First Salt Tank

[MITSUTECH]

In your situation it might be better to look for established system.Sometimes you can get a fully functional tank in the 30-55 gallon range for a few hundred dollars on ebay.You will put at least that into it in just set up with out live rock.Just a suggestion it worked out great for me on a 30 gal.

 

[upaquariest]

I am still debating the tank, I will be moving back to Houghton MI at the end of the summer, and with the 75 discus I have, which is my primary tank I wolnt have alot of room or time, with still being in school, for the 2 tanks. I have a 55 that is set-up right now to house my polypetarus, and 12" bala that I dont want to keep with my discus. I am also considering converting this to salt at the end of the summer and break down the 20. Another option that I have considered is to do a Cichlid tank. I want to do a large scale salt tank in the future when i have a more permanent residence, and I viewed this tank as sort of a learning tank, that i can make my mistakes on a small scale before the errors start costing into the 1000s. I do realize that the stock in this tank would be minimal. The idea was a cleaner shrimp a tang and a maybe one other fish. I wasnt planning on doing coral because of the move and the setup time. I guess my question is would this serve as a good starter tank? And would it be worth setting up for the 8 or so months until i move, or would i be better off just going with some FW fish?

 

[amesbien]

(the salt water experienced side of amesbien) I have ventured through my own nano sw tank, and would love to pass the experience along. One thing I can do is tell you to go to the forums on salt water fish . com (im really not trying to plug another site. it is just 100% focused on saltwater and the forums have these questions every day). With SW it is a huge learning expierence, so if you have the money, I would deffinately do it till u move. You will be fine with the filter and a skimmer, aslong as its not a sea clown (seaclone) and you have powerheads moving the water. Use sand as the substrate! Dont use crushed coral...horrible nitrate traps. Cycle the tank! The light would be fine for FOWLR but if your going reef, then you will have to upgrade the lights. Once you have the tank cycled and a fish or two in it, you will be happy you did it. (oh and i know refractometers are better, but for just a 20 gal....its really not worth the money if ur short on it)

 

[MITSUTECH]

I am still debating the tank, I will be moving back to Houghton MI at the end of the summer, and with the 75 discus I have, which is my primary tank I wolnt have alot of room or time, with still being in school, for the 2 tanks. I have a 55 that is set-up right now to house my polypetarus, and 12" bala that I dont want to keep with my discus. I am also considering converting this to salt at the end of the summer and break down the 20. Another option that I have considered is to do a Cichlid tank. I want to do a large scale salt tank in the future when i have a more permanent residence, and I viewed this tank as sort of a learning tank, that i can make my mistakes on a small scale before the errors start costing into the 1000s. I do realize that the stock in this tank would be minimal. The idea was a cleaner shrimp a tang and a maybe one other fish. I wasnt planning on doing coral because of the move and the setup time. I guess my question is would this serve as a good starter tank? And would it be worth setting up for the 8 or so months until i move, or would i be better off just going with some FW fish?

Even though you only have a 20 it can be a great experiance.the budget you have now might even increase over the next several weeks.youll need that time for set up anyway in that time read as much as you can to get prepared also remember smaller tanks mistakes are easier made and sometimes harder to overcome however dont let anyone scare you if your keeping healthy dicuss you will be fine with salt.stay away from that brightly atractive tempting yellow tang.they get too large for what your looking at as well as having nasty dipositions towards alot of fish.i think a nice pair of clowns a anenome and some coral could be nice with the right lighting.if lighting isnt in the budget start with the clowns and live rock for now.salt water is alot of fun and easy once you get the hang of it good luck!