35 Gallon Sw Coral - Will It Work?

[asheyna]

I've always wanted a saltwater tank. Mostly because I love the corals and non-fish life that live in them. But I'd kind of been under the impression that to do a live rock (that's coral right? - still learning the terminology) tank I needed to be looking at a 50+gallon. Where I live right now restricts tank size and a 35gal is the largest I can get away with.

Can I do that? What am I looking at, setup wise. I've seen varying opinions on whether a sump is needed for a smaller tank, same with protein skimmer.

I really want a nice coral display with some anenomes, and maybe a couple clownfish.

 

[jeasko]

It's entirely possible to do a reef setup in a 35g (is that US gallons or imperial gallons) if your going to go down the SW route you could always add a sump or refugium to up the litres which will help.

The real problem is keeping the water parameters stable, so the bigger the system the easier it is, what may be best is to go for a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) until your happy with how to keep the tank stable and what you need to monitor and measure, once everything seems to be working slowly add coral etc to make it into a reef system

Just for reference

FO = Fish Only no explanation needed
FOWLR = Fish Only With Live Rock or basically rock work with no corals
Reef = full system with fish rock and coral

LR = Live Rock which is rock with all the bacteria and critters on it that helps filter your aquarium usually taken from the sea or seeded from rock from the sea or a mature system (so not just any old rock )

 

[SaltNoob]

I agree with Jeasko on this. You can definitely do a setup with 35 gallons and have it be very fun. If you take a look at my 29 gallon journal in the journal section or several others journals you can check out the later pages and see what the reef could potentially look like. 35 gallons is reasonable, and not overwhelming to maintain, but what you put in you get out of it. It requires lots of attention. Getting to know the characteristics of your tank and knowing how to watch for things and correct any mishaps.

Let us know if you want to get started and we can help you assemble a list. If you check out the forum page titled "So you want a saltwater tank" or something close to that name, Lljma has put together a very helpful outline that will get you started in the right direction and you can start adding up the cost and see how far you can go (or not go) with your budget.

Good luck, hope to see you around here more.

-Tyler

 

[Lady J]

Yes, a 35g. can definitely be set up as a very nice little nano system. My personal mantra: READ, READ, READ, and when you're absolutely sick of reading, take a break and then read some more. Second mantra: S-L-O-W and P-A-T-I-E-N-T. It's awesome to run a reef tank and there are some amazing little nano fish that would be great in a 35g. tank. Please let me know if I can help in any way.