Thoughts on a small SW Aquarium

I have a 10 SW. No fish, just some inverts and a few corals. It requires nearly daily attention for topoff, but otherwise isn't much worse than a small FW setup in terms of cleaning and such. One note--it takes much longer to stabilize than a larger tank. And I've found very few people can resist the temptation to put a fish in, and I don't think most fish are appropriate for small tanks. There are lots of tidepools animals that will thrive in the instable environment, but no fish. The instability is not related to temperature control at all--it has to do with stable salinity and water conditions. As water evaporates, the salinity (and any ammonia, etc) stay behind and are concentrated, often creating lethal conditions. With a small volume of water, you can't afford to lose much water--even the evaporation from one day can cause lethal spikes.

If it's your first effort at a SW, I would encourage you start with something larger. SW tanks are not just 'harder' FW setups, and you'll want to learn the basics on something a bit more forgiving.

i set up a 10 gallon in may. i have mushroom corals, some yellow polyps, and various other corals, and two small (1inch) gold stripe maroons. it is amazing to look at and watch. i have some older pics on this website http://community.webshots.com/scrip...D=148446444&photoID=149111377&security=vcyqcV i get my camera back tommorrow, and will post some more pics.

anyways, its been stable, cleaning and water changes are a snap. i think the key with the smaller tanks is to not skimp on the live rock. you dont need very much, especially if you plan on adding corals, but you want to go for quality, not quantity. i would only add maybe 5 pounds to start, and i would try and get somethign that has hitchhikers.

nanos are fun, and i hope you give it a try, if you have any questions, let me know.

I have a 15gl with LR and DSB (skimmerless too), of course the only thing in it is a 6-7" Chocolate chip star fish, will pretty much eat anything else put into there.

There are some great forums out there on this topic. Fire 'nano reef' into Google and you'll see some amazing stuff.

I had a 2 gallon nano reef setup for about 6 months. You basically just need live rock, sand, lighting, a heater and a power head. It's pretty easy to setup and because of the size you can keep it almost anywhere.

However, unless you're very dedicated to water changes, top offs, etc etc it's very hard to keep everything alive and ticking and to keep it clear of alge. My tank was overrun with cyano eventually so I broke it down and turned it into a 20 gallon FOWLR (ok...well I still need fish... ).

I have a 20 long fishless nano that has been running fairly stable for a couple months now. I decided to add a skimmer after a slight incident (I accidentally left the powerhead unplugged for 18 hours. Nothing died but a lot of very nasty scum formed on the tank surface), but other than that it includes no external filtration. I did have two deaths, an emerald crab and an arrow crab, the former having no apparent cause, the latter was probaly from impact trauma when some live rock shifted.

I don't recommend that small of a tank even with freshwater. The minimum size that I recommend for anything is 10 gallons. Anyways good luck.