How to take care of saltwater aquariums, the fish, and reef animals (corals, clams and starfish)?
I have a 5 gal salt water aquarium with various reef fish, starfish, live corals and clams. (1) how do I best take care of them? (2) proper calcium dosage for the corals, clams, (3) which fish can be mixed together?
Not to sound rude because I'm not, just being honest, but you should've researched all that before you started the aquarium. Salt water tanks can be very difficult to maintain for a novice, and it can be an expensive disastrous lesson.
A 5 gallon SW tank should only be attempted by someone with lots of experience in SW, it's very difficult to maintain that size of a tank. And I can't think of any fish that would be suitable for that tank size.
I'd suggest browsing some fish forums for more/better information then you'd find here. Here's a few links for some forums I have saved:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/
http://www.aquariumboard.com/
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/index.php
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/
Some of those have special sections for beginners under the SW headings. Good luck!
Not to sound rude because I'm not, just being honest, but you should've researched all that before you started the aquarium. Salt water tanks can be very difficult to maintain for a novice, and it can be an expensive disastrous lesson.
A 5 gallon SW tank should only be attempted by someone with lots of experience in SW, it's very difficult to maintain that size of a tank. And I can't think of any fish that would be suitable for that tank size.
I'd suggest browsing some fish forums for more/better information then you'd find here. Here's a few links for some forums I have saved:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/
http://www.aquariumboard.com/
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/
Some of those have special sections for beginners under the SW headings. Good luck!
References :
A 5 gal is way to small for all of that. Salt water tanks especially reef tanks are very sensitive to waste in the water. Your best bet is to keep what coral you have and you may be able to keep one small fish such as a clown goby or a firefish. 5 gal is too small to sustain the starfish and clams get too large for a 5gal.
The correct calcium level for a reef tank is around 400 to 440 you need to test at least every couple of days in a tank that small and dose accordingly. There is not set dosing level as different coral use calcium at different rates.
If you are not familiar with the basics of reef keeping I would not recommend keeping a reef tank this small. The smaller the tank the more sensitive it is. Small reef tanks like this are best kept by experienced aquariumists
References :