Starting a salt water tank

**jawny** · 12-16-2012, 09:48 AM

So my friend and I are going to get a tank set up for him with a 20g tank, but he wants to do salt water, which I have never done. So a few questions:
How much harder/costly is it to set up?
Can you even so a sw tank in a 20g?
What kind of different materials would you need?

Also, any general knowledge would be great! Thanks so much everyone!

**Cliff** · 12-16-2012, 11:16 AM

Yes you can set-up a 20 gallon SW tank. A bigger set-up would be better as it will be easier to maintain stable water parameters and you will have a lot more options for suitable sized fish.

The cost would depend on the type of se-up you want and your equipment choices. The intial cost of a SW set-up will be a lot more than a FW set-up.

Also, the type of equipment you will need will be dependant on what type of set-up you want (ie... type of filteration, FOWLR, reef...... and so on). The below links can help with that

http://saltwater.aquaticcommunity.co...ne-aquarium-2/

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=76398

http://saltwater.aquaticcommunity.co...rine-aquarium/

http://saltwater.aquaticcommunity.co...ef-filtration/

**hockeyhead019** · 12-16-2012, 02:38 PM

Read all of Cliff's links in the post plus those in his signature below... it's a lot of reading but it'll definitely give you the idea of what you need for each type of tank.

General blanket statement is that SW is much more expensive but it comes down to how advanced you want either type of tank... I'm sure there's FW out there that's had more money dumped into it than a basic SW tank.

Anyways read up and give us some specific questions if you have them after reading

**phongnguyen123** · 12-27-2012, 06:06 AM

i wanted to know if i wanted to set up 10 gallon salt water tank no live rocks or sand just salt water some fake rocks ornaments and like 2-3 nemo fish and like 2 filters would the fish die?????

**~firefly~** · 12-27-2012, 09:56 AM

The fact that you call them "nemo fish" makes me think you're not ready for SW. I think clowns need more room than 10 gal but Cliff will confirm. I'd not attempt such a small SW without live rock. I imagine the stability would be questionable?

**phongnguyen123** · 12-27-2012, 10:34 AM

yeah i know they were called clowns fish just wanted to say nemo. i got freshwater just never had salt wanted too see if i can maintain it on a 10 gallon. whats the basic like what im trying to say is would they live in a ten gallon with just regular aquaclear filters, noprotien skimmers, osmosis fileters just the ten gallon the filters the fish and the salt water you buy at big als in jugs? also how big do yellow tangs get?