I've decided to turn the 5 gallon I won from the club last Fall into a reef. I had been using it as a beta tank, but freshwater is not as awesome as saltwater. This tank sits on my night stand in my bedroom. I want this tank to be colorful. Kind of like a blacklight poster or something, if that makes sense. Like tanks that have a wall of pink coraline algae can give that vibe off to me. As far as inhabitants, I'm not sure. I've read you can keep some of the smaller gobies in a tank this size, but I don't trust myself to not overseer it. Maybe some shrimp and snails would be cool. As far as corals, I was thinking maybe a zoa garden on the rocks, and a ricordea garden towards the bottom. But I've also seen tanks of this size with war corals and frogspawn. So what would y'all think would be cool for this tank? I just want something cool to watch while I listen to music in bed at night.
A cleaner shrimp might be cool. A snail or two. I really like my astraea snails. They are active and do a good job on algae! Some yumas might be cool ... sometimes mine expand so much and sort of flow in the water for a little movement. I would be leery putting much with them though as they are pretty aggressive and do get quite large. Not sure on ricordea floridas though. I only have yumas. You might could do a Duncan if you want some good movement. A toadstool might be cool. They have long polyps that move in the current. Blastos might be cool. They form a nice ball and can be easily fragged if it starts getting too big. A zoa garden might be pretty cool too though! Just get a bunch of different ones and let them take over. Just looking around my tank and thinking what might be cool in a tiny reef setup.
Don't yumas get large? I was thinking the ricordea stay smaller. I need to get some corals that aren't too aggressive and can live in a community. I think Duncan's would be alright for that. A leather may be alright if it's the only one in the tank. I think the zoa garden would give me the most color though and look really good under the blue light at night.
Don't leathers get huge? One of the purple polyped Duncans would look cool! How about a colorful rock flower anemone on the substrate?
Yeah, ricordea yumas can get big. I have one up for grabs that is over 3" across. It's the size of the bottom of one of our coral bowls. They are aggressive though. Oh! What about trumpets? They stick to themselves and branch. They also come in a few different colors. A plate coral or RFA would be cool too. Or even just an RFA garden!
Still waiting on my night light to cycle. The nitrites are slowly decreasing. I purchased more zoas this past week from TL Reefs, and I can't wait to get it going.
I think this tank is cycled. The nitrites look to be 0 now. (After stalling for a while) So I was thinking about doing a water change and maybe adding some small crabs and a snail or two. I also have some zoas ready to go. I've got one that I've got multiples of, so I might add that one first and see how it does.
Ok, I think it is cycled now. I waited a couple of more weeks just in case. I added this little guy tonight. I don't think I'll keep him in here. I just figured until I decide what I want in this tank, he would keep it going and maybe spread some coraline around too.
Oh I love the bright pink coraline like that too! I have some purplenin my 85 and it’s just so dull looking to me. I wish I could get some of the bright pink from the 29 in the 85! It glows under the blues nicely too!
Or it was a random shell thrown into the tank for them. I have lots of extra shells in my tank so they hopefully stay away from my snails!
I forget what kind of crab this is, but I had the same kind one time that was the size of my hand. I think I have a photo of it at the start of my 93 gallon thread. But they are killers.
