The Puffer Forum

I have no clue. I just got it with a 55g sw tank that we got of craigslist. I think some of it is sea lettuce. im going to pull it out and condense it.

Man I just setup a Marineland 5.5 gallon corner tank, but your tank looks so nice and clean and my plastic looks a bit filmy on the inside. I got some great live rock from a disease free (best LFS with saltwater fish, I've seen so far) tank and the guy gave me a bunch of rock rubble for my filter and the tank cycled in less than 2 weeks, everything was settled and I had no more ammonia spikes in the tank. I had to work to keep the ammonia down fast because the live rock had a scarlet hermit crab stow away from the LFS in it that none of us noticed until I got home. Just put in a fire fish in there my GF picked out and it's beautiful. Anyone got any tips to make the plastic gleam more on the inside

Pics:

Funny you brought this post back up. I was about to do the same. Looking good by the way. Ok, so one week into my 5.5's cycle I decided I wasnt happy. I desire a couple of small fish so bigger is better right? Not much bigger mind you but bigger nonetheless. I switched to a 10g Aqueon, pico evolution pump and an Aquael pre filtered pump. New Perfecta strip with a power-glo 18,000k bulb and another six pounds of live rock. Looking good thus far a week into the change over. Though I would like to go bigger, this will have to do for now.

HAHA! Jose you have Patrick's house in there right under that round rock. Check out the Brackish thread for my updated Figure 8 tank and you'll see I have sponge bob's house . My brothers have a black body, yellow sprayed crown tail betta I got them with Squidword and Spongebob's house in there. You know something you and I think a like, I was thinking of going up to 10 too

Lol. Thats actually an old piece of brain coral someone brought to the house when I was a kid from their vacation. I love that thing.

Tanks are looking good. I have to trim my plants back, they are going crazy... im thinking about moving my tank... im not looking forward to that though.

is this something a SW virgin could do?

im a saltwater virgin. lol I figured if i could keep this nano alive, i can keep a big one alive. If you have the tank and filter set up already, its really cheap.

My expenses:

10lb live rock --$20
6in compact florecent --$30
salt-- $15
everything alive in it $40

so ive spent about $100 on my setup.

So many temptations, damn this hobby

xrayjeeper83 wrote:is this something a SW virgin could do?

This is my first salt tank as well. Everyone says its a lot more difficult than a larger salt tank because you have to keep up on water parameters more. Most everyone I have spoke to that has one says its quite simple. One of the biggest issues is keeping up on adding water from evaporation. Having a tight fitting canopy helps this a ton. Your salt levels can go nuts in such a small tank if you dont keep it topped off. You dont need a lot of equipment either. At least a pound per gallon of live rock is an efficient filter. You just need to get a pump or two for surface aggitation so you get good oxygen exchange. A true filter really isnt even needed. I have one pump with a pre filter to polish the water a bit. Check out this site http://www.nano-reef.com/ Lots of useful info there. I would go into more but I would just be repeating what can be read at this site. Good luck. You're gonna have a nano in no time after that read. Lol.

I have a friend whos done sw tanks for years. he gave me the idea for a nano, then i stumbled apon nano-reef.com. that really sparked my interest.

Evap does happen quite often. None of my animals really care though about the salinity. I before i got a hydrometer, my salinity was 1.003. i fixed it asap and now i keep it at 1.0024

how much salt did you put in your tank?

well... I filled it, then i changed filters, then i added more water to fill the filter, while topping it off for evap... it was bad.

xrayjeeper83 wrote:is this something a SW virgin could do?

That Marineland is my SW virgin tank as well, and as the OP said if I can keep this alive I Can keep a big one alive easy. I don't have an extra pump in my marine land though; maybe I should use my extra Aquaclear 30 with hose and an airstone, comments?

so just a normal size filter some live sand and rock and let it go for a while?