saltwater rookie seeking advice

[mattbryant2]

hi,
i am seeking some advice. let me first give you some background info.
i love fish. a few months ago i purchased my first fish tank, a 10 gallon freshwater tank. i have a few gouramis in there and keeping them has been a delight.
a few weeks ago, while on a mission trip in the philippines, i got the opportunity to snorkel. the saltwater fish were amazing, so i started looking into getting a saltwater tank.
i plan on buying a few books and doing a lot of learning before i attempt a real reef tank. although i really, really want to, i don't think i'll have the opportunity to give one a try for a few years.
i am leaving for college in less than a month and will have to come home for winter break, spring break, and for the summer, so whatever it is that i am responsible for will have to come with me, and i'm assuming that moving a reef tank of any size will be next to impossible. i'm a little scared to move my 10 gallon, as it is.
so anything of any size is probably out of the question for the immediate future. but, i stumbled upon this forum and i saw tanks as small as 3/4s of a gallon! that is insane.
so i was thinking, it would probably not be too difficult to move something of that size without disturbing it too much. or am i wrong?
i am just curious if it would be advisable for someone who has no experience with saltwater to give something that small a try. it seems small and simple and a little bit easier, but i could be totally misconceived.
and, if it is possible, is there anyone that would be willing to give me detailed advice to help me along with the process?
thank you so much! any responses are appreciated. thank you if you actually read this. you people are wonderful.
-matt
p.s. i've read that this will only work if you take your sand, rock, and water from an already established system. i was thinking i could get that from my lfs. maybe i am wrong there, too. i don't know. the reason i ask is so that i don't rush out and do something irresponsible. thanks again.

 

[daniel411]

Originally posted by mattbryant2
.....a few weeks ago, while on a mission trip in the philippines, i got the opportunity to snorkel. the saltwater fish were amazing, so i started looking into getting a saltwater tank.
i plan on buying a few books and doing a lot of learning before i attempt a real reef tank. although i really, really want to, i don't think i'll have the opportunity to give one a try for a few years.
so anything of any size is probably out of the question for the immediate future. but, i stumbled upon this forum and i saw tanks as small as 3/4s of a gallon! that is insane.
so i was thinking, it would probably not be too difficult to move something of that size without disturbing it too much. or am i wrong?
i am just curious if it would be advisable for someone who has no experience with saltwater to give something that small a try. it seems small and simple and a little bit easier, but i could be totally misconceived.
and, if it is possible, is there anyone that would be willing to give me detailed advice to help me along with the process?
Must have been an amazing trip! Its good to hear you're planning on picking up a few books and learning all you can. This board is great at providing a few views to questions.
As for starting out with a reef style nano. The smaller a sw tank the more difficult and unforgiving a margin of error you have. Starting out with corals is also asking for trouble. In general most people on this site are recommending a 50-55 gallon tank and to start with just fish and live rock.
As for giving detailed advice. Almost everyone here will be happy to help you with specific problems/questions. There is no "right" way to go about sw. Many ways work for different people, some things may work for someone, but not the next person. We're all learning

 

[mattbryant2]

thanks for the response. i'm going to the book store in a few minutes. but i guess my biggest question right now is over the issue of moveability. i would really like to start a small tank (maybe 2.5 gallons?) and i was wondering if it would be completely unreasonable to try to move something like that maybe 5-6 times a year. any advice? thanks.

 

[daniel411]

Good Luck! Honestly I don't have any experience with moving a tank, especially one that small, so often. All I can say is you're really have to watch your evaporation. Have practically no bio-load, maybe 1 fish and a couple snails or hermit crabs. And be prepared to do some good water changes after each move.

 

[overanalyzer]

welcome .... you might want to look into a non-fish nano ... put I'd recommend reading some books first - like Conscientious Marine Aquarist and the Sprung and Delbeck book.
As for moving - - how far and how often .... a 10 gallon FW tank should be used as your trial .... see if you can handle that with moving and such before attempting a SW @ college. Also - I'd check out the SWF stores around your college and then take a look @ your expenses. If yo ucould afford it a 10 Gallon with a damsel or two might not be a bad fit for the college lifestyle.
I did some SWF while @ college - but one roommate killed the entire tank and I made some bad decisions and left the tank with an auto feeder - and hte power went out and hte auto feeder kicked over twice and emptied its entire payload in a two week time frame ..... needless to say everythign died .... of course I did not know as much then as I do now ....

 

[mattbryant2]

i have moved the 10 gallon tank twice now and it is kind of challenging and very stressful on the tank. that is why i would like to go with something smaller. i was thinking 2.5 gallon. that seems like it would be a lot easier to move? maybe i'm wrong. i wouldn't even mind going maybe for a 1 gallon and just have some hermit crabs in there or something.
if there is anyone with some experience with this small of tank who would like to give me some mentorship please let me know. thanks.

 

[overanalyzer]

check out some of hte other threads on this section fo the board on the really small tanks - you can get a nice one cheap and put a small hunk of LR and a hermit or two plus a snail in there and then moving it would be easier and the live stock would nto be likely to jump out of the tank.

 

[maxweljames]

In reference to starting our with such a small tank, I'd say it comes down to the type of person you are. If you are willing to take the challenge of a small SW tank go for it. Here's the differences in big and small from a very basic point of view. Big is more forgiving in water quality, small tanks have less occupants to take care of. Here's my daily routine for my 55 gallon, feed fish, look at pretty fish eating. That's it unless I'm doing a water change, which is only every 3 weeks. My day with my 5 gallon, check salt level, water level, check temps, inspect filter pad, feed fish, go back about 12 hours later and do it again. A lot more work for the small tank, but I love it. I also and obsessive compulsive about it. I keep both tanks within a close set of limits so I can switch fish back and forth if need be due to maintenance, illness, etc. am I talking to long

 

[mattbryant2]

what would the maintenance be if i didn't have any fish, just some crabs, snails, maybe a brittle star?

 

[tigs]

If you didnt have any fish your maintenance would be low. Fish are the main producers of waste in a tank.

 

[mattbryant2]

okay, after doing quite a bit of research, i think that i would like to try a 2.5 gallon reef tank. i'm not planning on having any fish. i would like to have a few different corals and some inverts. i am looking for advice/suggestions for:
equipment - how much lighting will i need? how strong of a filter will i need? will i need a heater? will i need any other equipment?
corals - what are a few good beginner corals? will these corals need to be fed?
inverts - what could a tank of this size sustain healthily (is that a word?)? would a brittle star require a larger tank?
i'm not ready to set this up yet, i'm still learning and doing research, but i'm trying to get a good idea of what i can do before i dive into this. so far i've read that the first thing to do is get an idea of what you're going to do. so, please help me out if you can.
thanks a lot. you guys rock.

 

[mattbryant2]

anyone? i'm really curious here.

 

[aggie05]

I can answer your question about moving a tank. I am in college and have now moved my 10 gallon twice, and my 2.5 gallon once. It is a total PITA and wasn't much easier with the 2.5. My 10 was a pain simply due to the fact that I had 15 pounds of live rock and 10 gallons of water to move. I would bag the fish, put the rock in a container and then put all the water in buckets. Then have to get home and set it up before unloading anything else. The 2.5 is easier because it is smaller, but it got a lot more stressed. Before I moved it the tank was doing absolutely amazing. NOt a problem one with it. BUt after getting it home this summer it was in bad shape for about 2 months, and has never come back to its original shape. I lost 4 ricordea mushrooms because of the move, although my brain pulled through like a champ. I have just moved the 2.5 again and it seems to be doing a little better this time, although the last ric I have hasn't opened in a week.
To give you an idea of how much of an ordeal it is to move a tank, this time, instead of moving both my 10 (which only housed two firefish) and my 2.5, I decided to trash the ten and keep the fish in my 2.5 for the month that it will take my 20L to cycle. So I am putting my 2.5 at quite a risk in order to avoid moving the ten again. I have also planned on not coming home for the winter break, but instead simply making trips home for christmas and new years so that I can moniter the tanks up here. And I wont be moving back home next summer. And this is all due to having tanks without many pieces of coral. If I had to take down an established reef I don't know what I would do.
SO I guess what I am saying is that moving a tank, especially a reef tank is a lot more difficult and stressful on the tank than most think. You are welcome to try it, I'm not saying you will experience the same things. This is simply how I feel about it having done it more than once.

 

[aggie05]

Originally posted by mattbryant2
okay, after doing quite a bit of research, i think that i would like to try a 2.5 gallon reef tank. i'm not planning on having any fish. i would like to have a few different corals and some inverts. i am looking for advice/suggestions for:
equipment - how much lighting will i need? how strong of a filter will i need? will i need a heater? will i need any other equipment?
corals - what are a few good beginner corals? will these corals need to be fed?
inverts - what could a tank of this size sustain healthily (is that a word?)? would a brittle star require a larger tank?
i'm not ready to set this up yet, i'm still learning and doing research, but i'm trying to get a good idea of what i can do before i dive into this. so far i've read that the first thing to do is get an idea of what you're going to do. so, please help me out if you can.
thanks a lot. you guys rock.
email me and I can give you a description of my 2.5 which I set up for around 60 bucks worth of equipment.
rusty14_83@yahoo.com

 

[mattbryant2]

question:
would a coralife mini compact flourescent 50/50 10 watt bulb be enough light for a 2.5 gallon reef tank?
thanks.

 

[cprdnick]

All I have to say is get every detail down before you even think about moving any size tank. Fresh or Salt. My tank is a second hand, and when we moved it from where I bought it to here, my fish died the next day. Of course, we're morons, but that's beside the point. Listen to what these guys say, on any of these forums, their opinions and experience have saved my butt many times in just this past week.

 

[aggie05]

Originally posted by mattbryant2
question:
would a coralife mini compact flourescent 50/50 10 watt bulb be enough light for a 2.5 gallon reef tank?
thanks.
I would say no. I had just a 13 watt 50/50 over mine and it was ok, but I then added the other 13 watt and it is a lot better now. I would say get at least one 13 watt unless all you want is shrooms.