Fluval Spec 5g Crustacean tank

[NanoMel]

Hello!
This is my first salt water tank so i thought seeming that my brother uses Canreef all the time for his 55 gal. Tank i would post my tiny 5 gal tank here. It's been running for 3 months now, i used live sand, dry rock with a piece of 'seed' live rock from my brothers tank to get it started. I really like my Fluval spec. Water levels have been awesome, no complaints there.

Currently i have 2 pom pom crabs, 3 sexy shrimp and a snail. (snail came from the live sand if you can believe it or not!! Lord only knows now long it was in that bag before i placed it in my tank but now it has a forever home)

As far as coral goes i have a purple mushroom, a water mellon mushroom, a rock full of some sort of mushroom and a star polyp rock.

Plans for the future include just adding more coral to it, i was hoping to put in a piece of frogspawn possibly add some life to the tank, any thoughts on what i should add would be appreciated. No plans to add any more crustacean's i think this amount of life in the tank is enough.

BIGGER plans for the future are to get a second fluval spec 5 gal, put them end to end and create an external sump under both tanks to help with stability and allow me to have a porcelain crab tank beside my pom pom tank. Any thoughts on how i might be able to get that to work would be helpful to as this is my first salt tank. Many thanks for checking it out. -Mel

-What my tank currently looks like-


-my pom pom crab pair-


-sexy shrimp enjoying the mushrooms (not sure which kind)-


-Not sure if anyone's observed this but in the mornings when i turn on my light my sexy shrimp are blue, here is a side by side comparison of morning and 10 minutes later!-

[11purewater]

Very nice!I have the same tank on my desk

[NanoMel]

Thank you! It's an awesome little tank and oh so quiet! We call it cat TV in our house our two black cats adore the fishtank.

[somewherebeyondthesea]

I've got a 5 G spec as well!

I currently have:

1 pulsating xenia
GSP
Birdsnest
Crocea Clam (really small one)
Frogspawn
Ricordias
Mushrooms
2 hermits
2 turbos
1 nassarius
1 clown goby
1peppermint shrimp

note! ---> i use supplemental feeding for my clam and SPS
I also added additional lighting for my SPS coral!


Happy Reefing!

[NanoMel]

This is So neat! Not many people have a fluval spec in my area (that i know of) set up with salt tank. It sounds like you have some lovely things in your tank how long has it been running for?

[somewherebeyondthesea]

Originally Posted by NanoMel

This is So neat! Not many people have a fluval spec in my area (that i know of) set up with salt tank. It sounds like you have some lovely things in your tank how long has it been running for?

It's been running since christmas, but the rock, water, and half the critters were all from a larger tank (hence cycle time was shortened).

Most people are afraid of nano and pico tanks, but the reality is if you pay close attention to params and weekly water changes you should have little to no issues IMO.