Taking the plunge: first marine tank 5.5 Gallon w/fuge

pensiveone

pensiveone

New member
Taking the plunge into saltwater today (pun intended) when I mix the saltwater and ad it to my 5.5 gallon AGA with a fuge I added to it by gluing in some acrylic panels to make a fuge. I'm on a tight budget so I have been doing this slowly accumulating items over time. So far I have:

5.5 Gallon AGA (picked up at Salvation Army) $6.00
Aqueon 50 Watt Deluxe heater (new, off Craigslist) $15.00
Marineland Maxijet 400 Powerhead (free shipping with other items from Amazon) $15.00
DIY light sockets from E-bay (10) $5.99
GU10 white lights from E-bay (5) $15.00
GU10 blue lights from Ebay (2) $8.50
Old Desk lamp from Salvation Army to convert to tank light $2.99
Dap aquarium safe silicone rubber (from Home Depot) $4.49
11” by 14” acrylic (for building fuge) from Home Depot $4.24
5 Lbs of base rock from Ocean Design $12.50 (too paranoid of bad hitchhikers to use all live rock)
Hydrometer (Free from neighbor)
5 lbs of gravel Donated by member ColaAddict (thanks man!)
Enough ocean salt to create 10 gallons from Petco ($8.50)
Distilled water from Walmart (six gallons) $5.28

I'm just in for over 100 bucks for such a small tank! I could set up a 30 gallon freshwater for this price (including fish). For cycling, I will pick up a very small piece of live rock from a LFS (about the size of an egg) just to introduce the beneficial bacteria. I'll also add a small piece of raw shrimp to start the ammonia going. Still need to build the light fixture, but I really don't need it for cycling. Wish me luck!
 
Ad900

Ad900

New member
Good luck! I recently set my first tank up too. The plunge into saltwater is (so far) easier than I expected it to be :) hopefully you find the same to be true!


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pensiveone

pensiveone

New member
Okay, got the water mixed up nice with distilled water from Walmart. Rinsed the sand, but apparently not enough as the water got pretty cloudy much to my chagrin. Fortunately I had a pretty old HOB filter so I added that and let it run all night long. In the morning there was a huge difference! Next step will be to pick up some LR rubble to add to the fuge to seed the base rock with, and to add a small piece of raw shrimp to decay and create ammonia with. In the meantime I will need to continue working on the light fixture I’m making.View attachment 1305View attachment 1304
 
pensiveone

pensiveone

New member
Got some small pieces of LR to add to the fuge in order to seed the cycling process. Forgot to get some raw shrimp. so I added some fish food to the tank to get the cycling up and running. Water temperature is 76 degrees and specific gravity is 1.026. Any idea how long a tank this size will take to cycle?
View attachment 1326
 
pensiveone

pensiveone

New member
Okay, its been a week now. Sorry for the poor picture but my camera phone sux! Added some LR in the fuge at the right on day 2. When my test kit comes in today I will test ammonia levels to see if any progress has been made.
View attachment 1380
 
pensiveone

pensiveone

New member
Took my first water readings and came up with the following: Ammonia .5 ppm, Nitrite .25 ppm and Nitrate zero.do these sound like this is progressing along as it should?
 
Joe Lydon

Joe Lydon

New member
Definitely plenty of light! You should try doing white/blue/white/blue/white on the display area, and 2 whites on the fuge. You'll get a better blending effect from the lights.

pensiveone said:
Took my first water readings and came up with the following: Ammonia .5 ppm, Nitrite .25 ppm and Nitrate zero.do these sound like this is progressing along as it should?
Click to expand...
Cycle takes the same amount of time, on any size tank. You could add some Dr. Tim's one and only bacteria, that should speed up the process, but it's not necessary, it will cycle on it's own, with time. Patience is key. Keep that in mind, and you can end up with a beautiful little system. Rush it, and you'll quit before you get anywhere! =)
 
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pensiveone

pensiveone

New member
Joe Lydon said:
Definitely plenty of light! You should try doing white/blue/white/blue/white on the display area, and 2 whites on the fuge. You'll get a better blending effect from the lights.



Cycle takes the same amount of time, on any size tank. You could add some Dr. Tim's one and only bacteria, that should speed up the process, but it's not necessary, it will cycle on it's own, with time. Patience is key. Keep that in mind, and you can end up with a beautiful little system. Rush it, and you'll quit before you get anywhere! =)
Click to expand...

Good advice Joe. Thanks!
 
madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
Good luck and yes this hobby isnt cheap at all. I cant tell u how much money ive sunk into this hobby in last ten yrs but i know its thousands heck most my fish cost over 100$ each. Theres really no cool fish for under 20$ damsels and chromis r cheapest but they suck. And lets face it we get into this hobby for the cool xhit not the 6$ damsel. U may want to change your ratio of white/blue on u lights . Every one has there own color prefrence but only two blue will be very white looking. U will end up spending money 100$ is just the start if u worried about money all i can say is ask questions before u buy any thing do research figure iut direction u want to go with tank very important. Cause buying chit twice isnt saving money some times spending little more in beginning can save u in long run. And have fun with it the diy part of this hobby is definitly the funnest part for me
 
pensiveone

pensiveone

New member
Thanks to the generosity of SkullV, I now have my first two corals in the tank! I have added a green star polyps and nuclear green implosion palys to the tank, along with a hermit crab and snail and a nice crop of Cheato. It does not look so sterile now! SkullV also gave me a tiny little frag of some type of palys which has also opened up. Hope it grows! Thanks SkullV, I'll be sure to pay your generosity forward when I start fragging my own tank!

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Joe5688

Joe5688

Active member
madjoe said:
Good luck and yes this hobby isnt cheap at all. I cant tell u how much money ive sunk into this hobby in last ten yrs but i know its thousands heck most my fish cost over 100$ each. Theres really no cool fish for under 20$ damsels and chromis r cheapest but they suck. And lets face it we get into this hobby for the cool xhit not the 6$ damsel. U may want to change your ratio of white/blue on u lights . Every one has there own color prefrence but only two blue will be very white looking. U will end up spending money 100$ is just the start if u worried about money all i can say is ask questions before u buy any thing do research figure iut direction u want to go with tank very important. Cause buying chit twice isnt saving money some times spending little more in beginning can save u in long run. And have fun with it the diy part of this hobby is definitly the funnest part for me
Click to expand...
Agreed with Joe. I thought one u establish everything u need fir your tank the cost would go down but it never does lol. You always will be upgrading and buying new shat. After 2 years I'm still always buying stuff lol
 
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