Brand new to aquariums in general...

[triplesnipers]

My sister recently gifted me a 5 gallon fish tank that she previously had a beta fish in. Can I make a saltwater aquarium out of it? Do I need a special filter? What would be the best small species to put into the tank? Sea Urchins? How many could I theoretically fit in there, at one time? If not, what else could I put in there?

 

[Spare time]

Would this be your first? A 5 gallon can be difficult

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

First question is was any chemicals used? Such as copper treatments and such. If any medication was added I don't recommend. The theory of glue holding in the chemicals may be miss info as it's been a while but I personally wouldn't risk. If just treated water it should be good. Just clean really well.

My favorite tank was 5 gallons. All I had was an MP10 and light with a mesh lid. The evaporation was also very low in the house it was in.

You can do weekly 100 percent water changes to avoid adding a filter. But you'll want to keep temp within 2 degrees of tank water and use same salt mix.

You can still add a filter. Depending on what you plan to keep fewer water changes can be done or not as big.

If there is a lot of evaporation either an auto top off or manual top off will be needed. You can also add a lid and air pump instead to slow or stop evaporation.

You will be limited on fish so you might want to think it through. Try and see what all fish you may like. If there is larger fish or want to keep a lot, a 5 gallon will not work.

You can keep any coral just about as long as there is room for it to grow. But some require more feeding, others are photosynthetic. Corals are not the same. But you can find balance.

Biggest purchase will most likely be lighting. This is important as it will also cost you more to replace if you want a bigger tank. Allow room so the light can be used if you want to go larger. This is why I state to verify what you want to keep and research first.

If you will be happy with something small, space restriction or ease of maintenance is what you need then 5 is fine and we can go from there.

 

[ianw163]

You need a good filter for a 5 gallon tank

 

[moretor1]

you could do a lot more in a 10-20 gal tank and with the money you'll end up spending, $40 on a tank isnt a lot of money

tiny tanks go bad fast

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

My sister recently gifted me a 5 gallon fish tank that she previously had a beta fish in. Can I make a saltwater aquarium out of it? Do I need a special filter? What would be the best small species to put into the tank? Sea Urchins? How many could I theoretically fit in there, at one time? If not, what else could I put in there?

Great use of this gif - yes, you can do a 5 gallon saltwater tank; it just requires some special planning to run tanks that small.

If you're hoping for fish, there are a variety of small gobies that people have kept in tanks of similar size before (Trimma gobies, Eviota gobies, Flaming Prawn Gobies, Clown Gobies, etc.).

If you're looking at inverts, the tuxedo urchin is the smallest in the hobby that I'm aware of, and it gets up to three inches in diameter with a recommended minimum tank size is 20 gallons - so an urchin is probably not the best choice here. For some good inverts for a tank this size:

For some inverts suggestions (all but one of these should be 1" or less max):

-Dwarf Hermit Crabs (Dwarf Red Tips, Dwarf Blue Legs, Dwarf Yellow Tips, Hidden Hermits, Dwarf Zebras, etc.)
-Acropora Crabs (Trapezia spp.)
-Porcelain Crabs (typically Petrolisthes or Neopetrolisthes spp.)
-Pom Pom Crabs
-Micro Brittle Starfish
-Aquilonastra Starfish (these are known in the hobby as Asterina Starfish, and often considered pests because they reproduce so readily and frequently in our tanks).
-Rusalty's (Aquaculture Nursery Farm's) Green Lantern Shrimp
-Bumblebee Shrimp (as a note for these guys, from all verifiable accounts, while they do inspect starfish and seem to feed off of something on the starfish, they don't seem to actually do any damage to the starfish, and they don't seem to actually eat them at all)
-Sexy Shrimp (these guys technically get up to 1 1/2")
-Chitons
-Shellback Crabs (Hypoconcha spp.)
-Skeleton Shrimp (Caprella spp.)

All kinds of "pods" (Copepods, Amphipods, Isopods, etc.) would work. Plenty of snails would work, as would some limpets if you can find them. If you're willing to feed phytoplankton regularly, then you could keep some bivalves (clams, oysters, scallops, etc.), barnacles, and or feather duster worms too, several of which would be small enough to meet the criteria.

There are also some cool, larger pods out there that would work, but you'd have to find a hobbyist who has them and purchase from them directly.

 

[triplesnipers]

you could do a lot more in a 10-20 gal tank and with the money you'll end up spending, $40 on a tank isnt a lot of money

tiny tanks go bad fast

as much as I'd like to get a bigger tank, I don't have the room for one that is bigger. This 5 gallon is perfect for sitting on a small table I don't use anymore though.

 

[triplesnipers]

Great use of this gif - yes, you can do a 5 gallon saltwater tank; it just requires some special planning to run tanks that small.

If you're hoping for fish, there are a variety of small gobies that people have kept in tanks of similar size before (Trimma gobies, Eviota gobies, Flaming Prawn Gobies, Clown Gobies, etc.).

If you're looking at inverts, the tuxedo urchin is the smallest in the hobby that I'm aware of, and it gets up to three inches in diameter with a recommended minimum tank size is 20 gallons - so an urchin is probably not the best choice here. For some good inverts for a tank this size:

There are also some cool, larger pods out there that would work, but you'd have to find a hobbyist who has them and purchase from them directly.

Ok, forget about the urchins then! Would it be possible to have a cute shrimp that would clean the tank as well as some small fish that would swim around? Would this be too much for a small 5 gallon tank as this? The gobies you recommended are all beautiful, I would enjoy to have any of these type. What could go in as far as flora is concerned?

I am brand new to this hobby, and I've never kept an aquarium before, so please let me know what would be best. I do not want these creatures to have an uncomfortable existence.

 

[triplesnipers]

First question is was any chemicals used? Such as copper treatments and such. If any medication was added I don't recommend. The theory of glue holding in the chemicals may be miss info as it's been a while but I personally wouldn't risk. If just treated water it should be good. Just clean really well.

My favorite tank was 5 gallons. All I had was an MP10 and light with a mesh lid. The evaporation was also very low in the house it was in.

You can do weekly 100 percent water changes to avoid adding a filter. But you'll want to keep temp within 2 degrees of tank water and use same salt mix.

You can still add a filter. Depending on what you plan to keep fewer water changes can be done or not as big.

If there is a lot of evaporation either an auto top off or manual top off will be needed. You can also add a lid and air pump instead to slow or stop evaporation.

You will be limited on fish so you might want to think it through. Try and see what all fish you may like. If there is larger fish or want to keep a lot, a 5 gallon will not work.

You can keep any coral just about as long as there is room for it to grow. But some require more feeding, others are photosynthetic. Corals are not the same. But you can find balance.

Biggest purchase will most likely be lighting. This is important as it will also cost you more to replace if you want a bigger tank. Allow room so the light can be used if you want to go larger. This is why I state to verify what you want to keep and research first.

If you will be happy with something small, space restriction or ease of maintenance is what you need then 5 is fine and we can go from there.

The tank has not been treated by any sort of chemicals. I looked at your tank btw, it is very pretty!

 

[Miami Reef]

Hermit crabs would be a great invert to add.

 

[sfin52]

My sister recently gifted me a 5 gallon fish tank that she previously had a beta fish in. Can I make a saltwater aquarium out of it? Do I need a special filter? What would be the best small species to put into the tank? Sea Urchins? How many could I theoretically fit in there, at one time? If not, what else could I put in there?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Would it be possible to have a cute shrimp that would clean the tank as well as some small fish that would swim around?

As mentioned, obviously the bigger the better as far as tanks are concerned for all critters in the hobby, but you could probably do a little shrimp (though they might not do much cleaning) with a little goby - for fish swimming around you'd probably want to do a Trimma or Eviota goby, as to my understanding the clown and flaming prawn gobies tend to be more sedentary.

Fair warning, the small gobies are known to be pretty short-lived, so I would expect one, maybe two years with them as reasonable estimate.

What could go in as far as flora is concerned?

Keeping mind that corals are animals, if you're wanting plants, there's a wide selection of macroalgae (in a variety of colors) in the hobby that could work - you'd probably want to pick some slow growing ones so it doesn't take over your little tank. Personally, I like some of the calcified ones like scroll/potato algae, shaving brush alge, and mermaid's fan algae, as they're pretty, they're not known for quick growth, and the fact that they're calcified means your shrimp and any other inverts are unlikely to eat them. Galaxaura's not my personal favorite, but it's a good choice for a calcified red macro.

I wouldn't recommend any seagrass or mangroves in that small of a tank.

Anyway, the site below has a pretty good selection to give you an idea of some of the macroalgae species you can find in the hobby, including a number of calcified/calcareous ones:

Macro Algae: Your Source For Quality Marine Plants and Macroalgae | Gulf Coast Ecosystems

We specialize in saltwater Macroalgae and Seagrass | GCE has the largest selection of Macroalgae online, offering over 35 different species

www.live-plants.com

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

For 5 gallon here is options.

I recommend not going with a filter. Do 100 percent weekly water changes. Go with wave maker and light. Mesh lid if evaporation is low and you can top off or a sealed lid to control evaporation if it's alot. If you go with sealed lid, you will need to add an air pump for oxygen exchange.

If you can go with a glass cylinder and find a fitting lid, air pump and light. You want to drill 2 holes in lid. One for air pump and one for gas exchange. Air pump will need an adjuster valve to control flow. You can have to much flow with air driven in cylinder tanks. (Square tanks the flow is not as good with air pump)

Inverts which can be more than listed,
Most cleanup crew snails like turbo, astrea, nessarius, etc these are most common, money cowry.
Crabs like hernits include, blue, scarlet, polka dot, blue knuckle, Halloween, Cortez, you can do staghorn but I don't recommend unless you set it up tank based on this.
There is emerald or red (Red is same but different color than Emerald) Crab which can get fairly big, If anemone you can do anemone crab as well.
Shrimp like pederson, sexy, purple coral banded yellow maybe but regular will get to big), skunk cleaner, randals pistol(I believe these stay small), peppermint shrimp, if you have an anemone you can do anemone shrimp.
Fish I recommend gobies in the trimma family, flaming Prawn or some others that are similar. Clown goby, neon gobies, coral Croucher (these are finicky eaters and need target feeding. Also venomous but not deadly on spines).

There can be more to this list and opinions will very. But this will get you in the general direction.