5.5 Pico Saltwater Tank: MacroAlgae only what can go in?

[GirlWithFish]

Hey all! I have a 5.5 gallon rimless. I have a lot of experience with freshwater but this would be my first saltwater tank. I was going to have this tank be a dirted Walstad tank (freshwater method) but now I’m interested in turning it into a macroalgae tank. It will have live rock as well for the hardscape. My questions are-
What type of filter should I get?

What animals can go in here- any fish are just inverts? And what types?

Are there any types of macroalgae that are hard to grow- do colors matter for growth like in freshwater? For example, certain red stem plants are harder to have flourish in FW than green stem plants. Does this hold true for MacroAlgae ?

Is this doable or is it just a bad idea for my first saltwater tank?

If you don’t think it’s a good idea I’ll just make it a dirted freshwater shrimp tank, just curious for my options

 

[SPR1968]

I can’t help with the question, but I can bump the thread to see if we can get you some assistance

 

[1epauletteshark]

Hey all! I have a 5.5 gallon rimless. I have a lot of experience with freshwater but this would be my first saltwater tank. I was going to have this tank be a dirted Walstad tank (freshwater method) but now I’m interested in turning it into a macroalgae tank. It will have live rock as well for the hardscape. My questions are-
What type of filter should I get?

What animals can go in here- any fish are just inverts? And what types?

Are there any types of macroalgae that are hard to grow- do colors matter for growth like in freshwater? For example, certain red stem plants are harder to have flourish in FW than green stem plants. Does this hold true for MacroAlgae ?

Is this doable or is it just a bad idea for my first saltwater tank?

If you don’t think it’s a good idea I’ll just make it a dirted freshwater shrimp tank, just curious for my options

You can definitely have some fish in your aquarium, just chose one or two small ones that are known to be able to live in a small aquarium like that like clown gobies and mainly small gobies and small blennies. In terms of inverts it would be really cool to have some sexy shrimp in there as they do like to be in macroalgae, maybe 6 and then get a small clean up crew of inverts and you should be good .

 

[i cant think]

Hey all! I have a 5.5 gallon rimless. I have a lot of experience with freshwater but this would be my first saltwater tank. I was going to have this tank be a dirted Walstad tank (freshwater method) but now I’m interested in turning it into a macroalgae tank. It will have live rock as well for the hardscape. My questions are-
What type of filter should I get?

What animals can go in here- any fish are just inverts? And what types?

Are there any types of macroalgae that are hard to grow- do colors matter for growth like in freshwater? For example, certain red stem plants are harder to have flourish in FW than green stem plants. Does this hold true for MacroAlgae ?

Is this doable or is it just a bad idea for my first saltwater tank?

If you don’t think it’s a good idea I’ll just make it a dirted freshwater shrimp tank, just curious for my options

Honestly, with fish you’re limited to gobies. Blennies will eat your Macroalgae.

As for Inverts, again you’re limited as most will eat Macroalgae. You could have;
Anemone shrimp (I personally enjoy the Pederson’s Anemone Shrimp)
Sexy Shrimp
Paguritta crabs with a Christmas Tree Worm Rock could work quite well if you feed them and make sure your parameters remain stable.
Snails and Hermits are out of the window as they will munch on macroalgaes.

As for difficulty on colour;
Generally macro’s are easy as long as you provide light. Some will gain fancy colours if kept under blues like the Dragons Breath. However that’s not a need and they thrive in just white light.

This is a great idea for your first reef however I would aim to go for a larger tank, maybe something 10-20G as they will be easier to sustain the algae and parameters. 5.5G is a rather small tank and Saltwater is a huge jump from Freshwater as you have to deal with Mg, Kh, Ca, PO4 and NO3 when you start going into corals (Mg, NO3 and PO4 need to be higher in a Macroalgae tank however it’s still a large jump).
This isn’t to say you should avoid Saltwater altogether, it’s fun! You just need to know the difference is rather vast and you do need a slightly more equipped tank as you get larger.

 

[1epauletteshark]

Honestly, with fish you’re limited to gobies. Blennies will eat your Macroalgae.

As for Inverts, again you’re limited as most will eat Macroalgae. You could have;
Anemone shrimp (I personally enjoy the Pederson’s Anemone Shrimp)
Sexy Shrimp
Paguritta crabs with a Christmas Tree Worm Rock could work quite well if you feed them and make sure your parameters remain stable.
Snails and Hermits are out of the window as they will munch on macroalgaes.

As for difficulty on colour;
Generally macro’s are easy as long as you provide light. Some will gain fancy colours if kept under blues like the Dragons Breath. However that’s not a need and they thrive in just white light.

This is a great idea for your first reef however I would aim to go for a larger tank, maybe something 10-20G as they will be easier to sustain the algae and parameters. 5.5G is a rather small tank and Saltwater is a huge jump from Freshwater as you have to deal with Mg, Kh, Ca, PO4 and NO3 when you start going into corals (Mg, NO3 and PO4 need to be higher in a Macroalgae tank however it’s still a large jump).
This isn’t to say you should avoid Saltwater altogether, it’s fun! You just need to know the difference is rather vast and you do need a slightly more equipped tank as you get larger.

Oh yeah that's true, I forgot about that with blennies. No wonder my little piece of macroalgae that came with my shrimp was being chomped on.

 

[Subsea]

Hey all! I have a 5.5 gallon rimless. I have a lot of experience with freshwater but this would be my first saltwater tank. I was going to have this tank be a dirted Walstad tank (freshwater method) but now I’m interested in turning it into a macroalgae tank. It will have live rock as well for the hardscape. My questions are-
What type of filter should I get?

What animals can go in here- any fish are just inverts? And what types?

Are there any types of macroalgae that are hard to grow- do colors matter for growth like in freshwater? For example, certain red stem plants are harder to have flourish in FW than green stem plants. Does this hold true for MacroAlgae ?

Is this doable or is it just a bad idea for my first saltwater tank?

If you don’t think it’s a good idea I’ll just make it a dirted freshwater shrimp tank, just curious for my options

Where in Florida? I started my first marine aquarium in 1971 as a Galveston Bay theme. I collected green mollies & grass shrimp in marsh estuaries and on the jetties collected peppermint shrimp & curly cue anemone.

After 51 ears of Reefing, I am now a Laissez faire reefer that likes Caribbean mixed garden lagoons.

For a living filter use bacteria, algae and sponges. Start with 2” dry aragonite (.1-2mm in diameter) substrate seed with bacteria in a bottle and cycle with ammonia, then get diver collected live sand and a live rock. Get no fish for 3 months.

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

Wait until algae starts to grow then get your clean up crew.

Marine Plants In The Aquarium: An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

www.marineplantbook.com

What light do you have now? Specify intensity and color spectrum.

Understand this about color spectrum: white light contains every color in the spectrum, including BLUE. The reason reefers favor blue is because blue spectrum favors coral at the expense of macro algae (seaweed). I don’t like how excessive blue washes out the reds, yellows and greens.

In first picture, bottom tank is about 7K and top 55G display is at 10K color rendition.

Second & third picture are of 75G display with lights at 10K then 12K.

 

[GirlWithFish]

Thanks everyone! I’m actually going with a 10 or 20 gallon tank instead so I can have more options. Just trying to figure out my lighting situation that will grow macros but also coral if I decide to have a few

 

[1epauletteshark]

Thanks everyone! I’m actually going with a 10 or 20 gallon tank instead so I can have more options. Just trying to figure out my lighting situation that will grow macros but also coral if I decide to have a few

Great decision.

 

[GirlWithFish]

Where in Florida? I started my first marine aquarium in 1971 as a Galveston Bay theme. I collected green mollies & grass shrimp in marsh estuaries and on the jetties collected peppermint shrimp & curly cue anemone.

After 51 ears of Reefing, I am now a Laissez faire reefer that likes Caribbean mixed garden lagoons.

For a living filter use bacteria, algae and sponges. Start with 2” dry aragonite (.1-2mm in diameter) substrate seed with bacteria in a bottle and cycle with ammonia, then get diver collected live sand and a live rock. Get no fish for 3 months.

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

Wait until algae starts to grow then get your clean up crew.

Marine Plants In The Aquarium: An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

www.marineplantbook.com

What light do you have now? Specify intensity and color spectrum.

Understand this about color spectrum: white light contains every color in the spectrum, including BLUE. The reason reefers favor blue is because blue spectrum favors coral at the expense of macro algae (seaweed). I don’t like how excessive blue washes out the reds, yellows and greens.

In first picture, bottom tank is about 7K and top 55G display is at 10K color rendition.

Second & third picture are of 75G display with lights at 10K then 12K.

That looks great! I was going to get the fluval marine light because it can be adjusted from my understanding and tailored to what I have in the tank. I read that blue light can also help red macroalgae

 

[Subsea]

That looks great! I was going to get the fluval marine light because it can be adjusted from my understanding and tailored to what I have in the tank. I read that blue light can also help red macroalgae

“I read that blue light can help red macroalgae”. Really, which specific macroalgae and what was the PAR.

I suggest you read the macro algae reference guide that I linked. Russ Kronwetter is diver owner of Gulf Coast Ecosystems and he wrote the book on macroalgae.

Bortacladia is collected in 30-130’ of water, when I get Bortacladia from the divers, it is a rich burgundy. If I increase the intensity, color shifts to fire engine red and under extreme light intensity color shifts to yellow orange.

Marine Plants in the Aquarium

macroalgae, marine plants, caulerpa, refugium substrate, marine macroalgae for sale

www.marineplantbook.com

Note: Why does Bortacladia grow deep where blue light is prevalent? So it dies not have to compete with draerrf

 

[GirlWithFish]

“I read that blue light can help red macroalgae”. Really, which specific macroalgae and what was the PAR.

I suggest you read the macro algae reference guide that I linked. Russ Kronwetter is diver owner of Gulf Coast Ecosystems.

Thank you!! I’ll read it