The Puffer Forum

When I get some extra money, im hoping to get a salt water tank. I want to get a 55 gallon or 40 long but the costs seem to add up to quite a bit lol. Based on experience, how hard is it for a beginner to have a 10 gallon marine tank? Also, Would I be able to have a clown fish in there?

It would be downright nightmarish. believe me i tried. you still have to find a protein skimmer that fits, make probably no less than 2 water changes per week to keep the salinity up, and stick with a shrimp or three and maybe a snail or two. you could put in a clown fish, but it would still be pretty confined. the most expensive part being the need for live rock.

The 10 g will probably be very pricey, it will be less, but still very expensive. Clown fish, I'd suggest no smaller than a 20 g long.

You can do it, that's why they call it a nano. But imo, smaller SW tank like a 10 gal. has problems staying stable. I never could keep one stable long enough. Now they do make little nano protein skimmers just for a tank that size and smaller. I will agree with seven about a 20L being more suitable, even a 20 deep will work. And if you want to keep clownfish then I would go to one of the 20 gallon's.

alrighty never mind then. Ill probably just spend the extra money and get a 40 long

I set up a 5 gal SW goldfish bowl. All said and done it was $180!

J-P wrote:I set up a 5 gal SW goldfish bowl. All said and done it was $180!

...then I found out goldfish don't live in SW...
jk

ROFL!!

Yea... can you say rip off!

wow lmao 180 bucks.. thats crazy

like J-P said it's going to cost somewhat and may sound like a rip off but thems the breaks in this hobby. I haven't posted here in a bit, just thought I'd add my 2 cents. You don't need a skimmer as long as you're doing a water change every week. IF you really want one, you can get the Oceanic biocube one that costs $35, it works after you fiddle around with it for a bit to get the best settings.

After the cost of the tank, the sand, the live rock, the lights (dependant on what you want to keep in your SW tank), the pumps, etc. it's not cheap to setup a saltwater tank of any size. I love to keep the pico and nano aquariums, I currently have 14g biocube, 5 gallon Marineland corner pico in my livingroom right now. So lets break the costs down:

10g Aquarium: $10 if on sale from Petco for $1 per gallon
10lbs of Liverock: I can get it from an LFS near me for $5 a lbs so that's - $50
10lbs (At least, personally I like a deeper sand bed so I'd go for 15 to 20, but that's just me) of Live sand - give or take $10 - $25 depending on where you go to get it.

In lieu of a skimmer on a tradional rectangular aquarium that small I would get an Aquaclear 20 hang on back filter this way the nice filter basket with the 3 chanbers so you can have: 1 for mechanic filtration (Filter Floss), 1 for biological filtration (the rocks that come with them are really porous and very nice and come in a nice micron bag), a small ball of Chaeto maybe or even a bag or Purigen, and 1 for chemical filtration (in here I'd put the smallest bag of chemi-pure elite):

$27 - $30 for the filter
$5 - $10 for the Chemipure Elite
$2-$5 for a big bag of polyester filter floss
$8 if you go the purigen route instead of Chaeto or bio filtration

1 AGA versa top over: $10

$40 for a stand

Koralia Nano pump: $30

Heater: $20

Maintenance kit: tube to syphon water for a water change, extra power head to mix salt, your salt mix, scrubbing pads to clean your glass.

Couple of 5g buckets from home depot (DON'T FORGET THE TOPS!!!) - $5.00 for 2 of them I believe

Now the price on lighting will higly depend on whether you want to go reef; but what's the use of nano if you're not going reef?

So you're going to need T5 HO (High Output) lights At the cheapest DECENT light will run you $80 for a NovaExtreme SLR

Total:

Give or take $375.

Or you can get a nice All in one system by Oceanic or JBJ which will cover most of everything on this list. The 14g Biocubes run about $170 new 24g JBJ Nanocube is about $225 all that would need is the circulation pump, the Live rock, Live sand, heater, home depot buckets.

Personally I'd go with one of the Biocubes or Nanocubes. They have a smaller foot print than the 10g tanks, the initial startup cost is within $50 of the 10g and they offer a better variety of livestock. I wouldn't put a clown in the 10g but could house a pair easily in the 24g nanocube, I know people that house a pair in the 14Gs.

In the 10g you're looking at livestock options of your cleanup crew, cleaner shrimp, and a couple of hermit crabs, and a yellow watchman goby, or similar and that's it.

Now thats why I had to stop with SW tanks years ago because of the cost of the up keep, 3 kids, sick wife, and you name it. But if you got the money, single, or dont have so much on you then go for it. Because it sure is a big up keep. Im not saying not to do it but you got to have the money, time, and commitment to successfully own a SW that. Much more of an up keep then a FW, imo.