My 5 gallon 1.5 feet tank

samuel88 · February 16, 2011

Just got this tank up and running for a week.

Equipment

1.5 feet, 5 gallon tank with 5 KG of liverock (at least 1/3 to 2/3 of the tank is filled with rocks.) and 1.5 inch thick fine sand bed.
a HOB filter 80GPH that's filled with lava rock
airstone skimmer i had lying around.
2 X 16 watts T5 bulbs, one super sun 12k and one actinic blue bulb.

i'm considering adding a wave maker but i think 80 GPH from the HOB filter for 5 gallon tank should be enough for now.
May change my airstone skimmer to something better but i don't want to waste the skimmer i had lying around and since my tank is so small, we'll see how it goes.
The temperature in my room can get to 28 degrees but i use my room fan to cool down the tank and i'll be getting a cooling fan soon.

I'll probably be getting dwarf hermit crabs and shrimps that don't get larger than 1.5 inches to keep the bio load low and the water quality high. aiming more for inverts than fish since i heard that marine inverts don't really add significant waste to the system. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Potential inverts
- any dwarf hermit crabs
- clapping shrimp (or any similar shrimp)
- sexy shrimp
- pom pom crab (there's actually one in my other tank but it'll be so hard to catch)
- harlequin shrimp (but getting the starfishes it needs is gonna be a pain)
- pistol shrimp (not sure if it'll break my glass)
Corals?

[*]none for now, although 2 x 16 watts over a 5 gallon tank gives me a lot of options in terms of corals that need bright lighting. that's like 6 watts per gallon.

desideria · February 17, 2011

looking good... Pom pom crabs are nice to have.. my colleagues are always looking at my pico/nano trying to find the pom pom and when they do, they will yell : I FOUND IT! :yahoo:

nice rockscape!

tunicate · February 17, 2011

Nice rocks. Maybe can get an overflow skimmer for your HOB filter. (Some filters do come with it built-in.)

samuel88 · February 17, 2011

looking good... Pom pom crabs are nice to have.. my colleagues are always looking at my pico/nano trying to find the pom pom and when they do, they will yell : I FOUND IT!

nice rockscape!

:ThanxSmiley:

if only i could catch the pom pom crab from my other tank, haha.

samuel88 · February 17, 2011

Nice rocks. Maybe can get an overflow skimmer for your HOB filter. (Some filters do come with it built-in.)

yeah i would love to get an overflow skimmer, i hate the dust that collects on the surface of the water, occasionally i'd take a net to scoop them all out. is there any place that just sells the attachment? cause if i have to buy a brand new one it'd be quite a waste cause this HOB pretty reliable been using it for a freshwater tank for really long time.

tunicate · February 17, 2011

I think most fresh water fish shop carry them. Since you water level fluctuates with evaporation, choose those surface skimmer that can auto adjust to these different water levels.

jetski250 · February 17, 2011

Personally I prefer blue electric hermit crabs over others. Nice colours and less destructive than others. Active during the day as well.

samuel88 · February 17, 2011

Personally I prefer blue electric hermit crabs over others. Nice colours and less destructive than others. Active during the day as well.

icic, sometimes i find it hard to differentiate the hermies, but mainly i'll stick to those really small ones like 1 to 1.5 inches.

raymus · February 18, 2011

icic, sometimes i find it hard to differentiate the hermies, but mainly i'll stick to those really small ones like 1 to 1.5 inches.

bro, u can find pom pom from coral farm also.

keen into getting one, but is it reef safe?

samuel88 · February 18, 2011

bro, u can find pom pom from coral farm also.

keen into getting one, but is it reef safe?

from what i've heard they are reef safe, they don't really bother anything else. they're mainly scavengers, but when it comes to crabs you can never be 100% sure. oh yeah, and try not to put them in large tanks, cause you probably will never see them again cause they're always hiding from the larger fish, so a nano tank would allow you to fully enjoy their company.

oh yes one more thing, i've heard they can be kept in groups, that would be really cool to have a group of pom pom crabs.

they're so timid and meek that even hermit crabs take advantage of them

for further info, http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=67217

samuel88 · February 18, 2011

think i'll be heading to CF soon to look at their inverts. aiming for pom poms and sexy shrimp. kinda hesitant about hermits even dwarf ones, cause heard they always knock over frags, attack other small inverts, nip at stuff etc etc. but i'll think about it.

Ketchup · February 18, 2011

If u looking for pom pom crab and sexy shrimp, i think Ah Beng higher chance... They tend to carry more of this sort of small species, all in small plastic bags!

raymus · February 18, 2011

think i'll be heading to CF soon to look at their inverts. aiming for pom poms and sexy shrimp. kinda hesitant about hermits even dwarf ones, cause heard they always knock over frags, attack other small inverts, nip at stuff etc etc. but i'll think about it.

i shall have a second thought of getting pom pom..later my shrimp sexy into their clow..hahaha

samuel88 · February 19, 2011

i just went to ML today to pick up a frogfish i had a deposit on, and guess what i saw, lots of sexy shrimps and pom pom crabs!

so i bought 5 sexy shrimps and 1 pom pom crab, i couldn't find the pom pom after i added it into the tank. but the sexy shrimp are doing great, here's 2 pictures, one where i'm acclimating them and the other where the shrimp are happily waving their tails around.

i'm gonna feed them with dry food that sinks, if anyone has a better suggestion feel free to let me know.

raymus · February 19, 2011

great sexy bro .

fast leg fast hand.. when we just talk abt it, and u got it the next day.hehe

but times when they host my zoa, zoa wiould just close and open throu out.. keke

..they feed on the pellets that sank ..all along doing fine althought nv really feed them. maybe henry food ?

keke

samuel88 · February 20, 2011

now that i've gotten the livestock, its time for the corals, i think to 'test water' i'll be getting an easy, cheap, and attractive coral i like, which would be the green star polyps,

i have a 2 feet tank that doesn't have any corals as well, so if i buy one GSP i can tear off the loose bits to put into my 5 G nano, and put the mother colony into my 2 feet tank. i think that's a great way to save money and more efficient use of the coral.

tansh · February 20, 2011

Nice setup.My tank setup exactly like urs but less LR around 2-3 kg and BB so that i can put more corals.

Currently i hv 1 crocea clam,1 frogspawn coral,1 mushroom,1 cynarina,1 devil hand leather coral and some zoo.

LS i hv 2 sexy shrimp,1 white spot anemone shrimp,1 tailspot bunny and 1 scooter dragonet.

Maybe u shd paste black background to hide the HOB and wire.

samuel88 · February 25, 2011

Update of my nano tank after two weeks

Equipment/maintenance

Its been two weeks, and the only thing i've changed is added a cooling fan. but i've decided not to use it unless the weather is really really hot because it causes the water to evaporate too fast.

i've always been a bit hesitant to do freshwater top ups due to some bad experiences with doing them daily. I use seachem prime to dechlorinate and it takes about 24 hours or less to completely dissipate from water and it removes chlorine and chloramines from tap water to leave the ammonia behind for the biological filtration to process which i feel if i add too frequently via the tap water it causes my tank to go haywire.

Of course this isn't a problem if i would buy distilled water or use RO water, but i don't have the money for a RO unit, and i don't really like the idea of wasting plastic bottles. so i just do water top ups every 3 days to a week, the break in between water top offs is to allow my tank to stabilize (take care of ammonia from the dechlorinators, seachem prime to dissipate etc etc.)

i'm going to buy some water test kits soon.

Livestock

5 sexy shrimps

1 pom pom crab

purple seafan (from previous tank)

the shrimps are doing good, i'm a little disappointed about the crab cause since the first day he went into hiding and i haven't seen him since.

i'm probably going to leave the live stock this way for a long time to let the tank stabilize and when theres zero ammonia, nitrites and as low as possible nitrates. i've read that nitrate is the end product of the nitrogen cycle but with live rock/anaerobic areas (little oxygen) the nitrate can actually be converted into nitrogen gas which leaves the tank completely. so i hope i can achieve this with understocking and lots of live rock.

i've noticed 2 hitchhiker crabs, but they seem really peaceful, and they've come out more often even when i'm staring at them ever since the intro of the shrimps, i don't really wanna remove them cause they're not causing trouble and they are actually really fun to watch.

the sexy shrimp are constantly picking at the rocks and the sand so i've actually not fed the tank for a few days already, and don't really plan to unless i see them run out of stuff to pick on, but i highly doubt so there was a little diatom growth on the sand bed but it was quickly taken care of by the constant picking of the sexy shrimp.

there's also been an explosion of copepods which are really fun to watch too.

i'm quite happy that the tank is 'providing for itself' which makes it have a very natural feel to it.

i doubt i'll ever add fish to this tank cause its too small and i like inverts much more than fish unless the fish are really unique (frogfish, lion fish, mandarin fishes etc.) which is a big reason i feel, why i decided on saltwater instead of freshwater, cause the variety of invertebrates available is so much more diverse.

Thats all for this update. Thanks for reading!

raymus · February 26, 2011

hitchhiker crabs-- it is a time bomb bro. missing fishes/ shrimps ia a matter of time.

i have a good experience on this previously when i got those uncured rock. it was hard to catch, but as time flies, fishes went missing without corpse..

do monitoring closing if u want to keep them. chances are slim in reef safe..

samuel88 · February 26, 2011

hitchhiker crabs-- it is a time bomb bro. missing fishes/ shrimps ia a matter of time.

i have a good experience on this previously when i got those uncured rock. it was hard to catch, but as time flies, fishes went missing without corpse..

do monitoring closing if u want to keep them. chances are slim in reef safe..

thanks for the advice, i'll make sure i keep a really close eye on them.

samuel88 · March 5, 2011

Update number 3 week number 3

week number 3, i'm pretty happy with how the tank's been coming along, if you compare this photo with previous ones you'll notice some of the algae is actually much more intense in colour, aside from the near crash i had this week that i posted a few days ago. i got pretty paranoid cause i'm not sure if it was just me or my water was a little milky, and i saw 2 dead bodies of my hitchhiker crabs and 1 dead body of my pom pom crab when the tank turned milky. but it turns out it was just their molt! quite surprised cause when i took out their exoskeleton i even tore it apart to check if their meat was inside, and it looked very convincingly to be their real body.

Coralline Algae

there's some coralline algae that's growing on my skimmer and on my HOB filter. i'm quite surprised that its growing so fast, i've never seen coralline algae appear in 3 weeks in my tanks before. its usually the nuisance algae. i would attribute it to 2 things.

The crabs and shrimp are always nibbling at the algae on my live rock and causing bits and pieces of them to floating around the tank
i haven't fed the tank in 2 weeks! cause i've always seen them nibbling at the live rock i don't really see a need to supplement their diet. so the water quality's pretty good.

so that's all, all 5 shrimp and pom pom crab are alive and well. and i also managed to finally catch the pom pom crab from my other tank, and i've added him in as well, so thats 2 pom pom crabs! there's diatom growth in my protein skimmer though, but strangely its ONLY there, and the rest of my tank is pretty clean. I'll probably clean out the skimmer soon.

Thats all for this update. Thanks for reading!

samuel88 · March 13, 2011

Update 4 week 4

New corals

a few days ago i bought some mushroom corals, they were doing fine but the sexy shrimp started to nibble a bit on them and as you can see from the picture some of them aren't fully expanding. they only nibble on them occasionally so i'm hoping that they'll ignore the corals sooner or later.

Livestock

all my critter's are doing great, which consist of

5 sexy shrimp
2 pom pom crabs
2 hitchhiker crabs
1 new discovered pistol shrimp with green claw!

i couldnt take a picture of the pistol shrimp cause he's hiding all the time.

Overall

everything's going great, i just did a water change today, no casualties so far, i'm even seeing more growth, in terms of coralline algae and other colorful red algae. more feather duster worms are appearing all over the rocks. sand is pretty white all thanks to the shrimps and copepods. there's no nuisance algae really so i'm really glad. i had one pom pom crab who lost both anemones on his hands that i transfered to this tank that already had an existing pom pom crab. but i saw the existing one actually drop one of his pom poms for the other crab to pick up and then he split the anemone he had on one hand, so he now has two, and the crab that lost both now has one on his claw. and i've seen both crabs hanging around each other so i'm glad they're getting along.

i hope there won't be any mishaps and i'll have this tank for a long long time.

thanks for reading.

samuel88 · March 20, 2011

Update 5 week 5

Alright, today i just did a water change. No deaths so far which is good, the only thing is my sexy shrimps harassing my mushroom corals, and a lot of them aren't expanding like they should, but there's no real damage done. And.............. i had a surprise a few days ago!

Rare pictures?

Ok, maybe not, but a few days ago i found one of my pom pom crabs holding a sac of eggs on its body! Here's some pictures. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

samuel88 · April 3, 2011

Update 6 week 7

I've just done a water change today. and i've also added a new coral, a branching frogspawn i believe. I also have bad news, 2 of my 5 shrimps have died, not due to water quality i would assume since i'm sure i'm understocking. I saw my pom pom crab chew on the body of my sexy shrimp but i seriously doubt it was him who killed the shrimp. I think the prime suspect would be the pistol shrimp, cause i've seen a video of them killing a cleaner shrimp before and i have been hearing clicking noises from my tank a bit more often.

New branching frogspawn coral

Here's some pictures of my new coral which i intended for my sexy shrimp to host in, they do hang around it at times but they're not as 'sticky' to the coral as i thought they would be.

Livestock

so right now i'm down to 3 sexy shrimp, i hope that i won't have anymore deaths.

2 pom pom crabs, the pregnant one actually gave birth! i couldn't take a picture of the larvae cause they were too small but it was an amazing sight to see, hundreds of little babies swimming around. but the next day they were all gone, i'm not sure where they went, hopefully some of them survived.

and the pistol shrimp which i'm sure killed my sexies.

mushroom corals are doing alright, most of them still not looking too good except for the orange one i'm not sure if u can see from the big picture. I also have a montipora digitata frag in the tank but its a little hard to see.

Future plans

i'm going to try adding some light demanding corals since for my tank size i think the light's pretty decent. but that'll probably be in a few weeks.

If touch wood my sexies all die, i'll probably get a shrimp that can host in the frogspawn.

That's all and thanks for reading.