Thinking of trying my hand at Saltwater.

[Jess1ca]

So My husband is dying for a saltwater tank, he's pretty much over my African Cichlid obsession. I've decided to give in and start very small, 5 gallons. I don't even care about fish, I would love to start with inverts an see if we can do well with them and if we do maybe upgrade to something larger. I'm seeking advice on what we will need to get this going. He likes corals and blenny's (I think that's what they are... Little goby looking things haha! He seen them on our trip to the lfs today while i was getting a few things) Could we do a blenny, some inverts and a coral or 2 given we get correct lighting?

 

[Mrc8858]

In small tanks like this salinity and temperature become an issue. Corals require pretty consistent parameters to thrive. Because of this you will need a refractometer instead of a hydrometer to avoid any margin if error. To keep corals you'll need around 30-50x tank volume in gph so 150-250 gph moving in your 5 gallon which could be accomplished with a nano circulation pump. You could easily light a tank this size with LEDs for fairly cheap and filtration would honestly be optional if you were willing to do small water changes ever couple days with a tank this small. Your live rock will be your main source of bio filtrion which you'll want 5-10lbs in you tank for a pico reef. If you have any more specific questions feel free to ask

 

[Mrc8858]

Also I should add not many fish can be kept in a tank this small which you can browse for some on liveaquaria.com. With that said the larger the tank the easier to keep consistent readings and more room for error due to the larger body of water.

 

[Jess1ca]

Thanks for the info! I have heard bigger is better but I am afraid to jump into this and go ahead with a bigger tank because here in northern Michigan the price of things is greatly inflated and I'd hate to invest in expensive fish and have them die on us I also worry about having a bigger tank and buying water for wc's because I can't use tap... Or am I totally wrong in assuming that? I would be doing daily wc's while cycling and I'm thinking it could get rather expensive. The lfs has premixed water in 5g jugs and I thought that with using the smaller tank I could get a couple wc's with one jug.... So I need the tank, led lighting, An optional filter, which I think I will do, the LR, a heater, water...and what else am I missing? Do I have to get live sand or can I use blasting (silica) sand like I use in my fw tanks?

 

[Mrc8858]

You can go bare bottom which I would reccomend if you want corals.because it makes.it very easy to remove waste but for the water you can get your own Ro/Di unit from brs which will pay for itself in no time. If you join a group buy which is held roughly every month on here you'll receive a discount aswell.

 

[Jess1ca]

You can go bare bottom which I would reccomend if you want corals.because it makes.it very easy to remove waste but for the water you can get your own Ro/Di unit from brs which will pay for itself in no time. If you join a group buy which is held roughly every month on here you'll receive a discount aswell.

Ok, I'm cool with bare bottoms! Just checked out liveaquaria, there aren't any fish that can go in a 5, my husband is bummed! What's the limit on Inverts? I'm totally diggin Starfish!

 

[Mrc8858]

Starfish get large you might he able to keep some of the hitch hiking brittle or astrea stars but you'll be very limited in a 5. I reccomend starting with a 20 long for a first tank if not larger.

 

[Beengirl]

Why would you be doing daily wc's during the cycle? Just don't put anything live in it and let it sit and cycle for a few weeks. Don't need water change during cycle if nothing alive in it. You could do a 10g, you could have 2 fish in that and couple snails and an invert. There are some listed in the nano section of liveaquaria.com.

 

[Jess1ca]

Ahhh, dang! Well I already have the 5 so it was my attempt at being cheap haha! I already have 4 tanks, currently building my 5th soooo this is my 6th. Guess I'm looking into going bigger! But that's probably gonna drastically change my start up costs, eh? Oh, idk... I never fishless cycled, I plan on it for this tho, I guess I assumed that there was a certain degree of water changing no matter what way you cycled. Sorry.

 

[lovefishys]

I wouldn't use tap water, if you don't want to buy an RODI machine or premix at your lfs you can go to any supermarket and purchase it by the gallon. Then mix it at home. We did this for awhile before we got a machine. Good luck!

 

[Jess1ca]

I wouldn't use tap water, if you don't want to buy an RODI machine or premix at your lfs you can go to any supermarket and purchase it by the gallon. Then mix it at home. We did this for awhile before we got a machine. Good luck!

Oh really? What kind of water is it? Purified, distilled?

 

[lovefishys]

It is RO water.

 

[Beengirl]

Oh really? What kind of water is it? Purified, distilled?

I buy water from LFS. they're tanks are clean, no algae issues and it's the same water they use in theirs. One store charges 0.25/gal and another charges 0.39/gal. I have 5 gal buckets that I use only for that. Then I mix salt in at home.

 

[Jess1ca]

I buy water from LFS. they're tanks are clean, no algae issues and it's the same water they use in theirs. One store charges 0.25/gal and another charges 0.39/gal. I have 5 gal buckets that I use only for that. Then I mix salt in at home.

Wow, that's a good price, I will have to ask around and see if my places have any deals like that

 

[Beengirl]

Yeah, you gotta ask cuz neither one of the places I get it at advertise it at all.

 

[lovefishys]

Wow! At our lfs it's $5.78 for 5 gallons (premixed)! We were paying $0.39 for a gallon at Dahls

 

[pcdebb]

In my start of saltwater, I started out with a few damsels. at the most they are $5. that help boost my confidence when they didn't die on me

having a QT tank is paramount. I have a 5 gallon as qt right now and it's done its job. when my clownfish was sick, i was able to nurse him back to health. it will be a heartbreaker to lose a salt fish, on average the price of one starts at $20

And yes, bigger is better. alot of the salties require a bigger tank, most of the interesting ones anyway. i've seen some tanks as small as 10 gallons, but it only had like 1 fish in it with a shrimp.

i stayed away from the SW idea for years and broke down my mbuna tank and went with it. I'm so glad I did!

 

[pcdebb]

Oh really? What kind of water is it? Purified, distilled?

you can also buy your own water at walmart. i've gotten distilled and drinking, but usually the purple top, which is distilled I believe.

 

[Beengirl]

Wow! At our lfs it's $5.78 for 5 gallons (premixed)! We were paying $0.39 for a gallon at Dahls

Yeah, mines not premixed, I take the 5 gallon buckets from home and fill them there from the same sink they use to fill theirs. I'm there so often that 1 of the places jut lets me fill the buckets myself now, instead I standing there and doing it for me. I don't mind. Lol

 

[Jess1ca]

Well picked up a 20g Long at Petco's $1 per gallon sale, but wondering if I would be better off using a 29g I already have?