5 gallon Experiment!

[sphelps]

A couple things to consider:

Base rock will become live, not much difference, it will still become biological.

Be careful what you see, many of these guys running small tanks have large tanks as well that they actually use to sustain them.

100% or very large water changes in a nano need to be done with caution, for example if you purchase a pail of salt and only mix up small amount at a time the levels will vary greatly each time. Large changes with inconsistent make up can be detrimental.

Use carbon with caution in nano tanks.

Personally I think you'll have better success with a large biological system that uses some sort of highly efficient bio media and water changes in the 50% range but never the less best of luck.

[windcoast reefs]

Originally Posted by sphelps

A couple things to consider:

Base rock will become live, not much difference, it will still become biological.

Be careful what you see, many of these guys running small tanks have large tanks as well that they actually use to sustain them.

100% or very large water changes in a nano need to be done with caution, for example if you purchase a pail of salt and only mix up small amount at a time the levels will vary greatly each time. Large changes with inconsistent make up can be detrimental.

Use carbon with caution in nano tanks.

Personally I think you'll have better success with a large biological system that uses some sort of highly efficient bio media and water changes in the 50% range but never the less best of luck.

I totally understand your hesitation, and I have many concerns as well, but check out the link it's a cool concept. As for the carbon, there will only be a tiny amount in the filter. Any using the man made rock will hopefully reduce the amount of junk in the rock, since it's not as porous as real rock.

Again it's just an experiment, if it doesn't work I'll just remove everything and rethink the concept and try again.

[Myka]

It sounds like a fun project (I like projects). I don't think you will see anything remarkable though. As sphelps said, whatever rock goes in will eventually become live rock, unless it is plastic rock of course.

I think the key thing will be low bioload which means you won't be able to feed any of the corals. It doesn't matter how food gets into the water, food is food, and it all ends up either rotten or as poop.

I have a similar thing going on with my 10 gallon temporary tank. It has a Green Mandarin in it (that eats frozen food), and the tank is an utter algae bloom. It's a disaster in that tank. I do twice a month 60% waterchanges. Maybe I could get a handle on the algae if I did more waterchanges. The tank is just temporary though, so I'm not bothered enough to do much about it.

[Borderjumper]

Cool project. I'm very interested to see ow it progresses.

I have two 6 gallon tanks running. they do really well with minimal algae, and minimal water changes, BUT the key to these tanks is aptasia. One is my nudi rearing tank, and the other is my aptasia rearing tank. I don't have any corals in them, other than some blue cloves. Thr rock is full of pods and brittle stars. I feed the tanks quite heavily with all flake food I have left over, it's either crumbled to dust or the fish just wont eat it. It's amazing how aptasia really do filter the water.. Too bad they are such a pest!

I know which man made rock your planning on using and also know its been curing for ages..BUT I'm wondering if it ever really stops off gassing? In a tiny tank like that it will become apparent quickly if it is still leaching. I did a background in a 20 once, and even after 2 years it was an algae magnet.

Keep us informed and lot of pics please!

[windcoast reefs]

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

Cool project. I'm very interested to see ow it progresses.

I have two 6 gallon tanks running. they do really well with minimal algae, and minimal water changes, BUT the key to these tanks is aptasia. One is my nudi rearing tank, and the other is my aptasia rearing tank. I don't have any corals in them, other than some blue cloves. Thr rock is full of pods and brittle stars. I feed the tanks quite heavily with all flake food I have left over, it's either crumbled to dust or the fish just wont eat it. It's amazing how aptasia really do filter the water.. Too bad they are such a pest!

I know which man made rock your planning on using and also know its been curing for ages..BUT I'm wondering if it ever really stops off gassing? In a tiny tank like that it will become apparent quickly if it is still leaching. I did a background in a 20 once, and even after 2 years it was an algae magnet.

Keep us informed and lot of pics please!

I will get some pictures up ASAP! If this is the stuff from blue worlds I'll take a closer look into that. I'm hoping I won't have to feed but that is still an unknown.