Complete Marine Newbie. Unusual Question?

W

Waylander

AC Members
Jun 23, 2006
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Tasmania, Australia
Hey guys.

I have no experience with keeping saltwater aquariums at all and have a question that may be unusual.

Is it possible to keep a small (5-10 gallon) saltwater aquarium, purely for marine invertebrates?

I find the range of saltwater inverts to be fascinating, but my space and funds for such an endeavour are limited (hence small tank size). Is this even a remote possibility?

If so, what would I need? And also how many inverts could I keep? Ideally I'd like maybe some shrimp, hermit crabs and snails.

Things that I think I would need:
Heater
Powerhead
Live Rock
Live Sand
Lights (unsure about type/amount)
Saltwater mix

What else would I need? Would RO water be necessary for this project? What sort of lighting? How do I buffer my water? Anything else I should know?

Thanks so much for any advice,

Kieren
 
Hey Kieren..Welcome to the forums mate...

Firstly, if you have never kept salt water before, going for a very small tank like 5 - 10 gallon may be a little tricky for you..How-ever, if you determind and happy to carry out the strict maintenance routine..What does make a little easier is that you only want to be keeping marine inverts..Certainly do-able....

Your equipment is just about right there, i dont see any need for a skimmer as there is not really going to be any bio-load on the tank..

As it purely inverts you want, lighting is not overly inportant.. You should be able to get away with standard lighting..Do you have any already?

RO water would be neccesary as even though you will not be ahving fish or corals in there, its still important that you keep very good water quality, more so in this case as its a very small tank...

There will be no need to buffer anything, you will be fine with normal water changes as these will replace any trace elements in the water column..

Sounds like a nice little invert tank this does..probably two different types of shrimp, red an dblue hermits and snails...The hermits and snails are the important ones as they will help will algae controll..

Any more questions, do not hesitate to shout up..

Keep us informed of you decisions...

Niko
 
Thanks for the reply.

Since the inverts will only create a very small bio-load, then I figured the system would be fairly stable. Are there other levels, apart from nitrate, that I need to watch? And when we say strict maintenance, what exactly are we talking about? Would 25% weekly waterchanges be sufficient, or more, or less?

I've heard that de-ionised water that you can buy from the supermarket can be used in place of RO water, if this is true I may just use this instead of buying an RO unit, since it will only be a small tank.

So would adding the marine salt get my pH and hardness to where they need to be and keep them there?

I don't currently have any equipment for this project, still in the planning phase.

I'm glad you like the idea though!

Thanks for your help.
 
The levels you need to be checking for are Ammonia, nitrITE, nitrATE, pH, and SG...

a 10% water change every week will be good enough for your system..

Not sure about your di-ionised water, if its the same as here in the UK. I would stick to RO water..Maybe see if your local fish shop can supply you with RO water..

As long as you mix your salt correctly and aeriate for 48 hours before use in the tank, you should be fine..But, as always, check pH before use in the tank...

Niko
 
Ok, I'll have to invest in a few saltwater test kits. Or do freshwater tests work for marine too? I was a little worried because I'd read things about monitoring levels of calcium and iodine and things like that.

10% water change weekly is definitely manageable. I'll look further into sourcing the water for water changes.

Sorry, a few more questions.

Would it be necessary to cycle this tank as it will only have inverts?

With the powerhead, would that be required to be on 24 hours a day? I ask because I need to take the noise into account when deciding where to position a tank.

Are the heaters used for freshwater aquariums also suitable for saltwater?
 
Some test kits are for marine and freshwater, you need to check the packet..

As you are not keeping corals, there is no need to checking calcium in my opinion..Iodine is a very deabtable issue, my personal issue is that this gets replaced by water changes and food...There is a thread currently running in the general marine section i think about this issue..

Your tank does need to be cycled...

Powerhead is on 24/7, they are usually pretty quiet to be honest..

Heaters are usually for either salt or fresh...

Niko
 
Ok thanks for the help.

I thought maybe it wouldn't need to be cycled because I have read threads where people have had inverts in the tank while it is being cycled, to control algae and such i guess?
 
Yeah, that's what I'd heard, the snails and hermit crabs. But I guess it never hurts to cycle anyway.

Thanks for all the help. More questions will probably come when I think of them. I'll update to let everyone know what I'm thinking while I continue planning.

Kieren.
 
The first thing noticed after purchasing my first hermit crabs was that they molted like crazy. Sometimes they will still kill my snails just to steal their shells. I still pick up empty shells from my LFS for them to use once they molt.
 
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