ACk, SpS's with colour, I can't find any....

[rigger11]

i agree with der iron and digital. a 5 gallon sps dominated tank for your first attempt is going to be way to hard to keep in check. ive been playing this salt game for the last 3 yrs and have just recently added my first few sps corals..... if i were you id hold off on the sps and take a look at going bigger. the lighting alone that is required for sps on that tank would be way too much for the tank. how would you keep the temp stable let alon ethe water quality???? used 30g tanks are cheap man id look into that as your first tank.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Originally Posted by digital-audiophile

@ Drew - you beat me to it

Mwaaa ha haaa.

[IceTurf]

Just a pondering thought, but why is the filter system I got bad for a reef tank? It gives bacteria/small organisms space to thrive and do their job...It also takes out small particles and obviously large ones and it contains locations for ammo-carb. Its huge for the tank its going to be used on. Am I missing some important point here?

[Der_Iron_Chef]

For maintaining a reef aquarium--in particular an SPS-dominated reef aquarium--the water quality must be very high. Dissolved organic waste (aka-fish poop) will not be filtered out by the type of filter you are describing.

It's definitely possible to have a 5G "pico" like you're describing, but I think it would be difficult, especially for someone just beginning saltwater. The ability for something very small (a snail dying) to foul up a 5G aquarium is very strong. Things can go bad in a hurry and there is very little water to absorb whatever it is.

That said, if you still want to make the effort, it IS possible....but I would recommend asking a lot more questions and doing a lot more research first. After all, these are living creatures we are talking about! We don't want to kill anything, if we can help it.