Stocking and live coral suggestions.

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Hi, I'm starting my 1st saltwater tank. It's 8 gallons and I'm going to put clownfish in it. I want the following questions answered:

What tankmates can be with 1 clownfish in an 8 gallon.

What cheap live coral should I put in the tank.

Tips for keeping a saltwater tank.
 
An 8g tank is pushing it for a single clownfish, let alone a pair.

You MIGHT be able to get away with a pair in an 8g, as long as you stay on track with weekly water changes and tank maintenance.

—-

Some easy corals are zoas, palys, and mushrooms (Florida ricordea, not Yuma to start with).

Don’t get any LPS (large polyp stony) or SPS (small polyp stony) coral.

—-

Have you ever kept saltwater before?
 
An 8g tank is pushing it for a single clownfish, let alone a pair.

You MIGHT be able to get away with a pair in an 8g, as long as you stay on track with weekly water changes and tank maintenance.

—-

Some easy corals are zoas, palys, and mushrooms (Florida ricordea, not Yuma to start with).

Don’t get any LPS (large polyp stony) or SPS (small polyp stony) coral.

—-

Have you ever kept saltwater before?
Thank you I will look into those corals and I will research getting 2 clownfish, and no this is my 1st saltwater tank and my 1st tank over 3 gallons.
 
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In my opinion a nano reef tank is one of the hardest things you can do. Corals need very specific, very stable conditions and doing that in a small body of water is hard as parameters shift faster the less water there is.

It can be done but needs a lot of work. As above stick to soft corals and not lps/sps corals as they are a lot harder to keep. To add to the list Greenstar polpys, leather corals and xenia are all fairly robust and spread nicely.

I also don't think 8G is suitable for clown fish. I also don't think clown fish are really reef safe anyway. I lost a lot of corals to clownfish hosting behaviour.

Have you got an equipment/shopping list ready yet? What stage are you at knowledge wise?

The main things to consider with marine is that everything is much more sensitive to water parameters then even the most delicate freshwater critters. Also the majority of marine fish are super territorial and aggresive. This means that you normally need to stock them a lot lighter then freshwater setups and many fish, even small ones need a lot of territory space.

Whatever fish you like do a LOT of research on them first. Dragonets like mandarins for example are a bit of a trap. They are tiny, unagressive, very pretty fish and look perfect for even very small aquariums. However their diet is mostly copepods so they will normally starve to death if you don't have a very large tank with many KG's of mature loverock and a good pod population to support them.

Without knowing where you are at right now I'm not sure what advice would be best. Happy to help guide as much as I can though.
 
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In my opinion a nano reef tank is one of the hardest things you can do. Corals need very specific, very stable conditions and doing that in a small body of water is hard as parameters shift faster the less water there is.

It can be done but needs a lot of work. As above stick to soft corals and not lps/sps corals as they are a lot harder to keep. To add to the list Greenstar polpys, leather corals and xenia are all fairly robust and spread nicely.

I also don't think 8G is suitable for clown fish. I also don't think clown fish are really reef safe anyway. I lost a lot of corals to clownfish hosting behaviour.

Have you got an equipment/shopping list ready yet? What stage are you at knowledge wise?

The main things to consider with marine is that everything is much more sensitive to water parameters then even the most delicate freshwater critters. Also the majority of marine fish are super territorial and aggresive. This means that you normally need to stock them a lot lighter then freshwater setups and many fish, even small ones need a lot of territory space.

Whatever fish you like do a LOT of research on them first. Dragon's like mandarins for example are a bit of a trap. They are tiny, unagressive, very pretty fish and look perfect for even very small aquariums. However their diet is mostly copepods so they will normally starve to death if you don't have a very large tank with many KG's of mature lovelock and a good pod population to support them.

Without knowing where you are at right now I'm not sure what advice would be best. Happy to help guide as much as I can though.
im a begginer fish keeper and the hardest tank i have kept is a 3 gallon freshwater tank with a betta, guppy and shrimp.
 
im a begginer fish keeper and the hardest tank i have kept is a 3 gallon freshwater tank with a betta, guppy and shrimp.
You will definitely want a bigger tank to start out with.

As mentioned above, nano tanks are extremely hard to keep, especially if you are keeping coral.

I would look into getting a 40g breeder or a 40g cube. That’s a good size for beginners - not too small and not too big.
 
Hi,

As per the previous answers, I think your tank is to small and I would suggesting saving some money and get a bigger one.

ATB
 
im a begginer fish keeper and the hardest tank i have kept is a 3 gallon freshwater tank with a betta, guppy and shrimp.
It's not impossible to do but going from this level of experience to a nano reef will be a challenge. My first marine tank was a 15G nano and the learning curve was pretty steep. I had years of experience breeding and keeping tropical fish as well. I don't think I would have wanted to go with a tank any smaller than that.

What's your budget for this project as that again will direct how you proceed.
 
What tankmates can be with 1 clownfish in an 8 gallon.
In a tank that size there really shouldn't be any other fish. You can't stock marine tanks as densely as freshwater ones. Tanks 10 gallons and smaller are better suited to being invert-only or having smaller fish like neon gobies (which are also harder to keep than clowns). As others have said, the smaller the tank the harder it is in the marine world since water parameters can change more in a shorter period of time. 20 gallons is usually a much better size for a first marine tank and even that can only have just a few fish (like a clown pair with a goby).

If you are interested in corals, please take a look at the marine FAQ part on lighting: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/marine-aquarium-faq.410541/ (it's about halfway down)
 
It's not impossible to do but going from this level of experience to a nano reef will be a challenge. My first marine tank was a 15G nano and the learning curve was pretty steep. I had years of experience breeding and keeping tropical fish as well. I don't think I would have wanted to go with a tank any smaller than that.

What's your budget for this project as that again will direct how you proceed.
My budget for a tank is $90 max
 
In a tank that size there really shouldn't be any other fish. You can't stock marine tanks as densely as freshwater ones. Tanks 10 gallons and smaller are better suited to being invert-only or having smaller fish like neon gobies (which are also harder to keep than clowns). As others have said, the smaller the tank the harder it is in the marine world since water parameters can change more in a shorter period of time. 20 gallons is usually a much better size for a first marine tank and even that can only have just a few fish (like a clown pair with a goby).

If you are interested in corals, please take a look at the marine FAQ part on lighting: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/marine-aquarium-faq.410541/ (it's about halfway down)
Thanks you for the advice.
 

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