Fake Marine Tank??

The best looking tank is the one you want to look at - a "cheesy" tank can be fun too! What the heck...you can always change it if you want to!

I think its a fine idea. You can have reef looking decorations and a fresh water tank. It really doesn't matter what it looks like. Fish don't care either as long as they have a place to hide. What about rams? They are colorful. If you don't really care what kind of fish though, it doesn't matter. It would still look like an ocean tank. Most poeple you have over probably wouldn't even know the difference anyway.

Make sure the sand you use is safe for freshwater setups. using marine salt can mess with your water hardness and/or ph.

As the others said, it's what you want!!! Kitsch, camp, faux reef or ocean, who cares as long as you like it. And if mama happy, everybody happy!!!!

If you're willing to commit to the slight hassle of mixing saltwater, a fish-only marine tank is not much harder to do than a freshwater tank. All you need is a little extra filtration. That'a is. A pair of clownfish in there would look awesome. You don't need a skimmer, or liverock (although I highly recomment getting a little). All you need is crushed coral/agagonite, and lace rock.

Well, I believe the pool filter sand would add silicates and cause brown algea blooms, but aragonite and crushed coral are not that expensive and all you want is enough to cover the glass. I think a 15lb bag is around $15-20.

You would want to double whatever filtration you were planning on doing for the feshwater setup. Say 20 times the tank volume in an hour. You could use multiple HOBs or an HOB and a powerhead with a sponge prefilter fitted on it.

Fish could care less how much light is on the tank. Since you would be using tap water (contains phosphates that cause algea very easily in marine systems) you would probably only want the light on a few hours a night (when your most likely to be viewing it).

If algae does become a problem, some sort of phosphate removing media could be used (not too expensive). A product called Polyfilter removes phosphates and organic compounds that tend to "yellow" the water over time. Replacing about 4$ worth monthly should be fine.

Your tank is the perfect size. Weekly 25% WCs just require you to mix up a dedicated 5g bucket of saltwater a few days in advance of the WC.

Get everything set up. Add a pound or two of fully cured liverock to kickstart the cycle, and throw in a damsel fish, and some snails/hermit crabs for a few weeks. Swap it out for a pair of Ocellaris clowns. Add a goby of some sort down the line. Possibilities are endless.