5 gallon?

[Helios]

After 3 years, my betta Hades had passed away. I now have an empty 5 gallon tank and was wondering about turning it into a salt tank.

I'm in the process of redoing a 29 gallon up at work as my first salt tank and am excited about saltwater.

I would really like to just do corals, a bristle sea star, and maybe 1 fish. Can you do this in a tank so small?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[orangelover77]

I wouldn't recommend putting any saltwater fish in a tank that small...

 

[Helios]

Would the other things be okay?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Yeah you could do a pico reef with some cool inverts

 

[orangelover77]

Yes the other would be fine. I personally would add some invertebrates.

 

[herp_mommy]

pico salt tanks can be pretty impressive. However, I would not recommend them this early on if you are inexperienced with saltwater. Things can turn bad very quickly in a smaller tank, especially salt.

 

[orangelover77]

I would do the corals, and some invertebrates. I think it would be absolutely fine. Are you interested in any inverts?

 

[Helios]

I would do the corals, and some invertebrates. I think it would be absolutely fine. Are you interested in any inverts?

I'm open for anything. Really early planning stage. What would you suggest?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Some sexy shrimp, a pom pom crab or 2, porcelain crab, maybe a small cleaner shrimp in a ric and zoa garden with maybe a nice Duncan center piece would make a cool little pico IMO. Just my $.02

 

[Helios]

I broke down and got a 10. I want to at least have 1 fish in there. So here it is.

Not sure if I love the lay out but there are some good caves and good spots for some soft corals so I'll leave it for now. Just got to wait for the cycle.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

A 10 is a good choice, that's what my first reef was, way back when. What lighting are you planning on? I would also recommend a small power head for some additional flow

 

[Helios]

Yeah I was thinking another power head would be needed, but wanted to get everything set and save a little since I shouldn't need it until I get corals. For filter I went with an aquaclear 70. I may alert it into a fuge at some point.

Lighting I got a Marineland LED. I know not ideal but it was in my budget. I was a little worried about it but it was the only thing I could find that fit my tank and the guy at the lfs said it would be okay for softies. He did recommend T5s but I would have had to upgrade to a 20 gallon for the lights to fit and don't have the space or $. Will it be okay? Its pretty much either this works or I scrap the whole tank because $150 on lights out of my budget. I really only want to do softies so I hope it's okay, but let me know if I NEED to change it for softies.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[carey]

as long as you arent set on higher light corals then by all means keep it.

Did you get the reef ready leds or single bright?

 

[Helios]

They only had the single bright. Would it still be okay? I really only want to do zoa and mushrooms, but I'll do anything that will work with my lights.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[carey]

Could they order you the double brights or reef ready ones? Do you know how much they would be and if they are in your budget?
If they are close in price I would get the brightest you can afford.

With the other ones I mentioned you could even keep lps, which are the flowy wavy corals.

 

[Helios]

I could check. I know the bigger size reef ready 24-32" I think were $170ish. Would the ones I have work to at least get me started or not really at all?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[carey]

You will be limited to soft corals like mushrooms and zooas most likely. You might scrape by with some lps but not sure how great they would do. The 10g is shallow so you might do better than i';d think.

Use what you have, you can always sell that light on craigslist and buy a better one if you get to the point of wanting more light needing corals.
Or when you upgrade tanks

 

[Helios]

The plan is one we get a new house to buy a huge tank and do it right. High end the whole way so that'll be awesome. Thank you so much for your help!!

I do have one kind of stupid question. Do I need to cycle the tank before adding corals or are they like plants and can be added at any point?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

No they are not like plants and are extremely sensitive to ammo and nitrite. Cycle first then you can add some softies

 

[Helios]

Okay. Thanks. I just put my lube rock in and was wondering is it better to do the cocktail shrimp cycle or should I just dose it with ammonia?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app