10 gallon tank?

[Dicky]

Is it possible to have a 10gallon salt water tank. I have only seen large tanks set up for salt water. If it is possible what are the requirements and equipment need to do this. The tank would just be for fish.

[OrionGirl]

Small SW tanks are possible, but are tougher to maintain than larger systems. One of the primary problems is keeping a small tank stable--something as simple as evaporation can crash a small tank pretty quickly. All the things that happen slowly in larger systems (like ammonia spikes) can happen overnight in a small tank. The other difficulty in small tanks is finding appropriate stock. Most inverts are fine, but most readily available fish will outgrow a 10. Even small fish often require a large spaces for territory or food production.

I don't recommend small tanks for beginners. Get used to keeping 50 or so gallons stable, and then try the smaller stuff.

[Wazzucycler]

Originally posted by Dicky
Is it possible to have a 10gallon salt water tank. I have only seen large tanks set up for salt water. If it is possible what are the requirements and equipment need to do this. The tank would just be for fish.

Hi,

I am currently on week 2 of my cycling of a 10 gallon (nano)tank. When I began doing research into the salty side of aquariums I was suprised to find out how common nano tanks are. Ive even heard of 1 to 2.5 gallon tanks! Im using the same concepts as the larger tanks. I have a deep sand bed with a bunch of live rock. I am going to be putting corals into my tank next summer after I get sufficient lighting (looking at a 64 watt system for my 10 gallon). For setup of a fish only system I would look into using natural filtration by sand and live rock. You might wanna check out nano-reef.com as well.

Jeff

[tricksterpup]

I am with Orion girl on this, I would go with a larger tank until you learn the ropes with a larger tanks. My first sw was a used 30 gallon tank 20 years ago (heheh my nephew is using that very same tank today), I feel these are great starter tanks. I know many people have ran small nanos but these people have experience with running a sw tank.
If you can, find a used 30 gallon (or higher tank) and give that a try. But if this is just to big for your room, I would try this tank (jbj nano cube) a try. They are very nice, If I had the room for another small setup, i would go with this setup. It is much nicer than the Marine land 12 gallon setup. It is glass and the light is a higher wattage. But if you do a small tank, i would use atleast 20 pounds of live rock.

http://www.jbjlighting.com/sys_nanocube.html