Setting Up Saltwater Aquarium
- Thread starter snus29
- Start date
You can do a 10G SW tank. I have two of them. The do require daily maintenance. I must top them off twice a day with pure RO/DI water because the water evaporates but the salt does not and the salinity starts to rise so by topping off in the afternoon and early morning I keep a more even level that does not swing so much and cause stress to the fish and coral. All you need is a very good test KIT!!!! This way you know when to water change and how to maintain your tank. Just remember that it takes at lease a month before you can add fish or coral to a SW tank.
My 10G SW tanks are the hardest tanks I have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They do not get to a point that I would call easy until you can get at least a 75G tank. I also have a 40G and 150G SW tanks as well. The 40G is my favorite but is still requiring daily attention. The 150G I can let go for 3-5 days at a time. Dont get me wrong I still love my 10G tanks but its a lot of work and money. To set-up a 10G SW tank properly you will need about $300.00-$350.00 minimum just to get it to start cycling and this is not counting fish or coral.
You don't ever need to add salt directly to the tank (I believe that is what you're asking), but you do need to mix new salt water for water changes. So it's not just an investment of 10g worth of salt - you will need to be able to mix new salt water for water changes every week or two (give or take, depending on the stocking level of the tank and which types of corals you want).
Also once you add the live rock and sand (and powerhead, heater, etc) to the tank, you will need to let the rock finish curing. Depending on where you get the rock, it will be at some level of "cured" - sitting and letting the microorganisms on the rock that have died decompose off the rock. If you get it locally and keep it wet the entire time, it will likely be mostly cured. If you get it shipped, regardless of whether it was already cured, it will have some die-off in transit and will need to be re-cured before adding fish / corals. You can do this with either a piece of raw shrimp decomposing in there, or the rock itself often creates enough ammonia for the cycle with just the junk on the rock that dies. Get yourself an ammonia and nitrate test kit (at least), and once the rock has been in there for a few weeks if the ammonia is at zero and the nitrates are slowly rising, you can start adding coral / fish (slowly).
Also once you add the live rock and sand (and powerhead, heater, etc) to the tank, you will need to let the rock finish curing. Depending on where you get the rock, it will be at some level of "cured" - sitting and letting the microorganisms on the rock that have died decompose off the rock. If you get it locally and keep it wet the entire time, it will likely be mostly cured. If you get it shipped, regardless of whether it was already cured, it will have some die-off in transit and will need to be re-cured before adding fish / corals. You can do this with either a piece of raw shrimp decomposing in there, or the rock itself often creates enough ammonia for the cycle with just the junk on the rock that dies. Get yourself an ammonia and nitrate test kit (at least), and once the rock has been in there for a few weeks if the ammonia is at zero and the nitrates are slowly rising, you can start adding coral / fish (slowly).