What should I do with my sad little 5g nano

[GobyBryant]

Alright folks, I’ve got this cute little UNS 5N that I just love. Currently it has 0 inhabitants (besides pests lol) and I’d hate to break it down. What should I do with it?!

[LazyFish]

Shroom tank.

[Tamberav]

Group of porcelain crabs for the shroom tank

[Snow_Phoenix]

RFA tank? With some sexy shrimp? 🙂 

[GobyBryant]

8 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Group of porcelain crabs for the shroom tank

I didn't realize these could be kept in groups, that's a good idea!

[demonclownfish]

tailspot blenny

Flaming prawn goby + Randall's pistol shrimp 
Small zoanthid garden on one half

leather forest on other half

 

[GobyBryant]

3 minutes ago, demonclownfish said:

tailspot blenny

Flaming prawn goby + Randall's pistol shrimp 
Small zoanthid garden on one half

leather forest on other half

 

Love the idea of a yellow leather in there if I can! A little worried the goby and shrimp will destabilize the rock long term, but I feel like you can't beat their personality. 

[Tired]

Your rocks should be set on the glass bottom, not on top of the sand, to prevent anything destabilizing. Then you'd have nothing to worry about in that department.

 

Fairly sure flaming prawn gobies don't pair up with pistol shrimp, but an antenna or Yasha haze goby could work instead. If you go that route, make sure to throw in a handful of crushed shells for the shrimp to build with.

 

IMO, you could use some more rock, both for aesthetics and for bio-filtration area. 

[demonclownfish]

47 minutes ago, Tired said:

Your rocks should be set on the glass bottom, not on top of the sand, to prevent anything destabilizing. Then you'd have nothing to worry about in that department.

 

Fairly sure flaming prawn gobies don't pair up with pistol shrimp, but an antenna or Yasha haze goby could work instead. If you go that route, make sure to throw in a handful of crushed shells for the shrimp to build with.

 

IMO, you could use some more rock, both for aesthetics and for bio-filtration area. 

They will pair up with smaller species like the Randall's - tigers are such are too large 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

2 minutes ago, demonclownfish said:

They will pair up with smaller species like the Randall's - tigers are such are too large 

In my experience, they don’t necessarily pair up, but will share the den. Our flaming prawn didn’t really keep an eye out for Randall’s, or bring food back to the den for the pistol. 

[Variant]

An NPS tank that you do 100% water changes weekly would be epic. You'd have to use weak lighting to prevent algae given the higher nutrients load from. Feeding NPS corals.

[GobyBryant]

9 hours ago, Variant said:

An NPS tank that you do 100% water changes weekly would be epic. You'd have to use weak lighting to prevent algae given the higher nutrients load from. Feeding NPS corals.

Thought about this too but I’m so worried about how I’d manage this if I had to travel at all. 
 

Also, from what I’ve read NPS typically need daily feedings, so idk if a weekly water change is often enough?

[GobyBryant]

10 hours ago, Tired said:

Your rocks should be set on the glass bottom, not on top of the sand, to prevent anything destabilizing. Then you'd have nothing to worry about in that department.

 

Fairly sure flaming prawn gobies don't pair up with pistol shrimp, but an antenna or Yasha haze goby could work instead. If you go that route, make sure to throw in a handful of crushed shells for the shrimp to build with.

 

IMO, you could use some more rock, both for aesthetics and for bio-filtration area. 

Good call on the rock work. My LFS has some very mature live rock I can pick up. When I first scaled this tank I was keeping SPS, so I wanted to leave room for them to grow out. 
 

After they started looking meh, I transferred them to a larger tank and they’ve been growing like crazy. 

[Tamberav]

11 hours ago, GobyBryant said:

I didn't realize these could be kept in groups, that's a good idea!

 

Reef cleaners states their green ones do well in groups... actually it says their spotted one is often found in groups or pairs as well... perhaps it applies to all types. 

[Tired]

I've found wild green porcelains in groups. I think it's less that they're social and more that they tolerate each other, but, hey, that works! 

[GobyBryant]

A lot of things are tolerated in my household…like this hobby 😂😂😂

[ninjamyst]

Ricordea garden with sexy shrimps

[GobyBryant]

1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

Ricordea garden with sexy shrimps

This is kinda what I’m leaning towards. My other tank takes up a majority of my attention, so I think low maintenance is better. 

 

Thinking about a red rooster waspfish 🐓

[Tired]

A rooster wasp might be a bit large for a 5gal. They're pretty chunky animals, as nano fish go. 

[GobyBryant]

@Tired I was doing some more reading up on them and it does look like they consistently get to 2.5” which is a bit large for the 5g.
 

Coral crouchers seem to be a better fit in a tank this size if I want to add a fish. 

[GobyBryant]

Got some equipment 🫣

 

[GobyBryant]

I decided to buy an IM 20 off of a local reefer 😬

 

The 5N went into storage, but I know I can’t help myself, so it might see water some day!

[TatorTaco]

Whatcha going to do with your new 20G? 
 

I have a spare 20 for sale but I keep contemplating what I could do with it. 

[GobyBryant]

5 hours ago, TatorTaco said:

Whatcha going to do with your new 20G? 
 

I have a spare 20 for sale but I keep contemplating what I could do with it. 

I’m going all-in with a nano sps build. I’ll make a proper build thread soon!