# questions about saltwater tank



## dylanfish (Oct 3, 2010)

HI 
I would love to do a saltwater tank a 10 gallon fish only how much would every thing cost if i did that like the lighting and everything and would i have to get a subpump???


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## cbirk (Feb 5, 2010)

This is my own personal opinion, as I once attempted a 10g saltwater aquarium,

Unless your planning on dealing with invertebrates, etc, a 10g is not worth the effort to maintain a saltwater tank with what you can put in it. Ok people fire away at me haha.


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## dylanfish (Oct 3, 2010)

lol well then if thats true i wont ever do it bc im not spending 1000 dollars on a tank!!


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## cbirk (Feb 5, 2010)

I think even just jumping up to a 20 gal greatly increases what you can keep.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

dylanfish said:


> lol well then if thats true i wont ever do it bc im not spending 1000 dollars on a tank!!


Well, post your budget and we can go from there. ;-)


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

dylanfish said:


> lol well then if thats true i wont ever do it bc im not spending 1000 dollars on a tank!!


Actually, depending on the species you keep, the difference in a tank with inverts or corals, as compared to fish only, would be rather small, especially for a 10 gallon tank.

That being said, the idea of keeping such a small aquarium for your fish marine setup and attempting to do so with inverts or corals is probably more than most people should attempt. I would personally suggest that you stick with your initial idea, which can be done rather inexpensively.

I agree, a budget would be the starting place in this conversation.


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## dylanfish (Oct 3, 2010)

yea but i still got to spend over 1000 buks ill stick with freshwater.. my figure 8 puffer in my african tank is doing really well..!!


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## cbirk (Feb 5, 2010)

you should still see what you can spend, and then keep an eye out for sales, or craigs list, or people moving etc, see if you can make a good deal.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

dylanfish said:


> yea but i still got to spend over 1000 buks ill stick with freshwater.. my figure 8 puffer in my african tank is doing really well..!!


I think Pasfur's point was that you DON'T have to spend $1,000 to keep a smaller nano type reef or FOWLR.


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## cbirk (Feb 5, 2010)

I would also like to point out that my original post, was not meant to say you can not have a 10 gal saltwater tank, only that I personally don't consider the extra work of cleaning salt deposits, and keeping proper salinity, etc worth the enjoyment of a 10 gal saltwater tank. I am sure there are plenty of people here that will disagree with me. It is all about personal choice. I hope that I did not discourage you from attempting, I was only trying to suggest that one size up on the tank wouldn't cost you very much more and the value vs cost becomes worth while. Again in my opinion. 

As far as inverts go, a friend of mine enjpyed keeping live rock, snails and some sort of worm/centipede things that lived in the live rock. She kept it in a 10 gal, and was fairly simple upkeep. So thats what that reference was about.


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## dylanfish (Oct 3, 2010)

well i wanted to do a 5 gallon reef tank but i wanted to put 1 clown fish in there i kno its to small to fit that would be nice...


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## small fry (Oct 14, 2010)

Ideally, clownfish should be kept in pairs. I think 5 gallons is abit small imo. I have heard that a Royal Gramma will do fine in a 10g tank, so long as your up for the maintanence. I wouldn't think it would cost anywhere near $1000 to setup a small 10g.

(small fry is back into SW!)


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## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

*hmmm*

i run a pretty succesfull ten gallon that cost about 45 dollars in equipment..a basic ten gallon stup heater,hang on back filter, incandecent light,glass top.i put two 27 watt 6500 kelvin bulbs in each fixture.i would run a filter that is rated much higher filteration for the ten gallon.but most importantly is that i stocked my tank properly and stuffed it full of live rock ...biological filteration can work wonders.as well as thee proper clean up crew..in one of my ten gallons i have blue damsels ,yellow watchmen gobies,algae blenny,serpent stars,decorator crab,margaritas,nasarius,bumblbee,trochus snails,blue leg hermits,emerald crabs,yellow palythoas,various discasomas,and zoas..any how it is possible to run a cheap ten gallon but research before you do anything.and stock slow.dont forget about the weekly water changes..and hydrometer,salt. skimmer if you can afford it to prolong water changes.


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## bigrift (Aug 30, 2010)

if you wana do a 10g tank i can almost garente you will upgrade to a larger one sooner than you originally planned to lol (i swore to my gf i would stick to only a 10g tank after 2 weeks i was setting up a 75g lol). 

but heres a way you can set up a 10g and not spend a ton of cash. 1st go to walmart and in the pets department and buy the 10g starter kit. it includes the tank hood filter (not sure about the heater but they are only 11$ at walmart) chemicals and i belive some food all for about 40$. if you have a petco in town you can get your salt for 10$ and substrate for around 13$ (if you go live sand thats about 20$) as for fish there are many things you can put in a 10g tank that cost only around 10$. hope this helps ya make up your mind.


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## dylanfish (Oct 3, 2010)

ok well thanks well dont i have to buy a special light for the live rock i needd live rock


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