Making a 2.5 gallon fowlr

[Honem]

I'm starting a 2.5 gallon fowlr tank. I've got live sand, base rock, and a bunch of pieces of live rock I found at the bottom of the base rock bin. I also have a tiny sponge filter, mainly for water flow right now because I threw some brine shrimp in there. Any tips? Do I need a powerful filter? I'm thinking of putting a Clown Goby or inverts. No corals. This is my first time with a saltwater tank switching from freshwater. Is calcium really important here?

 

[ChrissFishes01]

I'm starting a 2.5 gallon fowlr tank. I've got live sand, base rock, and a bunch of pieces of live rock I found at the bottom of the base rock bin. I also have a tiny sponge filter, mainly for water flow right now because I threw some brine shrimp in there. Any tips? Do I need a powerful filter? I'm thinking of putting a Clown Goby or inverts. No corals. This is my first time with a saltwater tank switching from freshwater. Is calcium really important here?

View attachment 836498

Welcome to the salty side.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but filters aren't typically required in saltwater tanks - the live rock will take care of biological filtration for you, so you really just need to add flow. Most people do use some sort of mechanical filtration (like a filter sock), but it's not required. So, in your tank, you'll almost certainly want to ditch the sponge filter for something that provides more flow. You can get some tiny, tiny powerheads that would work, but I might recommend picking up a HOB filter. The Aquaclear brand is the best IMO (an AC30 would be great), but most small HOBs sized for 10-30 gallon tanks will work fine.

When you say you threw some brine shrimp in there, do you mean you added some frozen brine for a cycle, or that you put actually brine shrimp eggs into the tank?

I'd say this tank is pretty minimum in terms of fish, but a single small clown goby should do okay as long as the tank is well-cycled and mature before it's added. Weekly water changes will likely be a must, and it won't be the easiest tank to maintain, but it's certainly possible.

 

[Honem]

Welcome to the salty side.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but filters aren't typically required in saltwater tanks - the live rock will take care of biological filtration for you, so you really just need to add flow. Most people do use some sort of mechanical filtration (like a filter sock), but it's not required. So, in your tank, you'll almost certainly want to ditch the sponge filter for something that provides more flow. You can get some tiny, tiny powerheads that would work, but I might recommend picking up a HOB filter. The Aquaclear brand is the best IMO (an AC30 would be great), but most small HOBs sized for 10-30 gallon tanks will work fine.

When you say you threw some brine shrimp in there, do you mean you added some frozen brine for a cycle, or that you put actually brine shrimp eggs into the tank?

I'd say this tank is pretty minimum in terms of fish, but a single small clown goby should do okay as long as the tank is well-cycled and mature before it's added. Weekly water changes will likely be a must, and it won't be the easiest tank to maintain, but it's certainly possible.

Thank you for your input,! With my current sponge filter, the bubbles make a current so strong that it actually lifts up the sand at the bottom of the tank. Is that the kind of flow I want or should I still get the other ones that are actively pouring out water? And I did attempt to raise brine shrimp, but not for the cycle. I have ammonia drops for that.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

Thank you for your input,! With my current sponge filter, the bubbles make a current so strong that it actually lifts up the sand at the bottom of the tank. Is that the kind of flow I want or should I still get the other ones that are actively pouring out water? And I did attempt to raise brine shrimp, but not for the cycle. I have ammonia drops for that.

I'd recommend using a plain airline over a sponge filter. Sponge filters tend to pick up a lot of gunk (by design), and in a FOWLR, you don't really want mechanical filtration that isn't easily cleaned, due to the sheer amount of mulm that's created, especially in such a small tank.