Starting a mini Reef tank

[Teddy]

I have this little tank laying around my house that I used to use for when I changed the water in my tank, but I don't really need it for that, so I wanted to do something with it. I was thinking a mini reef with one live rock, one little anemone of some sort or something, and two Percula clowns... What do you think? Is it do-able, or should I do something else? I'm not entirely sure of it's size... It might be a 5 gallon.

Please dont mid the hazardous halogen light hanging over the open-top tank full of water... I just needed to light it up so you could see.

[Loman]

Teddy,
I am sure Aaron will offer an opinion based on a good deal more experience than I have. Also I hate to discourage people but a tank around 5 gallons, without a decent lid or lighting seems like a HUGE challenge for a small reef, We all are challenged by the relative small size of aquariums to that of the wild where the natural cycle cleans up after itself. IMO the smaller the tank the more one must intervene in the system to try and keep the environment on track. With something around 5 gallons a small problem can make a big change in a short time in the whole system. I have not yet pursued an anemone because the advice I have received is they require very stable and good water conditions. Many things I read think a salt tank should be a year old to consider an anemone. IME and IMO this is likely to not work out well. Personally I would consider other uses. It would make a nice hospital/QT tank. You could also look at maybe a Beta tank (I have been talking a lot about these recently) or a goldfish tank. If you really want a saltwater system then I would ask the opinion of a few more people and probably look at something really simple like a piece of live rock and some hermit crabs and snails. Some of these type livestock can be very interesting.

[mmh123]

I don't really know anything about saltwater, but you might be in luck because from the bigger picture it kind of looks like a ten gallon

[CrypticAnimal]

Yes,its do-able...But if I were you I would buy a larger tank for exactly the reson the dude above said.....Ive hade a 1 gallon reef actaully didnt last long becase of evaperation its very easy to screw your salinity(measuremet of salt density) when your dealing with smaller or nano tanks...To make things short it easyer when starting out with say a 55 gallon....

[ahill3780]

You've gotten some good advice here already.

You could keep a mini-reef in this system if you do it right. 'Right' is the trick part of it though, and often it falls to experience. These tank are generally dubbed Pico Tanks, though I think 5g falls under the Nano catagory. Experienced care is generally recommended for these setups.

As CrypticAnimal points out when the water evaporates out of the tank it is going to raise the salinity of the water - salt does not evaporate. Most reef organisms are highly sensitive to changes in salinity and would quickly perish under the constant shift.

Heating also becomes a challenge in small tanks. When the lights go out the ambient room temperature will quickly chill the tank. Again, most reef inhabitants do not fare too well to rapid changes in temperature.

You could try setting up a 10 Gallon refugium and plumbing the 5g to that. It would be a challenge, but it would work very well I think.

Don't keep 2 clowns in it. 1 may do fine, though I think he would do much better in a 10g or larger, but two is pushing the limits of water quality if nothing else. A 5g would get dirty quick.

If you are going to do a mini-reef then keep it small: no fish, only a few small corals (mushrooms, polyp colonies, etc), and no anemones or clams.

Some people keep Mantis Shrimp in small tanks. These are predatory reef shrimps and are not welcome in any hobbiest's reef tanks. They are considered pests, but they are remarkably interesting and beautiful creatures. They are very smart and will identify individual people and interact differently with different people.

They eat hermit crabs and snails and you will have to supply them if you want to keep one of these guys. Be careful though, they are dangerous. They can take off a finger if you aren't careful, and they have been known to break the walls of glass and acrylic tanks. I know of a few people that keep them as pets though and they love them.

HTH,
Aaron