What is the smallest salt water tank possible?

Question

i want a porupine puffer or a dog face puffer could i put to on a 10gallon tank or smaller if not what is the smallest tank possible for one but would it be alot of up keep for a smaller tank? but what is smallest possible for my position

Answer 1

Well, you're talking two different things here. What's the smallest saltwater aquarium possible? I've seen ones under a gallon (no fish, only macroalge, live rock, and invertebrates), but this size is very difficult to care for and there are no fish in these for a reason - most wouldn't survive.

What you want to know is what's the smallest tank for either of the puffers you mention. As adults (what you need to plan for) is at least a 100 gallon tank for either type. This may seem like a lot, but both fish will grow over a foot, and puffers as a rule are very sensitive to water quality, so the volume makes any changes in water chemistry more gradual.

http://www.pufferlist.com/saltindex.htm
http://www.marinedepotlive.com/fish--puffers.html
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/puffcareinfo.htm

Answer 2

The bigger the tank the better, but for something that's hardy like a puffer, you can go pretty small, but I wouldn't go any smaller than a 20 gal tank.

Smaller tanks are more difficult to maintain good water quality. There are special salt water tanks that are smaller than 20 gallons, but they're very expensive.

The other thing with salt water fish is that you can't populate a tank like you can with fresh water fish. If you go with a puffer, you most likely won't be able to add more than 1 or two other "very small" fish, which may in turn get eaten by the puffer. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Yeah, Salt water tanks can be as small as 1 gallon! i have one now and i just have clown gobys in it and a bit of live rock. If you want a Porupine Puffer, Or Dogface they get large and you would have to have a 30 gallon at the least for those fish. If you want a 10 gallon or smaller you need to go with nano fish. That would be the best way to go! Hope it helped! Good luck~~~! Go to this website, and click on the fish you like ( or want ) and it will say the min. or max. tank size for that fish. :]

Answer 4

those puffers get big, 70 bare bones, really i would go larger than that like copper said a 100 at least. neither one fo those fish would even phyically fit in a 10g, they would be to tall and close to too long, and too wide to even be placed in the tank, both get over 12" long. 70 bare bones, with no rock, which is a bad idea. try looking into a green spotted or porcupine puiffer, i believ they stay smaller and a 55 would be a good bet.

as for smallest i saw a site where a guy had used a vase, no fish, one coral with a lamp over top and a bit of algae with a piece of live rock. kinda makes me want to get on of those 1g from walmart, gut the hood and try it

Answer 5

There is a 6 gallon nano-cube which would be perfect for one of your small puffers. On the downside, they cost around $100. You could also buy an empty 10-gallon tank and transform it into a saltwater tank.

~ZTM

Answer 6

well my pet store has several under ten gallons, the smallest being a 1 gallon filtered with not heater, or light, just live rock, one damselfish, and something that if it dies it will poison the whole tank.

they got me to start a ten gallon saltwater tank for my first salt tank and im still workin on it.

Answer 7

10 gallon is the smallest that you could successfully have. I have attached a link to www.FishChannel.com they have information regarding the different options that you could have with a 10 gallon saltwater tank.

Answer 8

You could. The smaller the tank the less the fish will grow. With the filtration systems of today you can almost elimanate cleaning of the tank if you put the right fish together.

Answer 9

the biggest tank is best dont get smaller tank

Answer 10

you cuold do a 10 gallon, but the bigger, the better and easier to maintain.