# Small Saltwater Tank General Advice



## evanjames (Mar 5, 2013)

Hey everyone. I may soon get a 20 gallon tank, and I have a few questions. I think I will put some saltwater fish, no coral, in it. I might, however, put a bunch of freshwater shrimp and snails in it. I know saltwater would be more expensive, but how much more? And what things would I need in saltwater that I wouldn't need in freshwater?
Thanks


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

For saltwater, it is much harder to keep a tank that small stable than a freshwater.
If it's your first try with fish, start easy, and work your way up to the harder things. 

Saltwater is MUCH more expensive than fresh. A set up that small could cost you a few 100$ more than fresh, depending on your livestock.


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## evanjames (Mar 5, 2013)

I currently have a 55 gallon with African cichlids, and I would not really consider myself too much of a beginner. If I got saltwater, how much more would a fish only tank with some clownfish be compared to a well planted tank with a bunch of shrimp?


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

It's going to be much more expensive, a 55 gallon tank still requires live rock, around 50 lbs of it, at about 4 bucks a pound.

Then you need salt, a protein skimmer, live sand, and taking into account that the fish are more expensive as well

I have spend well over 2000 on my 90 gallon tank, well over, I don't even want to think about it.

Saltwater is much different from cichlids, which are actually some of the easiest fish to keep. You'd be going from beginner to expert just like that. I would suggest doing a lot of research on what you want and come back with some more educated questions so we can steer you more in the right direction.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Whoa, whoa, whoa... pure fish-only with standard filtration needs only salt & a hydrometer


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Not sure where I read that you have a 55 gallon tank haha

TOS is right, with a small tank like you have you can get away with normal filtration, salt, live sand, and a hydrometer. And that's with a very lightly stocked tank.

I would recommend you go the freshwater route though, it will be cheaper, easier, and less of a headache. A 20 gallon saltwater tank can be highly unstable if you don't remain on top of it.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

evanjames said:


> Hey everyone. I may soon get a 20 gallon tank, and I have a few questions. I think I will put some saltwater fish, no coral, in it. I might, however, put a bunch of freshwater shrimp and snails in it. I know saltwater would be more expensive, but how much more? And what things would I need in saltwater that I wouldn't need in freshwater?
> Thanks


Expect to spend at least a couple thousand (not hundreds) dollars. Saltwater aquaria keeping is expensive. Equipment you will need:

RO/DI unit
ATO (auto top off unit)
a very good refractometer - not the swing arm hydrometer
skimmer
LR is your boilogical filter
freshwater shrimp and snails will surely die. Get saltwater variety. Hermits, etc...

You will only put 1 or 2 small fish (firefish, a pair clownfish, small gobies are good examples)

You can add 1 shrimp- cleaner shrimp Coral Banded shrimps tend to get aggressive at times.

Most important thing for you to do is read and research EVERYTHING that's involved in saltwater aquaria keeping. A good start is by reading The Conscientious Marine Aquarist. For nano tank set-up, read The Nano Reef Handbook.


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## DarwinAhoy (Mar 13, 2013)

I wouldn't even really recommend much in the way of clownfish for this size tank. They get bigger than you think, and a worse attitude than you think as well. Small gobies, small basslets, small dottybacks, some of the dartfish, some cardinals, and assessors are options. There are also some of the more advanced things, like seahorses/pipefish and anglers/frogfish that could be kept in there.

I would look at a heavy duty filter. Protein skimmer, while not totally necessary, is a good idea. Same goes for the RO/DI. I consider live rock to be essential. You will also need a separate container with a pump and heater to premix your saltwater for water changes.


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## evanjames (Mar 5, 2013)

Haha I feel dumb, I didn't mean to put freshwater. I was planning to get both DI water and salt water pre-made from a reliable local fish store. I really like cardinalfish, could I possibly get a cardinalfish like this one - http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+26+2672&pcatid=2672 ? Maybe with a firefish? Could I have a peppermint shrimp, and a bunch of hermit crabs and/or snails along with that?


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## DarwinAhoy (Mar 13, 2013)

That stocking is okay, though the cardinal may eventually eat the peppermint shrimp.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

You can do fine with a single clownfish and that's it. Of course a shrimp is doable with the clownfish. A single pair of Occelleris clowns will be fine providing they're the only fish in the tank. Yes you may have aggression issues but it can be tolerable. Wear gloves when cleaning the tank. LOL! Other clownfish species such as Tomatoes - no.


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## PostShawn (Dec 22, 2009)

I started small and now I'm setting up my 70g because it will be so much easier to take care of (not any cheaper though). I started with a 12g nano cube. It was cool but quickly learned I needed more room and more rock. So I setup a 29g I had for the saltwater. You can do SW with a nice HOB filter like a AquaClear but you still need other stuff too.

On my small SW tanks I had just the tank and about 15 lbs of live rock. I had some small problems, fish not doing well, algae growth like crazy, etc. And that cube even comes with a good light fixture. So I realized I needed a skimmer. Got that in there and it helped but I needed more help. I eventually moved to the 29 from the 12g and added another 15lbs of live rock. That alone along with the more space and water helped out a lot. I strongly believe the live rock is the best filter out there but you still need other filtering help too. So things were smooth but then more fish problems. I then tuned up my skimmer a bit and also added a UV light and it's been a lot better. It's a lot of maintenance even on the 29g. Just checking parameters, not having room really for a good sump which can house a better skimmer, needing better lighting, etc. So that's when I decided to go even bigger. I'm still buying and planning for the bigger tank so I won't go into detail on the equipment on that as I've yet to get half of it. But for piece of equipment I have I'm basically upgrading and going bigger on it all. 

For the small tanks the equipment I needed just to get things running the best I can was as follows:
- Live rock from a store $5-8/lb. (You need live rock and that can get expensive too. Ideally you should have about 1-1.5lbs per gallon of your tank.)
- Skimmer (i got a biocube one which sucks) $50-150+
- UV light $40-100+. (I highly recommend this. It will help with things like parasites and other problems. It's not a solution alone for anything but it's added help.)
- Power head. $30-60. (one is needed for a small tank. The bigger you go the more or larger you need of them. This will create flow needed in the tank). 
- Lighting $15-200+. (I started with a 50/50 bulb in my normal cheap light fixture from my old FW setup. This was ok. But the light was better with the T5 setup in my 12g cube. The light from the cube doesnt work on the 29g. But the used setup of equipment I got for the bigger tank came with a cheap LED light which is working a lot better. But cheap I mean that light is about $150. I will purchase better lighting down the road though). 
- Water $3-10/week. (You will need new water on hand at all times in case you need to do a water change or have an emergency ((need to setup a QT or whatever)) and you can NOT use tap for SW. So either you get an RODI setup ($100-300) and salt mix and a pump and make your own, or you keep a few 5g jugs always stocked and on hand. I keep two 5g jugs of saltwater and one 5g of freshwater which is RO, not tap)
- Test kits. $30+ another $30 for the different additives needed on hand. (I rarely had to or bothered to test my FW setup and it always did fine. But with SW you really should have a kit on hand and test weekly, daily if any problems. So it's more of a time investment then money for this. Then knowing what to do if parameters are out of whack can be anything from water changes to adding chemicals or additives to stabilize the water's parameters.)
- Saltwater tester. $10-100. (some will argue the little plastic float testers are fine. And some will say you need a real Salinity Refractometer. I started with the float tester and then got the Salinity Refractometer just so I can dial in the measurement and little more accurate. I learned the float tester was off by a point or two which could be a big deal to some fish or corals. 
- Then there is more maintenance which is similar to FW work. I replace my chemi-pure carbon every 3 months and that's about $16 for that. I do a variety of foods including flake and frozen. etc.


That's my experience. I didn't know all those things starting out and I literally was going to the store every weekend to figure out which piece of equipment I needed next or what test I needed to do or what needs to be change or maintained better.

My advice is if you are worried about money spent on it then don't do it right now. If you have some money to spend then go for it. For a 20g I would say be prepared to spend at least $400-600 for everything from tank setup to fish with the minimum of all the things mentioned above. 


Good luck.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

On a 20 gallon tank, I'd get the Hydor Koralia nano skimmer, a decent 100W heater, a MaxiJet 1200 Pro powerhead, some rock, your basic test kit from the pet store, and some sand. Then you can just buy distilled water from the supermarket (although used RO systems are cheap on Craigslist). If you want corals, you'd be able to get away with two 3W PAR38 bulbs for lighting, and a $40 refractometer (measures salinity verses water density) would do you well. Done.

That should be in the neighborhood of $500. Not too bad... If you monitor Craigslist, you'll find many full setups in the 50-90 gallon range being sold for about the same price though. I'd go used.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

A UV Sterilizer is not really a must-have. A nice-to-have, yes but not a must-have. Save your money on it particularly for smaller tanks.

Distilled watre can get expensive. Bythe time you spend all that money on distilled water alone, you'd spend just as much if you bought an RO/DI unit.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Ice said:


> Distilled watre can get expensive. Bythe time you spend all that money on distilled water alone, you'd spend just as much if you bought an RO/DI unit.


Ding Ding!


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