5 Gallon Nano Reef

I could be wrong...but from what I've heard...that mandarin won't live long in a 5 gallon...plus the tank sounds overstocked

Well, the tank has been around for 5 months now and water tests show sea quality water. Feeding the mandarin is much easier in a smaller tank. He is very healthy. Also the filtration is excellent.

Looks great! I know you have listed the inhabitants but if you dont mind me asking what is the name of the purple anemone at the front?

Cheers

What do you feed the mandarin?...I thought they only ate pods

The purple anenome is actually a pink tip Condylactis gigantea from Haiti. I feed all of the fish Sally's Brine Shrimp. I will admit I got lucky with this mandarin. Apparently most mandarins starve because they won't eat foods that aren't alive. I asked for him to be fed at the LFS to see if he ate brine shrimp, and he did. So I bought him and he's been eating brine shrimp as long as I've owned him. When buying do what I did, make sure they eat brine shrimp.

Yeah you really lucked out with that mandarin! congrats man, i wish i could find myself one with good eating habits haha

is that anemone still living????? 8w is like no light at all. not even 2 watts per gallon

You can train mandarins to eat frozen foods it's also hit or miss with them

I just started a nano reef (10 gallon) myself and I'd love to hear an update on this tank.

Wow it's been a while since I've updated. The 5 gallon tank nearly parished due to my lack of time. Old tank syndrome set in. I lost one clown to suicide (jumped out) and the mandarin decided to go into the filter after the intake cover fell off. The condy also got sucked up and chopped in half by the filter. Amazingly he's still kickin' but really small. The other Clown has since been removed because she was too aggressive and started killing my new mandarin. The fire fish is still very healthy. Hair algae has since grown out of control and nearly killed all of my corals. For some odd reason I've taken a new interest in the tank and have been treating it for hair algea (algone) and been doing very strict routine maintenance. The tank is on it's way back to being beautiful, but it's not quite there. I'll post a more recent photo.

want a more recent shot this is one of my faves

Nice tank.

I had an old Eclipse 6G that I'd used for years as a brackish tank, but just set it up today with some live sand, 7 lbs of live rock, and a few hermit crabs to get it cycling. Replaced the stock bulb with a 50/50 Power Glo and have it on a timer running 12 hours a day (hopefully it'll be enough light, as the fixture in there is kind of small). The rock hadn't been moved for months before I bought it, so there shouldn't be too much decay from transportation shock (fingers crossed).

How often are you doing your water changes, and how much at a time? I was thinking about building a 1G sump to help aerate the water and facilitate water changes.

Still not sure if keeping the bio-wheel is a good idea or not. I've heard opinions both ways. Any thoughts on the matter?

Shut up eric!

Who are u talking to I3!XCI-I

nice tank. Hope everything works out and gets back to normal...

hey Bro..!! your tank is really awesome , and i will like to ask you how do you keep your anemone because i just started up a Pico reef of 5 gallons too, and actually is my first saltwater tank, and i'm so exited since than i build it, and my tank has a week old and all parameters are good, i know is to early to said that but i'm trying so hard to keep to for a long time, and my prototype is just a couples of clown fish and a beautiful anemone, right now i just only have a banded shrimp and a little but beautiful clown fish, and my light for this pico reef are LED strip with 2 x 12,000K White 1 x 453nm Actinic Blue LED lights i have another 2 strips extra in case if my tank could needs more light . thanks for your time to read me . and have a great day .. congrats again for your tank..