensive or get a simple pc. of glass for a lid to help if you have to much light.

I will think about it. I just feel bad about keeping a fish in something this small. Also it would make a lot more room for corals hah

 

I just witnessed 4 of my blue-legs crawling all over my small favia frag, eating algae off it I guess 😫 One of the polyps is putting out tentacles. Hopefully to feed and not that it's being roughed up by the crab menace.