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I would like to have a reef tank but i only have a little space to put it. i would like to know if you can have a 5g reef tank or if you need 10g or bigger. Can any one help me

Hi,
I moved this question from Planted to Reef.
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks FRANK

But some more comments would be helpful

Reef tanks, as with all SW tanks, can crash more easily and readily than the larger ones. The thing is, if you get a critter that dies, the increased ammonia can actually kill off the biological filter. So the smaller the tank, the higher the ammonia level can be with anything dieing. This is why a 10 is usually the recomended smallest size.

However, there are many people that have kept tanks as small as 1 gal, without incidence. I have one friend that has a 1 gal tank on his work desk, with 2 Catolina gobies in it, and some LR with mushrooms. And a very small HOB filter. Lighting is natural sunlight from the window, and no heater. He gives mushrooms away, from this tank every month. It florishes. But there is always the danger of loss.

Another problem with smaller tanks, is that their ecosystems are harder to keep up. So you will need to do more often water changes than on the larger set ups. More of a hassle than anything though.

It also depends on what you are going to keep, as this will depend on the lighting. And going smaller, the wattage of the lighting will probably decrease. As well, any high wattage lighting, will likely cause a high fluctuation in the tank temp, and possibly a dangerous high temp period. Which can also stress out the fish and corals.

Depending on how you set it up, it is possible, just highly not recomended.

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There is always a bigger fish...

thanks so maby i should get a bigger one like about 40 liters. But as a first salt water tank a small one is not such a good idea

Correct.

I wrote an article which is posted in the General Marine forums that explains the benefits of bigger tanks.

You can have a tank whatever size you want, but smaller ones are a lot more difficult.

You could look into some of the nano cubes---they're smallish (12g-24g) but once set up they tend to run pretty stable. I wouldn't recommend something smaller than a 10 for someone just starting out.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

thanks i will take that in mind