EchoPear
Community Member
Greetings!
This is my first ever saltwater tank. Why in the world did I choose the hardest size to start with (pico/nano)? Well my aquarium stand is rated for a 75 gallon, but it is holding a 37G freshwater planted cichlid tank and so space wise I am pretty limited in length. This Marineland was my late betta’s tank and I thought, “hey if I can cut it on a 5 gallon I’ll be confident I can handle something bigger”. As this is my first one, I’m going for cheap as possible while still being nice to enjoy.
Okay, enough preamble. On to the build. As you know this is an AIO tank but the design sucks and half the water bypasses the filter caddy. Had I know about the in tank acrylic drop in, I would have just gotten that. But instead I knocked out the AIO wall back when it was a FW tank to make room for a sponge filter.
For filtration I wanted a cheap HOB that could provide flow headroom so I didn’t have to add wavemakers. Petsmart sale to the rescue, tetra IQ 30 for $16. Bought 2, have a backup now (also needed it for another thing). Up to 175gph or 35x turnover. Great!
I went back and forth on the light for many days. I really wanted to get something that could sustain life and be reliable and have good controls. But alas this is a cheap build so pick 2 of the 3, I went with the Hygger 30W on Amazon. I really liked the lens, and how many diodes they had in there. $40
Also picked up a 10lb box of Carb-Sea life rock from Petsmart, and a 5lb bag of ocean direct sand.
For heat I have an older Eheim jager 50W that never turns off connected to a Bayite thermostat (which is great I might add) all carried over from the FW phase of the tank. Picked up a 50W nicrew heater as a back up heater.
Using reef crystals and distilled water from the grocery store. ATO is a gravity fed Amazon thing with some black airline tubing and an Evian 1L bottle. Works pretty dang good and never worry about electronics. Remember, simple and cheap!
This is my first ever saltwater tank. Why in the world did I choose the hardest size to start with (pico/nano)? Well my aquarium stand is rated for a 75 gallon, but it is holding a 37G freshwater planted cichlid tank and so space wise I am pretty limited in length. This Marineland was my late betta’s tank and I thought, “hey if I can cut it on a 5 gallon I’ll be confident I can handle something bigger”. As this is my first one, I’m going for cheap as possible while still being nice to enjoy.
Okay, enough preamble. On to the build. As you know this is an AIO tank but the design sucks and half the water bypasses the filter caddy. Had I know about the in tank acrylic drop in, I would have just gotten that. But instead I knocked out the AIO wall back when it was a FW tank to make room for a sponge filter.
For filtration I wanted a cheap HOB that could provide flow headroom so I didn’t have to add wavemakers. Petsmart sale to the rescue, tetra IQ 30 for $16. Bought 2, have a backup now (also needed it for another thing). Up to 175gph or 35x turnover. Great!
I went back and forth on the light for many days. I really wanted to get something that could sustain life and be reliable and have good controls. But alas this is a cheap build so pick 2 of the 3, I went with the Hygger 30W on Amazon. I really liked the lens, and how many diodes they had in there. $40
Also picked up a 10lb box of Carb-Sea life rock from Petsmart, and a 5lb bag of ocean direct sand.
For heat I have an older Eheim jager 50W that never turns off connected to a Bayite thermostat (which is great I might add) all carried over from the FW phase of the tank. Picked up a 50W nicrew heater as a back up heater.
Using reef crystals and distilled water from the grocery store. ATO is a gravity fed Amazon thing with some black airline tubing and an Evian 1L bottle. Works pretty dang good and never worry about electronics. Remember, simple and cheap!
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