NEWBIE.... 2.5 or 5G nano?

[MiniPigg]

Hi all,

Im new to this but have been reading about it off and on for the past 10 years. I have finally decided to go thru with it. I currently have a 10G tank that was a freshwater setup. I thought about using it for this setup but I am now thinking maybe a 2.5 or 5 gallon tank. What fresh water stuff can I still use. Im going all basic reef here to start off with. I can buy a 55g bag of instant ocean and black mollies for 2 bucks each.

thanks
dave

 

[brandon4291]

Welcome for sure Dave, glad you chose here to start your costly nano ventures (because in time, as the addiction grows, you will pay dearly!)



Not really its not that bad, but I found that after one masters the basics there's no escaping $30 frags and it only takes 5 to get costly in my opinion...and that's not even to deck out your tank as the true addiction grows!

I'd leave out the mollies for awhile, start by running some live rock and sand if you want that look, practice salinity consistency depending on your reef's unique parameters (relative humidity in your area, lighting-driven evaporation) and get some test kits for calcium and alkalinity and try to see if you can log some consistent readings for about two weeks on some scratch paper, tested the same time of day and at least a few days after any water changes if one of those takes place.

One of the worst things to do early on in the nano reef is introduce algae...of course it's possible to cycle a tank with fish and not get algae, with attentive husbandry practices, but with all the living matter among live rock and live sand the fish isn't necessary, and will only introduce bioloading to your tank early on before environmental controls are in place sufficient to give you the best fighting chance. After you get consistent temp, pH, calcium and alk and specific gravity readings for two weeks I say then you should try some easy corals and if you want to one or two small mollies, depending on the tank size. What about using marine fish? their habits are so much more well-matched for the system, instinctively cleaning in the niches they area adapted to, symbiotic interactions with other fish/corals/crustaceans, some grow much smaller than the mollies and are lower overall bioloads which mean less water changes, just brainstorming. I know lots of people here in Lubbock who keep mollies in their nanos just because they are so cheap. I have to admit livebearing fry in a reef system is pretty unheardof outside mollies!
Welcome'
B429

 

[MiniPigg]

B429,

Thanks for the welcome. I currently live in Cheyenne Wyoming. I have been unable to find live sand. I think I have called the few stores in town that carry saltwater. The places that do have saltwater do nothing but bad mouth the other stores instead of giving me good advice. They all say something completely different. Unlike some newbies I am not about to buy something just because they tell me its the best on the market and my tank will die. Thats why I am here. Plus I enjoy being in a community that also enjoys the same hobbies as myself. Ive put this hobby off for to long. It's time I did something rather then thinking how nice it would be to get settled into saltwater tanks. So I am starting off slow and small. I am still considering a 2.5 or 5 gallon tank. Maybe just a cube if I can find one.
The black mollies where suggested by one of the shops as a cheap way to get fish started in the tank and allow it to cycle. I was told by the same person not to place living rock or sand into a new tank as it will kill it and raise the NH3 levels. So Im pretty much to the point where I dont know whom or what to believe.

thanks again
dave

 

[brandon4291]

Believe us! not just because I'm horrendously biased, but honestly this web site and two others provided 90% of any reef knowledge I have garnered up until this point. I never ask a LFS, I just buy their best corals but I do all product research here first (back when I was shopping for new products)

I chose this site for the bulk of my interactions simply because of the maturity level involved in most of our posters, and because most of these guys are old-school reef gnostics evolving new-school approaches...their advice panned out every time. You can buy pre-bagged live sand, if you want it, from naturesocean.com or any retailed selling this pre-bagged liquified sand. UPS will drop ship this and anything else you need...Please continue reading our forum and asking more questions regarding use/non use of any reef product, we sell biology always before products, that's my favorite thing about the consistent advice on this board.
If I could sum up the live sand debate in one sentence, something I hardly ever do , I'd say: If you want it because you like the look, fine, but keep it clean. It will not "clean" itself in the typical nano setup.

Keeping it clean means siphoning the top layer and replacing it as needed, in and around all live rocks stacks, sometimes it means using smaller grain sizes so floc and detritus will remain on the uppermost layer (as opposed to crushed coral chips with large interparticulate spaces that select and hold large detritus particles). The pre-bagged stuff I mentioned is a perfect size by the way. Just don't let it compile a bunch of brown waste-if you keep it clean, sand or no sand is not an issue.

let us know what you decide@!

 

[Anonymous]

hihi.

As he said, don't go to the local stores for advice. If they give you some, just nod and smile. I usually try to go to LFS with specific product purchase in mind, or not at all.

As far as your original question I think a 5.5 aga would suit you well as there are a number of important "main" fixtures that come in handy sizes for the 5.5

Lighting - you can get a good coral sea life mini hood it has 2 PC bulbs, one actinic.
Filter- you can set up a wide variety of filter styles for a 5.5. I like to do whacky things like two whisper "e" (smallest) HOB and put LR in one and sediment filter in another
heater - don't need a crazy huge or crazy small size

Plus the 5.5 will afford you some room to play around, make mistakes, buy random things. You have to be very selective with a 2.5 and I have found the daily maintenance is much more of a hassle. Evap happens like crazy in a 2.5 if it is not sealed ... I ended up doing 3x a day top offs. Woof!

In my dream world I would have one 20L planted and one 5.5g nano reef

Edit: you can get everything you need online, probably for cheaper (then shipping makes it work out to about the same price as retail). Even livestock, I have gotten some good specimens from online sellers and hobby types. If you are active in the forums you can score the nuttiest crazy lookin things that LFS never heard of.

 

[MiniPigg]

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback. I will start looking for a 5.5 tank. I dont think I will do the live sand... but there is a tank I saw that had black sand in it. I would like to use that in the 5.5. Any good sources on finding that type of sand?

 

[MiniPigg]

I have a question on using acrylic tanks. I am looking at both acrylic and glass tanks. I guess the acrylic tanks get pretty scratched up over time. How long will they normally last?

Also... I think I might do a small reef with more sand and the same amount of fish. Not sure if that is going to make much of a difference. At least until I get a little more time and experience under my belt.
I really do appreciate the feedback.

thanks
dave

 

[crod75]

Dave

I realize I am a bit late, bu I would definitely go with the 5.5...

I'm not really big into aquariums, but my brother always had lots of tanks and I started a 2.5 saltwater last summer. If I had to do it all over again I would probably go with a 5.5 The 2.5 is pretty fun but, man, it's really small and you are very limited in what you can do and how much you can put in it.

If you are thinking about acrylic for the 5.5, I would suggest just going with the glass. Acrylic scratches like crazy and unless you want a distinct shape/style that only comes in acrylic, I would stick with the glass.

Good Luck!

 

[MiniPigg]

One of the other forum members mentioned using a FOWLR. Maybe I should start out with the FOWLR and then slowly add form there?

 

[Anonymous]

If you are having trouble acquiring live sand u can seed that black sand you were talking about. beg your LFS to sell you 1 cup of sand from an aquarium, or look on a local reefer society message board about a trade/sale of some sand from their tank. OR yet another way to get a live sand bed is to simply run it for a while without much else in it but some sand and a few chunks of LR to "seed" your tank. you may have to put up with an extended algae cycle.

when people sell you "live" sand it's somewhat of a misnomer. it's still got to "cure" (? poor word choice) in your tank and build up the microfauna/flora, except it's got some biological material so the process is a bit faster

in regards to acrylic tanks ... they are the devil and nothing but strife and pain will come out of one.

FOWLR tank is not really any easier to maintain than reef, in fact i think FOWLR is folly ... but that's just me.

 

[reef master]

the bigger the better