Nano lionfish idea

[xDestro]

I am just now setting up my freshwater tank and have never really had a thing for marine but I love lionfish and puffers, I recently learned that there's such thing as a dwarf lionfish and was wondering how much goes into a saltwater tank? Because I was thinking about getting a 20 gallon later down the road and getting a DL?

 

[Fishpony]

A lot of money goes into a saltwater tank

 

[xDestro]

Even a small 20 gallon? And how about maintaining it?

 

[LadAShark]

A lot of money goes into a saltwater tank

Even a small 20 gallon? And how about maintaining it?

More money and a little less maintenance than a freshwater. I think you could probably have a pretty good setup for a dwarf lion for about 400-500 bucks if you are good at DIY, otherwise 1000 dollars or so is what I expect it to cost, though that price might go up or down. You can definitely setup a 20 gallon, but keeping a 20 gallon will be a lot harder than a 50 gallon, as it will need a lot of maintenance, because the waste a lionfish produces will be great and hard to overcome in a measly 20 gallons of water without weekly water changes. Overall, it's possible for it to work, but you will have to put down some money and effort.

 

[fishfanatic80]

More money and a little less maintenance than a freshwater. I think you could probably have a pretty good setup for a dwarf lion for about 400-500 bucks if you are good at DIY, otherwise 1000 dollars or so is what I expect it to cost, though that price might go up or down. You can definitely setup a 20 gallon, but keeping a 20 gallon will be a lot harder than a 50 gallon, as it will need a lot of maintenance, because the waste a lionfish produces will be great and hard to overcome in a measly 20 gallons of water without weekly water changes. Overall, it's possible for it to work, but you will have to put down some money and effort.

I'd say that price is rather steep especially if your only doing a fowlr, some guys keep them in a reef and in that case money can get up there but the equipment if you buy second hand or even brand new shouldn't cost 1k including live stock

 

[xDestro]

So if I wanted a 20-30 gallon tank with just sand and dry rock with a dwarf lion how much could I expect to spend including maintenance equipment?

 

[fishfanatic80]

500, it's $20 for the tank, $150 for a good skimmer for that size tank new. If you buy your sump new probably another $150, $20 for sand, base rock probably $40-50 but I'd go for live rock. Lighting $100 for like a current orbit led. Livestock depends on what lion fish and how many. You can get away with a lot cheaper buying second hand stuff though search local forums in their marketplace

 

[LadAShark]

I'd say that price is rather steep especially if your only doing a fowlr, some guys keep them in a reef and in that case money can get up there but the equipment if you buy second hand or even brand new shouldn't cost 1k including live stock

Yeah I was sort of assuming a reef.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Wait for Costco sale $1/g and buy 40B for 40 bucks, 50 lbs playground sand 5 bucks from home depot, search local craiglist for live rock (folks move away would sell live rock for 2 bucks per pound and you can get some sand from them too + some old bio media to get your tank instant cycle or at least speed up the process. A nice Dwarf Lion cost 30~40 bucks, AC110 filter or better canister filter would be fine. You don't need skimmer for first few months if you keep only 1 D. Lion fish. If you go with light stock + deep sand bed then down the road you won't worry about nitrate problem and water change free...Sound easy but hard to archive because most folks just want more and more then its become over stock and then thing start goes down south

 

[xDestro]

Since I'm not all into marine fish I could see myself only keeping 1 dwarf lionfish so maybe that would be doable but for now I'll focus on my 55 freshwater