OK so if your still reading....

I have an el cheapo 5 gallon tank i bought from walmart a while back, surprisingly has a decent aquatech filter and i bought a marine land 10 gallon h20 heater for it. The lights are incadescent (a joke i know).

Is there anything i can do with SW with this tank? I desperatley want to do a 50 gallon + SW tank but would like to do something small if i can w/it prior. Even a single clownfish would be cool to me, i love SW fish. Can someone reccomoned some reasonably priced gear to get started if possible? If i'm crazy and i should go big or go home tell me.

__________________
75 Gallon Freshwater
29 Gallon Freshwater
20 Gallon Freshwater

the minimum size tank I would even consider using for a nano salt water system is a 10 gallon. lots of people have actually converted their walmart bough 10 gallons into decent nano reef setups and kept clowns and firefish in them

but my advise would be to wait and go bigger if you can, if it's going to be your first salt water setup. larger tanks are MUCH more easy to take care of contrary to what you might believe. the salinity level in a 10 gallon is going to be all over the place unless you religiously check it every day and stay on top of that, and many people do not expect all the work that's involved in keeping a nano salt water system healthy. in a larger tank, the chemical swings will be significantly lower and less severe, therefor the tank would be much easier to maintain.

on top of that, you're VERY limited in what you can put in a nano salt water setup. going bigger, although being a little more expensive up front, will give you TONS more options of what you can do in the tank as far as fish and corals

__________________


My 30 gallon planted freshwater - CONSTANTLY CHANGING

if you absolutely had to do sw i think a astrea snail or a peppermint shrimp would work but you would have to be ontop of water paremeters like crazy..so opposite thinking smaller the tank more chance it goes bad.

alright my thoughts are confirmed, thanks for the input.. I think i'll put some freshwater livebearers in there and see if i can get some to breed for my 37 gallon freshwater tank instead.

__________________
75 Gallon Freshwater
29 Gallon Freshwater
20 Gallon Freshwater

If you havent completly done away with your salt water hopes hit me up. 5 gallons is not a FW only tank. there are plenty of 5g SW setups and even smaller all the way down to .5g so if I can be of any help just let me know

thanks i actually used it as a fw tank. i have 1 glofish currently in it. I set it up 3 weeks ago and started it w/2 glofish, and some decorations and media from my established 37gallon tank. water parameters still look good but one of them died a week ago. I have some glofish in my 37 gallon i intend to migrate to it once it's more cycled. Against some advice i put it in my bathroom and have had to be very careful when cleaning the bathroom. It seems to maintain a better temperature in there so the heater kicks in less too.

I am going to do a SW eventually though, but i'm thinking more like 50-100 gallons, i really decided i want a lionfish.

__________________
75 Gallon Freshwater
29 Gallon Freshwater
20 Gallon Freshwater