first off, thank you for taking your time to read/answer. i was thinking of getting no more than a 1.5 gallon tank for Christmas and growing 1 anemonie or 1 piece coral in it and/or live rock with 1 shrimp and seastar. i was just wanting criticism for this, constructive of course. give your ideas also. i just wanted to know. and are those betta cubes acceptable to do this in?
I don't recommend doing this.
1. It's too small for fish, and invertebrates are very sensitive to changes in salinity, temperature, pH, and kH. They are also sensitive to high waste levels (nitrate, and intolerant of ammonia/nitrite). A small volume of water, especially 1.5 gallons, is going to have fluctuations in all of these, and often.
2. Which brings me to the next point, that nano and pico tanks require a LOT of maintenance to keep the levels stable. If this is your first marine tank, you will have to monitor it every day if not several times a day.
3. Anemones and corals require high lights and good water quality to survive. LED's are a good nano tank option, as other lighting would heat the small volume of water up too much.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
4.Betta cubes and smaller tanks like this don't typically have adequate filtration, and water flow is important when keeping marine tanks. Anemones and coral colonies grow too large (even pests like aiptasia can grow larger than expected) and sea stars require a larger sand bed and more live rock to find sufficient food.
I recommend getting something that's at least 10 gallons (althought bigger is almost always better with saltwater tanks). This is small enough to fit the Nano expectation, but still have some decent organisms like hermit crabs and snails, or perhaps a small fish or shrimp .
I wouldn't do this if this is your first time with a saltwater tank. A tank that small has to be cared for every day. Not to mention you would still need a filter for it and sufficient lighting to keep corals . I wouldn't recommend sea stars at all for it and a shrimp might not be able to handle the fluctuations depending on the type of shrimp.
I actually have a 1 gallon saltwater tank (MiniBow 1) that only has a small mantis shrimp in it (once he gets too large he will get an upgrade), but I have access to live food for him and top off every day with weekly water changes.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com I personally really like small tanks and I think that a 1.5 G with a pound or so of live rock with some easy to keep corals would be neat. Like a little zoanthid garden. You just have to very careful about temp and salinity fluctuations, top -offs, water changes, and to make sure it is cycled for a month. A little coralife PC light would be perfect for this. These lights just screw right into a regular socket.
Uh. 1.5 is way small for any fish . Especially for salt water. I don't keep salt water fish (too expensive for me) but If you were talking freshwater I'd tell you absolutely don't do it. Plus salt water needs to be a lot cleaner.
im no marine fish expert but from my under standing the smallest tank for marine life would be 30g
