Early fish/coral questions on a nano tank

[Parrothead]

Punkroc

What mp was trying to say, is you have never had a saltwater or a reef tank before, basically the 5 gallon, less volume for rock and substrate, Is gonna leave you about 3 gallons of water, as you have been told this is an impossilbe amount of water for a beginner, for alot of reasons, primarily when something goes wrong in saltwater it goes wrong quickly, with about 3 gallons of water you ain't even gonna see it happen, you will need to do water changes every other day or at the least about every 3 days, and ro/di water is a must, but here's the best part, you can't have but a couple meaning 2 maybe 3 really, really small frags, and water changes are gonna be a pain, heres why, the norm is 10%, how much salt mix are you gonna 38.4 ounces of ro/di water.

I really think you need to rethink this project and get a min. of a 55 to start with, you stand to spend alot of money on a tank that could crash right before eyes, and there would nothing you could do

[punkroc701]

Well as I said this was originally going to be a custom built tank but it leaked so I thought I would try the small tank first. I am slowly looking back at the custom built tank again but using a different design this time. So instead of putting alot into this tank I am thinking of just keeping it going as is and building the bigger tank, making my own rocks, and doing dead sand and covering it with my live sand when it all goes together. If anything else goes into this tank it will be a shrimp to help keep it clean. I figure I waited this long what is a couple more months before restarting.

BTW Virginia has Parrothead License Plates, and my best friend caught Jimmy in Florida last year. Said it was a great show.

[Parrothead]

Reverend Jim always puts on a good show, I just missed his last trip through town a couple weeks ago, I catch him again.

[blennydude]

Punkroc, diy live rocks w/ dead sand = disaster(not enough microscopic life, and never will) 5 gallon tank for a newbie = disaster!

I seriously think you should not put anything in your 5 gal but maybe a snail. Save your dollars up til you have about $350 and get an Oceanic 29 gal biocube, it's a great begginers tank. Then use the rock and sand you have been cureing in your 5 gal and put it in the biocube, it might help speed up the cycle. You are seriously not going to have any success w/ that 5 gal. 5 gal's are for kids w/ guppies.

[punkroc701]

My 5 gallon is doing well and looking at a 55 gallon now. Decided not to do the DIY tank as the cost was what I found a 55 for so why go small when I could go big. I do want to thank you guys for the help, and sorry if I came across ingreatful for your knowledge. I was just hoping to get help with getting the 5 gal started until I could go bigger. Maybe in a few years I'll try a nano when I have a better understanding of what all is involved. Although with the input I have gotten so far the 5 gal is doing well with an emerald and 3 or 4 hermits. It is a lot of work though. Thanks again.