Garbear27
Aquarium Advice Regular
I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank but want to start a small saltwater and need any suggestion on what i will need to do to get it up and going
austinsdad said:Our articles section will likely help you. Start there. Welcome to AA!!
uscamaro said:What do you plan on keeping in the SW tank? You can do FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) and you won't need that much to start with. Stock lights, sand, live/base rock, and a decent filter is pretty much all you need. You can start out with this and then see if you want to do corals in the future. Once corals get involved, you'll need to upgrade lighting (can get expensive), eventually get a protein skimmer, and make sure the tank has been running steadily for a few months.
Basically I'd start with a FOWLR until you can afford and start slowly piecing a reef together. That's what I'm doing.
abushr said:Mandarins need to be in a well established tank or they dont do well. They eat live copeopods living in the sand & on the rock. You still have lots to choose from, just make sure its something that remains small (fire gobies, yellow watchmab goby, mabe a dwarf angel, wrasse) you can even add a cleaner shrimp...love watching mine groom the fish. With something that small you might be able to do sea horses & a pipe fish. Nano tanks are really popular. You just have to be very vigilant about water quality....since they are so small it doesnt take much for it to have a fit and having your tank crash (no matter how big or tiny) is not a fun experience.
Good luck!
melosu58 said:If you are doing it to experiment I would do a larger tank. The more water volume the better and more forgiving your tank will be for problems or mistakes. Smaller nano`s need much more dilligence. Not saying it cant be done but it will harder. Just my experience. BTW the mandarin cant be done in a ten gallon tank unless you get one that is trained to eat prepared food.
Garbear27 said:Thanks this helps alot I'm just doing a little 10 gallon to experiment cuz I already have a 55 gallon freshwater is there any fish I shouldn't put in the tank I was thinking about just doing some goby's and those mandarin fish
melosu58 said:They dont need corals. FOWLR will be fine for them.
uscamaro said:Just to let you know, nanos are going to be much more difficult to maintain. Any minor fluctuation in the parameters could cause your tank to crash. You're going to want to do frequent water changes and definitely invest in a RO/DI unit. On the other hand, if you can master a SW nano, you should have no problem with 55+!