# 1 galon micro tank?



## chuby (May 4, 2009)

I have never had a salt water tank and don't want to go threw setting up a large tank just 4 it to fail. I know that this isn't a good starting place but, I'm operating on a budget that isn't huge, so I don't want to drop a ton of dough on a reverse osmosis machine or anything like that. 
I've been keeping fresh water fish 4 about 5 years, and have been very successful. I have kept Africans, jacks, tetras, plecos, catfish, gobies, loaches, rams, and of course guppy's and gold fish(when I was younger).


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Hmm, one gallon. Maybe a shrimp tank. But there are lots of awesome freshwater shrimp now available, it wouldn't need to be salt. I've seen beautiful little coral tanks, but they usually have very pricey lights.


----------



## predator (Jan 28, 2005)

How much are you willing to spend? $500?

If not dont do salt...

Even if you want a small tank (I currently have a 10 and with i was either smaller or larger) then i would recommend a 2.5 gallon... BEWARE!!!! Evap and chemicals are a HUGE issue... If i were going to do a tiny tank i would have it running off of atleas a 10 gallon sump and i would do my best to have every helpful peice of equip i could... Skimmers, fuge, and so on...

Lighting is expensive, but you can get something for under $100 that would work...

I dont want to turn you away... and a small tank with a few sexy shrimp and maybe a very small fish would be fine (people do it all the time), but it is a very unstable invironement and they are expensive to do... (I have around $600 all together in a 10 gallon with no skimmer)...

-me


----------



## chuby (May 4, 2009)

WOW,LOL, I think I'll just wait till I can get a bigger budget. This post was more out of curiosity than anything.
But thanks anyway.
SOMEDAY I will try a marine tank! ;D


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I see $10 damsels and get tempted.


----------



## predator (Jan 28, 2005)

Well from my experience the main issue is lighting...

If you want just a very basic "reef" you can get away with power compacts (which arent too expensive) or VHO's which arent to expensive when you are talking about a 2 gallon tank...

and you could honestly get away with a HOB filter, a light, some sand, and rock... Honestly have $100 invested... But you will have a very fragile ecosystem on your hands...

I very soon plan on settin up a 29 gallon and whn i do that i will prolly do a very small tank, but i will use the 29 as an expansion of the small tak to give the tank stability. If you are willing do add water ever 3 or 4 hours and you are religious with water changes and are very careful about the SG of yoru water and how much you feed and dont over stock... you can be very succesfull... But it does create a challenge...

I love pico tank and really want one (actually tired one once and never even got it off the ground). I dont want to discougrage you, but i would not do anything less that 10 gallons of water your first attempt... and even that is surprisingly unstable (a gallon of water will evaporate very quickly)

-me


----------



## Bear (Jun 8, 2006)

I would say to stay away from anything below 40 for your first SW tank. A 10, 2.5, 1, etc are just too small to start on. Yea it can be done, but its just a much better idea to start out a bit bigger. Just wait until you have the cash, probably about $1000 for everything to be of top quality. Its hard to wait, but if you start too small you very well might get frustrated and quit when all you needed was some prior experience maintaining a stable system.


----------



## petlovingfreak (May 8, 2009)

$10 for a damsel!? They are only like $3 here for damsels.


----------



## CollegeReefer (Sep 1, 2006)

If you stay away form a reef tank it isn't to costly. Damsels need a bigger tank than a 1 gallon tank. In my pico tank I only have some softies and inverts no fish. If you want to try salt water you can just do a FOWLR tank which will keep your cost down. It is when you get into corals when cost go up.


----------



## jrm402 (Jan 21, 2010)

1 gallon probably isn't really worth your time. It will be hard to keep it at the proper temperature without going over 80 and the water can change suddenly. Save up your money and throw together a 55 gallon tank. I promise it will be worth your time. Another note, general rule of thumb, 2-4 inches of fish / 10 gallons. So your looking at one half-inch fish in the 1 gallon.


----------

