5.5 Gallon marine tank

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Ezzy1986

Registered Member
Oct 9, 2005
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Hi everyone, I'm brand new here....
I have had freshwater fish for short time and decided to venture into saltwater as a challenge, and also because i LOVE clownfish (doesn't everyone since Nemo?)

I went to my local aquarium store (fish only, no other pets) and advised them I wanted to keep a pair of clownfish and what size tank do they recommend...

They said that a 5.5 gallon (22 litres - Australia) would be fine and that's what i purchased. I filtered the tank, added 3 kgs of live rock and when the water tested ok added a small coral, a small yellow goby and two juvenile clowns....

Everyone seems happy (except for the apparently normal brown algae outbreak due to the silica seals on a brand new tank) but I have been reading lately that this is too small for these fish...

Will they be ok?
 
5 gallons is really small, from what I have read you shouldn't even have saltwater fish in anything less than a 10 gallon. Also, in this small of a tank you might have been able to get away with 1 small fish, MAYBE. But 3??? It seems like your bioload is way too high.
Did you cycle your tank first?

I am new to this hobby now too! well I guess it's been almost a year now. I think that the most important thing you can do is research before you buy, this way you can avoid making the worst and most costly mistakes. The second thing I have learned is Don't believe everything your local fish store tells you. This mistake alone has cost me over $400 dollars in wrong or inadequate equipment.
The 5 gallon would maybe be good for a quarentine tank ( also an excellent idea, read up on these and the benifits).
One site that helped me so much in addition to this site is www.wetwebmedia.com They have everything you could ever want to know about fish, and they are not paid to endorse certain products.
I wish you the best of luck in the future, and enjoy your new hobby! PS tanks are addicting, we already have plans for two more~ Let me know if I can be of any more help! ;)
 
I work at a LFS, I hate hearing stories like this. Sorry to tell you but your LFS steered you WAY wrong - a 5.5g should be fine for a clown goby, but IMO a goby and a pair of clowns need at least a 15g (~57l), preferably even more.

I'd suggest upgrading, and finding another LFS if you can - why give more business to someone who gives lousy advice?

For loads of info on keeping small reef tanks you could also check out www.nano-reef.com , it's a great site.
 
I tend to agree. 3 fish in a 5.5g tank is way too muc of a bio load for that tank. I wouldn't put those 3 fish in ANYTHING less than a 10 or 20g. Also, with saltwater tanks the bigger the tank, the better chance at keeping it happy, healthy, and stable. A lot of LFS will steer you wrong to make a buck, but not all of them will do this. That is why I come here. You get great information here from people with a lot of knowledge who aren't after your money.

Bradd
 
did you cycle the tank? you never mentioned doing so

as stated, the 3 fish need a bigger tank, but you could just keep the 5.5 as a nano-reef and just get inverts, but you might want to wait until you have experience because salt-water inverts are more demanding than fish
 
and also because i LOVE clownfish (doesn't everyone since Nemo?)
Click to expand...

hmmm...seems like everyone wants a saltwater tank ever since that movie came out. in fact, (this may just be coincidence) all the saltwater fish (particularly occelaris clownfish and regal blue tangs) prices went up at my LFS (and stayed up) right after that movie came out. GRRRRRRR!!! :mad: Stupid Nemo!! (although i did think it was a pretty good movie, and i'm glad that it got more people into the hobby but... the LFs shouldn't have raised the prices!)(O.K., i know its not Nemo's fault....and i'm glad he found his dad)

sorry, didn't mean to highjack the thread

Whew, that rant exhausted me
 
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