10 gallons. $100

What about live rock and/or live sand? You need more than just salt.

You will need about 10-15lbs each of sand and LR. You can find LR online for around $4 a lb. Check your lfs also, but mine sell theres for $9 a lb. Check bulkreefsupply.com, they sell dry rock for about $2.5 a lb, but it will take longer for your tank to establish. Maybe a mix of dry and live to keep cost down. Sand will be around $20 for aragonite. You can get pulverized limestone at Home Depot for $5 but its VERY dusty. Any time you touch the sand it will cloud the tank. Hope that helps.

Dont forget aboout water changes. You'll have to have enough salt to mix up to do them, or buy pre'mixed saltwater from your lfs.

Lets see I'm no reef expert but I am looking in to starting a tank too. It has been recommended to me to go with a 30 gallon or above, because SW tanks are less forgiving of unstable water parameters. If you do this right from the start, it will end up costing you less money down the road. Say you buy a something shoddy just to save money, you'll just need to spend more money to replace it. Also, if you do more research and get the bigger tank, you might be able to keep that mantis shrimp you love. Here's a list I have so far:

-live rock @ the rate of 1.5 lbs per gallon

-Aragonite sand

-protein skimmer (clean before use)-must for a beginner. The good quality ones seem to be $100 on their own

-submersible heater- under $20

-salt mix

-RO/DI water- you will either have to buy jugs of this or buy an RO/DI unit that converts your water. You would save more money in the long run if you buy the unit. As you are trying to use a small tank you'll need to do lot of water changes

-lighting -do more research as to what your desired coral needs.

-25x water circulation achieved through powerhead or other means

-Reef test kit- $ 30 very very important. You need reef specific tests kits so you can monitor calcium among other things. (Also, i looked at your coral just briefly and you might need to add trace elements to your water. So you'll need to buy the trace elements and probably a test kit for them too)

-refractometer-ensures your water has the proper specific gravity. These things are definitly over $30 new.

-background or paint the back of your tank to make your corals stand out more


Since I figure you don't have a store in your area that sells these things (you eluded to it in your post asking where to buy a coral. Stores who sell corals sell this stuff) You probably need to factor in shipping costs too.

I think you would have a really tough time with even a nano reef tank on that budget...everything Ashley Kimball mentioned is necessary for a reef tank. Like she said, a refractometer alone (necessary to accurately measure salinity) is $30-$50, not to mention live rock, test kits, powerheads, protein skimmer, RO/DI water, correct lighting....I'm not sure exactly how much $$ that is, but a lot more than $100, and that doesn't include the tank itself, or the corals. Salt water is an expensive hobby, that's the reason I haven't gotten into it myself yet.