New to salt water, 5 gall tank lots of start up questions!

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sorry for all the pictures guess im excited. got the heater in now, light is off but let it glow to take the picture. heater is in and its running a constant 78 degrees, going to order that powerhead within the next few days rebel thank you for the recommendations. i wont use the bubbles either thanks travis, i guess that would just be cutting corners. im already seeing lots of color, i have no idea what those green plant like things are on the top, but obviously im not expecting an explosion of life so soon lol... just stoked. thanks again all!!

PS: im going to have to get some info on photographing nano's lol. taking pictures of my 72gall bow front cichlid tank is easy haha, these seem to look like poop.

img_1802881_0_b9fd4cff51d2bda2499d4e22a5ebc80a.jpg
 
oneball said:
sorry for all the pictures guess im excited. got the heater in now, light is off but let it glow to take the picture. heater is in and its running a constant 78 degrees, going to order that powerhead within the next few days rebel thank you for the recommendations. i wont use the bubbles either thanks travis, i guess that would just be cutting corners. im already seeing lots of color, i have no idea what those green plant like things are on the top, but obviously im not expecting an explosion of life so soon lol... just stoked. thanks again all!!

PS: im going to have to get some info on photographing nano's lol. taking pictures of my 72gall bow front cichlid tank is easy haha, these seem to look like poop.
Click to expand...

Its a beautifully addictive hobby. U will be figuring out a way to make the 72 gal bf a fowlr
 
When dealing with a nano reef you must research first! if this is your first salwater tank i will give you three strict rules

Stock with species that are beginner level

understock your tank

Be absolutely dogmatic about your maintenance.

remember nano reefs are not very forgiving and an ammonia spike can become lethal in minutes. i have tried this and have been successful following those rules. also when nano reefing remember that only one inch of fish per gallon. and because i said understock i mean 1 three inch percula clown and a shrimp and possibly a small anemone. anemonies prefer metal halide lights so be careful when choosing lighting.also when nano reefing you should have at least 4 pounds of live rock. i hope you have good luck and fun with nano reefing :)
 
thank you! yeah i have 5 lbs of the live rock, and really only want corals and inverts in this one. wife may talk me into one little fish but a very tiny one. i am almost certain though no fish period. thank you so much for the info, yeah i am really stoked!
 
day 3

looks to be clearing up, but i dont know what these are. they came with the live rock

img_1803906_0_4e6fe7ab308d795cf96def301169b284.jpg


look like plants to me but i have no clue. here is a general pic

img_1803906_1_d5108582cc26e75524203c8378a78de9.jpg
 
Someone on another forum suggested Halimeda? If it is should I take it out immedietly?
 
Well I've seen it before, I really thought it was a macro algae. I THOUGHT it was good but idk. Mr. X would know I'm sure. . .
 
haha! just saw my first thing slip back into the rock when i was looking around it. i mustve noticed the movement and bolted, sucker was super fast! looked re or brownish but im mildly red/green colorblind so it mightve been red or reddish. kind of looked rusty.
also on closer inspection i see worms on the sand. those are bad right? should i pull them out when i see them?
also, it looks like i see things growing, almost looks like cocoons of things , like white jelly like stuff growing on some of the rocks. its whitish/translucent.

pic of the worms rolling around on the bottom

img_1805537_0_4745f6ad74f3e706eace783bb0c1f934.jpg
 
Sounds like a peanut worm in the rock. The sand worm may not be bad, do some looking on the interweb. I do all the time, big difference now from when I had a reef in 1986! Then we thought everything was cool, as it was all new.
 
yeah im finding all kinds of worms now ( well maybe not all kinds, but at least 3 different ones i think, all small so i cant tell) one is red and digging through the sand then crawling up my tank, one is white/translucent and moving across the sand, and those two i notice have skinny worm bodies and thicker black heads that roll up to mouth parts as theyre trying to move. almost look like those toys we saw as kids that were full of water in a baloon like plastic sheath that would constantly roll over on itself, it was shaped kind of like an eggroll lol
 
Well, got the powerhead in today, and after installing it as a turbo prop and blowing everything I had in my tank all over the place, I did it the other way and have great circulation. Wow though, the tank is clogged to all hell it seems lol, with the filter, the power head and the heater all packed in that tiny space. Anyways I got 3 Nasarrius snails, one trochus snail, one emerald crab and a candy pistol shrimp because they were selling everything in the store for 65%off(like 15 bucks!!) lol. When I turned the light on to get a picture of everything set up tonight there was a 3 inch worm, red, looked like a centipede sliding all over the place, even tried to swim up the side lol. Anyways I'm trying to find him and yank him out. Oh well, here's the latest pic, any ideas on how to unclutter?

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rebelyeller89 said:
I am going to try this light in my five gallon aquarium. And if that doesn't work out I'll be adding a led fixture
Click to expand...


yeah im trying this 10w 50/50 bulb right now but it doesnt seem like it might be bright enough. jury is still out for sure i guess, no corals yet, but im thinking they may need some help. anyone suggest a small strand of led's to help them out? you can do that right?
 
Don't think you will know for sure until u try a simple coral. Like maybe a mushroom that doesn't require lots of light
 
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