Never Had a Salt Tank

[NinjaTetra]

I've never had a saltwater tank, but it seems cool. My main worries: 1-The fish need more room since they are generally from coral reefs somewhere, so instead of the 10 or 20 gallon tank I actually have space for, I would need like 75 gallons to start out, and 2- salt is expensive, coral and salt plants are expensive, the fish are all expensive.... You get the drift. So, I want to be proved wrong and shown that a 5-20 gallon tank can hold fish, and cost relatively the same as a similar sized freshwater tank. P.S. I may end up stealing the idea.


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[BigRedsReefs10]

My 10g nano reef



Live stock list includes
Red banded hi fin goby/ candy cane pistol shrimp

Pom pom crab, skunk cleaner shrimp, and a few snails and hermits

Possum wrasse



And lots of corals , mainly zoas, ricordea, some lps (acans, blastos, Duncan's, and euphies), and a couple sps.

Nanos aren't as hard as they seem as long as you can maintain a consistent weekly maintenance routine.

[NinjaTetra]

Thanks bigreds, this is just the type of thing I was looking for! Lol i doubt this will happen soon, but in the future I hope to have 3 or 4 freshwater tanks, and a nice nano reef like yours. The goby and shrimp are symbiotic right?


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[BigRedsReefs10]

Yep, fun little relationship to watch when they let you

[Mebbid]

Originally Posted by NinjaTetra

I've never had a saltwater tank, but it seems cool. My main worries: 1-The fish need more room since they are generally from coral reefs somewhere, so instead of the 10 or 20 gallon tank I actually have space for, I would need like 75 gallons to start out, and 2- salt is expensive, coral and salt plants are expensive, the fish are all expensive.... You get the drift. So, I want to be proved wrong and shown that a 5-20 gallon tank can hold fish, and cost relatively the same as a similar sized freshwater tank. P.S. I may end up stealing the idea.


Sent from my iPod touch using Aquarium Advice

Sorry to break it to you, but a fresh water tank won't even be close to the same price as a salt water tank.

Buying cheap dry rock will cost about $3 a pound. For a salt water tank thats $250 in rock alone if you go for the low amount of rock at 1lb per gallon.

Ro/di, testing equipment, refractometer, heater is gonna cost another $175ish on the cheap end

Substrate will be another $80 if you buy the cheaper stuff from Marco rocks.

A box of salt is gonna run $40 - $50

Powerheads are gonna cost another $100 ish depending on brand.

A used tank, stand, and light could be bought for another $200 or so on craigslist