New 5.5 gallon Saltwater Set-Up

[GibsonNano]

Hey all!

I’m somewhat of an experienced reefer - I’ve had a 29 bowfront, a 55 gallon, and 125 gallon over the last 15 years. However, after selling off my office 55 in 2008, I never got back into the hobby with a new marriage, then kids. Now that my kids are growing and showing an interest in the fish hobby I thought why not start my first nano reef. It would be the perfect way to “ease” my way (honestly ease the wife into having a saltwater tank) back into things.

Hoping the cycle is very minimal given everything being ‘ready,’ - but we are in no hurry.

Equipment:


Tank:
Petco ran a sale on rimless tanks - I snagged a 5.5 gallon rimless Aquaeon for less than $15.

Sand:
Aragalive Fiji Pink sand from Amazon - $23 for 20 lbs.

Filter:
A Marine Land 150 Bio-Wheel HOB filter (actually made for a 30 gallon). I figured this extra flow could help avoid a power head.

Light:

hipargero Aquarium Light –3rd Generation A029 Aquarium LED Light 30 Watts Saltwater Light with Touch Control, 5W LED Chips for Coral Reef Nano Fish Tank Marine Tanks with Timer & Screen via Amazon.​

Heater:
50w digital underwater heater by YukiHalu via Amazon.

Ingredients:
Kickstarted the system with a 2-oz bottle of Dr Tim’s One & Only Nitrifying bacteria

Water:
Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water - 5 gallon via Petco. What a treat to just pour in ready made water vs mixing like the old days.

Rock:
Petco - about 3 lbs (3 fist size pieces)

 

[kfisc]

Very nice! Fun place for it, too; I haven't seen any on a kitchen counter before.

 

[griss]

Looks good. I’m tagging in to follow this.

 

[reefing102]

Looking really good

 

[GibsonNano]

Well as you can imagine, when buying live rock there will inevitably be a hitchhiker or two.

Two days after having the tank up and circulating our first friend from the rock popped out and made an appearance!

 

[reefing102]

Nice! And asterina star. Some deem them pests, others deem them beneficial. I deem them beneficial but that’s because I’ve never had anything bad happen with them

 

[griss]

Nice! And asterina star. Some deem them pests, others deem them beneficial. I deem them beneficial but that’s because I’ve never had anything bad happen with them

Yep, I leave them alone as well.

 

[Misled]

I agree. Don't be surprissed when you see them missing appendages. They grow back fairly quickly.

 

[GibsonNano]

All,

Ready to add some livestock and cleaners to this little tank.

Any recommendations?

 

[reefing102]

Cleaners depend on algae. But id probably get a couple blue leg hermit crabs for extra food control. Maybe one or two trochus snails for algae (just be aware the crabs may kill the snails for the shells).

As for fish 5.5 is pretty small for many fish. Maybe a firefish and clown goby?

 

[griss]

^nailed it

 

[GibsonNano]

Great advice thank you!!

 

[GibsonNano]

Tank updates:

From our local PetCo store - over the last months we’ve added a Purple Dottyback! Plus an emerald crab and turbo snail. I thought we’d lost both the crab and snail — but long and behold after checking the dark tank after midnight both were zipping around the tank foraging and exploring!

Recent test results looking good. Hoping to slowly raise the salinity to 1.024 over the coming weeks.

This is a real testament to going slow, building up the beneficial bacteria, and not over feeding.

salinity	1.022
temperature	78F
pH	8.0
Ammonia	0 ppm
Nitrite	0 ppm
Nitrate	0 ppm

 

[reefing102]

Looking good! Here in the next couple weeks you will likely start seeing some algae growth

 

[SnookNGoby16]

Never used the bio wheel in a salt water tank but they have been AWESOME for all my freshwater tanks. Good to know. Let us know how that works out. My concern would be the salt vs the wheel turning over time.

 

[GibsonNano]

Great comment SnookNGoby16 - the BioWheel filter is significantly oversized for the little tank size (part of my strategy - because like you, I did not have any history of using these in a saltwater environment so I felt the more media available to ‘grow’ beneficial bacteria and pull out physical material the better).

Next, I need to explore an economical skimmer.

Lastly, not sure I’ve introduced the two new tank mates, a pair of snowflake clowns. They seem to love the rock work. They are fantastic eaters and always active from dawn until dusk!

 

[JohnL]

The tank is coming along nicely.

 

[GibsonNano]

A little bit of green hair algae lately. The blue dwarf crabs cannot consume fast enough.

 

[GibsonNano]

Trying a couple new things with the tank going forward:

1.) Surface Skimmer - because the tank is so small there isn’t an implemented overflow built in nor is there a sump to utilize an overflow box (a God send on my 125 years ago). I found on Amazon a cheap surface “skimmer” of sorts. For $17 why not?

2.) Chemical Filtration - using the Bio-Wheel filter has worked out fine so far. However, there’s only a ‘floss’ type pad media in the HOB filter aside from the wheel itself. I’m going to try and combat these algae blooms with some additional filtration. Trying out the Fluval ClearMax bags to drop in the filter. For $6.65 or $2.22 a bag or so, why not right?

 

[reefing102]

That surface skimmer should work I would think. I just would remove that airline they have attached to the output otherwise you will likely end up with a bunch of micro bubbles in the tank

As for the HOB, as long as the media fits, you should be fine. One of the biggest issues per se is making sure the water is running through it and it’s not just sitting in the bottom (I hope that made sense)

Back in the day, people would make custom fuges out of Aquaclear 110 filters so I would imagine what you’re doing should work.