Ok, new setup ideas are floating around.

[d9hp]

I have been so angry with my 5.5, it was a great little tank for 2 months, and then I had a string algae outbreak and nothing will fix it. I am disgusted with my efforts and no results. AND, after my recent endevour into the SW world, which it has bitten me, I want to make another tank. I do not want to spend a million dollars on the setup and what not, so my thoughts are this. I fell in love with Salt4Us tank which was in their sons bedroom. I thought how cool it would be to make a little FOWLR. The only thing I need to buy is some LR and a bag of southdown. I dont care how long it takes to cycle or whatever, just as long as I dont have this nasty string factory sitting next to me all the time. I have a small HOB, I might need to get a small PH for current, or is that even needed. I will want a GREAT clean up crew to keep algae at bay. I have a heater. I have lighting although it is really really yellow. Would the bubls being on the lower end of the spectrum make algae worse? I would put the SD sand in and then seed it with some LS from my minibow. I really appreciate anyones comments.

Also, the fish I want is a watchman goby and a pistol shrimp.

Thanks for any insight on what I should do, and how I should do it.

 

[MR294]

I would use a thin layer of SD (1-2") along with some liverock and add either the powerfilter or a powerhead for circulation. For a cleanup crew, 1-2 tiger trochus, 2-3 cerith snails, 2-3 nassarius, and 1 or 2 scarlet hermits (if you don't mind hermit crabs) would do a great job. The trochus will take care of the rocks and glass, the ceriths will take care of the sand, and the nassarius will take care of left over food. If you want to do a shrimp goby pair, I would look into either a Stongobiops Nematodes or Stongobiops Yashia with their symbiotic shrimp Alpheus randalli. These little gobies are beautiful but can be quite shy, making your 5.5 a good size for observing them. With that light fishload, a small partial water change every week or every other week, should be all you need to maintain water quality.

 

[Salt4Us]

Wow, thank you for the compliment!

We got our small Power head from Dr. Foster Smith, it works great! We also used a AquaClear filter with no media, every now and then we put in a carbon to clear up the water. We also got a clamp on JBJ light which I think was only 30 bucks that came with the 50/50 pc light, made a huge difference both the filter and JBJ we got at our LFS. But we didn't cycle it with that light, we didn't cycle our tank with PC lights on the 29 either, always used NO's when cycling, mainly because we couldn't afford to go out and buy a kit. It's worked out really well for us.

I love the idea of the pistol shrimp, that's what we were thinking of doing in the 40, but we have other shrimp in there now.

We don't have southdown here, so we just used the live agaronite which we had an over abundance of when we needed sand for our HOB fuge on the 29. I think we have close to 3 or 4 inches in there, the damsel seems to be digging out areas for himself all the time, both he and the blenny are very territorial and hiss at each other but no actual fights. We have 3 little snails, what they were sold to me as aren't what they are. We had a conch snail in there because we had a bit of the dreaded red slime stuff, but it just recently died. We do a water changes weekly on all tanks (my poor husband).

Good luck with your tank!

 

[d9hp]

Ok, I have a powerfilter, and I am going to get a microjet powerhead. I want a watchman goby with a tiger pistol. I am pretty dead set on that. I really would love more clean up crew ideas. I dont know what a trochus is. I can get ceriths, and scarlets, but I dont know about nass snails and the others. I really like hermits, and most snails are cool aswell.

 

[Salt4Us]

We had 4 blue legged hermits, seemed to be an overkill have one in there now seems to work. These are the snails we have in our 5 gallon now, we have 3 or 4 of them in there, they do a really good job.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=23&pCatId=1472

 

[d9hp]

Well, this tank will eventually become a reef, I am gonna make the whole thing a GSP tank. I really think that would be cool.

 

[eeyore]

i have an orange watchman goby with the pistol shrimp- they are quite comical- be prepeared for the pistol shrimp to dig in the sand and move it around.

 

[d9hp]

I did the light change this evening, and removed all the plants from my 5.5 tank. All that is left now is to take the fish back and empty. What should I clean the tank with before pouring in the salt and what not?

 

[alrmc4]

i would use a vinegar and water solution and rinse well.

 

[d9hp]

Ok, well, the fish are going back tonight. Hopefully I can get the tank cleaned out and everything. I am going to purchase the Powerhead, and maybe some sand if the WalMart is carrying it.