Dave's Nano Saltwater tank

[Dave Steele]

Background:

I had a small saltwater tank for about a month before i had to shut it down for a job change and move. That was many years ago. I have always had a freshwater tank running and currently have 3. 2 Nano Betta Tanks and 1 55 gallon planted tank with Angelfish.

Last Year I purchased this Imagitarium Frameless 6.8 Gallon tank for a Betta tank for my office.

It stayed a betta tank for a while, but I really wanted to try saltwater again. when I had the chance, I rehomed the Betta to a 5.5 gallon tank I have on the stand below the 6.8 gallon tank. I used this chance to set up the tank as saltwater.

This tank has now been running for 3 months so here is some info to catch you up to today.

Specs:

Imagitarium 6.8 Gallon Tank​

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Filter – Seachem Matrix​

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pump - upgraded to a Sicce 110 GPH​

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light - cheap amazon light from freshwater days - need to upgrade it soon​

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in the tank:

7lbs of Dry rock from saltwater aquarium​

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10 lbs of live sand from Petco with some aragonite I had mixed in.​

Pictures to come. I am having some issues getting them to upload right now.

David

 

[Dave Steele]

Tank as Freshwater Pictures:

 

[Dave Steele]

and now for the fun saltwater stuff.

I cycled the tank with the live sand and some checmicals.

I added in about 7 lbs of dry rock from an order or Marco Rock and was surprised to find out that the cycle did not affect corals.

So that 2nd week of the tank running i stopped by the LFS and picked up 2 small corals to try out in the tank.

Mushroom:

CandyCane Coral:

I let the tank run for 2 weeks feeding these corals some BBS to keep the cycle going and to try and grow out the corals as they were both pretty small.

 

[Dave Steele]

So now we are at the 1 month mark. The tank has been ageing well and i have been changing about 2 gallons of water each week.

I added a frag of Zoa's from the LFS along with a couple hermit crabs.

The Hermit crabs where a mistake as they past on after about 2 weeks in the tank. It turned out that I did not have enough bio load and the tank did a mini cycle.

After waiting for the tank to stabilize, I picked up a Black and White Clown for the tank.

He has been in the tank for about a month now and I have slowly added a couple more corals and fish over the past 2 weeks.
A Blue Line Goby

An Acan Frag

And last weekend a new Duncan

 

[Dave Steele]

So last night we ended up swapping tanks around. The 6.8 gallon is now home to an Oranda goldfish in my wife’s office. I picked up a 20Long from Petco and it is now housing the saltwater tank. It looks very bare compared to the 6.8. Please excuse the micro bubbles. I will get better pics today.

Needed for the 20L:

Few pounds of dry rock to fill in the tank​

Light (I picked up an Astra 20 that arrived on Monday. It only covers half the 20L.)​

Off to see what others have done for tanks this size.
Any recommendations on a light or lights that wont break the bank?

Thanks
David