dwarf keepers!

[bkmorris]

hi everyone... i have a 30g reef and a 55g FO, and i want to start a dwarf tank. i know they are very tiny and somewhere around 5g seems to be the common tank size advice.. but how in the heck do you keep such a small tank stable? i would love to hear from some of you that keep h. zosterae about substrate, filtration, lighting, macro algae choices, etc. i am looking forward to keeping these amazing little creatures. thanks!!

 

[reefD]

the best way to keep a tank stable that size is use water from another established tank for water changes weekly. this makes the water in the little tank at the same chemistry as your larger display tank. doing this weeekly keeps it at constant equilibrium.

 

[Wink]

I have a 5 gal hex and a 10 gal for my dwarves (about 80 of them at the moment). The only water quality problem I've ever had is when I unknowingly put dwarves in the hex before it was fully cycled. Once fully cycled, I just haven't had a problem with water quality - algae problems, yes.. red slime and hair algae which are hard to control with the low flow. I will admit to being fairly lax on maintenance but do a 25-50% water change with new water every couple of weeks.
My tanks are set up with live sand, live rock, and caulerpa serralata (razor caulerpa) - all pretreated with Panacure to avoid hydroids. The hex has the standard light and filter with bio-wheel in the hood (cleaned every 2 weeks). The 10 has a small Whisper HOB filter (again cleaned every 2 weeks). Both filter intakes have sponge covers (we use small foam paint roller covers with the plastic centers removed) and the covers are cleaned every 3-4 days.
Good Luck!