noob starting a 5 gal nano

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jagerhunchback

New Member
hey there, i'm new to the forum and am planning on setting up a new tank in a month or so. it's a 5 gal tank set up the specs can be seen here http://www.fishtanksdirect.com/index.as ... ProdID=819

as for fish i would like to have a pair of percula clowns roughly 1.5" to 2" long and possibly a small shrimp. the tank comes with live sand and i have purchased an artificial sea anemone. was wondering if there is a sticky on the basics of setting up a small tank vs a large tank. in addition the tank will be set up on the island of oahu, hawaii i was planning on using saltwater from the ocean vs. mixing. any and all tips would be much appreciated!!!
 

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nemo-nano

New Member
Good luck with your tank, I hope to be setting up mine soon aswell.

That artificial anemone looks great, I've not seen any like that
over here.

:)
 
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bmr33775

New Member
Hey Jager, I am fairly new to this site as well. I have about a 3 or 4 week old tank that seems to be doing very well. you have come to the right site for information, there is a vast amount of knowledge here. so I went to your link that you had posted, I saw how much you are paying for that beautiful tank and felt obligated to tell you, you can start a small tank that size for much cheaper. my 2.5 gallon only costed me altogether about $150-$170. that is only because it was all ready put together at the store. I have even seen people on here build their own tanks for even cheaper. as for the ocean water, I was wondering the same thing, but due to me being stationed in Va, I would never use this brown water out here... LOL... well good luck to you, be sure to post a lot of oictures, I am eager to see how it turns out. and don't be afraid to ask a lot of Questions, they are always willing to help.
 
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Boo

New Member
In regards to using saltwater from the ocean. Out here in California I would never dream of using ocean water directly. Not sure what Hawaii would be like.

First off there are far to many polutents in the water close to shore so at the very least you would need to get the water a ways out to sea.

Secondly there are lots of "living critters" microscopic and otherwise in ocean water, do you really know what you are introducing into your take?

Lastly these living critters in the sea water tend to die off fairly rapidly. In such a small tank that can cause some pretty fast water quality concerns.
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
For using natural sea water I will hope Geoff will chime in as he (and seemingly a LOT of Australian reefers) using natural sea water. There is a trick to the collection if I am not mistaken. For a 5 gallon tank I don't think two fish, let alone clowns, would do well (those are small clowns, but they will grow). For those smaller tanks a single goby style fish tend to do better. There are clown gobies that are quite nice looking! Sexy shrimp do well in smaller tanks and can be kept in groups for more entertaining group movement.

:welcome to Nanotank.com!
 
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jagerhunchback

New Member
i know it was expensive, but the novelty of a tiki tank won the day, plus i'm in iraq right now, so internet is pretty much my only option. as far as procuring ocean water, the island is surrounded by reefs and i'm sure you all know how clean the water is offshore, i'm also a pretty avid big game fisherman (more like obsessed) so getting water for 20 or 30 miles out is not an issue. in april i get back to oahu and will set up the tank and allow it to cycle, and my wife will be running with it from there. this a great site, im definitely learning alot from here.
 
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funkngroovy

New Member
Welcome to the forum.

Yeah as Tim says, here in Australia we would use natural salt water (NSW) primarily.

I would never buy salt when I am surrounded by the real deal. It's safe here and having been to hawaii, I would have to presume it is safe over there. Especially considering the reefs are at your doorstep.

That tank looks realy cool, however I would have some concerns about the dimensions.
The most effective way water can become oxygenated is through the exchange of gasses at the surface through agitation. It is therefore better to have a tank that has more surface area that is in contact with the air, and that is why the traditional shape of tanks are rectangular. You can overcome this by using filters that trickle or skim the surface.

The other thing to consider will be the light penetration in a tank that deep. The standard lighting will not be very effective at reaching the bottom and you may have trouble growing corals that are not near the top of the tank.

That said, there are some great artifical decorations available that you could decorate your whole tank with and take out and clean when you need to. I have not seen an artificial anemone that looks as good as your one there.

Hope you can get out of iraq soon and get stuck into this tank build. keep us updated.
 
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jagerhunchback

New Member
funkngroovy said:
Welcome to the forum.

Yeah as Tim says, here in Australia we would use natural salt water (NSW) primarily.

I would never buy salt when I am surrounded by the real deal. It's safe here and having been to hawaii, I would have to presume it is safe over there. Especially considering the reefs are at your doorstep.

That tank looks realy cool, however I would have some concerns about the dimensions.
The most effective way water can become oxygenated is through the exchange of gasses at the surface through agitation. It is therefore better to have a tank that has more surface area that is in contact with the air, and that is why the traditional shape of tanks are rectangular. You can overcome this by using filters that trickle or skim the surface.

The other thing to consider will be the light penetration in a tank that deep. The standard lighting will not be very effective at reaching the bottom and you may have trouble growing corals that are not near the top of the tank.

That said, there are some great artifical decorations available that you could decorate your whole tank with and take out and clean when you need to. I have not seen an artificial anemone that looks as good as your one there.

Hope you can get out of iraq soon and get stuck into this tank build. keep us updated.
Click to expand...
sorry, one thing i forgot to mention is that there will be no live corals in this tank at all. the state of hawaii will not allow the importation of live rock or reef invertebrates for fear of them being released in to the local water and taking over our reefs and ecosystems here. the tank that i bought has the shown reefy background made out of fake corals. i believe most people here use local live rock. i have quite a bit of leftover aquarium stuff from other aquariums i have had i think i have 4 or 5 air pumps and 3 powerheads etc. thanks again for the heads up on the use of lsw. do you store lsw for your future water changes and if so which is better an opaque container or something that is clear?
 
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funkngroovy

New Member
oh, fake corals. That changes things.

You can definatley keep NSW for up to a year. You will need to store it is a dark container out of direct sunlight to prevent algal blooms and die offs.

To be honest I am not really sure about how to keep fish with mechanical filtration.

I only use biological filtration, ie Live Rock, DSB, macro algae.

I have seen some youtube clips showing the use of lots of filter pads ect but I think you need to do more cleaning of the tank and filters.

You may want to consider a really small protein skimmer, that would help out.

I'm sure you can keep your fish healthy using the tank's filtration, you may just have to keep the maintenance up.

When are you getting back to kick it off?
 
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bmr33775

New Member
hey again Jager, not sure what branch your in, but get home safe bro. I, being in the Navy understand how you must be feeling this close to getting home. Good luck Bro.
 
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jagerhunchback

New Member
yeah i know i know fake corals!!!! the hawaii state gov't does'nt dig the live stuff.
i get back on island in april to start the tank off. the filter that comes with it supposedly has chem, bio, and mech filtration but no clue how effective it is.i guess well see!!!
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
A bio wheel can help with a fish only tank. Just some media will work. Or you can make you own hang on back trickle filter of sorts. Please post some pictures when you unpack it.
 
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jagerhunchback

New Member
will do, i'm already scouring the internet looking for another aquarium for the house. im thinking fowlr in the 30-55 gal range. im kinda partial to the pentagon tanks, but well see, i have 8 months to plan out the house tank so no rush
 
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jagerhunchback

New Member
looks like the tiki tank is a no go, the company wanted 175 bucks to ship it to hawaii. i guess i'll be looking for a different set up once i get to the island.
 
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funkngroovy

New Member
Doh!

Great opportunity to get into a plain glass tank with sump!

You can create a very stable sytem using a sump.

At least you get to go fish tank shopping again, The only type of shopping that is FUN :lol:
 
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