# want to switch to saltwater!!!



## connord182 (Sep 21, 2006)

ok so i have a ten gallon laying around at home and i want to turn it into a little salt water aquarium. nothing to big, but i want to try it out. i just wanted to know how much would it cost to set up a good saltwater aquarium for my 10 gal. (do i need a certain filter? how much salt to buy? coral?) any help on getting started is appreciated.


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## trreherd (Aug 7, 2006)

sence nobody else wanted to respond i will
that all depends what do you want to keep?
do you want corals?-If so you will need special lighing($70)
If you only want some fish and a few shrimps than its cheap.
the live rock in a 10 gallon would be 70 bucks if purchased off liveaquaria(thats were i would get it) 
The salt would be cheap($40 worth would last you a long time)
No you do not need a certain filter
Oh i see it looks like you stated that you wanted coral. for the pricing on coral you can make it however much you want it to be.


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## connord182 (Sep 21, 2006)

k thanks! if i did anything, it would just get like a few fish. i dont know if i would want to keep coral cause that sounds a little hard. i would maybe try to get fake coral? i dont know really. just fish and salt is all it sounds like i need. so hopefully it wouldnt be too exspensive!


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Hi Connord.:wave:

You are given the option of which marine system you really want to keep.
Fish only, FOWLR, mixed community reef, full on reef(if reef do you keep soft corals, LPS, or mainly SPS)

I would suggest Chromis caerulea as your starting fish. Amphiprion ocellaris is also another option but I like it better if they are kept with anemones. And as I've been reading in this section, some marine enthusiasts will suggest bubble anemone as the only anemone fit for a small tank.

There's a thread by Nick in Saltwater Pictures and Videos. It contains everything about his 10 gallons marine tank.

Good luck.:thumbsup:


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

For a 10g I would concentrate mainly on corals, not fish. Not to many fish that I would recommend for such a small tank. Maybe a Panda goby if available, about $50. Or tiger/fusa gobies for about $20. I'd try to fill it with mushrooms and zoas. Maybe some small LPS like hammers, frogspawn, torch or galaxia. A handful of hermits, snails and one white sand shifting star. One sixline wrasse would be plenty of fish. I'd at least look into either a nice canister (Eheim 1213) or a HOT (like whisper) to add some currents if not adding a powerhead.


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## trreherd (Aug 7, 2006)

I agree with mike that in a 10 gallon you should not expect much out of fish but you should focus more on coral and inverts. now this dosent meen you cant have cool pets in there. in a ten gallon you could keep a couple shrimp. Here are some shrimp that you could keep that are beutiful looking-fire shrimp-pistol shrimp-cleaner shrimp-sexy shrimp- peperment shimp.In my opinion these shrimp are better looking than a lot of fish. Plus i have seen them in a store and they are quite active.


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## connord182 (Sep 21, 2006)

so if im gonna focus more on coral than fish, could that get exspensive? i do have a kinda tight budget that fluxuates a lot (im only 15. no job!). so i could go for corals and invertabrae's. but i have a couple q's about the coral. first, are they hard to keep? like do you need to have perect water conditions and everything? and also, how much would it cost for one to start off with?


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## Nick (Aug 2, 2006)

trreherd said:


> sence nobody else wanted to respond i will
> that all depends what do you want to keep?
> do you want corals?-If so you will need special lighing($70)
> If you only want some fish and a few shrimps than its cheap.
> ...


Actually the lighting part is wrong if you want to grow corals. I also have a little ten gallon nano which i just recently got up and running. I have adequate lighting in my nano and it wasnt no 70$. It's lighting that I am able to grow most corals too. It's just a 50/50 fluorscent bulbs. I have the ten gallon hood so there two screw in type bulbs. They were about 12.00$ a piece. So its not to expensive  

I cant really tell you if its easy or hard because I had it easy and already got cycled water and very expertiese live rock. 

Nick


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

Nick you may be keeping corals under that light but I wonder how they will do in the long run. They may be slowly wasting away. I'd recommend a fixture with at least 50w of T5 or PC lighting. corals won't be very expensive. I'd suggest making friend with local reefers. PM me your location and I'll help you search for contacts.


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## trreherd (Aug 7, 2006)

Nick sure you may be able to keep low light coral in your tank but i think if he relly wants to have a serious reef tank he should get some serious lighting.
And by the way connord182 Im only 13(14 in two weeks!) and im setting up a 15 gallon reef. i plan on spending a few hundred wonce the tank is fully stocked. I just purchased a light that set me back $107 
No in a 10 gallon you dont need ''perfect water conditions'' cause you probly wont be keeping sensitive coral(some of the sensitive coral i dont think are that good looking anyway)
if you want someone here to give you accurate pricing for a ten gallon you need to tell us what you already have.(a tank,a canapy,a powerfilter,ect)I think a 10 gallon nano reef is defenetly in the budjet of a 15 year old(keep in mind christmas is a month away :brow: 
If you are unfimiliar with these terms than google them so you can better comunicate with the people here
live rock
live sand
actanic lighting
biofiltration
salinity
hydrometer
and some other stuff i cant think of rite now


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## trreherd (Aug 7, 2006)

Oh ya i almost forgot if you relly dont want to spend alot of money you could keep a mantis shrimp. They are the most agresve marine carnivors i know of. For a mantis tank you can use regulare flourecent bulbs or even incendecent,a powerfilter, sand, and some live rock. You can feed them live crabs or frozen food and watch them ripp them apart. They have these arms that they smack there prey with at a super speed that the force exerted has been compared to a 22 rifle. They have even been known to break aquairum glass!

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?ddid=12604&siteid=20


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## usmc121581 (Jul 31, 2006)

caferacermike is correct. your corals might look like they are doing good for now, but could be dieing from lack of light. When I went from 265 watts on a 120gal to 700watts for a 120 gal the corals at first didn't like it and I thought I did something wrong. Now they are the happiest I have seen They are just full of life. I not telling you to go out a buy the most expensive light, but you should be pushing more watts through the water. I am going to put the 24" coral life on my sons 20gal nano and start putting my leathers and poylps in there. I would never recoccomend a 50/50 to anyone that is keeping more then mushrooms or some types of leathers.


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