I'm a Salty!

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Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 18, 2005
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Michigan's UP
After months of reading and debating the pro's and con's, I started my first saltwater tank Friday!

It's just a tiny 5 gallon tank with 5 pounds of live rock and 10 pounds of live sand.

I'm planing on a nano reef, with inverts only and MAYBE someday a small gobie, but I want to get the live rock looking really good first.

It was pretty cheap to start up, all I needed to buy was the rock ($50!) and sand ($20).

It was hard to explain to my Dear Husband why we have a tank with just a rock in it on the kitchen counter :)
:woot: :woot: :headbang2 :thumbsup:
 
i have experience with SW and to let you know......your going yo fail......if you keep it in a 5 gallon. the rock and sand will do fine but in transport a lot of organisms die on your rock causing your ammonia levels to shoot to the moon. the smallest i would ever go would be 20gal nano cube, and even with these water changes are an every other day thing. but you will have much more succes. nano cube run around $300. but they have all of the lighting and flitration built in. if you want to have a great tank with coral, inverts and select fish you are going to spend alot of money.

i would suggest a FOWLR tank, and at a minimum 55 gal. anything smaller you must do 3-4 water changes a week. with a 55gal 1 or 2 is ok. a lot of time and work will pay of in the long run.

Also if you want to dive in and get everything and you ahve a fat wallet .......go to www.liveaquaria.com and get your supplies from there. they even have kits to get you started on any saltwater from.....Fish only......FOWLR........or Marine.
they also have info on just about every fish you would want to keep with compatabilty charts.....and also suggest begginer fish.

well im done....hope that i helped and didnt discourage.
 
if the live rock is pre-cured, ur fine. if not, your gunna have to wait a few weeks before it is safe for anything to live.
 
Yes and No guys. First off, get the rock cycling for a while. When I started out on my salt, I began witha 5 gal, and everything turned out fine, it was great experience. First off, once it comes time to stock this baby, go with hermits. These inverts are seriously the Ironmen of the animal world. They survived through out my salinity fluctuations and my early nitrogen establishment. This 5 gal will be an awesome learning experience. my tips are keep you eyes on the salinity, because in a system this small, it does change daily, and just make sure not to overstock it by any means. Stick with the hermits, and best of luck ;). If your interested, I can pm you a paper I wrote on the establishment of a marine aquarium, that is simple, and very practical, and atleast in my mind would help any new comer of the marine trade. Best of luck,
~76
 
reefman said:
i have had many reefs and nano's are for the experts its gonna be a real pain in the rear
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Absolutely!

Reefs being hard enough to maintain as is, you also have the small size (5g) to worry about. Its possible, but being a beginner stands even less of a chance. I wish you the best of luck, but keep an eye on salinity, ammonia, and nitrate levels. All of these could really ruin your day. :cheers:
 
Hurricane, instead of pming the paper how about posting it? We can alwas use well presented info.
 
I know that smaller tanks are harder to do than big ones.

My rock is already cured, it came from the store's reef tank, thus the $10 a pound price tag. They put it in a styro cooler with water for the 30 min. ride home.

I have a 20 watt 50/50 CF over it, so I don't have the light for corals, but macro algae should do OK. I plan on leaving the rock for a month or two and adding Purple Up to it. Right now I'm just dosing calcium and iodine (have that already for my shirmp and brackish tanks).

A hermit crab, a cleaner shirmp and snails with a feather duster were the only animals I had planed on. Like I said before, MAYBE someday I'll put in a gobie.

So far my ammonia level is at 0, and my salinity is stable at 1.022.

Dudes, have some faith in me!
 
i'd have to agee with reefman get a bigger tank to start out with. my nanos' ammonia, salinity, and nitrate levels can sky rocket over one day at work. i've tried to keep small fish in my nano but to no avail. i've tried to keep small gobies in it but they always died within a week os so. but the best of luck to you and dont give up on it.
 
it may not cost much to start but it sure will be a lot ot keep. use some Purple Up to get the rock going really well. also use Kent Nano parts, a and b.
 
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