10 gallon saltwater possible?

[spicyquesadilla]

I just obtained a 10 gallon tank from a friend who doesn't need it anymore. I was wondering if its possible for a 10 gallon saltwater? If so, what can I have in it and what do I need? I just have the tank itself, nothing else.

 

[wayne at home]

Yes its possible though not super easy. There are plenty of posts here with info and links, how much experience do you have?

 

[crook]

at my lfs at the front desk they have a 5g saltwater

 

[beaver8888]

ya they say 30G is the minuim if your a beginer in salt its very hard to keep anything below a 30G youd need alot of exp

 

[fishRmylife]

Smaller tanks are actually harder to keep than larger tanks, because it doesnt take much to change the water parameters in a smaller tank. If this is going to be your first saltwater tank, I suggest you get a larger tank to learn on, like a 40-50 gallon tank.

 

[1979camaro]

i am currently doing a 20g reef...it is my first sw as well, and i think it is going fairly well...i think the key to success with a nano is research research research beforehand because any mistakes can be catastrophes very easily in such a small volume of water...also, i hope you understand the limitations of such a small sw system...while a 10g in fw will support 5-10+ fish a 10g sw is best suited for one fish...maybe two depending on their size/waste production...i am not trying to discourage, just conveying information that i have

www.nano-reef.com has a lot of good info about such things as well

Kevin

 

[saltwatermolly]

my wife has a 10 gallon reef tank that she has done all by herself. here are some pictures. it has
1- mandrian
1- yellow damsel(seen in pic)
1- small cluster of green button polyps
many stalk xenias and pulsing xenias
3 types of macro algaes
10 pounds of small liverock chunks and rubble
about 4 pounds of live sand
10 bluelegs
5 margarita snails
1 marineland 330

this tank has been running for about 1 year and has survived a 3 day power outage with only loosing some of the original xenias.
well i cant seem to see where to upload the pics so im going to put the pics in a new thread named 10 gallon reef.

 

[wayne]

How are you feeding the manadarin?

 

[saltwatermolly]

it eats the reef bugs that are naturally in the rock.

 

[BrianH]

How long has the mandarin been in the 10gal?

Brian

 

[saltwatermolly]

about 9 months

 

[wayne]

And it's made 9 months in the 10 gallon just living on the bugs that are in the tank? That's pretty unusual

 

[saltwatermolly]

that is their diet. i dont mean bugs like the ones than might fall in the tank i mean tank bugs like misis shrimp and things like that.

 

[wayne]

OK, I know you mean mysis, copepods and so on, but you're saying it's made a year on the stuff from a 10 gallon with live rock, and with no supplemental feeding? I wouldn't have thought that's enough. I've never kept a mandarin, but I've seen how much stuff a 20L minireef will produce, and I wouldn't have thought that would keep anything going for a year.

 

[saltwatermolly]

i let my tank grow for a year befor adding it and the bugs were so thick and big that you could see them crawling all over the glass , rocks and sand in the daytime and at night if i shined a flashlight they would be swimming in the water so thickly it looked like a brine tank.