# Ideas for a 5 gallon tank?



## Albtraum (Dec 23, 2009)

My girlfriend came across a 5g tank at a yard sale and it's super clean and has the hood, a small air pump, and a big external filter. However I don't know what is suitable for such a small aquarium, and something that she would like. I was thinking some guppies or tetras, but not sure how many I can put in, but it has a filter almost the same size I have on my 29gallon. A planted tank would be nice, don't want to spend the money on the lights required for live plants... I know she's picky with fish and thinks most are ugly. So yeah looking for any input about what all can be done with a 5g.


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## archer772 (Nov 8, 2008)

I might add a couple Otos and maybe a Betta and then a couple small low light plants


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

shrimp and plants


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## joejoe1055 (Nov 23, 2009)

iwould go for 1 or 2 small plants, some shrimp, maybe 2 platies or guppys


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

I would get out the SW salt, buy a bag of live sand and add about 5-6 lbs of choice live rock, a Nova Extreme T-5 2 tube light and start getting some small coral frags, like Ricorida, Zoanthids, Xenia, Pavona ect... Tis would be such a easy reef tank to pull off with minimal investment. But then I guess it wouldnt be a FW tank then would it?

But realistically if FW is your thing, then I like the idea of a couple of Otos, Guppies/Betta and a couple of low light plants. That should make for a pretty nice looking display with a little color and texture to boot too!


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## spawn (Sep 21, 2009)

you can add 1 betta or a school or 5-6 neon tetras or you can keep few danios or platys...


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## Albtraum (Dec 23, 2009)

Imaexpat2 said:


> I would get out the SW salt, buy a bag of live sand and add about 5-6 lbs of choice live rock, a Nova Extreme T-5 2 tube light and start getting some small coral frags, like Ricorida, Zoanthids, Xenia, Pavona ect... Tis would be such a easy reef tank to pull off with minimal investment. But then I guess it wouldnt be a FW tank then would it?
> 
> But realistically if FW is your thing, then I like the idea of a couple of Otos, Guppies/Betta and a couple of low light plants. That should make for a pretty nice looking display with a little color and texture to boot too!


I could get live rock and salt from my brother's 55gal reef, but the T-5 lighting is out of the question. This post did make me consider SW though.


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

> I could get live rock and salt from my brother's 55gal reef, but the T-5 lighting is out of the question. This post did make me consider SW though.


Its a pretty cheap light fixture at liveaquaria.com at about 51.00 fun dollars plus shipping....not free but very reasonably priced.


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## korweabo0 (Dec 16, 2009)

i'd say go with the oto's and betta combo.


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## Crycoman (Nov 18, 2008)

Im not sure how accurate this is but I have herd that with smaller tanks such as a 5 gallon tanks if something goes wrong with one first it will get to the other fish very fast because of the smaller size of the tank...soo just be carefull dont want to anything bad to happen good luck!


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## joejoe1055 (Nov 23, 2009)

keep us updated


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

> Im not sure how accurate this is but I have herd that with smaller tanks such as a 5 gallon tanks if something goes wrong with one first it will get to the other fish very fast because of the smaller size of the tank...soo just be carefull dont want to anything bad to happen good luck!


All the more reason to skip the fish and just have corals! Many corals are pretty resilant, although the more stable you can keep the water the better. In a tank this small doing a SW tank, keeping the specific gravity steady would be the hardest challange when it comes to water parameters.


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## BlueSaphire (Nov 3, 2009)

I would recommend a minnow or 2 or a few guppies.


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