Completely discouraged...

[YaBuddyHuddie]

After a few days of researching, people on the net are making it seem impossible to make a reef tank smaller than 30 gallons. It seems absurd to me. I have never kept saltwater but am very experienced in freshwater. I started off wanting to make a 3-5 gallon pico reef with one small fish and easy corals, but nooooooo it's impossible. Then I decided that I might look into making my empty 10 gallon a nano reef. Apparently not only is it nearly impossible, but will also cost me $500 to setup a 10 gallon saltwater tank. I'm just asking if someone can explain to me why it's impossible to do a 3-10 gallon saltwater tank. And if it's not impossible, can someone please explain every single step and how much it'll cost to set one of these up? If I could do a 3 gallon with one small fish, I'd be extremely happy. I've been looking into the 3 gallon pico kits, and this is what I truly want. Somebody please enlighten me.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Very possible. Not easy but definitly doable. Just buy a fluval 5 setup, get a new light that you can hang (maybe a really small led setup for around 50 bucks) and your pretty much done. You just gotta buy sand, rock, and fill it up and your fine. Could cost around 150 bucks maybe a bit more to complete, not including livestock and it depends on what kind of light you want.

 

[Abno10]

I'm just starting out in salt water myself,and I bought the fluval edge tank 12gallon,12 kg liverock 2 bags of live sand,and salt water,all costing about 400 euro,that's with out a fish or coral!!!!!

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

Very possible. Not easy but definitly doable. Just buy a fluval 5 setup, get a new light that you can hang (maybe a really small led setup for around 50 bucks) and your pretty much done. You just gotta buy sand, rock, and fill it up and your fine. Could cost around 150 bucks maybe a bit more to complete, not including livestock and it depends on what kind of light you want.

What about this tank? What kind of corals/fish/inverts could I keep? How hard would it be? How much would it cost me? Do I need any extra equipment? I don't have room for much else is the main reason. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15493
Please help.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Ok well for that specific tank you could probably have a few inverts like peppermint shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, or 1 fire shrimp. As for fish you have very limited options, the best choice is probably clown gobies (there are many kinds).
Including the cost of that tank and everything to keep it running i would estimate around 150 dollars which really isnt that expensive. If i were you i would replace the lights for higher light corals. I dont know much about lights for small tanks like this, but i have heard good things about the par lights. Dont worry about maintaining it, i would suggest a 1 gallon water change every week. No additional equipment would be needed, but you will need a few pounds of sand to make it 1-2" deep and probably 3 pounds of rock (2 pounds of base rock and 1 pound of live rock would be cheapest). Any other questions dont be afraid to ask

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

Hm. So the lights that come with the tank aren't sufficient? If they aren't it seems pretty purposeless to buy this kit. If I had to buy new lights I'd probably look into a bit bigger tank. I just like this kit. And is it possible to have a fire fish in this tank? Will the filter it includes work? I also need to know what other equipment might be necessary.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Hm. So the lights that come with the tank aren't sufficient? If they aren't it seems pretty purposeless to buy this kit. If I had to buy new lights I'd probably look into a bit bigger tank. I just like this kit. And is it possible to have a fire fish in this tank? Will the filter it includes work? I also need to know what other equipment might be necessary.

Im not a light guru, so i cant tell you for sure if it will support high light corals, but im sure various soft corals would be fine. The kit is good in my opinion. Yes even though you have a filter you will still need to do water changes, if we had self sufficent tanks this wouldnt be a very demanding or fun hobby. You will only need a nano powerhead to give the corals flow, maybe 50-100 gph would be fine but im sure the filter output will have alot of flow. Sorry but a firefish needs a bigger tank :/

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

Im not a light guru, so i cant tell you for sure if it will support high light corals, but im sure various soft corals would be fine. The kit is good in my opinion. Yes even though you have a filter you will still need to do water changes, if we had self sufficent tanks this wouldnt be a very demanding or fun hobby. You will only need a nano powerhead to give the corals flow, maybe 50-100 gph would be fine but im sure the filter output will have alot of flow. Sorry but a firefish needs a bigger tank :/

So if you were to stock this tank, corals, inverts and fish, how would you do it?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

1 cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, 5 hermits, 5 smails, 1 turbo snail, 1 yellow clown goby.

Gsp
Mushrooms
Kenya tree
Various palys/zoas
Duncan
1 hammer coral
1 frogspawn
1 torch

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

Are there absolutely no other types of fish to have in this tank?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

I never said that. I said that i would get a yellow clown goby, but the options are very limited. You could get a neon goby, other small gobys, and there are probably others

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

But basically only gobies? Lol. I guess I'm cool with that, my main interest is coral. It's so beautiful to me lol. And I just love the thought of having a small piece of paradise on my desk.

 

[Beengirl]

You could get a few sexy shrimp, too. they're very cute the way they wiggle their butts. and clown go use are cute. I have a green citron clown goby- here's a bad pic of him. He's green/red.

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

You could get a few sexy shrimp, too. they're very cute the way they wiggle their butts. and clown go use are cute. I have a green citron clown goby- here's a bad pic of him. He's green/red.

Do you have a nano?

 

[Beengirl]

The clown goby is in my 30g FOWLR. I also have a 55g reef.

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

I see. Now I'm thinking I might go with the aqueon evolve 8

 

[Beengirl]

I see. Now I'm thinking I might go with the aqueon evolve 8

Yep. That seems to be how it goes with this hobby. Lol. As soon as you get one tank decided on, you want a bigger tank. I started with 55g, then added the 30g, now planning on a 125g within next year. lol.

 

[Readingexcalibur]

I have a 3g pico on my desk. It has a bunch of coral and a clown goby. I have had it set up for a year now. No problems at all. In fact, it is the original picotope. 40$ buys you a 9w light, filter, and tank.

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

I have a 3g pico on my desk. It has a bunch of coral and a clown goby. I have had it set up for a year now. No problems at all. In fact, it is the original picotope. 40$ buys you a 9w light, filter, and tank.

That's a nice setup. I just think I might want a fire fish or clownfish now and it seems a 3g isn't suitable for them.

 

[YaBuddyHuddie]

Also if I was gonna go with one of the 3 gallon kits I'd probably get the Tom Deco one, it has an 18w light and a bigger filter from what I understand.