30 Gallon Marine Tank

[crackmonkey]

Is a 30 gallon tank big enough for my first Marine tank? It'll be a Juwel 30 gallon. How much are we talking to get it setup with marine lamps and coral ect....? I'll be running an external filter along with the built in juwel filter. I was wondering how you go about cleaning a Marine setup since most people have alot of coral which I would think you dont move, but how do you clean the sand? I heard you dont need to, that there is a fish that will eat the crap. I was thinking about just putting in a Lionfish. Anyone have any suggestions of what to put in a 30 gallon?

 

[steelhealr]

OK..let me 'take a crack at this':

1) A 30 gallon tank is smaller than what is considered a good size tank to start with. It is close to being a nano tank, hence, more work to keep fine tuned. Same as FW, the bigger you can do , the better. Many recommend a 75G as a starter. It can be done tho' if you READ and RESEARCH before setting it up.

2) No guestimates on cost....it can range from $400 if setup with basics to over a thousand or more if you go crazy on equipment and corals.

3) Marine is almost exactly like FW....weekly water changes, scrape the glass of algae, lightly gravel vac the substrate, periodic pump maintenance, changing filter media when exhausted.....etc. Fish don't eat 'crap'. You have snails, crabs, shrimp that eat leftovers.

4) A lionfish is too big for a 30G. You're looking at teeny fish for a 30G..not more than 5-6 fish that don't grow larger than 2-3 inches.

SH

 

[Def]

A good baseline for a reef setup, excluding livestock, including some cleanup crew and excluding the tank itself is about £1,000. That will give you lighting, pumps, rock, r/o unit, etc etc and all the other bits you need for a tank. If your initial thoughts on £1000 is "that's too expensive", don't bother with marines.

 

[Chac]

IMO 30g aint a bad size of Starter Tannk - I started a bit smaller than that an had no losses, so IMO I would go for it

You would have to control the amont & type of fish you buy as you will be restricted and will more than likely end up buying a bigger tank within a year

But it aint bad

Del